Jonah Fabricant's recent column ("A retreat from pedantry," Sept. 22) is a stupefying and wandering criticism of the use of academic jargon in friendly conversation. He calls it unnecessarily mystifying and invites his readers to retreat from such conduct. I am not of a similar mind. Instead, I invite ...
By Oscar Wilde's definition of a cynic — a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing — my boss at a used textbook store I worked at this summer must have been the most cynical man on the planet.
During last week's meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, former President Bill Clinton revealed what he says is "the most important unknown statistic out there."
Brown students could stand to learn a lot from their peers at the University of California. Across the UC campuses last week, thousands of students walked out of classes alongside faculty and staff to protest the tuition hikes, budget cuts, furloughs and firings imposed by the administration in response ...
I'm not sure what Mayor David Cicilline's '83 experiences were like here on College Hill.
Barbs about religion seem to be flying on Brown's campus. I'd like to overburden the Herald reader even more by lending my thirty pieces of silver to the debate.Religion at Brown is a much touchier subject than it should be. Brown's own history with the topic is embedded in its architecture, where we ...
I know it's early, but I'm a senior and I want a truly memorable spring weekend. Last year, the Nas concert was filled with energy, but a large portion of Brown students were still simply unfamiliar with the bulk of his discography. I did not attend the Of Montreal concert, but I imagine ...
Books and their authors have defined my life from before I could even speak, though the cast of characters has rotated as I've grown. When I was five, my favorite authors were Robert McCloskey and Kevin Henkes; at 10, I preferred Madeleine L'Engle and Lois Lowry. At 15, however, it was Chinua Achebe ...
Next week, Brown students may observe an interesting phenomenon. Students will change lab sections. The deadlines for papers will be extended. Tests will be given at alternative times. And for one full day the dining halls might seem a little less crowded. Do not panic! This is not an outbreak of pandemic ...
Just as the "birther" craze has begun to die down, President Obama must face yet another sensationalist rumor — one that his detractors have taken up as a rallying cry.
In a recent column ("The secret life of Catholics at Brown", Sept. 17), Herald columnist Kate Fritzsche '10 lamented the poor treatment of Catholic students and Christians in general by their atheist peers within the Brown community. As a closed-minded, disrespectful, Bible-burning atheist, I'd like ...
I doubt that many administrators here at Brown would think of me as some sort of student collaborateur, working to shore up support among the serfs for our benevolent overlords. I've been known to have more than my fair share of grievances, many aired publicly on this very page.Like everyone else, there ...
September 29th, 2009, will mark the first anniversary of the largest single-day drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The ensuing year has been tempestuous: the shuttering and fire-sale of companies that composed the backbone of the U.S. financial system, partial nationalizations of former icons ...
As shopping period ends and books are cracked open, most new members of the Brown community make an acquaintance they didn't encounter during orientation. This meeting is a veritable rite of passage: an introduction to the strange academic jargon that reverberates off the walls of every department and ...
Allow me to tell you about my friend Rob. Rob is an exemplary fellow: a recent graduate, he has found success in this time of economic tumult by securing a position with Bain and Company, one of the most successful management consulting firms in the country. He has spent the past few months ...
In case we don't get enough administrative e-mails at the beginning of the school year, swine flu warnings have infiltrated Brown inboxes this fall. At first, I skipped reading the messages. After all, schools across the U.S. went through the same scare last year, and in response, Brown chose to display ...
Call me pugnacious, but I believe in argument for argument's sake. Sit me across from someone with a remotely interesting political opinion, and I will have to challenge it.National health care? "Necessary but not sufficient." Legalization of marijuana? "Not in our lifetime." Israeli-Palestinian ...
Look out! Obama is everywhere. He stares at us from our computer screens every time we browse a news Web site. His name rings out from our televisions whenever we turn them on. The front corner of the Ratty is inundated with countless news reports of him and his shorts-wearing wife. Yet his poll ...
To those unfamiliar with the way Brown does business in a recession, the administration has to sound pretty prudent and responsible right now.
When you take a sip of coffee bought from Brown Dining Services, Blue State or the Bookstore, you may notice a unique flavor. The brew itself is unremarkable, mediocre or worse, but it's fair trade coffee. That pleasant aftertaste is entirely psychosomatic. You have just bought coffee with an injection ...
Solutions by The State News
