An Interview with FSAD Alum Malia Mills ’90: On Inclusivity, Innovation and Empowerment in Women’s Swimwear
By Livia Caligor
Malia Mills swimwear, which celebrates body inclusivity and empowerment with its attention to fit, comfort and high-fashion aesthetic, pioneered an untapped market and galvanized industry attention, and has since expanded to cover-ups, draped dresses and rompers, blouses and trousers, in addition to swimwear. Within just a few years, Malia Mills swimwear was available through wholesale distribution at over 125 specialty stores across the globe, from Barneys New York and Neiman Marcus to Aman Resorts.
Gadfly for President 2020
By Blogs Department
by Isabelle Pappas
Everyone has said that this year’s presidential election is the most important one of our lives. And yet, it seems that we’re all regarding it as one big joke, with many memes resulting from various campaign rallies and presidential debates.
A Very Short History of Contested Presidential Elections
By Blogs Department
by John Colie
Editor’s note: Historical information from this article comes from two main sources: “Our Most Vulnerable Election” by Pamala Karlan, published in the New York Review of Books, and The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents by William A. DeGregorio. By the time this article is published, we might have a slightly better idea of how this year’s presidential election might turn out.
What I’m Watching to Take My Mind Off This Election
By Blogs Department
By Harry Ducrepin
The presidential election is coming up in a few days and thinking about the consequences of America’s choice next Tuesday is both devastating and overwhelming. I’ve spent the past week or so trying to clear my head of the realization of what could soon become reality.
Fun Election Day Activities that Won’t Stress You Out
By Blogs Department
by Dylan McIntyre
Let’s face it: the world’s in a really bad place right now. America has never been so divided, and with the upcoming election, all of this country’s divisiveness will come to a head.
Zoom: Educational Boon or Learning Doom?
By Blogs Department
by Dylan McIntyre
Online education is a pretty polarizing topic nowadays. Most of us are experiencing it firsthand, and after several months of using Zoom, chances are you either love its flexibility and leniency (how else would I get to attend lectures in pajamas?) or you just want to throw your stupid laptop out the window because your background image has been permanently burned into your retinas.
Good Riddance, College Board
By Blogs Department
by Isabelle Pappas
The class of 2025 will be applying to college in the midst of a global pandemic, and Cornell has chosen to relieve the single most stressful aspect of the college application process: standardized testing. The Sun reported back in April that Cornell would be the first Ivy League institution to waive the standardized testing requirement for both early and regular decision applicants in this year’s admission’s cycle.
Combating College Loneliness
By Blogs Department
by Dylan McIntyre
Let’s face it: making friends at college is hard. Adjusting to life on a college campus can be a real challenge, and in COVID times, these challenges have only grown.
Freshmen, Fresh Out of Quarantine
By Blogs Department
by Isabelle Pappas
The method of college reopenings around the globe has been under public scrutiny during these initial weeks of the fall semester. Admins and students alike are being assessed on their ability to resume in-person instruction safely when very limited physical interaction is even deemed safe.
LET’S TALK ABOUT IT | Let’s Get More Radical About Prison Reform
By Blogs Department
by Harry Ducrepin
The American prison system is incredibly flawed and unjust, but this is something we all already know. When we talk about problems in the system, the same ideas pop up, notably the privatization of prisons, mass incarceration and lack of rehabilitation programs. While it’s great that we have acknowledged these issues, we should start to think beyond the scope of them and get a little more radical.
A Few Netflix Recommendations to Restore Lost Intelligence Before the Semester Begins
By Blogs Department
by Katriana Galloway
You’re rotting. Your brain is shriveling, and your body is shrimping.
From Wedding Gowns to Hijabs: Gizelle Begler ’08 Changes the Fashion Scene for the Hijabi Community
By Livia Caligor
A candid conversation with FSAD alum Gizelle Begler ’08 about establishing her namesake couture label, destigmatizing the hijab and utilizing fashion as a vehicle for social change.
A Short Guide to Educational Creative Works Concerning Black Lives Matter and Anti-Racism
By Livia Caligor
Compiled and written by Livia Caligor
As Toni Morrison shared with The Guardian in 1992, “In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.” In a riveting dialogue on the implications of the African-American identity, she begs her readers to question what it means to be hyphenated, how it feels to be considered American by law but a second-class category of citizens by practice.
CORNELLA | What Your Favorite TV Shows Would Look Like Today
By Blogs Department
Stars: They’re just like us! There’s something comforting in knowing that I’m not the only one who has to stay home and at a six feet distance.
Veritas Forum Announces 2020 #My2020CommencementSpeech Contest
By Blogs Department
by Zachary Lee
With commencements and graduations nationwide either being cancelled or going virtual, the Veritas Forum is ensuring that before the year ends, members of the Class of 2020 still get to share their stories. The organization, which places historic Christian faith in dialogue with other beliefs and invites participants from all backgrounds to pursue Truth together, has partnered with The Augustine Collective and Comment Magazine to launch the #My2020CommencementSpeech Contest, which will publish five commencement speeches written by graduating seniors.
ROVINE | 161 Things to Do Under Quarantine
By Nicole Rovine
Unless you’ve been living under a rock (in which case, don’t move), you know the importance of self-isolating to protect yourself and others during the coronavirus pandemic. We might be stuck at home, but we need not succumb to boredom.
GALLOWAY | Corona Season: Exposing Cornell’s Simpler-Minded
By Blogs Department
Hardly a couple weeks ago, while still a student in the traditional sense, I observed the bespeckling of our once-tangible institution by a scattered but substantial population of a particular type of student. For the sake of your efficient recollection, I’ll attempt to compile them all into a cast of two characters (they aren’t a terribly varied crowd).
Paying absolutely no attention in an econ discussion section is student number one, daydreaming about enlisting in the active troops of America’s dumbest youth currently deployed on Miami beaches.
CORNELLA | Attention Lazy People
By Ella Schwartz
[Content warning: this article containsdiscussion of body image. Reader discretion is advised]
I was shocked when I got home and realized I had gained 15 pounds.
GALLOWAY | Golden Goose Shoes: We Get it, You’re Rich
By Blogs Department
Don’t have a Goodwill near you? Can’t afford to independently wear down some white sneakers via walking in them, as one does?
CORNELLA | You Don’t Seriously Watch The Bachelor, Right?
By Ella Schwartz
Anyone who publicly professes their love for the hit series The Bachelor is bound to be immediately met with rolling eyes, judgmental smirks, and questions that sound like, “You don’t seriously watch The Bachelor right?”
Yes, yes I do. And proudly, as well.
SPOTLIGHT | Not All Business: Alumna Sonya Chyu ‘18 Combines Commerce, Chimes and Creative Writing
By Blogs Department
In a world of increasing specialization, students of the University often feel pressured to narrow their paths of study. Business major, English minor and chimesmaster Sonya Chyu ‘18 was a joyful exception to this rule.
ROVINE | It’s Aquarius Season, Freaks!!
By Nicole Rovine
It’s the most eccentric, trailblazing and radical time of the year! Aquarius is ruled by Uranus, the planet of freedom, originality, rebellion and revolution.
My Journey in Information Science, Systems and Technology: A Filipino-American Woman’s Perspective
By Hana Gabrielle Bidon
I am holding a paper sign that says, “Because over 90% of LGBTQ tech employees surveyed reported experiencing harassment, mistreatment, or discrimination at work,” inside the intersection of Duffield Hall, where Women in Computing at Cornell (WICC) took a picture for their Fall 2019 Diversity Photo Campaign, #ILookLikeAnEngineer. Discovering my passion in Computer Science & Information Science
In Fall 2017, I took CS 1110 with Professor Walker White and became more interested in CS.
CORNELLA | How to Properly Watch TV in 2020
By Ella Schwartz
By the time December 26th rolls around, Instagram was suddenly flooded with memes revolved around the new year: Confessions of how awful 2019 was. Proclamations that 2020 will be the year.
ROVINE | Capricorn Season
By Nicole Rovine
December 22-January 20
It’s Capricorn Season! That’s code for: time to get your sh*t together!
BIRD & human | 2
By xylyls
Will prepares a birdseed taco for a ruminative Bird.
LOVE & SQUALOR | 5 Must-See Pieces at the Johnson This Semester
By Livia Caligor
Founded in 1973 in memory of benefactor and Cornell Trustee Herbert F. Johnson (Class of 1922), the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art is home to over 35,000 permanent works of art. Its diverse collections span six millennia and a wide spectrum of cultural origins.
ROVINE | Festive, Fun, and Fruitful: Manifest Expansion This Sagittarius SZN
By Nicole Rovine
November 22 – December 21
How did Scorpio season treat you? Did you barely escape the murky waters alive?
Being Bold Despite the Cold: How to Stay Active on Campus This Winter
By Kelly Lomboy
Check-in time! It’s about halfway through the semester at this point, and everyone’s favorite time of year: flu, prelim, and snow season.
HEALTHNUT | Guide To Cornell’s Fitness Classes
By Emily Weiser
What many people don’t know is that having access to Cornell’s fitness centers also means having access toan array of group fitness classes – not just taught by elderly and overweight ex-PE teachers, but also your overly enthusiastic but super strong peers. Luckily, these classes span gyms across campus and boast tons of time slots – perfect for your 7 am Yoga or 7 pm HIIT.
BIRD & human | 1
By xylyls
[This is the first installation of the comic series BIRD & human. Enjoy.]
In an effort to escape running into a recent ex, Bird takes a detour across campus.
CORNELLA | My Big Fat Jewish Memorial
By Ella Schwartz
Anyone who has binge-watched Modern Family, Full House, or any other family based sit-com can admit to laughing loudly at situations, while simultaneously smirking and thinking “this would never actually happen…”
I’ll admit, I once believed this too. The events in those shows seem too scripted to ever actually happen.
WITH LOVE & SQUALOR | Zac Posen Shutters His Business: What Does This Mean For The Fashion And Retail Industry?
By Livia Caligor
We all remember the moment at the 2016 Met Gala when the lights dimmed, red carpet chatter silenced into hushed gasps, and heads turned to see Claire Danes step out in a ball gown that shined brighter than the explosion of camera flashes that quickly ensued. The whimsical piece constructed out of sheer organza and fiber optics was the fashion moment of the year — the LED gown fused other-wordly glamour with contemporary polish, a timeless silhouette with cutting-edge technology, and could only have been a creation of the legendary Zac Posen. I was immediately infatuated with his ceaseless passion for experimentation and
innovation — each custom gown jaw-dropping in a new way — paired with his unwavering vision as an artist, each piece unmistakably his.
The Best “Due Friday” Memes: A Curated Anthology
By Nicole Rovine
In case you live under a rock, or, like some mysteriously sane person, don’t check social media, you might have missed the “Due Friday” memes that went around last week. What a wonderful way for students across the entire university to come together and do what we do best: 1) roast the f*ck out of each other and 2) poke fun at how busy, stressed, and depressed we all are. See below for my top picks from the notorious “Any Person, Any Meme” Facebook group…
17.
BOO! How to Survive—and Thrive—During Scorpio Season
By Nicole Rovine
Happy Halloween and Happy Spooky SZN! It’s no coincidence that Halloween (and every U.S. presidential election) falls when the sun is in Scorpio, the most mysterious, scary, and downright frightening of all 12 Zodiac signs.
MILLS | Haha, I’m Sad
By Sara Mills
There’s something about throwing up a janky peace sign to yourself in a greasy mirrorpost-weekly Wednesday night sobbing session (no, not the one you had scheduled in your G-Cal that should have ended forty-five minutes ago, the one that came after you hit that point in the night where you realized it was an all-nighter kinda night) that gives you the strength to wash off your runny mascara that you paid an extra ten dollars for and wipe off the remnants of the half a gallon of chocolate milk you impulsively bought at Jansen’s twenty minutes ago (eventhough you’re lactose intolerant and wanted to go Vegan three days ago) and walk back into theco*cktail Lounge. I know what you’re thinking, “wow, Sara, that’s like really messy, maybe you should see someone” or “maybe just stop buying the chocolate milk?”, but I sweaarrr it’s totally not about me, and if it was, I’m only sometimes lactose intolerant.
CORNELLA | How Friends can Teach you Everything you Need to Know
By Ella Schwartz
We all get a warm feeling when we see the Friends cast laugh together as “I’ll be there for you” plays in the background… because they really will always be there for us. No matter how lonely or bad we’re feeling, we can always count on the Central Perk squad from the world’s most popular sitcom to cheer us up…
I certainly counted on Friends being just a couple of clicks away my entire first week at Cornell, since I was homesick and everything outside of the four walls of Bauer Hall seemed scary.
WITH LOVE & SQUALOR | The 6 Train
By Livia Caligor
Last spring, I took the 6 train from the periphery of Spanish Harlem to my office in Soho every day. I remember the way I’d limp up the hill at the cross section of 110th Street, peering into the backlit shadow of the subway stop at the end of the street, blasting Bowie classics to cancel out the whisper of catcalls around me.
XYLYLS | The Privilege of Loss
By xylyls
I try to catalogue everything that happens, maybe to the brink of obsession. To that point, I have three pillars on which I rely to retell what is effectively my story: my Google calendar, a five-year Hobonichi, and my bullet journal.
ROVINE | The Democratic Candidates As The Zodiac
By Blogs Department
Given there are exactly 12 candidates vying for the Democratic nomination at tonight’s debate, I figured I had to highlight them all as represented by the 12 Zodiac signs. (Admittedly, I know way more about astrology than I do about politics- don’t come after me!)
Elizabeth Warren: Aries
Known to “swat and jab at the air” in interviews, Warren can seem a bit Aries Aggressive indeed.
Cartoon Caption Contest | Week of October 13
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday,October21 edition of the paper.
EDITORS ANECDOTE | Oops, I Exposed My Feelings
By Amber Krisch
So recently I found myself in a tragic, embarrassing situation that may as well be straight from a viral college tweet. I mean, take the infamous “I am worried” email sent to a professor and multiply the awkwardness by twenty to get something near the level of cringe of my situation.
ROVINE | Libra Season: Time to Find Balance, Beauty, and Love
By Nicole Rovine
Every September 23rd, we say farewell to Virgo season. We express our gratitude to the ever-so orderly and rule-abiding Virgin for getting us back on track after that wild Leo end of the summer 🙂 Alas, Virgo brought us back down to Earth- and back to the library.
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of September 15
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday,September 23edition of the paper.
SKATCH | A Love Letter To My Parents
By Sam Khatchadourian
Dear Mom & Dad,
How are you? Is the sun shining?
FOLLOW THE STARS | Virgo Season Has Arrived – Here’s How It Will Affect You
By Nicole Rovine
Welcome to the first installment of a 12-part series highlighting each Zodiac sign! In my opinion, astrology has fascinating implications that may guide us toward manifesting our greatest, fullest, and highest selves in the sacred time we have on this Earth.
DESTROYING JOTENHEIM | The Three Essentials of Orientation Week
By Blogs Department
Pack your schedule to the max
One of the great things about Cornell is that they are well aware of the difficult transition between high school and summer to living at college, and they go through a lot of effort to make the change as easy as possible for incoming freshmen with Orientation Week. Events start as early as the day of move-in, and if you take full advantage of the university’s scheduled activities, you shouldn’t have a single minute of empty time to stew over the discomfort of being in an entirely new and unfamiliar place.
SUNSPOTS | Ask Us Anything – Orientation 2019
By Blogs Department
We get it! You probably have a lot of questions.
RUMINATIONS | Thanks CU, Next?
By Stephanie McBath
For a period of time in my childhood, I thought Cornell was the only college. I didn’t understand the concept of a University, but I had also been conditioned well.
CULTURALLY SHOOK | On graduating and confronting a future
By Sarah Chekfa
Writing about endings tends towards the cliché. I want to preface this by saying that it’s impossible for me to write about graduation without feeling uncomfortably self-aware of the redundancy of my feelings.
TEA TIME WITH JULIAN | A slope day recovery playlist in 9 acts
By Julian Kroll
Songs for May 9
Act 1: Father John Misty – “Nancy From Now On”
Nothing says ‘How did I end up asleep on my friend’s porch?’ quite like a Father John Misty song.
Act 2: The Fray – “How to Save a Life”
Walk home.
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of May 5
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Thanks for a great year of great captions! Feel free to submit a caption for the first paper of next semester.
EAT SLEEP REPEAT | The Best Places On Campus to Fuel Your Ice Addiction
By Alisha Kewalramani
Confession time: I am that annoying girl in your math lecture that obnoxiously munches on ice the entire time. But honestly, how could I not?
DESTROYING JOTENHEIM | “Left” Behind
By Kelly Lomboy
Have you ever had to sit segregated from your group of friends in lecture? Have you ever had to walk into a classroom and step over countless feet on your way to the most inaccessible corner of the room?
AKABAS | The Top 50 Players in the NBA: #7-1
By Lev Akabas
In case you missed Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, you can scan through my complete, updated Top 50 list for a quick refresher. This final group of players was so hard to rank that, after losing nights of sleep over it, my dad suggested that I go back to my original criteria for ranking players: “If you dropped this player onto any NBA team at random, by how much would they improve that team’s odds of winning the title?” I set up a spreadsheet with each of the remaining players as the columns and all the playoff teams as the rows, and I tried to estimate (as best I could) the increase in championship odds if each player were to be magically placed onto each team’s roster.
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of April 21
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday, April 29 edition of the paper.
SKATCH | FOMO is REAL
By Sam Khatchadourian
I am here to send out a PSA to all those suffering from FOMO and all those suffering because of the people who suffer from FOMO. For those of you who do not know, FOMO stands for “Fear Of Missing Out.” A common occurrence in many friend groups, one of the most frequent cases is when someone suddenly finds out they were not invited to an event that their friends went to together, either through social media or word of mouth.
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of April 14
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday, April 22 edition of the paper.
Please Please Please Stop Eating At Chick-Fil-A
By Julian Kroll
By now, we’ve all learned that almost anything can be political. As public discourse is integrated into industry and culture, it’s almost unusual for a company to lack a hot political take or sympathetic philanthropic cause.
Ask Anj | Freshman Friendships
By Blogs Department
Q: So it’s going to be the end of the semester soon, and I have a problem: I’m a freshman, and I feel like I don’t have strong, sustainable friendships. My roommates are nice, but I don’t see us hanging out much after this year, and I’ve got some platonic friends from my FWS, but once that’s over, I have no idea if we’ll still talk to each other.
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of April 7
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday, April15 edition of the paper.
EAT SLEEP REPEAT | It’s All A Flex
By Alisha Kewalramani
I often wonder what people think of me when they look at my Instagram profile. Do they think that I’m 10/10 awesome?
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of March 24
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday, April 8edition of the paper.
HEALTHNUT | Rise of Heart Attacks in Young Women
By Emily Weiser
Felicite Tomlinson, sister of former One Direction member Louis Tomlinson, died suddenly on March 13th at only 18 years old from a suspected heart attack – a reality being “increasingly recognized in young women”, according to Professor Simon Redwood, a consultant cardiologist at London Bridge Hospital. And Felicite isn’t the only one.
Destroying Jotenheim | Reintroducing Excitement Into Your Life At Cornell
By Kelly Lomboy
A close friend of mine once told me to seek discomfort. Actually, that’s not true at all.
AKABAS | The 10 Commandments of Awkwardly Running Into People on Campus
By Lev Akabas
You’re walking straight down College Ave. and find that someone else is walking straight at you.
DIVING IN | Strong Suit — An Analysis Of Superheroes And Their Suits
By Niko Nguyen
The night Captain Marvel was released, my friends and I drove to the Ithaca Mall movie theater in a car, brimming with anticipation. Though I don’t consider myself a die-hard Marvel fan, I was particularly excited to see this film—the CGI effects and female-driven storyline captivated my attention.
SKATCH | 10 Steps to Take When Cornell Is Throwing Grenades at Your Mental Health
By Sam Khatchadourian
Here I hand to you a figurative racket to bat back those mental health grenades. Everything is going to be fine.
TRUTHBETOLD | The Rise of Bangtan
By tiamenmontgomery
They won two Billboard Music Awards, performed at the American Music Awards with their hit song DNA, and recently attended the 61st Grammy Awards to present the award for Best R&B album to artist, H.E.R. Surely you must have heard of them. BTS, also known as Bulletproof Boy Scouts when they first arrived on the Kpop scene, is one of the most famous boy groups to attract international audiences.
ON MY MIND | What Immigrants Can Learn About Anti-Communism From the Civil Rights Movement
By Jeremiah Kim
“The American dream has become something much more closely resembling a nightmare, on the private, domestic, and international levels.” — James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
***
On page 12 of the standard N-400 Application for Naturalization, all foreign-born persons seeking U.S. citizenship are asked, “Have you EVER been a member of, or in any way associated (either directly or indirectly) with the Communist Party?” It is a yes or no question. Why is it there to begin with?
HEALTHNUT | Celery Juice is a Joke
By Emily Weiser
Screw quinoa, berries and especially whole vegetables. The newest health trend: celery juice.
TEA TIME WITH JULIAN | A Meditation On Martha
By Julian Kroll
Over the course of the past couple weeks, the BDS (Boycott, Divest, and Sanction) movement has been a particularly hot topic on campus. From initial communications between SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine) and Martha Pollack to an uneasy session of the Student Assembly, the issue has taken center stage for many campus organizers and members of student government.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM | More Than A Month: Black History Being Made
By Yvette Ndlovu
Black History Month is an annual celebration of achievements by black people and their role in history. Since 1976, February has been designated Black History Month, not only in the USA, but in countries around the world- including Canada and the United Kingdom.
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of March 4
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday, March11 edition of the paper.
SKATCH | Go Watch Some Disney Movies Right Now
By Sam Khatchadourian
I have a confession: I’m an addict. The feeling I get when I succumb to the sweet, constant pull is utterly indescribable.
RUMINATIONS | “Where’s The Beef?”
By Stephanie McBath
Last week, I was making conversation with a customer during one of my work shifts. She was speaking about a vegetarian friend, who was shaming her friends for their decision to eat meat.
SUNSPOTS | What Music Helps You Study?
By Blogs Department
Okay, I’m going to assume you’re behind on your work. Way behind.
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of February 18
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday, March4edition of the paper.
AKABAS | The Dunkies
By Lev Akabas
The dunk contest was my favorite night of the NBA season as a kid, to the point where I would count the days down from months away until I would get to watch the most athletic players in the league see who could jam a basketball into the hoop in the coolest way. Many years after I reenacted every single dunk contest dunk on my NERF hoop, something about the event continues to enthrall me, so I’m handing out awards for the bests and worsts in dunk contest history.
CORNELL CROSSWORD | FEBRUARY 14 (PUZZLE AND ANSWER)
By The Cornell Daily Sun
New, original crosswords will appear monthly.
Solutions:
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of February 11
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday, February 18 edition of the paper.
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of February 4
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday, February 11 edition of the paper.
INOCCIDUOUS THOUGHTS | 35 Things I’ve Noticed About Food on West Campus
By Amber Krisch
Before people get mad, let me just say that I’m extremely grateful to have access to Cornell’s diverse dining options. Some of my friends back home only have one dining hall, so we are lucky to have six on West Campus, alone.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM | “Power is power”: What “Game of Thrones” can teach us about politics
By Yvette Ndlovu
Millions of Americans have been affected by the government shutdown, and many workers’ livelihoods are at the mercy of the decisions of powerful elites. While witnessing the news about the American government shutdown, another shutdown occurred in my home country of Zimbabwe.
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of January 28
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday, February 4 edition of the paper.
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of January 21
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for the first cartoon of the year! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday, January 28 edition of the paper.
AKABAS | The Top 50 Players in the NBA: Part 2
By Lev Akabas
If you’re interested in which guys were 27 through 50 on my list, my criteria for these rankings, or the meaning of the different statistics I’m referencing in this article, check out Part 1. Additionally, after flubbing some players’ rankings in Part 1, I’ve decided to keep my Top 50 in a Google Doc, so that I can both correct my previous mistakes and continue to update the list throughout the season.
AKABAS | The Top 50 Players in the NBA: Part 1
By Lev Akabas
We know how to rank teams: my team beats your team, therefore my team is better. Just rooting for our teams carries an old-school sense of hometown pride and loyalty, but ranking players is overwhelmingly more interesting and fun — it’s a combination of statistics and intuition, of situational evidence and conjecture.
SKATCH | My Disadvantages Are My Privilege
By Sam Khatchadourian
Disclaimer: I formally recognize economic, racial, knowledge, gender, and every other sort of privilege as ongoing problems that we should all strive to become more cognizant of, as they have and continue to create inequality that provides for unjust pain and suffering. This article is my opinion on privilege on a much smaller scale within my personal experience.
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Last Winner of 2018!
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Congratulations to the winner of Cartoon Caption Contest #19! “I’m sorry I must go!
INOCCIDUOUS THOUGHTS | I Taught Doctors About Health
By Amber Krisch
This past weekend was quite the ride. I visited SUNY Upstate Medical University for a PATCH (a pre-health organization I’m part of) field trip, taught for a program called Splash!, and ran the Syracuse Half-Marathon.
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of November 26
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday, December 3 edition of the paper.
Interlude | Finding Wisdom in Cosmic Cows
By Tiffany Liu
One must still have cows within oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star. -Friedrich Nietzsche
Okay, so maybe that isn’t exactly how the quote goes.
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of November 12
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday,November 19 edition of the paper.
SKATCH | Happy Now?
By Sam Khatchadourian
About a week ago, I watched this video:
And my goodness, did it make me think of Cornell. Anna Akana is a Youtuber, life guru, and mental health advocate who creates videos about relatable and relevant topics, as well as longer narrative films. In this particular video, she discusses how impossible it feels to be happy when it seems as if your whole world is on fire — a sentiment that many Cornellians share on a weekly basis.
EAT SLEEP REPEAT | “It’s Called Self Care” — Why the Mantra Is Ruining My Life
By Alisha Kewalramani
In the past week I have napped an average of two hours per day, impulsively bought three sweaters that I cannot afford, practically inhaled Twizzlers and an entire sleeve of Oreos, and watched five of the raunchiest past episodes of The Bachelor, all while telling myself, “It’s called self care.”
Hindsight is 20/20 of course, and looking back I think my actions were probably the complete opposite of self care. In the moment, however, I was so encapsulated in my stress from prelim season that I allowed myself to do practically anything just because I have this extremely vague mantra to “affirm” my desires.
Ruminations | Eating Is An Election
By Stephanie McBath
‘Tis the season of campaign ads, mudslinging, robocalls, selfies of people with their “I Voted” stickers, and all of those other wonderful things that go along with election season. Let us all be grateful now that the ballots have been cast, and it’s over: our social media feeds can live in peace, for a moment.
INOCCIDUOUS THOUGHTS | I Feel Bad…
By Amber Krisch
There’s a time and a place for guilt. Most times it’s within reason—after doing something immoral, unethical, or unkind, it’s a necessary part of self-regulation that, without intention, keeps our emotions in check and subsequently provides a feedback mechanism for changing or continuing a behavior. Psychology Today assembled a short list of five types of guilt and how to cope with them.
OH, FISH | The ABC’s of Drinking Culture
By Felisha Li
Alcohol Use Disorder
The label “alcoholic” is no longer appropriate to refer to someone with alcoholism. My uncle is not an alcoholic; he has an alcohol use disorder (AUD).
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of October 29
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday,November 5 edition of the paper.
SUNSPOTS | What’s the Best Course You’ve Taken at Cornell?
By Blogs Department
Set your alarms to 7:00 a.m. sharp. Spring pre-enroll kicked off today for seniors, and the rest of campus isn’t too far behind.
Eat Sleep Repeat | Confessions of a Serial Napper
By Alisha Kewalramani
Confessions of a Serial Napper
It’s the end, beginning, or maybe smack dab in the middle of a very long day. You’re trying to do your work, but your eyes feel heavy and you begin to droop.
INTERLUDE | In the New Age of Instagram Poetry
By Tiffany Liu
Over 146,000 people—myself included—find Instagram user@yrsadaleyward absolutely beautiful. She’s got impeccable taste in fashion, gorgeous hair, and an uncanny talent for combining messy colors to create the perfect aesthetic.
ARRAY | The 5 Cornell Reasons to Study Abroad
By Gabriel Ares
I spent last semester studying in the far-off land of New Zealand. Now I’m back and it’s time for that self-hatred inducing study abroad post where I tell you how I made meaning out of fleeing the country for a little bit.
SKATCH | The Asian Representation Movie-ment and Its One Pitfall
By Sam Khatchadourian
The two movies pictured above have set off a wave of Asian and Asian-American embracement both cinematically and across the internet that has given hope to millions of Asians, myself included, who finally get to see people who look like them in roles other than the stereotypical Harvard (blegh) nerd with humorously strict parents. The media’s Asian representation movement is powerful and wonderful.
INOCCIDUOUS THOUGHTS | Why Can’t I Celebrate Others’ Happiness?
By Amber Krisch
You know the feeling: Your friend just got an A in the class you got a B in, your roommate got an amazing paid internship over the summer, your best friend just got into a relationship. You want so badly to be completely happy for them because they deserve the best, but you just can’t.
SOUND OFF | Jordans vs. Yeezys
By Jeffrey Ho
Jordans have been, are currently, and always will be infinitely times better than Yeezys. They outcompete Yeezys aesthetically in quality and range, and in most sales metrics, despite Kanye’s tweets.
CORNELL CROSSWORD | October 19 (Puzzle and Answers)
By The Cornell Daily Sun
New, original crosswords will appear monthly. S
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Ruminations | Putting the Corn Back in Cornell
By Stephanie McBath
Ezra Cornell was a farmer. He was a scientist, a philanthropist, a politician, and a lover of nature, but on top of all that, he was a farmer.
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of October 15
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday, October 29 edition of the paper.
OH, FISH | The Girl Who Cried Fish Bone
By Felisha Li
A nurse, dressed completely in navy-blue and gripping a clipboard, sprints down the hallway––in my direction, I assume. But my optimism proves short-lived, as she passes by my bed just as fast as I had gotten my hopes up.
A TABLESPOON OF MINDFULNESS | B-A-L-A-N-C-E
By Olivia Faulhaber
Say it with me. Loud and proud.
As overachieving, hyper-competitive Cornellians, cultivating balance in our lives usually doesn’t make it to the top of our priority lists.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM | An Alternative to Paying for Textbooks at Cornell
By Yvette Ndlovu
Here is a secret I have never shared with anyone: I haven’t paid for textbooks since sophom*ore year. I’m a senior this year.
EMEM ELEMENT | Democracy Promotion from a Pseudo-American Democracy
By Emem-Esther Ikpot
Trump is determined to restore democracy in Venezuela. Mantras of egalitarianism and humanitarianism flood the American discourse surrounding the Venezuelan crisis.
ON MY MIND | I Am Not Your American: Reviving James Baldwin’s Opposition to U.S. Empire
By Jeremiah Kim
The figure of James Baldwin has been buoyed in recent years by a revival across the liberal wings of the United States’ political, cultural, and intellectual establishment. Most notably, during remarks given at the dedication ceremony of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in 2016, former President Barack Obama quoted from Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues.” That same year, Raoul Peck’s Oscar-nominated filmI Am Not Your Negroenjoyed widespread critical acclaim over its solemn presentation of the Civil Rights-era writer’s saliency to the present-day (A.
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of October 1
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday, October 15 edition of the paper.
CORNELL CROSSWORD | September 28 (Puzzle and Answers)
By Blogs Department
Created by Monika Bandi ’19 and Gabe Ares ’19
Answers below
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SOUND OFF | The Bioethics of Biomedical Research
By Jeffrey Ho
Biomedical research and engineering, genetics, biotech — these are all disciplines rising in popularity among research, academics and scientists, and with a similar goal in mind: they emphasize the use of multi-disciplinary teams to ensure quick “bench-to-bed” results which translate basic scientific research to the medical community and then to the patient. Yet these rising disciplines are gaining ground at such a fast pace that many scientists and physicians have begun to neglect an important aspect of translational research: the native and marginalized populations around the globe that are heavily involved in the medical research, yet rarely reap its benefits.
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of September 17
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday, September 24 edition of the paper.
CORNELL CROSSWORD | September 13 (Puzzle)
By The Cornell Daily Sun
New, original crosswords will appear monthly.
CORNELL CROSSWORD | September 13 (Answers)
By The Cornell Daily Sun
New, original crosswords will appear monthly.
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of September 10
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday, September 17 edition of the paper.
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of August 27
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Tuesday, September 4 edition of the paper.
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of August 15
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for the first cartoon of the semester! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Wednesday, August 22 edition of the paper.
ON MY MIND | Korean Americans, the U.S. Military Is Not Your Friend
By Jeremiah Kim
This past Friday, June 27, 2018, marked the 65th anniversary of the Korean Armistice Agreement, a ceasefire agreement signed in 1953 between North Korea and the United States/United Nations that (1) did not officially end the Korean War, (2) established the Demilitarized Zone at the 38th parallel as the de jure border between North and South Korea, and (3) did not include the input or signatures of any South Koreans. The anniversary underscored what has been an exciting, albeit precarious period of swift developments in the triangulated relations between the governments of North Korea, South Korea, and the United States in recent months.
AKABAS | Stop Complaining About A Perfectly Good NBA Finals Matchup
By Lev Akabas
Since when did NBA fans become so spoiled? All I see online is people kvetching about another “boring” finals rematch between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers and how Kevin Durant has ruined the NBA.
OF MARGINAL INTEREST | Finals Season: A Series of Unfortunate Economic Fallacies
By Christina Xu
Finals week can bring a lot of things to the surface: the sudden motivation to learn everything, a seasonal caffeine addiction, an awe-inspiring general state of self-loathing. After barely making out alive from seven finals seasons, I have come to realize that finals week also brings out the economically irrational agent hidden in all of us.
GUEST BLOG | A Letter to My Freshman Self
By Blogs Department
Dear Freshman Brittany,
Welcome to Cornell! You’re going to change so much over the next three years, and I’m legitimately so excited for you.
GUEST BLOG | Snow Girl
By Blogs Department
I have no right to feel guilty when I tell a rocket scientist or a pre-med I’m an English major. And yet I can’t seem to ditch that ball-and-chain question that follows me everywhere I go: why am I doing this?
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Winner for Second Week in a Row!
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Congratulations to the winner of Cartoon Caption Contest #10 (who was also the winner of our last contest)! “Yeah, I had some BRBs left.”
AKABAS | A Definitive Ranking of Fruits
By Lev Akabas
Fruit has been on everyone’s mind throughout history. According to the Bible, the only reason humans even have the mental capacity to think about fruit was because Adam ate a fruit.
Existential Crisis Week | The Checklist
By Michelle DiGiglio
Coming into freshman year, I came to know a typical Ivy profile, a profile molded from a strict checklist and meticulously groomed to satisfy all its criteria ever since childhood. I began to notice consistent commonalities among a seemingly diverse community of academics.
ON MY MIND | What Americans Think (When They Do) About Korea
By Jeremiah Kim
As of today’s date — Tuesday, May 1, 2018 — I am officially accepting applications from any and all individuals or entities interested in becoming founding members of Liberty in South Korea (LiSK). Serious inquiries may be sent to [emailprotected].
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of April 30
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday, May 7 edition of the paper.
The Radical Center | The WSJ’s Trump Smokescreen
By Ethan Wu
The Wall Street Journal editorial board traffics in baseless doubt-casting and bunk. The president seems delighted.
CORNELL CROSSWORD | Answers
By Blogs Department
The answers to original crossword puzzles in the Cornell Daily Sun are posted monthly on Sunspots.
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of April 23
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday, April 30 edition of the paper.
ON MY MIND | The Empty Promise of Academia
By Jeremiah Kim
“Just because you fight for something doesn’t mean you have to have a philosophical justification for it.”
By what was then the twelfth week of this semester, I had grown accustomed to 98% of the inane phrases which were tossed casually — as casually as one might toss a molotov co*cktail — into the collective consciousness of my English/Comp Lit seminar. The ratio of neural/motor energy devoted to jotting down whatever convoluted statements followed the words, “This is important,” from one of professors’ mouths (it’s one of those rare two-professor courses) versus scrolling through Facebook and answering emails had gradually shifted in disproportionate favor of the latter.
SOUND OFF | Music on the Mind
By Jeffrey Ho
People generally agree that music has an impact on mental health and our moods, whether through numerous studies that show correlations between music, relaxation and improved mental health, or through countless Twitter memes about sad Drake songs. Some people even program music around their lives, listening to certain music in the morning to pump themselves up for the day, or calming music at night to sleep.
NOSTALGIA CAFE | Why Loki Failed as a Villain (And How Killmonger Succeeded)
By Amy Huang
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has done miraculous things, namely building a highly successful franchise with eighteen (and running) feature films, turning formerly B-list heroes into household names. Who had even heard of Tony Stark before his popular appearance in his successful solo movie, Iron Man?
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of April 16
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday, April 23 edition of the paper.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM | The Crossing: Child of the Soil
By Yvette Ndlovu
A healthy person who begs for food is an insult to the generous farmer~ Ghanaian Proverb
Ava’s strongest memory of her father was the day he left. Memory is a weird thing, Ava thought as her toothbrush slowly crept into the inside of her jaws.
LEPORELLO DAYDREAMS | On Being Derpy
By Earl de los Santos
If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably had your share of derpy moments with those awkward and often embarrassing times when your face turns red and you let out a nervous chuckle. If you were anything like me during middle school… well, let’s just say that those moments did not make the sixth grade very pleasant.
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of April 9
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday, April 16 edition of the paper.
THE RADICAL CENTER | Time to Debate the Second Amendment
By Ethan Wu
The national conversation on gun control is deeply confused. One question looms large: should the Second Amendment be repealed?
Nostalgia Week | The Indispensability of Experience
By Michelle DiGiglio
Strangers come to know me as, “that girl who brings disposable cameras to parties,” a tagline I’ll accept. Though tokens of a past seemingly devoid of technology, these unmistakable plastic machines have become pretty fundamental to my college experience.
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of March 26
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday, April 9 edition of the paper.
Nostalgia Week | Chop Up The Beats, Kanye
By Jeffrey Ho
Sampling in hip hop and rap has been done over and over again, adding a layer of background vocals and richness to the beat. Samples come from a broad range of musical genres: DJ Khaled sampled Maria Maria by Carlos Santana for his hit song Wild Thoughts, and Drake sampled indie singer Snoh Aaelegra for his introspective number Do Not Disturb.
Nostalgia Week | Toys “Were” Us
By Jacqueline Quach
Just last week, Toys “R” Us announced that it would be closing its U.S. stores, and I genuinely felt sad about this — sadder than I did when my parents told ten-year-old me we would no longer be going to Blockbuster on Saturdays for our weekend movie nights (until a year and a half ago, I actually kept a Blockbuster membership card in my wallet). Perhaps this especially wistful reaction is due to the fact that not three blocks from my paternal grandparents’ house is a shopping plaza, at which there used to be a Toys “R” Us location.
AKABAS | A Way Too In-Depth Analysis of the Avengers: Infinity War Trailer
By Lev Akabas
Last Friday, the second Avengers: Infinity War trailer was released, and millions of nerds around the country immediately creamed their pants. Let’s analyze it.
CORNELL CROSSWORD | Statues Edition (Answers)
By The Cornell Daily Sun
New, original crosswords will appear monthly.
CORNELL CROSSWORD | Statues Edition (Puzzle)
By The Cornell Daily Sun
New, original crosswords will appear monthly.
NOSTALGIA WEEK | Salvaging My Musical Safety Blanket
By Ruth Park
One of my lovely friends—I don’t know what I would do without him—recently introduced me to “(No One Knows Me) Like the Piano,” a piece from Sampha’s debut album Process. The song’s title quite literally captures the essence of it, in which the British songwriter repeatedly croons, “No one knows me like the piano in my mother’s home.”
Like Sampha (“And you drop-topped the sky, oh you arrived when I was three years old”) and countless others, I began playing the piano at an early age—seven, to be exact.
Nostalgia Week | Little Time
By Earl de los Santos
Daydream for a moment and imagine that you’re standing in the wings of an auditorium, looking at the empty stage in front of you; the set pieces have been taken down, the lights give off a dim white glow, and it’s absolutely silent. You slowly walk forward, and you can hear your footsteps lightly thud and echo.
NOSTALGIA WEEK | What’s Your Favorite Childhood Memory?
By Blogs Department
Olivia Faulhaber ’21:I will never forget the time that my family and I vacationed in Woodstock VT. We decided to take our bikes to Sugarbush Farms. However, the ride there was BRUTAL.
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of March 19
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday,March 26 edition of the paper.
NOSTALGIA CAFE | The Immortality of Avatar: The Last Airbender
By Amy Huang
I have a very peculiar taste when it comes to television. You won’t see me catching up on the latest Riverdale or binge-watching The Office.
ON MY MIND | ‘C’ Stands for Colonizer, and Also Cornell
By Jeremiah Kim
“Colonialism imposed its control of the social production of wealth through military conquest and subsequent political dictatorship. But its most important area of domination was the mental universe of the colonised.” – Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Decolonising the Mind
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Intra-Ivy League bickering aside, Cornell University is widely regarded as one of the top institutions of higher learning in the world.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM | The Crossing: Matatu in the A.M.
By Yvette Ndlovu
Part II: Matatu in the A.M
“By the time the fool has learned the game, the other players have dispersed.”- Ashanti proverb
Vacant eyes stared past Ava and onto some unseen distance. Her mother, Charity, sat in a rocking chair in the common area near the staircase.
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of March 12
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday,March 19 edition of the paper.
AGORA | The Amazon Problem
By Blogs Department
It is hard to think of an aspect of our material lives that Amazon has not touched. Amazon has become such a ubiquitous and practically tangible presence despite being based entirely online.
Grace’s Grove | A New Card Game: Fish
By Grace Chen
A new card game has been going around lately, invented by our very own Cornellian, Kevin Zhang 21’. The game Fish is a mix between Go Fish and Kemps, except it is much more difficult. My friend group and I have been obsessed with this game this past month, and gladly sacrifice way too much of our studying time to play Fish.
EMEM ELEMENT | Why “Happiness” May be Making Us Unhappy
By Emem-Esther Ikpot
According to the World Happiness Report, Denmark, after Norway took the crown, is listed as the second happiest place in the world. Hearing this, it is easy for one to flee to the Nordic countries in hopes of getting a taste of what this “happiness” feels like.
OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM | The NCAA is Anything but Abnormal
By Hunter Moskowitz
This week, many people criticized the NCAA for its treatment of college basketball players. LeBron James called the NCAA “corrupt.” Stan Van Gundy, the coach of the Charlotte Hornets, remarked that they there were the “worst organization” and labeled their actions as “racist.” This criticism emerged after a report revealed that dozens of players had been paid and given loans as compensation for their play.
CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST | Week of March 5
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday,March 12 edition of the paper.
Welcome to the Zoo | Automatic Voter Registration
By Rebecca Saber and Katherine Barlow
With an open mind and two sides of the story, you’re bound to learn something new.
Welcome to the zoo!
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM | THE CROSSING: Birthright
By Yvette Ndlovu
The Crossing is a micronovel in the genre of Afrofuturism written in honor of Black History Month. It will be published in excerpts every second Wednesday.
COFFEE THOUGHTS | So, Where Now?
By April Ye
For those who still haven’t quite mentally prepared themselves for adulthood yet (read: me), this could be quite a jostling thought: where exactly is home now? Prior to coming to Cornell, I was so caught up in the frenzy of excitement and eagerness to explore the newfound limits of college and independence that I never stopped to consider the consequences of the transition: once I moved out, would my definition of “home” change?
Cartoon Caption Contest | Week of February 26
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday,March 5 edition of the paper.
An Apple a Day | Red Light for Blue Light: How Technology May Contribute to Your Lack of Sleep
By Ashley Radparvar
Sleep deprivation: it is a problem that students across the nation complain about almost daily. Personally, I can’t get through a conversation with someone without the words “I’m so tired” coming up, not to mention the slew of other complaints of work and extracurriculars contributing to the issue.
SOUND OFF | The Olympics Gym Playlist
By Jeffrey Ho
With the 2018 Winter Olympics well underway, many have found inspiration to hit the gym and keep their New Year’s resolution well and alive. Here’s a playlist inspired by the music of the Olympics, whether it’s a song endorsed by athletes themselves or played during competition.
Cartoon Caption Contest | Week of February 19
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Meet us halfway and submit a caption for this week’s cartoon! The Sun staff will vote and the winning caption — along with the winner’s name — will appear in the Monday, February 26 edition of the paper.
OF MARGINAL INTEREST | An Olympian Feat: the Economics of Hosting the Games
By Christina Xu
As we speak, college students worldwide pull out their shotskis and ice luge molds in celebration of the most riveting quadrennial exercise in patriotism, team spirit, and demolition of self-worth—the Winter Olympics. This year’s games are being held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, a city of 40,000, of which only 35.6% were interested in the Winter Olympics, according to a survey taken last April by the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
GUEST BLOG | My Abusive Relationship with CS at Cornell
By Blogs Department
“Look, this is the Bill and Melinda Gates building,” my dad said to my mom for the fifth time as we drove past Gates Hall on our way to East Hill Plaza. My parents don’t get to visit often, and I don’t blame them, since they live 2,000 miles away.
OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM | Stop Listening to College Rankings
By Hunter Moskowitz
Western culture loves to rank everything. From foods to sport teams to cities, we obsess over figuring out the best thing, the second best thing, and so on.
ON MY MIND | In PyeongChang, a Vision of Korean Peace
By Jeremiah Kim
I haven’t seen Black Panther yet, but I know enough of the story’s basic premise — what might an African nation, untouched by centuries of colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade, look like in the 20th/21st century? — to use it as a generative point of speculation within my own interests in the history of the Korean War and its aftermath.
THE RADICAL CENTER | North Korea’s Olympics Distraction
By Ethan Wu
The vile regime to the north is putting on a pretty face for the Olympics. Don’t be fooled.
WELCOME TO THE ZOO | Take a Knee
By Rebecca Saber and Katherine Barlow
With an open mind and two sides of the story, you’re bound to learn something new. Welcome to the zoo!
KYLIE’S ROOM | What Are We Celebrating on Valentine’s Day?
By Kyla Brathwaite
I painted my nails red for Valentine’s Day. Very cliché, I know.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM | Nightlife in DC
By Yvette Ndlovu
Cornell has some great off-campus programs to offer, one of them being Cornell in Washington. This program offers students the opportunity to live, study and work in Washington, D.C., which means you get to kill three birds with one stone by earning Cornell credits, getting work experience and touristing.
SUNSPOTS | What Are You Most Excited About for the Olympics?
By Blogs Department
Jacqueline Quach ’19:The flashy figure skating outfits! Where else can one appreciate such brightly colored, such meticulously designed and bedazzled fashions?
AGORA | Trigger Warnings
By Blogs Department
This article represents the first in a hopefully long series of articles which aims to address controversial topics in an open and civil manner here in Sunspots. The name was chosen carefully: the agora, the marketplace of ancient Athens, was at once a place where material goods were exchanged and where ideas and conflicting viewpoints could be expressed in the open air for all to hear and criticize.
AKABAS | Which Movies’ Plots Change Drastically if We Change One Letter of the Title?
By Lev Akabas
Forrest Gump → Forrest Dump
Synopsis: In this two-minute live-action short, a young boy on a hike in the Adirondacks walks 50 feet away from the trail, poops, walks back to the trail, and continues his hike. Critical Response: One critic calls the short a “hauntingly realistic slice of life” and many are even moved to tears, while a minority of writers call it “hogwash” and “utterly pretentious.”
Difference-O-Meter: Forrest Dump is a TOTALLY DIFFERENT film.
SOUND OFF | What’s Happening In Hip Hop
By Jeffrey Ho
The past couple months have seen some exciting new music releases in the hip hop world. Between Drake’s new singles, Migos new album and so many more new projects coming out, there’s a lot to digest and review.
THE RADICAL CENTER | The Big Tech Bust-Up
By Ethan Wu
America’s tech titans are stifling competition, skirting regulators and harming democracy. Time to break them up.
OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM | The Legacy of the Tet Offensive
By Hunter Moskowitz
It is difficult to grapple with our complex understanding of the past. Sometimes we remember an event.
OF MARGINAL INTEREST | On the Shot
By Christina Xu
Ah, syllabus week. The time to lounge around with friends, partake in that Tuesday karaoke night at Loco, embark on that spontaneous trip to Niagara Falls with your friends—these are the good days.
KYLIE’S ROOM | Atlanta Monster, A Podcast In A League Of Its Own
By Kyla Brathwaite
Too often, true crime podcasts fetishize or take light of heinous human actions. I’ll admit, I’ve listened to many – and have even written about them.
TRAVELIN’ WITH JACQUELINE | From “WHOA” to “NO”: My Youtube History
By Jacqueline Quach
Like any sleep-deprived college student earning a degree in Procrastination, I often convince myself I need a study break, only to find myself panicking two hours later because I spent too much time (1) reading about the endless antics of well-dressed but not-so-well-behaved Lapo Elkann (decadent heir to the Fiat fortune), (2) browsing the sale sections of online clothing retailers that shall remain unnamed (for the safety of your wallet) or (3) poring over the exceptional articles written by the Blogs section. However, as of late, I’ve noticed that I’ve been reining in those study breaks pretty well, so that the most they’ve gone on for is maybe half an hour.
BIWEEKLY JOKES FOR EVERYDAY FOLKS | Super Bowl Special: Biweekly Jokes for Everyday Blokes
By Sasha Chanko
First of all, why the bloody hell is this game called football if the least talented player is the kicker? But before I get too miffed, I’d like to tell you all about how this year’s American Football Championship Match will “go down” as you Americans say it.
The Elephant in the Room | How to Survive On A Budget While Studying Abroad or Off-Campus
By Yvette Ndlovu
A lot of students choose the spring semester to study abroad or take advantage of off-campus opportunities such as Cornell in Washington. As an international student, I’ve essentially been “studying abroad” since freshman year but this spring I decided to take a break from the Ithaca cold while also getting work experience and Cornell credits by participating in the Cornell in Washington Program.
GRACE’S GROVE | Muji: The No-Brand Brand
By Grace Chen
Since my first purchase of MUJI pens back in 2013, I’ve personally witnessed an exponential increase in the number of people carrying around the signature MUJI clear-bodied gel pens in class. While many of you probably have also been introduced to this brand’s signature stationery, there is actually a lot more to MUJI than meets the eye.
THE RADICAL CENTER | The Year Gone By
By Ethan Wu
This past year offered gloom and uncertainty—and inspiration. A brief, hopeful retrospective on 2017.
AN EDUCATION | On Being Lost in the Murky Twilight Zone of Finals Week
By Nuri Yi
We’re in that strange twilight zone between the end of classes and going home: is it finals week or is it the end of all things looming? I couldn’t tell you how the time has been passing; all I know is that I wake up, work-work-work (or try, at least), forget to eat, get too tired to continue working, and go to bed at strange hours, the only constant in my life being the fact that I’m perpetually falling behind the rigorous study schedule I devised for myself in a last-ditch attempt to #savemysemester.
THE E’ER INSCRUTABLE | Alpha and Omega: The Light in the Abyss
By Griffin Smith-Nichols
Standing beneath McGraw Tower at midnight is akin to experiencing the prolonged death throes of an eternity. Every day becomes as the instar of all time en miniature.
GRACE’S GROVE | Boujee Freshmen Take on NYC
By Grace Chen
I hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving Break! Like 80% of Cornell’s freshman population, I headed over to New York City for a nice and homey friendsgiving.
COFFEE THOUGHTS | First Semester Residues
By April Ye
As we embark upon the homestretch of this semester, I often find myself spacing out over my usual Temple of Zeus iced mocha. Weirdly enough, I hadn’t even noticed how frequent my coffee consumption was until a friend from home pointed it out via cross-country Facetime—every time we talked, I seemed to have a convenient cup of coffee within hand’s reach.
SOUND OFF | The Pros and Cons of Tidal (And Other Pay-to-Stream Services)
By Jeffrey Ho
In 2015, Jay-Z purchased Tidal for a cool 56 million dollars, touting it as a streaming platform “controlled by the artists”. Now, his Tidal holdings have boosted his net worth to make him the 2nd richest hip hop artist in the world, right behind Sean Combs and surpassing Dr. Dre.
THE RADICAL CENTER | The #MeToo Moral Panic
By Ethan Wu
The push to expose sexual assault could give way to a long-awaited reckoning with America’s sexist rot. But if #MeToo becomes a mania, it might not.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM | 21 Years Living Under a Dictatorship
By Yvette Ndlovu
On November 15, the military took over my country’s main broadcasting station, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Cooperation, and announced that it had put our president of 37 long years under house arrest. A week later on the 21st, President Mugabe turned in his resignation letter just as the impeachment process in Parliament began.
OF MARGINAL INTEREST | A Losing Game: The Economics of Women’s Sports
By Christina Xu
Women’s sports across the country are stuck in an vicious cycle, and an example of this cycle can be found right here on campus.
EMEM ELEMENT | Why Twitter Is Gold
By Emem-Esther Ikpot
There is no question that, at an increasingly fast rate, technology and media have advanced significantly. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Internet, iMessage, text messaging, and other various forms of communication can now all reside on a single smartphone.
TRAVELIN’ WITH JACQUELINE | Say Hello to My Little Friend (Confessions of a Pin Collector)
By Jacqueline Quach
I’m not sure when I got my first pin, but the earliest documented proof I could find of me wearing a pin is from May 14, 2000. In the picture, my parents are conducting a mini-photoshoot at home with my older sister and two-year-old self, and you can see a tiny pair of red sunglasses pinned to the top of my pink cardigan:
To this day, I still have and frequently wear that red sunglasses pin, but it’s fair to say that my pin collection has since expanded.
THE RADICAL CENTER | The Perils of Speculation
By Ethan Wu
Robert Mueller has investigated Russian meddling with diligence and professionalism. Firing him would be disastrous.
FOOD WEEK | Flowchart: Which Cornell Eatery Should You Go To?
By Monika Bandi
Can’t decide where to eat today? We’ve got you covered.
CULTURALLY SHOOK | I Don’t Feel White
By Sarah Chekfa
I glare at myself in the mirror. Maybe if I stare at my reflection long enough, critically enough, I’ll finally see myself the way the U.S. government sees me: white.
FOOD WEEK | What is the Best Food Item at Cornell?
By Blogs Department
Noah Harrelson ‘21: Risley’s overnight oats, that sweet nectar of Gods. As I eat, the world stops.
FOOD WEEK | On James Harden, and Why Cereal Isn’t a Breakfast Food
By Lev Akabas
In late September 2016, Houston Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni announced that his star player, James Harden, would be switching positions to play point guard. This seemed like a peculiar decision at first.
KYLIE’S ROOM | Strange Fruit: The Media’s Double Standard When It Comes to Black Women
By Kyla Brathwaite
As I get older and wiser (all 21 years and six months), I’ve come to realize that although I am an American, America (or my country) was not made for me. This land of the free was made on the backs of my ancestors who did not enjoy such freedoms. Having grown up in mostly white environments and choosing to attend a predominantly white university, I’ve become accustomed to being the only black girl in the room.
FOOD WEEK | 5 Foods to Maintain Healthy Skin
By Ashley Radparvar
As the weathergets colder and the wind shows its wrath more and more, it becomes really difficult to walk around campus every day. It can also be especially cumbersome during these chilly times to keep our skin smooth and soft.
FOOD WEEK | The Big Red Buck: What is it Good For?
By Griffin Smith-Nichols
3:00 A.M. is high time for a deflated, depressed-looking bag of Cheetos. My mind steers me like a sleepwalker down a flight of stairs and into the bowels of my dorm.
FOOD WEEK | Ithaca’s Secret Menus
By Jacqueline Quach
While Cornell is known for its superb dining hall food, Ithaca has many of its own culinary gems, one of which is Louie’s Lunch Truck. A favorite among Cornellians, Louie’s is that place you go to when you’ve got those late night or post-partying greasy food cravings.
FOOD WEEK | Understanding How Surroundings Shape Eating Habits
By Tony Li
Deciding what, when, and where to eat may seem like a simple task at first. But when our schedule becomes busy with clubs & classes, overwhelmed by personal circ*mstances, or just unorganized in general, proper and balanced eating habits can often take a backseat.
FOOD WEEK | A Closer Look at Mexico’s “Green Gold”
By Christina Xu
While I will never understand 90% of the logic behind the store layout of Ithaca’s Wegmans (e.g. why the dried noodles must appear in seven separate aisles), I will admit that the Wegmanites got one thing right: the strategic placement of the avocado bags. Their perpetual position in a giant wooden crate by the entrance has permitted me to develop somewhat of an avocado dependency in recent years.
FOOD WEEK | Fall Flavors
By Sasha Chanko
I thought of some really simple, fun recipes that everyone should try this fall season! To kick things off, I’ll start with two takes on a seasonal favorite: the pumpkin spice latté.
FOOD WEEK | If Cornell Majors Were Halloween Candies
By Lev Akabas
Engineering = Warheads
For some reason, Mech-E’s and Chem-E’s think they’re at war with every other major at Cornell, and won’t go more than two minutes without reminding you that they’re engineers and that your major is inferior. They treat every project or interview like it’s a life-or-death situation and you think they might explode at any given moment.
THE RADICAL CENTER | In Search of a New Politics
By Ethan Wu
Tribal politics have paralyzed America. Amid our division, radical centrism offers hope of renewal.
SOUND OFF | Cardi B vs. The World
By Jeffrey Ho
This year, Cardi B exploded onto the rap scene with “Bodak Yellow” after remaining relatively unknown, though she did have a large Instagram following and became a regular cast member on a reality TV show, Love & Hip Hop, New York, in 2015. Due to “Bodak Yellow”’s success, Cardi B became the first female rapper to, unassisted, hit Number 1 on the Billboard charts (other female rappers only reached Number 1 with features on their songs).
GRACE’S GROVE | Korean Beauty Products Review — Face Mask Edition
By Grace Chen
Welcome back to my list of cool, creative, and borderline exotic beauty products! I’m going to be giving reviews on some popular face masks in this article.
AN EDUCATION | Missing Connections: My Love Affair with Tinder
By Nuri Yi
I have something to confess: I love Tinder. And, disclaimer (because it’s necessary): I’m not hooking up with anyone on it.
OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM | The Time to Support Cornell’s Graduate Students Is Now
By Hunter Moskowitz
Last spring’s union election campaign may have ended with a disappointing result for the collective rights of Cornell’s graduate students, but Cornell Graduate Students United (CGSU) has continued to fight. In the past weeks, members of CGSU have been asking fellow graduate students at Cornell to vote about the future of their organizing strategy and the possibility of another election attempt.
BIWEEKLY JOKES FOR EVERYDAY FOLKS | Dialogue
By Sasha Chanko
I went to my friend’s event Tuesday night, a Hillel event, titled “A Funny Thing Happened On My Way to the Middle East,” in which Joel Chasnoff spoke about his life story, and in particular, his relationship to Israel. What started as a stand up bit—typical in its delivery, ingenuity, and laugh-generating ability but atypical in its Jewish-oriented humor—turned into a serious opportunity to discuss Israel in a safe space among mostly Jewish students.
COFFEE THOUGHTS | When I Look, Eye Brows
By April Ye
Upon a cursory brows—ha, pun intended—everything can seem so easy. That is, until you’ve actually been through the process yourself.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM | A Guide to 7 Black Beauty Products and Where to Find Them
By Yvette Ndlovu
For international students, moving to a new country with a different language and culture takes a big adjustment and relearning of social cues. One of the biggest worries as a black international student is whether or not you will find beauty products that cater to your hair texture and that understand your skin.
TRAVELIN’ WITH JACQUELINE | My Travel Bucket List
By Jacqueline Quach
Thus far in my twenty-year tenure on this planet, I’ve traveled to quite a few places–within the United States, I’ve been to Portland (Oregon), Reno, Yosemite, Las Vegas, Niagara Falls, New York City, Boston, and Atlanta. Internationally, I’ve been to France, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Germany, Austria, Italy, and Taiwan.
AN APPLE A DAY | Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice: The Benefits of Incorporating Pumpkins into Your Diet
By Ashley Radparvar
With the chilly weather and colorful leaves rolling into the Ithaca area, there’s no doubt that fall season is upon us. And with the fall weather and ambiance comes the obvious pumpkin obsession: pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pies (who could forget Patty’s delicious pumpkin pies?), and, of course, pumpkin spice lattes.
WELCOME TO THE ZOO | The 2nd Amendment
By Rebecca Saber and Katherine Barlow
With an open mind and two sides of the story, you’re bound to learn something new. Welcome to the zoo!
NOBODY’S OPINIONS | Robots and Communism – A Look at Our Future
By Bruno Avritzer
A spectre is haunting America: the spectre of communism. In a world where more and more tasks are being automated, and more and more people are seeing the skills that separate them from the lower rungs of society reduced to a few lines of code on a computer, more and more people are starting to ask: what makes me more valuable to the company than the guy two floors down who makes half as much as I do?
GRACE’S GROVE | Korean Beauty Products Review – Makeup Edition
By Grace Chen
Korean cosmetics have been gaining popularity in recent years, and many of the products that used to be sold exclusively in Korea have started to become more accessible here in the US. From 20-step skincare routines to Chateau Labiotte lip tints, there’s definitely a lot going on with Korean beauty that everyone can experiment with.
SAVING FACE | Enough Is Enough: On Racism at Cornell
By Yang Lu
It’s a tumultuous time to be Cornell student. A University first founded on the principle of “any person, any study” has proven time and time again that the students themselves do not live up to these words.
KYLIE’S ROOM | 3 Podcasts by Women and/or People of Color You Should Listen To
By Kyla Brathwaite
Although there has been significant progress in recent years, there is still a lack of substantial representation of women and people of color in the entertainment industry. With that being said, podcasts are a cheap, readily disseminated way to share stories and cultural experiences.
WELCOME TO THE ZOO | Discussing DACA
By Rebecca Saber and Katherine Barlow
With an open mind and two sides of the story, you’re bound to learn something new. Welcome to the zoo!
OFFICE HOURS | Professor Lena Kourkoutis Discusses Her Research
By Gabriel Ares
For this semester’sfirst installment of “Office Hours,” a series of interviews with prominent personalities on Cornell’s campus, Sunspots writer Gabriel Ares sat down for a chat with Applied Engineering Physics Professor Lena Kourkoutis. In the interview below, which has been edited for clarity, Kourkoutis talks about a range of topics, from electron microscopy–a technique that allows her to see the atomic structure of objects–to outreach to women in STEM.
BIWEEKLY JOKES FOR EVERYDAY FOLKS | Radical Administrative Changism
By Sasha Chanko
See, Trump, I said it. Just like you wanted me to.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM | Combating White Supremacy Should Not Entail Throwing Other Black Students Under the Bus
By Yvette Ndlovu
On September 29, The Daily Caller claimed that Black Students United (BSU) at Cornell had insinuated in their list of demands to President Pollack on September 20 that Cornell “is letting in too many African students.” Upon seeing this headline, I dismissed the article as the click bait material straight out of a troll handbook. But because college has taught me to question everything and dismiss nothing, I took another careful look at BSU’s demands.
SERENDIPITY | Insecurity as a Tool for Growth
By Charlie Liao
This past summer, swaths of bright college students armed with alacrity sauntered into corporate headquarters and satellite offices, hoping to assert themselves in prestigious and difficult internships. For many of us, this time period was nerve wracking and intense.
ITHACA WEEK | Which Ithaca Grocery Are You?
By Blogs Department
Ithaca is known for its grocery stores—each with its own distinctive personality. Which one are you?
ITHACA WEEK | Building a Home for All in Ithaca
By Griffin Smith-Nichols
What would it be like to return to a home that no longer recognized you? Maybe the people you knew have packed up and left, maybe they are no longer on speaking terms, and you no longer feel at ease.
DESIIGNER | Not All Netflix Views Are Equal
By Tony Li
A week ago, my roommate asked me if he could use my Netflix account. At the time, I didn’t think much of it.
ITHACA WEEK | The Little Apple
By Hunter Moskowitz
If Ithaca possessed a “spirit food,” it would be the apple. After living in Ithaca for the past three years, I have consumed way too many apples in solid, liquid, and in-between forms. In their own subtle way, I feel as if apples define Ithaca just as much as the gorges or the freezing cold winters.
ITHACA WEEK | Blue Balls
By Gabriel Ares
There are so many great things to do in Ithaca and I’ve certainly collected my fair share of memories and moments that have helped me to call this place home. I remember going to Taughannock Falls as a kid; I’ve been to the Ice, dog, and apple festivals; and I’ve spent days studying in the little coffee shops in The Commons and going to poetry readings at Buffalo Books (often because I was forced to trek down there when a professor didn’t want to support the Capitalist Pigs at the Cornell store).
ITHACA WEEK | Ithaca’s Very Own Farmers Market
By Blogs Department
April: Amidst the hustle and bustle—the only trace of New York City here in Ithaca—it feels liberating to venture outside every now and then to explore Ithaca and recharge in the loving womb of nature. Don’t let the “there’s nothing to do, Cornell’s in the middle of nowhere” eye-roll mislead you.
KRAVITZ’S KORNER | Trump Was Right To End DACA
By Evan Kravitz
President Donald Trump is in many ways the antithesis of former President Barack Obama. In the beginning months of his presidency, Trump has attempted to do away with many of Obama’s signature policies, including the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Paris Climate Accord, and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
EMEM ELEMENT | The Illusion of Time
By Emem-Esther Ikpot
So, if time is really money, this hangs on the notion that time must indeed be real. Which then, arguably, hangs on the notion that money is inherently real as well.
SUNSPOTS | What Would You Add to the “161 Things Every Cornellian Should Do” List?
By Blogs Department
The Cornell Daily Sun’s well-known list of “161 Things Every Cornellian Should Do” is very comprehensive and covers most of the essential Big Red experiences, but not all of them. So we asked our writers and our readers to think of some things that they would add to the list.
TRAVELIN’ WITH JACQUELINE | Another 7 Things You Probably Didn’t Know about Cornell
By Jacqueline Quach
Since you readers seemed to enjoy my first article on this topic so much, I’ve come back with a second installment to this series with just as interesting and spooky factoids! Here we go:
1) Whispering Bench
When I was doing research for my other article last semester, I stumbled onto a thread on College Confidential, in which there was mention of a “whispering bench near Goldwin Smith.” However, after scouring the internet, I could not find any other website or article that referenced this bench!
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM | How to Cope with the Loss of a Loved One During Prelims
By Yvette Ndlovu
The passing of a loved one is never easy. It’s even worse when it happens during prelim season and a continent away from home.
BIWEEKLY JOKES FOR EVERYDAY FOLKS | The Greek Reformer
By Sasha Chanko
At this point in my budding blog I should probably add that these posts are not jokes—they are meant to highlight the contradictions surrounding campus life. Ahh, The Greek Reformer.
AN APPLE A DAY | To Floss or Not to Floss?
By Ashley Radparvar
In an ideal world, flossing would be a part of everyone’s hygiene routine. At least that’s according to the American Dental Association.
CULTURALLY SHOOK | The iPhone X Reminds Me That I Am A Person
By Sarah Chekfa
That quote about being a tiny speck of dust in the infinite span of the universe—intended to be a comforting reminder that our actions do not merit the importance we delude ourselves into believing they do, and that we should really just relax—is actually quite demoralizing. Maybe it’s the leftover traces of teen angst that have dutifully followed me into my twenties, maybe it’s just how I’m feeling this particular rainy Thursday night—but that quote just makes me kind of sad.
COFFEE THOUGHTS | Work Work Work Work Work
By April Ye
Taking a step back, I can’t believe we’re already on week 4. My groggy brain tries to do the countdown of how many weeks left until the end of the semester.
EMEM ELEMENT | Psyche and the Presidency
By Emem-Esther Ikpot
There is something to be said about people-watching; something to be said about sitting in Olin Library staring out at the people playing Frisbee in the Arts Quad, or perhaps walking down Ho Plaza figuring out how to dodge the quarter card mania properly (NOT me though, I love all of your quarter cards… STAY #woke). From an outsider looking in it’s interesting to ponder, even for a millisecond, the thought processes that encapsulate another person’s mind.
THE E’ER INSCRUTABLE | Alpha and Omega: Approaching the Issue of Time
By Griffin Smith-Nichols
“’Εν ἀρχή ῆν ὁ λὀγος, καì ὁ λóγος ῆν πρòς τòν θεóν, καì θεòς ῆν ὁ λóγος. οὗτος ῆν ἐν ἀρχὴ πρòς τòν θεóν.
DESIIGNER | Understanding Customer Service through Design Thinking
By Tony Li
A few weeks ago, I received the best haircut of my life. What were my benchmarks?
SAVING FACE | The Asian American Response to Charlottesville
By Yang Lu
This piece was written at the time of—and in direct response to—the “Unite the Right” rally and ensuing violence that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday, August 12th. Before you read this article, I suggest that you watch this video from Vice News first.
NOBODY’S OPINIONS | The Death of a Dream
By Bruno Avritzer
Since Trump rescinded the DREAM Act a few days ago, a number of articles have appeared on the internet citing the extreme cruelty of his decision. Many of these articles make their point by showing a Hispanic male in their early 20s doing something admirable—graduating as Valedictorian from high school, saving people’s lives during Hurricane Harvey, researching a cure for cancer—and juxtaposing it with the inevitable fate Trump has forced upon them just to gain a few political points: being deported to a country they have never known.
KYLIE’S ROOM | Paradise Lost: How the Bachelor Went from Fairytale to Nightmare
By Kyla Brathwaite
I am not ashamed to admit it, but I am an avid Bachelor/Bachelorette/Bachelor in Paradise watcher, debriefer, and obsessor. For the last six months or so, my Monday and Tuesday nights have been dedicated to watching who gets the first impression rose, the ever-coveted one-on-one date, and finally the Neil Lane ring. The franchise’s premise is a bit unorthodox; one person dates 25 people over the course of about 12 weeks in the hopes of getting engaged, then weeks later the Bachelor/Bachelorette rejects get shipped off to Mexico to find love in Paradise.
GRACE’S GROVE | Decoration Inspiration
By Grace Chen
Whether you love to spend hours on dorm decoration or just want to do the bare minimum, it is undeniable that loving your dorm room is very important. After all, how comfortable you are with your personal space determines how much sleep you get, which affects your ability to get up for those 8am classes, which determines your GPA.
KRAVITZ’S KORNER | The More Important Issue of Charlottesville
By Evan Kravitz
The violence that erupted in Charlottesville, Va. this August turned the idyllic town on the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains into ground-zero of the debate on statues and white supremacy in America.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM | Weighing in on Interminority Prejudice
By Yvette Ndlovu
Over the summer, I managed to save up for a trip to California, one of the places in America celebrated for its liberalism and openness. Ignoring the sinking feeling that few other tourists would look like me, I set about to explore the Bay Area.
TRAVELIN’ WITH JACQUELINE | The Summer of Love Experience
By Jacqueline Quach
Before the contemporary hipster existed, there was the hippie of the 1960s. (Ironically, the term “hippie” was derived from the word “hipster,” which referred to the jazz cats of the 1940s.) Perhaps the most notable year for any hippie is 1967, whenduring which the Summer of Love took place in San Francisco.
BIWEEKLY JOKES FOR EVERYDAY FOLKS | How Cornell Markets Liberal Arts
By Sasha Chanko
It really is something to chuckle at, the way Cornell speaks about liberal arts. Specifically within the College of Arts and Sciences, there exists an issue with the rhetoric surrounding our breadth and depth requirements, which I argue stems from our grade-centered education.
SUNSPOTS | What Advice Would You Give To Your Freshman Self?
By Blogs Department
Sasha Chanko ‘19: Eat your f***ing breakfast. Wake up, have a bar or yogurt or something small in the dining hall.
BIWEEKLY JOKES FOR EVERYDAY FOLKS | This Year Will Be Better!
By Sasha Chanko
Part I: The Drive Up
I remember quite clearly my drive up to Cornell in the summer of 2016. It was a lovelyday on both ends of my trip—the Upper West Side wishing me good luck in the comingyear with a warm, blue sky and Ithaca welcoming me with open arms as its sky held in its bladder to save rain for those driving up from New Jersey.
TRAVELIN’ WITH JACQUELINE | Soundtrack to My Freshman Year
By Jacqueline Quach
This entire summer, I’ve been dreading the day that Fall 2017 starts because it will signal the beginning of the second half of my college experience. As I’m honing in on exactly what I should do at the start of this second half, I’ve been reminiscing and reconsidering all the things I did at the start of the first half, by which I mean: freshman year.
SERENDIPITY | 5 Survival Tips and Tricks for New Cornell Students
By Charlie Liao
Cornell is a difficult place – colloquially, we are known as the easiest Ivy to get into… but the hardest to graduate from. While many of you are among the swaths of high school valedictorians, science fair winners and speech and debate aficionados, all of you will certainly fail at some point in your college careers.
BANDI | A Big Red Ball
By Monika Bandi
One of my formative orientation week events was Big Red Ball. For those of you who don’t know what Big Red Ball is, don’t worry—it’s really simple.
ARRAY | “That’ll Never Happen To Me”
By Gabriel Ares
When I teetered into my dorm room on the first day, weighed down by three bags I had lugged across the country, I wasn’t inspired by any sense of new beginning despite all the people offering me their collegiate wisdom and telling me that my life had just begun. I missed home, I missed Mom, I felt like I was still just me, packed up and shipped 3000 miles away.
SUNSPOTS | 10 Things To Do During O-Week While Everyone Else Is Out Partying
By Blogs Department
If you’re not one of those people who shows up to Ithaca waaaaay too excited about going to their first college party, have no fear. Your options for activities during O-Week are endless!
DESIIGNER | Understanding Freshman Orientation through Design Thinking
By Tony Li
Understanding Surroundings through Design Thinking
CULTURALLY SHOOK | How the Trump White House Is Turning Children into Political Puppets
By Sarah Chekfa
Last week, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the new White House Press Secretary, read a 9-year-old boy’s letter to President Trump during a press briefing. This lucky 9-year-old boy is Dylan Harbin, also known by the nickname Pickle.
AKABAS | What is the Nolan-iest Christopher Nolan Film?
By Lev Akabas
Across three Batman movies, five movies with cool-sounding one-word titles, and one movie you’ve probably never heard of, director Christopher Nolan has developed a distinctive style. So, with his latest film,Dunkirk,hitting theaters today, we’re going to answera very important question.
AKABAS | 10 NBA Offseason Questions, Asked and Answered
By Lev Akabas
For how many more finals do you anticipate the two teams will be the Warriors and Cavs (i.e. the next 3,4,5 years?)
– Kyrollos B.
Basically the Warriors’ entire roster is entering free-agency this offseason. Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant are going to do what it takes to both re-sign, but what about the other guys?
AKABAS | 10 NBA Finals Questions, Asked and Answered
By Lev Akabas
When the NBA season came to a close on Monday night, I had too many thoughts to sort out, so I decided to let my friends do it for me by sending me questions. Below are my answers to 10 questions about the 2017 NBA Finals, ranging from most simple to most complex.
AKABAS | Podcast with Psychology Professor David Pizarro
By Lev Akabas
David Pizarro has taught Introduction to Psychology and a number of other seminars since becoming an associate professor in 2012, andhis research on moral judgement and emotion has been published in countless places, including an articleforThe Guardianthat he co-wrote last month. He was nice enough to be the guest for my first Cornell Daily Sun podcast, during which hediscussed his research, shared his thoughts on robots, and answered ten“Speed Round”questions.
WHITE KNUCKLES | Acknowledgments Too Long for My Thesis
By Emma Ianni
When I graduated high school, I wrote a farewell piece in the school paper; it came easy, words were flowing without obstacles, I had a lot to say. Four years later, I still have a lot to say; however, this is one of those very few times when I felt that there might not be enough words, or that they will be too small and timid, too controlled, too human.
OFFICE HOURS | 10 Questions with PMA Professor Bruce Levitt
By Andrew Shi
For our secondinstallment of “Office Hours,” a series of interviews with prominent personalities on Cornell’s campus, Sunspots writer Andrew sh*talked with with Performing and Media ArtsProfessor Bruce Levitt, who has taught at Cornell since 1986 and is involved withPhoenix Players Theatre Group (PPTG), a prison theatre group at Auburn Correctional Facility.
You’ve worked with PPTG since 2010.
SHI REVIEWED | Go Set A Watchman
By Andrew Shi
Atticus Finch is racist. That’s the shocking revelation in Harper Lee’s sequel to the beloved classic To Kill a Mockingbird.
TRAVELIN’ WITH JACQUELINE | Spring Break NYC – Part 2: Museums
By Jacqueline Quach
As a college student, it’s important to be aware and take advantage of the student discounts that places like clothing companies, restaurants and especially museums offer, because it’s going to be more than forty years until you can get a senior discount…forty-plus years of dreary adulthood in which you are expected to pay full price for everything—the horror! Seriously though, it’s always nice to save some money, so I whenever I go to a museum, I have my Cornell ID ready.
OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM | The Legacy of Cornell’s Campus
By Hunter Moskowitz
People know Ithaca for its beauty. When I first visited Cornell in the summer of 2014, I was struck by the seemingly endless verdant grass on the Arts Quad and the sea of trees that surround the school.
TRAVELIN’ WITH JACQUELINE | Spring Break NYC – Part 1: Food
By Jacqueline Quach
Like most Cornellians, I find that during the school year, amidst all the prelims and deadlines, it can be hard to set aside some time to treat myself and take things slow, which is why I decided to indulge in food, museums, and strolling around when I spent my Spring Break in New York City. I won’t be writing about every experience I had – only the ones I found to be interesting and fun.
OFFICE HOURS | Professor Walker White Discusses eSports and Gaming (Part 2)
By Bruno Avritzer
For ourfirst installment of “Office Hours,” a series of interviews with prominent personalities on Cornell’s campus, Sunspots writer Bruno Avritzer sat down for a chat with Computer Science Professor Walker White, Director of the Cornell Game Design Initiative. In the interview below,which has been edited for clarity, White shares his thoughts on why gamingmay or may not be viable as a college sport.
SUNSPOTS | How Would You Spend 300 BRBs in 3 Weeks?
By Blogs Department
You did it. After countless, grueling months spent slogging uphill (physically, intellectually and emotionally) in sleet and snow, you’ve finally made it to spring—and oh my god that summer internship is so close you can practically taste it.
KRAVITZ’S KORNER | The Casual Stereotyping of Affirmative Action
By Evan Kravitz
One of the most frequently cited arguments in favor of affirmative action practices at universities is that they help those with societal disadvantages succeed. Yet, by propagating stereotypes about the relative achievement of certain classes of individuals, affirmative action policies have perpetuated discrimination on the basis of race.
OFFICE HOURS | Professor Walker White Discusses eSports and Gaming (Part 1)
By Bruno Avritzer
For ourfirst installment of “Office Hours,” a series of interviews with prominent personalities on Cornell’s campus, Sunspots writer Bruno Avritzer sat down for a chat with Computer Science Professor Walker White, Director of the Cornell Game Design Initiative. In the interview below,which has been edited for clarity, White shares his thoughts on the global popularity of eSports, their potential as spectator sports and comparisons between certain video games and sports likefootball.
AKABAS | 6 Things the NBA Could Do with the Rookie of the Year Trophy
By Lev Akabas
This NBA season, not a single rookie who played more than half of his team’s games averaged at least nine points per game while shooting at least 46%. For context, those were the 2016-17 statistics of 35-year-old defensive-specialist Tony Allen.
KYLIE’S ROOM | Why Oh Why Do We Overshare?
By Kyla Brathwaite
Our culture is sharing. Not sharing, with respect to giving to others, but sharing online.
WELCOME TO THE ZOO | References to God in the Government
By Blogs Department
With an open mind and two sides of the story, you’re bound to learn something new. Welcome to the zoo!
ARRAY | Over the Dreamwall
By Gabriel Ares
Usually I try to write something with facts, figures and opinions, but this time around I’m going to do something a little bit different. I’m going to talk about my personal experience with mental health.
SHI REVIEWED | Nabokov’s “Pnin”
By Andrew Shi
Vladimir Nabokov first appeared to me as a stranger’s name on a Cornell t-shirt. A quick search online showed me that he’s a big deal—big enough to be printed on the same shirt as Ginsburg, Sagan and Morrison.
OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM | 5 New Executive Orders, Graded by Me
By Hunter Moskowitz
In the first weeks of his term, Trump issued a great many executive orders that have caused a lot of outcry and hurt a lot of people. He tried to ban Muslims from coming to the United States, raised border security and cut down financial regulations.
SERENDIPITY | The Five Stages of Goldman Grief: Denial
By Charlie Liao
Trigger Warning: Potential Damage to Fragile Egos
Preface
According to Grief.com, “the five stages, denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance are a part of the framework that makes up our learning to live with the one we lost. They are tools to help us frame and identify what we may be feeling.
WHITE KNUCKLES | Spaces of Gratitude
By Emma Ianni
As you might’ve figured out, my blogging technique is pretty straightforward: something happens to me – something simple, everyday, insignificant to history or to my neighbors but exceptional to me, less meaningful that I build it up to be – and I write about it. And since I went to Los Angeles for spring break last week, that is what I am writing about today.
THE E’ER INSCRUTABLE | Fimbulwinter: My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?
By Griffin Smith-Nichols
“WIr sind doch nunmehr gantz / ja mehr alß gantz vertorben. Der frechen Völcker schar / die rasende Posaun /
Daß vom Blutt feiste Schwerd / die donnernde Carthaun /
Hat alles diß hinweg / was mancher sawr erworben /
Die alte Redligkeit vnnd Tugend ist gestorben;
Die Kirchen sind verheert / die Starcken vmbgehawn /
Die Jungfrawn sind geschänd; vnd wo wir hin nur schawn /
Ist Fewr / Pest / Mord vnd Todt / hier zwischen Schantz vñ Korbẽ
Dort zwischen Mawr vñ Stad / rint allzeit frisches Blutt
Dreymal sind schon sechs Jahr als vnser Ströme Flutt
Von so viel Leichen schwer / sich langsam fortgedrungen.
Ich schweige noch von dehm / was stärcker als der Todt /
(Du Straßburg weist es wol) der grimmen Hungersnoth /
Vnd daß der Seelen=Schatz gar vielen abgezwungen.” — “Tränen des Vaterlandes”
It is the most logical thing in the world to yearn for the rigidity of the medieval cosmology, the moral landscape to which a stonemason, manuscript illuminator or painter could turn for artistic solace, and from whose ethereal, luminescent matter parabolic universes could take shape.
KRAVITZ’S KORNER | The Health Insurance Pre-Existing Conditions Folly
By Evan Kravitz
Over spring break, I had the opportunity to purchase my first car. The salesman at the dealership told my father and me that if I was the sole owner of the car, I would have to pay a lot of money for automobile insurance—compared to a “normal” adult. My dad and I eventually decided to be co-owners of the vehicle in order to save money through the insurance plan, since my father is cheaper to insure.
AKABAS | Bracketology: Who/What Is Winning 2017?
By Lev Akabas
There are many things that literally everyone on Earth hates, such as airplane seats without flaps to rest your head, Hayden Christensen’s performance in the Star Wars prequels and those stairs leading to the footbridge at Cornell that are the worst possible length – it’s uncomfortable to go one step per stair and it’s even more uncomfortable to go two steps per stair. There aren’t many things that literally everyone on Earth loves, but one of those things is March Madness, the NCAA basketball tournament.
SAVING FACE | Remembering Executive Order 9066
By Yang Lu
On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt infamously signed and issued Executive Order 9066. For the unaware, Executive Order 9066 was the authorization for the Secretary of War to create military zones and exclude certain people from these zones after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
KYLIE’S ROOM | Proleptic Decay and Decrepitude: Why Listen to the S-Town Podcast
By Kyla Brathwaite
If you’re looking for something to binge on, listen to the new podcast S-Town. S-Town, narrated by reporter Brian Reed, is a collaboration between the creators of Serial and This American Life.
OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM | Should We Really Be Watching The Lion King?
By Hunter Moskowitz
When I was a kid, millions of other children and I watched the movie The Lion King, but I did not think really about what the movie meant. I can recall being engrossed in the characters and, to this day, I can repeat the choruses to Hakuna Matata,” “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” and “Be Prepared,” even though I probably haven’t heard those songs in twelve years.
WELCOME TO THE ZOO | The Electoral College
By Blogs Department
With an open mind and two sides of the story, you’re bound to learn something new. Welcome to the zoo!
ENTER THE DRAGON | A Look Inside Dragon Day 2017
By Blogs Department
With Dragon Day fast approaching, we recently asked a few members of the team behind the beast to share their thoughts and experiences on the process of creating the famed Dragon, from the initial E-board electionsto the mad-dash of Dragon Week. Here’s what they said:
Yueer Niu, E-Board: Fundraising and T-shirts Chair
When Cornell students first hear the words “Dragon Day,” their usual reaction is not excitement or anticipation but confusion.
SHI REVIEWED | The Three Body Problem (Part II)
By Andrew Shi
Nestled in the Milky Way Galaxy four light-years away from the Earth, Trisolaris is a planet in a three-star solar system. The stars move in erratic orbits that follow no clear patterns—this is the classic “three body problem.” No civilization in Trisolaran history has been able to predict—and thus survive—the chaotic eras caused by these unpredictable orbits.
NOBODY’S OPINIONS | Trumped-Up Headlines, But What Of The Charges?
By Bruno Avritzer
Trump has a new scandal every week. Actually, it’s probably more than that.
TRAVELIN’ WITH JACQUELINE | 7 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Cornell
By Blogs Department
This week I’ve decided to compile a list of interesting facts (or secrets!) that I’ve gradually discovered about Cornell this year. On their own, each of these locations would not constitute a complete blog post, which is why this one contains seven.
THE E’ER INSCRUTABLE | Fimbulwinter; The End of the World
By Griffin Smith-Nichols
It is not easy to imagine what an entire city on fire must look like. It would be easier to imagine what Hell itself looks like: more than two millennia of referential material survive to aid in painting that mental portrait.
CONSCIOUSLY LIBERAL | The End of Trumpflation?
By Thomas Kim
On November 9, the day after the US Presidential Election, I wrote a blogpost regarding market responses to the surprising Trump victory. It was an extraordinary day for markets as portfolio managers, institutional investors, traders, etc.
KRAVITZ’S KORNER | Ditching The Two-State Constraint
By Evan Kravitz
Part of President Donald Trump’s unorthodox approach to his presidency is his perspective on the Arab-Israeli conflict. He recently declared that the conflict may be solved in ways other than a two-state solution, bucking several decades of U.S. policy.
SUNBURSTS | Fourth Edition
By Blogs Department
Every two weeks, the writers at Sunspots churn out some of the most diverse, unique content on the web (or at least on the eduroam wifi). Whether you missed them the first time or feel like reading them for the hundredth time, Sunbursts celebrates the highlights of the Daily Sun’s Blogs section in a nicely packaged selection of articles chosen by the editor, website statistics and the writers themselves.
WHITE KNUCKLES | A Window Of One’s Own
By Emma Ianni
A frequently unkept resolution of mine is to detox from social media, in particular on days like March 8th, International Women’s Day. This year, my newsfeed was stained with posts like artless and dark graffiti, policing the way in which the day should be celebrated, pointing out the obviously achieved equality, asking with dissimulated wit why there isn’t an International Men’s Day.
BANDI | Destination: Montreal
By Monika Bandi
As fall break rapidly approached last semester, my friends and I were faced with the single greatest recurring struggle of our generation: where to spend those four precious days of freedom. Most of us could simply go home, sure, but where was the fun in that?
OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM | Tales of Democracy
By Hunter Moskowitz
We tell tales of democracy: tales of a system in which all receive equal voice. Representation exists on all levels and if you speak, your voice will be heard.
WELCOME TO THE ZOO | Trigger Warnings and Safe Spaces
By Blogs Department
With an open mind and two sides of the story, you’re bound to learn something new. Welcome to the zoo!
ARRAY | The Soft Power of the CIA
By Gabriel Ares
On March 7th the CIA made headlines across the nation when Wikileaks released 8,761 sensitive documents and several hundred million lines of code from the CIA’s cybersecurity division. Many of these leaked documents were fairly mundane viruses and malware, the type you might get from torrenting media, but a few were much more impactful.
SHI REVIEWED | The Three Body Problem (Part I)
By Andrew Shi
I am not a sci-fi person, but I started reading The Three Body Problem due to several timely developments. Over winter break, I visited my friend in China and learned that this is the “Hunger Games” equivalent of what’s trending in China.
SUNSPOTS | Immediate Reactions To This Year’s Slope Day Artists
By Blogs Department
If you haven’t readthe news yet, this year’s Slope Day headlinerswill be MisterWives and Big Gigantic, with Brasstracks and S’Natra also performing. Our writersshare their immediate reactions to finding out thelineup.
TRAVELIN’ WITH JACQUELINE | Coit Tower
By Jacqueline Quach
Hello there, my fellow Cornellians! As you will have already noticed, this week’s edition of my blog will not cover any sites or events around Ithaca.
KRAVITZ’S KORNER | Title IX Tyranny
By Evan Kravitz
On January 25, the U.S. Department of Education initiated its sixth inquiry into alleged mishandling of sexual assault investigations by Cornell University, in accordance with Title IX of the United States Education Amendments of 1972. While seemingly well-intentioned, the Department of Education’s aggressive application of Title IX is a disquieting assault on the United States Constitution and individual rights.
NOBODY’S OPINIONS | Alternative Trump
By Bruno Avritzer
Most people probably think at this point that Trump is not very competent. It certainly seems to be a reasonable conclusion, considering the non-stop flow of fiascos – Muslim ban, Jeff Sessions, now the Obama wiretap tweets – all in his first month or so.
THE E’ER INSCRUTABLE | Tyr’s Wager, Part II
By Griffin Smith-Nichols
“πάθει μάθος.” -Derived from Aeschylus’ Agamemnon. Refers to learning gained through adversary.
SUNBURSTS | Third Edition
By Blogs Department
Every two weeks, the writers at Sunspots churn out some of the most diverse, unique content on the web (or at least on the eduroam wifi). Whether you missed them the first time or feel like reading them for the hundredth time, Sunbursts celebrates the highlights of the Daily Sun’s Blogs section in a nicely packaged selection of articles chosen by the editor, website statistics and the writers themselves.
SUNSPOTS’ IN ANOTHER TONGUE | Der Heidnische Christus
By Blogs Department
By virtue of the quality of the education we as Cornellians receive, our university is a profoundly international community, attracting students and faculty from around the globe. Step outside Olin Library, or keep your ears pealed in a dining hall, and you are guaranteed to hear good-natured chatter between friends and family in a language totally unfamiliar to you.
CULTURALLY SHOOK | CNN Has a White Savior Complex, and I’m Not Surprised
By Sarah Chekfa
Recently, CNN published astory—a love story that, CNN insists, “defies borders.” Carly Harris, a Mormon college student, was volunteering at a refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, when she met Soufiane El Yassami, a Muslim fast food worker. El Yassami had studied industrial refrigeration and was seeking a better life in Europe, fleeing the dismal economic situation in Morocco.
SUNSPOTS | What Is The Best Way To Eat Peanut Butter?
By Blogs Department
In honor of National Peanut Butter Lover’s Day (yup, it’s a real thing), ten of our writers set out to answer an important question: What is the best way to eat peanut butter?
Hunter Moskowitz ‘18
For one to undertake the ultimate peanut butter creation process, one must commit oneself to three steps:
Put a hunk of peanut butter on a knife
Place said hunk of peanut butter on a Ritz cracker
Stick another Ritz cracker on top of the peanut butter hunk
We underrate sandwiches of all kinds.
SERENDIPITY | Business Club Clutter
By Charlie Liao
Passing through Warren Hall and Mann Library, the typical student is likely exposed to a quarter card too many; these ubiquitous advertisem*nts are found scattered across tables, the floor, and even pasted comically onto urinals. I would liken this experience to that of radiation exposure.
WELCOME TO THE ZOO | DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE
By Blogs Department
With an open mind and two sides of the story, you’re bound to learn something new. Welcome to the zoo!
ARRAY | CELEBRITY RHETORIC
By Gabriel Ares
It’s Oscar time and once again actors are using the awards show to make points about American culture. From the wage gap to racial issues, the Oscars were packed with political and social commentary this year.
SUNBURSTS | Second Edition
By Blogs Department
Every two weeks, the writers at Sunspots churn out some of the most diverse, unique content on the web (or at least on the eduroam wifi). Whether you missed them the first time or feel like reading them for the hundredth time, Sunbursts celebrates the highlights of the Daily Sun’s Blogs section in a nicely packaged selection of articles chosen by the editor, website statistics and the writers themselves.Disclaimer: due to extenuating circ*mstances, this edition of Sunbursts covers the two-week publishing cycle directly preceding February break – articles published within the past week will go in the next edition.
AKABAS | 24 Moonlit Memes
By Lev Akabas
Last night, after discovering that his film had, in fact, not won the Oscar for Best Picture,La La Landproducer Jordan Horowitz took the mic, reverse-Kanye’d, and immediately overtookDenzel Washington crying and Nicole Kidman clapping asthe meme of the evening. In honor of Moonlight’s win for studio A24, and to thank the movie gods thatMoonlight won afterLa La Land was announced and not the other way around, I created 24 memes to celebrate the occasion.
OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM | Trump’s War with the Media
By Hunter Moskowitz
Last week, Donald Trump did something that broke decades of history and infuriated much of the media. It was also one of the least surprising decisions of his presidency.
SHI REVIEWED | Underground Railroad Part II
By Andrew Shi
This review continues where the first one left off. The protagonist Cora arrives in North Carolina, where she hides in the home of Martin, an abolitionist, awaiting word to continue travel on the Underground Railroad.
This Week in Pictures
By Michael Wenye Li
SAVING FACE | How to be Asian American
By Yang Lu
When I was in elementary school, my parents would gather with their Chinese friends every Friday night for a Bible Study. While the adults were upstairs, all of us kids would find a computer downstairs and crowd behind it.
KRAVITZ’S KORNER | A Better Approach to Education
By Evan Kravitz
President Donald Trump is arguably the most controversial and polarizing figure in politics today. Take Trump’s Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos.
TRAVELIN’ WITH JACQUELINE | Roy H. Park Preserve
By Jacqueline Quach
Couch potato that I am, I surprised myself this past February Break by actually going outside and doing something active: hiking! Along with a few other residents of Bethe House, I trekked through the scenery of Roy H. Park Preserve, a Finger Lakes Land Trust Preserve that is a twenty-minute drive from West Campus.
CONSCIOUSLY LIBERAL | AN OSTENSIBLY INFINITE SHOPPING LIST
By Thomas Kim
If I told you that there are no constraints on federal government spending, you’d probably think I’m a radical deficit hawk and thus fiscally irresponsible beyond conventional liberal economics. Even Paul Krugman, the personification of liberal economics, doesn’t take it that far and assumes that adequate revenue is necessary for a proper budget (i.e. since borrowing costs are low, the government should run an affordable deficit and spend to offset the lack of private investment).
This Week in Pictures
By Michael Wenye Li
WHITE KNUCKLES | The Young Pope, Liquid Modernity and Indignation
By Emma Ianni
This year, Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino impacted my break and my liberal college student intersectional-feminist-relativistic-somewhat nihilistic philosophy more deeply than I like to admit. His miniseries The Young Pope had me glued to the television in my colorful (green and red-walled) living room in Italy, caught up in a story that I never saw coming.
ARRAY | We Still Need Arts
By Gabriel Ares
Kids in the liberal arts and social sciences get a bad rap. They are derided for their “easy” majors, lack of relevant job opportunities after college or for ending up in careers that aren’t related to their degree.
KYLIE’S ROOM | How to be a Detective, as a Chicken
By Kyla Brathwaite
I’ve always been a bit of a chicken. I’m easily startled and I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m afraid of the dark.
WELCOME TO THE ZOO | Paid Paternity Leave
By Blogs Department
With an open mind and two sides of the story, you’re bound to learn something new. Welcome to the zoo!
BANDI | STORIED WALLS
By Monika Bandi
I’m in Gannett to get some blood work done on a Friday afternoon. No biggie—I’m hoping to get in, get it done, and get out.
SHI REVIEWED | THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD (PART I)
By Andrew Shi
This blog series is a first and a last. It is a first because it features book reviews, something I have never attempted to do outside of class.
AKABAS | John Wick Club Scene vs. Kingsman Church Scene: Which Is The Better Killing Spree?
By Lev Akabas
Every time I take a shower, I think about one of three questions:
If it weren’t for the Middle Ages, where nobody did s*** for 900 years, just how advanced would human civilization be right now? Does Anderson Varejao or Robin Lopez look more like Sideshow Bob from The Simpsons?
OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM | TAKE A LOOK IN THE MIRROR
By Hunter Moskowitz
The last two weeks have been rough. They have been really really rough.
MCEVOY MINUTE | The Example of Senator Warren
By Emily McEvoy
On Tuesday night, Democrats in the Senate took the floor to speak out against the nomination of Jeff Sessions for Attorney General. Earlier in the day, the Senate voted 52-47 to limit debate on Sessions and move towards the final confirmation vote.
TRAVELIN’ WITH JACQUELINE | Portland – Part 2: Winter
By Jacqueline Quach
As you all know, this week’s blog post will be focused on the winter portion of my trip to Portland, Oregon this past mid-December. For the sake of not being repetitive, I will gloss over the minutiae of how I arrived at the train station and boarded the train because the schedule was almost exactly the same, with the exception of my parents and I deciding to leave for Portland on a Friday as opposed to a Saturday.
SUNBURSTS | First Edition
By Blogs Department
Every two weeks, the writers at Sunspots churn out some of the most diverse, unique content on the web (or at least on the eduroam wifi). Whether you missed them the first time or feel like reading them for the hundredth time, Sunbursts celebrates the highlights of the Daily Sun’s Blogs section in a nicely packaged selection of articles chosen by the editor, website statistics and the writers themselves.
KRAVITZ’S KORNER | The Strawman Illegal Immigration Argument
By Evan Kravitz
The Strawman Illegal Immigration Argument
One of the most devious tactics employed by seasoned debaters is to give the impression of refuting an opponent’s argument, while actually refuting an argument that was not advanced by that opponent. Deploying this rhetorical strategy is precisely what many have done when it comes to illegal immigration.
NOBODY’S OPINIONS | THE REAL MEANING OF TRUMP’S MUSLIM BAN
By Bruno Avritzer
A few weeks ago, I could’ve woken up without seeing something totally insane in my news feed when I checked Facebook in the morning. “Donald Trump suddenly and without warning implements Muslim Ban, causing massive backlash worldwide.” “Eric Trump has a suspiciously high secret service bill.” “Sarah Silverman advocates military revolt against the presidency.” Honestly, though, the most surprising and annoying thing about the last one is that it’s news.
ON MY MIND | NO BAN, NO WALL ON STOLEN LAND: A STATEMENT ON WHY WE PROTEST
By Jeremiah Kim
The following statement comes from a group of people from Islamic Alliancefor Justice, Native American Students at Cornell (NASAC), Cornell DREAM Team, MEChA de Cornell and Asian Pacific Americans for Action (APAA) who were affected directly or indirectly by the events of this past week and decided to come together to organize. We’re a collective group of students, and this is our collective statement:
Over the past week, President Donald Trump issued a series of executive actions, some of which explicitly target marginalized communities including Muslims, refugees, undocumented peoples, Indigenous folx, Latinx folx, people who cannot access healthcare and working class people.
POLITICS & STUFF | A FOOD REVIEW OF HAI HONG
By Amanda Xu
The Sun hired me as a politics writer but my blog is called “Politics & Stuff” so I’m technically allowed to write about the “Stuff” part! Here’s a food review of Hai Hong!!
OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM | OPPOSE EVERYTHING
By Hunter Moskowitz
Trump’s anti-Muslim ban has had harrowing effects on the lives of real people, keeping loved ones away from each other, crushing the dreams of immigrants and trapping people in unfair and unjust situations. It is an aggressive act, designed to incite fear and hatred and put in place to validate a disgusting view of people around the world.
SUNSPOTS | WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO ABOUT THE SUPER BOWL?
By Blogs Department
Olivia Lutwak
I’m looking forward to the food. Every year for the Super Bowl, my dad throws a party for which he cooks massive amounts of food.
ARRAY | LOOKING PAST THE PRESIDENCY
By Gabriel Ares
We’ve all heard stories from our friends and family members about their reactions to Donald Trump’s election. Election Night 2016 has already, in our imaginations, reached the status of a defining cultural event, a “where were you when such-and-such happened” question along the lines of “Where were you when Kennedy was shot?” or “Where were you on 9/11?” or “Where were you when Obama was elected president?” These are the types of questions by which we measure our personal histories.
WELCOME TO THE ZOO | Sanctuary Cities
By Blogs Department
With an open mind and two sides of the story, you’re bound to learn something new. Welcome to the zoo!
SAVING FACE | LUNCHTIME
By Yang Lu
Lunch was probably my least favorite part of elementary school. Now don’t get me wrong, I wanted a break from school as much as everyone else.
KYLIE’S ROOM | SCROLL THROUGH THIS…
By Kyla Brathwaite
How often do you look at your phone for no good reason? Once a day?
BANDI | RIO DE JANEIRO – OLYMPICS, ART, AND A STROLL THROUGH THE STREETS
By Monika Bandi
As our Uber weaved its way through the busy streets of Rio de Janeiro, the signs of the recent Olympic Games were littered everywhere. Although the banners had been taken down a month prior, logos announcing “Rio 2016” were still stamped across roads; huge signs strung across souvenir shops boasted their Games-themed merchandise; freshly-painted murals covered building walls.
MANGA MONDAYS | Spring 2017 Preview
By Michael Mauer
I hope everyone had a wonderful break, filled with family, friends, food and anime binge-watching until some ungodly hour of the night. I know mine was.
TRAVELIN’ WITH JACQUELINE | Portland – Part 1: Summer
By Jacqueline Quach
This past August and December, my parents and I traveled to Portland, Oregon, where we ate like kings, dressed to kill and took a myriad of photos like the tourists we were. Due to this last fact, I am dividing my account of our Portland adventures into two blog posts–one about our summer exploits, and another about our winter shenanigans.
NOBODY’S OPINIONS | Things Kellyanne Conway Will Say in the Next 4 Years
By Bruno Avritzer
“No, Donald Trump’s pledge of allegiance to Putin does not disqualify him from being President, and the fact that you would even suggest that, Anderson, is just another example of this media bias that we see all the time now.”
“I think Justin Bieber is the best alternative rock musician, period.”
“No one really cares about Trump’s Muslim registry besides the press, so we’re just going to go ahead and do it.” “Mr. Trump has nominated me today to be his new Secretary of Propaganda.
KRAVITZ’S KORNER | We Need to Rethink First-Year Diversity Programs
By Evan Kravitz
Cornell University recently decided to replace Tapestry of Possibilities — the diversity event that has been presented to incoming first-year students for the past 11 years — with the Identity and Belonging Project. This change was due to a host of complaints leveled against the old program, particularly the failure of the old program to encompass enough topics.
ON MY MIND | What We Saw from the People’s Streets: Scenes from #DisruptJ20 in Washington, D.C.
By Jeremiah Kim
TW: Trump, misogyny, racism
We wake up at 9 am and immediately check Twitter for news of the day’s first protests. Blockades have already gone up at key entrance points around the city; Black Lives Matter, NoDAPL and other organizers have chained themselves to each other and to the ground.
AKABAS | A Way Too In-Depth Analysis of Corinne’s Nanny Situation On The Bachelor
By Lev Akabas
Meet Corinne. She is a contestant on Season 21 (yup, that’s not a typo) of The Bachelor, she inherited her family’s million dollar business, she is 24 years old and she has a nanny.
SUNSPOTS | 50 GOOD THINGS THAT HAPPENED IN 2016
By Blogs Department
Last night, people around the world wildly celebrated, in intervals of exactly one hour, the Earth moving past an approximate, arbitrary point in its orbit about the sun. In New York City, specifically, thousands of people stood outside in the freezing cold for more than ten hours to watch a ball move slowly down a short to medium-length pole and then reach the bottom of that pole at the same time as the Earth reached the aforementioned point in its orbit.
AKABAS | A Way Too In-Depth Analysis of the Fast And Furious 8 Trailer
By Lev Akabas
Sometimes when people mention the Seven Wonders of the World, for a few seconds I think they’re talking about the Fast and Furious movies. The Fast and Furious franchise has gone from low-budget street racing movies to big-budget street racing movies to big-budget action movies to even bigger-budget action movies.
GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | Dear Julie
By Blogs Department
Dear Julie,
How have you been? I hope the winters in NY haven’t been too harsh on you – you’ve always had cold hands and I hope you’re coping well.
ANDREW SHI | On Hiring Conservative Faculty
By Andrew Shi
Re: “What Kind of White Faculty Should We Hire?,”Sunspots, Dec. 10
Christian Brickhouse recently penned an ambitious essay in this newspaper.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR | What Kind of White Faculty Should We Hire?
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By Christian Brickhouse
Re: “Liberal Intolerance at Cornell,” Sunspots, Dec. 7
To the Editor:
In the last few weeks, The Cornell Daily Sun has published a number of articles by conservative students decrying the lack of “intellectual diversity.” Indeed, last week, a resolution was proposed at the Student Assembly meeting to ask the Faculty Assembly to create a committee on diversity of thought.
KRAVITZ’S KORNER | Liberal Intolerance at Cornell
By Evan Kravitz
Evelyn Beatrice Hall, in her biography of Voltaire, famously coined the phrase, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” This should be a universally accepted principle at Cornell. But sadly, it is not.
ON MY MIND | Some Songs to Sail Your Stress Away
By Jeremiah Kim
It’s the end of the semester. Let’s play a game.
WELCOME TO THE ZOO | Cop Body Cameras
By The Cornell Daily Sun
With an open mind and two sides of the story, you’re bound to learn something new. Welcome to the zoo!
AKABAS | We Need to Do Something About Professional Sports Team Names
By Lev Akabas
As a society, we suck at naming things. I don’t really need to defend this claim other than stating that someone decided to name this place “Greenland,” but there are countless other examples.
KYLIE’S ROOM | A PRACTICAL PODCAST
By Kyla Brathwaite
As a college student, sometimes I feel like I am in a bubble, or have blinders on. Here at Cornell, and probably at many other schools, you can go through your daily life focusing on nothing but school, those around you and whatever is happening on campus.
COMMON SENSE | THANK YOU
By Gunjan Hooja
November has been a brutal month for me. I suffered immense heartbreak the night of the election with millions of people across the world, and then, a few weeks later, unexpectedly lost my 27-year-old cousin, whom I love very much.
BETWEEN BARS | Prisoners and Playwrights
By Andrew Shi
I’ve had two thoughts about theatre. The first is that it is a high art form.
KRAVITZ’S KORNER | Evaluating A Trump Presidency
By Evan Kravitz
Ever since Donald Trump’s stunning Electoral College victory, there has been a lot of talk about what Trump will do as president. A lot of people believe that his presidency will destroy America and that the world will descend into chaos under his watch.
NOBODY’S OPINIONS | OBSERVATIONS OF THE WEEK
By Bruno Avritzer
When considering what to write about this week, I realized that I haven’t really lived up to my promise of providing “highly varied content” – not that anyone cares, but I would feel bad only writing articles related to the election all semester, no matter how much it reflects the current news cycle. Instead, here is a collection of things I thought about this week, which you may or may not find interesting.
THE E’ER INSCRUTABLE | Fimbulwinter: Tyr’s Wager, Part I
By Griffin Smith-Nichols
“ᛏ Týr er einhendr áss
ok ulfs leifar
ok hofa hilmir
Mars tiggi.”
Time does not, and has never, suffered itself to be stopped on the whim of a mortal. If all mystified fatalism, be it twine-snipping hags at the base of the world-tree and the general stuff of soothsayers, has been stripped from our cold-fact cosmology, this central fact has never been, and almost certainly never shall, be doubted.
De/Constructing America: Part 1
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By Amanda Xu and Jeremiah Kim
Amanda:
For many Americans, we can trace the origins of our family tree to an immigrant story. One of hardship, sacrifice, and —for the lucky few —bittersweet triumph over circ*mstances.
MANGA MONDAYS | Advertising with Anime: Places as Products
By Michael Mauer
If you’re ever riding a train in Japan’s Tottori prefecture, you might be lucky enough to ride the “Conan Train.” Which, as it happens, is exactly the same as a regular train, except for the fact that the outside is a giant advertisem*nt for the “Conan” anime (that’s “Case Closed” in America). Why, you might ask, is there such an over-the-top advertisem*nt for an anime in the middle of Japan’s least populous prefecture?
WHITE KNUCKLES | Personal&Political
By Emma Ianni
It takes a long time to feel at home in another country. It takes mispronunciations, catching up on a lot of pop culture to understand the references, adapting to a different kind of humor, eating unfamiliar food and walking other roads.
SUIT DU JOUR | The Imagination: a Vehicle for Time-travel
By Molly Kestenbaum
If you could go back in time, who would you want to meet? And why?
Raw and Sincere – Gunjan Hooja
By Gunjan Hooja
As the Vice President of the Cornell University Democrats, I gave these remarks to our general body members the day after the election. A meeting that was supposed to be for all intents and purposes, one of celebration, was instead one in which we had to reel from an outcome that almost none of us had prepared for.
KYLIE’S ROOM | Where Do We Go From Here?
By Kyla Brathwaite
“How do we move forward?” This is a question I have asked myself every day since last Tuesday. In the hours following the election, my Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds were in uproar.
CULTURALLY SHOOK | I’m with Kanye – Materialism Makes Me Happy
By Sarah Chekfa
If you tell me you’re in pursuit of happiness, I’ll tell you you’re awfully misguided (@KidCudi, wyd?). Happiness itself is simply a concept—a crude abstraction, nebulous by nature.
NOBODY’S OPINIONS | Fallout
By Bruno Avritzer
In the wake of this week’s election results (and it really does seem like a literal wake), the American people experience at this moment an unprecedented and unsettling division. There are calls for revolution and for resolution, for peaceful protest and property damage, for faithless electors and for faith in the decision made by the citizens of our great nation.
BETWEEN BARS | Just Visiting
By Andrew Shi
This week is National Prison Visiting Week, a new initiative led by the VERA Institute of Justice to open up prison facilities to local community members to come in and interact with inmates and correctional officers. The “opening” of the prisons provides the public an opportunity to see the effect that a local institution has on people, many who eventually reenter society (studies estimate 95% nationwide).
OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM | No One Should be Shocked
By Hunter Moskowitz
I have heard a lot of people say that they were shocked by the election results, and I was in a bit of disbelief myself on Tuesday night. Yet as I heard from speakers at the Friday walkout and from others in my life, no one should be shocked by what happened on Tuesday night.
SERENDIPITY | Charlie’s Cold Coffee Challenge (CCC)
By Charlie Liao
Why do we go to college? You’re probably thinking that the answer here is simple.
THE WORLD AROUND YU | America Under Trumpism
By Charles Yu
I grew up in a minority-majority enclave in the Bay Area. My elementary school was made up of 800 students whose demographics were made up of roughly fifty-percent East Asian and fifty-percent South Asian.
CONSCIOUSLY LIBERAL | Market Response to Trump Win
By Thomas Kim
November 9, 2016
Markets were disturbed when it dawned on investors that Trump became the frontrunner for the presidency. The shuffling and rumble were the manifestation of adjustments in market expectation of a Clinton presidency.
MCEVOY MINUTE | How We Move Forward After Defeat
By Emily McEvoy
In the coming days, we will begin to understand the outcome of Tuesday night’s elections and see how Donald Trump triumphed when almost every major news source was predicting a win for Hillary Clinton on Monday. The results are shocking and deeply startling to many people whose personal identities were attacked by Trump throughout his campaign.
TRAVELIN’ WITH JACQUELINE | Punkfest
By Jacqueline Quach
From Tuesday to Saturday last week, Punkfest Cornell took place throughout Ithaca, and included panel discussions (one of which featured members of puss* Riot), live band and spoken word performances, an opening reception in Kroch and a film screening at Cornell Cinema. Unfortunately, I was incredibly busy last week, so I was only able to attend the aforementioned opening reception, but I have a feeling that would have been the event I enjoyed most anyway.
ATARISTOTLE | Black Women, Don’t Get Trick’d
By Evan Reynolds
It’s 2016. Donald Trump is the president.
KRAVITZ’S KORNER | Why Undergrads Should Be Against Graduate School Unionization
By Evan Kravitz
The prospect of graduate student unionization at Cornell University is becoming a serious possibility. There has been much debate about the relative merits of this decision from the perspective of graduate students.
THE PERSONAL IS POLITICAL | Happy Election Day!
By Johnna Margalotti
Happy Election Day! Congratulations on surviving yet another excruciatingly long electoral cycle.
POLITICS & STUFF | 5 Things All Government Majors Experience Explained in Spongebob GIFs
By Amanda Xu
1. Getting asked what you want to do with your major
“So, like, do you want to run for president?
ON MY MIND | Cultural Appropriation, Giraffes and You
By Jeremiah Kim
You already know what this is about. And I get it, Halloween’s over – cultural appropriation isn’t a hot topic anymore.
WHITE KNUCKLES | Bucket Lists and the Ancient World
By Emma Ianni
We all have the painful awareness that, during our lifetime, we will not have time to read every book worth reading, to visit every place that fascinates us, to learn what we’ve always dreamed of doing, to play musical instruments and knit scarves. In response to this anxiety, we make lists; bucket lists.
SUIT DU JOUR | The Fanny Pack is Back
By Molly Kestenbaum
Fanny packs are making a comeback. When most people think of fanny packs, they think of tourists scrambling about unknown streets of some foreign city or hikers trekking along in the woods.
KYLIE’S ROOM | Story Time – This American Life
By Kyla Brathwaite
“Tell me a story,” is a phrase that seems to come out of my mouth, or be sent via text message quite often. Sometimes, I am just looking for something to pass the time, idle gossip about people I don’t know and will never meet.
WELCOME TO THE ZOO | 2016 Presidential Election
By Blogs Department
With an open mind and two sides of the story, you’re bound to learn something new. Welcome to the zoo!
OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM | Cornell Is Wrong About Unionization
By Hunter Moskowitz
Cornell and President Rawlings are wrong. There is really no other way to say it.
IT’S ONLY LOGICAL | Hooking Up
By Samuel Brantly
“We’re more alike than I thought.”
Probably not, but I was too drunk to worry about the validity of the statement and too fixated on the idea of mitigating the inevitable wave of despair that I associate with falling back into sobriety. We lay there for a little while longer and chatted about pretty much everything , except for what was on our minds.
BETWEEN BARS | Learning Chinese
By Andrew Shi
This week at Auburn I taught Chinese. It came as a surprise, really: when we checked our belongings in at the front desk I noticed a fellow tutor holding what looked like worksheets that were written in Chinese.
SUNSPOTS | Halloween Edition: What is the scariest thing at Cornell?
By Blogs Department
See what severalof ourwriters have to say aboutsome of the scariest things they’ve experienced during their years at Cornell. THE WALK TO MY HOUSE
Charlie Liao
As a non-guaranteed transfer, I had no clue that Cornell housing is basically over before Thanksgiving.
SENSE AND SENSIBILITY | The Conscience of A Liberal
By Thomas Kim
Awhile ago, Paul Krugman ran an op-ed piece titled “Plutocrats and Prejudice”, in which he observes the division between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton during the primaries as a division between what change is best. Senator Sanders says he, along with the people, will revolutionize politics, while Secretary Clinton says she will implement progressive reforms. The question of revolution or reform was discussed previously in Western Europe and pre-Soviet Russia in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
KRAVITZ’S KORNER | The Uncomfortable Truth About AJ+
By Evan Kravitz
In just over a year since its founding in September 2014, AJ+ has exploded onto the scene to become the second largest news video producer on Facebook. In October 2015, AJ+ amassed over 1 billion views across its platforms. It’s safe to say that AJ+ has risen to social media preeminence.
POLITICS & STUFF | American Dream
By Amanda Xu
I am the child of immigrants. I am the child of two people who moved to another country with not a penny to their names and worked themselves to the bone for twenty years to finally earn a small house with a yellow lawn and white picket fence.
TRAVELIN’ WITH JACQUELINE | Insectapalooza & Nabokov’s Butterflies
By Jacqueline Quach
As I mentioned in my last blog post, I attended Insectapalooza this past Saturday at Comstock Hall, where I witnessed the good, the bad and the ugly. However, before I delve into my experience, I’ll get the formal stuff out of the way: admission was $3 per person and free for kids aged three and younger.
AKABAS | Let’s Clear Up A Few Things About Kevin Durant Joining the Warriors
By Lev Akabas
NBA fans constitute one of the most delusional groups of people, along with people who think Chicago-style pizza is pizza, people who don’t like pizza at all, and people who think that Gary Johnson or Jill Stein is anywhere close to knowledgeable enough about how anything works to be President of the United States. Rarely has this delusion been more palpable than in the aftermath of Kevin Durant signing with the Golden State Warriors in free agency this summer.
THE E’ER INSCRUTABLE | Fimbulwinter: The Rhein’s Fury Part II
By Griffin Smith-Nichols
“Jezt aber, drinn im Gebirg,
Tief unter den silbernen Gipeln,
Und unter fröhlichem Grün,
Wo die Wälder schauernd zu ihm,
Und der Felsen Häupter übereinander
Hinabschaun, taglang, dort
Im kältesten Abgrund hört’
Ich um Erlösung jammern
Den Jüngling, es hörten ihn, wie er tobt’,
Und die Mutter Erd’ anklagt’,
Und den Donnerer, der ihn gezeuget,
Erbarmend die Eltern, doch
Die Sterblichen flohn von dem Ort,
Denn furchtbar war, da lichtlos er
In den Fesseln sich wälzte,
Das Rasen des Halbgotts.”
“Yet now, in the mountains,
Deep beneath the silvery summits,
And beneath the merry Greenness,
Where the woods shudder to him,
And the rock heads gaze down over one another
Upon him, the whole day long, there
In the coldest Abyss heard I
The youth groaning for salvation;
They heard him, how he blustered,
And railed at Mother Earth,
And the Thunderer, who begat him,
The parents pitying; yet
Mortals fled the place,
For it was dreadful, since he, lightless,
Tossed about in his chains:
the rage of the Demigod.” (Friedrich Hölderlin, “Der Rhein,” p.t.)
Youth’s high-esteemed vitality, grace in form, and strong, prattling innocence have as their all-too-easy obverses its seething rage, misdirection, and choking, desperate thirst for the authority. The last failing, the outcome is violence.
COMMON SENSE | Thank you Donald.
By Gunjan Hooja
There’s a chill in the air, pitch-black darkness as I lug my suitcase down the steps. The rolling of the suitcase wheels on the uneven concrete reverberates through the air when at this time of night silence dominates.
NOBODY’S OPINIONS | A Final Summary: Reasons You Shouldn’t Vote for Trump
By Bruno Avritzer
At last, the election is nearly upon us. The United States of America will have voted and within a fortnight we will know the outcome.
THE PERSONAL IS POLITICAL | Why America Needs Donald Trump
By Johnna Margalotti
I have an immense amount of respect for The Donald, and I could not be happier with how his campaign has unfolded. From his not-so-humble beginnings as just one hopeful drifting in a sea of infinitely more qualified candidates, Donald is the little, tiny-handed orange engine that could of American politics.
MANGA MONDAYS | Conventions and Stereotypes
By Michael Mauer
A while ago I attended the Kyoto International Manga and Anime Fair, which, as far as I can tell, is only international insofar as foreigners get in free. But hey, I’m not one to turn down a free anime convention.
ON MY MIND | Loving Asian Parents
By Jeremiah Kim
Put a group of second-generation Asian Americans together in one room. Get them to open up about their childhoods, to describe what it was like growing up in their household, what their parents were like.
Suit Du Jour | Believe It Or Not
By Molly Kestenbaum
You are what you wear. The clothes that you choose to wear everyday reflect who you are, where you have been and where you are going.
CULTURALLY SHOOK | Contemporary Love in the Time of the Chainsmokers’ “CLOSER”
By Sarah Chekfa
I have inadvertently heard the song “Closer” so many times that sometimes I hear it even when it’s not being played. What I once took to be a constant in my life, an allegedly reassuring acoustic verification of my ongoing physicality—my heartbeat—has been aggressively replaced by the song’s superficial, Day-Glo, Capri Sun beat.
WELCOME TO THE ZOO | Health Insurance and Birth Control
By The Cornell Daily Sun
With an open mind and two sides of the story, you’re bound to learn something new. Welcome to the zoo!
AKABAS | How Donald Trump Answers Every Debate Question: A Flowchart
By Lev Akabas
While Donald Trump aimlessly paces around the debate stage after being asked a question, his mind undergoes a complex thought process that involves both asking himself questions (in blue), and blurting out statements (in orange). The following is an attempt to visually map this process.
ATARISTOTLE | POLITICIANS AS SUPER SMASH BROS. CHARACTERS
By Evan Reynolds
Ladies and gents, step right up. You’ve all been waiting for this one.
MOSKOWITZ | Measuring our Country’s Future
By Hunter Moskowitz
Sometimes, they are just hard to avoid. They spring up, almost daily, prognosticating the future and therefore predicting what our country may look like in the years to come.
BETWEEN BARS | When I’m 36
By Andrew Shi
I’ll be 36 years old when he gets out of prison in 2030. It occurred to me that scientists have been saying that by that year all the polar ice caps will have melted.
THE WORLD AROUND YU | Death to a Workaholic’s Favorite Drink
By Charles Yu
For some time now, it has been a habit of mine — much like how a frequent cocaine user would call his addiction a “habit”, to take my coffee black. Sans crème, sans sucre — a straight, untampered and unholy noir.
SERENDIPITY | SH*T CHARLIE DOES: COLD SHOWERS
By Charlie Liao
I started cold showering over the summer. Did I do it to seem suave and perpetuate my image as an interesting business person?
f*ckLESS AND FRECKLED | Hill and Bill’s Sham of a Marriage and Other Election Hypocrisies
By Gwen Aviles
We’re so quick to attack Trump and Clinton for being crooked, phony liars, but maybe it’s time we see ourselves as the true hypocrites. The 2016 presidential election has been touted as America’s most progressive election yet.
POLITICS & STUFF | What’s Past is Prologue: Race and Poverty in Contemporary America
By Amanda Xu
Imagine a society in which almost 1 in 4 African-Americans are in poverty; for white people, the number is less than 1 in 10 (Proctor et al., 12). Imagine that society in which not only black children are more likely to be born into poverty, but half of them will also remain there as adults.
MCEVOY MINUTE | After a week full of scandal, could Trump still win?
By Emily McEvoy
If after this weekend you were left wondering what the state of our political system has come to, you are not alone. After a video was released of Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, claiming that he had the right to sexually assault women because he was a celebrity, the Republican Party started falling to pieces.
KRAVITZ’S KORNER | The GOP’s Perilous Gamble on Trump
By Evan Kravitz
If there was ever a time for the Republican Party to regret nominating Donald Trump, it would be now. The Washington Post’s release of video tapes that include Trump’s abhorrent remarks about women in 2005 underscore not only his immoral character, but also his weakness as a candidate.
THE PERSONAL IS POLITICAL | I’ma Let You Finish, but Stop Interrupting Women
By Johnna Margalotti
Remember 2009 when Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift at the VMAs and we all laughed and it either made you love Kanye or hate Kanye? It’s probably the most familiar example of a pervasive cultural phenomenon: manterrupting.
TRAVELIN’ WITH JACQUELINE | Blue Bees
By Jacqueline Quach
Like most people, I don’t find insects particularly interesting, but I thought I’d attend a West Campus-scheduled Cornell Insect Collection Tour on Sunday, September 25 with my SA Erin! The Cornell University Insect Collection is located in Comstock Hall and is one of the world’s biggest insect collections.
THE E’ER INSCRUTABLE | Fimbulwinter: The Rhein’s Fury, Part I
By Griffin Smith-Nichols
“Jetzt komme, Feuer! Begierig sind wir,
Zu schauen den Tag,
Und wenn die Prüfung
Ist durch die Knie gegangen,
Mag einer spüren das Waldgeschrei.” -Friedrich Hölderlin, “Der Ister”
Almost two thousand years are to be retrospectively traversed from the death of Hitler to the object of my next inquiry.
MANGA MONDAYS | Crunchyroll x Funimation: Partners vs Pirates
By Michael Mauer
For those that missed the news (it was quite a while ago at this point), Funimation and Crunchyroll have, at long last, announced a formal partnership. Essentially, Crunchyroll is begining to stream some of Funimation’s older, well-known titles like Cowboy Bebop.
ON MY MIND | I Don’t Feel Like Smiling
By Jeremiah Kim
There’s an old chain email/Facebook adage that goes something like: “It takes 37 muscles to frown but only 22 muscles to smile. So smile.
WHITE KNUCKLES | My Modern Love
By Emma Ianni
This piece is very different from what I usually write; it is inspired from the NYT Modern Love column, which I read avidly, and from my own life – for one can speak generally and universally only to a certain extent. When my mother told me about love, she always mentioned Paolo, her high school sweetheart.
SUIT DU JOUR | Behind the Seams
By Molly Kestenbaum
Do you know what happens behind the seams? Think about the very T-shirt you are wearing, the socks that keep your feet warm, even the backpack that you just shrugged off your shoulder.
Kylie’s Room | On [unsolicited] Advice, Indecisiveness and the Dear Sugar Podcast
By Kyla Brathwaite
Where would I be without advice? I am frustratingly indecisive when it comes to making decisions regarding my own personal life; often, I find myself going in circles trying to make a decision.
WELCOME TO THE ZOO | The Gender Wage Gap
By The Cornell Daily Sun
With an open mind and two sides of the story, you’re bound to learn something new. Welcome to the zoo!
CULTURALLY SHOOK | We Don’t Sleep Anymore
By Sarah Chekfa
I want to dissociate. Split myself into two bodies, break myself apart into two corporal entities.
KRAVITZ’S KORNER | Due Process Matters
By Evan Kravitz
Immediately following the death of Keith Lamont Scott, protesters had come to the incontrovertible conclusion that the police officer who shot the 43-year-old African American man in Charlotte, North Carolina had clear racist motivations. Violent protests and riots erupted in Charlotte, forcing the North Carolina governor to declare a state of emergency.
OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM | We Need to Look at Prisons
By Hunter Moskowitz
There are some places where the eyes of the press rarely go. Maybe it is because they do not care.
BETWEEN BARS | Unlock the Vote
By Andrew Shi
The one-hour car ride back to Cornell from Auburn Prison is a time for tutors to talk about how the night went. On my last trip, a few of the tutors in my car observed a voting poster inside a classroom.
SERENDIPITY | 6 Things All High-Performing Business Students Should Do
By Charlie Liao
1. The Humble Brag
They say America runs on Dunkin, but I say otherwise.
f*ckLESS AND FRECKLED | Cultural Appropriation in Fiction: A Liberal Hoax?
By Gwen Aviles
“You liberals get off my lawn!” commands Lionel Shriver in her recent New York Times Op-Ed. Shriver, who might be more well known for her bellicose opening address at the Brisbane Writers Festival earlier this month than any of the 13 books she’s published, has more than several bones to pick with the “left,” or anyone who is not a blatant hom*ophobe, sexist, racist or otherwise elitist.
CONSCIOUSLY LIBERAL | MARKETS: New Census Data and Why We Should Proceed With Caution
By The Cornell Daily Sun
A new census found that median household income in the US had risen by 5.2% in 2015 compared to the rise in income in the previous year. Although this is good news, the data turns out to be more a reflection of the health of the labor market, rather than the health of the economy.
MCEVOY MINUTE | To Millennials Considering the Protest Vote
By Emily McEvoy
If you are like many college students, you probably find that you have barely enough time to complete your class work, let alone follow the news everyday. In case you have managed to avoid a newspaper since you came to campus in August, I am here with some potentially bad news: Hillary Clinton has lost the solid lead in the polls that she maintained towards the end of the summer.
NOBODY’S OPINIONS | Trump Killed the First Debate
By Bruno Avritzer
I have to hand it to Donald J. Trump, he truly is a genius in ways I never thought anyone could ever be. The man was amazing in the first debate!
TRAVELIN’ WITH JACQUELINE | Antique Arcade
By Jacqueline Quach
Hello, all you beautiful people! I hope prelims, papers, projects and just life in general are all going well for you this week, but if they haven’t been, I’ve got the perfect momentary escape for you—San Francisco!
THE PERSONAL IS POLITICAL | Dear Undecided Voter
By Johnna Margalotti
Dear Undecided Voter,
Hey, I hope you’re doing well. I am not going to make this too long, because I get it, we’re all busy people.
MANGA MONDAYS | The Next Miyazaki?
By Michael Mauer
For those that missed the news, Makoto Shinkai’s newest movie, “Your Name.” (Kimi no Na wa.) recently released in Japan. And it’s a huge hit.
POLITICS & STUFF | Three Years Later: My Reflection and Frustrations with Public Forum Debate
By Amanda Xu
My high school years were defined by my participation in public forum debate. PF is a two-on-two debate format that encourages discussion on current controversies such as gun control, education reform and constitutionality.
ON MY MIND | International Leaf-Toucher’s Anthem
By Jeremiah Kim
So. I’ve developed a habit where I try to pluck a fistful of leaves – or a solitary leaf – off as many low-hanging branches on as many passing trees as I can while walking home on pretty-good Saturday nights (weather permitting). I might do it on weekdays too, or even during daylight hours if the urge has really got a grip on these twitchy digits. It’s powerful, when it hits.
CONSCIOUSLY LIBERAL | On Fiscal Policy For the People
By Thomas Kim
Two weeks ago I explained that the Central Bank has the ability to bypass Congressional gridlock and should conduct monetary activities that can help assuage market troubles. In this post, I will explain what Congress should do if able to act.
AKABAS | Top 10 Movie Soundtracks to Listen to While Studying for Prelims
By Lev Akabas
Like every other college, Cornell has tests. But, unlike every other college, we don’t call these tests “tests” — we call them “prelims.” Why, you may ask?
WHITE KNUCKLES | The Signs You Don’t Read
By Emma Ianni
This is an open letter, one that will never reach the addressee, the type of letter that mostly benefits the author and maybe open some isolated, outcasted pairs of eyes. One of those that are not meant to be read, but meant to be written and spoken to strangers with familiar faces about familiar situations, one of those often charged with aggressive passivity, when maybe all they do is delineate a relationship between two people where names are not needed, where intimacy is beyond the point and from which no friendship will spring.
THE DISMAL SCIENCE | The Dismal Major
By Jack Wendler
If you have always wanted to be an economics major but couldn’t quite fit it into your schedule, this article will save you a lot of time. Keep reading for an overview of some of the core and elective classes in the curriculum.
KESTENBAUM | The Art of Letting Go
By Molly Kestenbaum
To let go is to be free. It is to completely detach from societal expectations and latch onto what you expect for yourself.
WELCOME TO THE ZOO | Fracking
By The Cornell Daily Sun
With an open mind and two sides of the story, you’re bound to learn something new. Welcome to the zoo!
IT’S ONLY LOGICAL | Pangs of Privilege
By Samuel Brantly
Part 1:
“Heh, Sam!?”
I bounded up the staircase on all fours, caught the baluster at the top and swung into my parent’s bedroom, gliding on the furnished wood floor Risky Business style. A small pair of brown eyes just barely peaked out over the king-sized bed from the other side of the room.
COMMON SENSE | Dear Seniors
By Gunjan Hooja
Dear Seniors,
This is an incredibly stressful time. We’re applying to jobs, we’re applying to grad school, we’re planning out the next chapter of our lives.
CULTURALLY SHOOK | I AM AN IPHONE, AND I AM ALSO BREAKING UP WITH YOU
By Sarah Chekfa
Hello, world! I am the iPhone 7.* You might have heard about me.
TINA HE | Bad Artisan
By Tina He
I was in New York City for the sole purpose of visiting some indie second-hand bookstores so I could get some best deal in town to justify spending a hundred dollars traveling here from Ithaca. I got a tote that says “If you go home with somebody & they don’t have books, don’t f**k ‘em” and loaded it with as many books as it would fit.
BETWEEN BARS | Out of Necessity
By Andrew Shi
When the cart rolled into the classroom, several of the students immediately left their seats and walked over. I followed suit.
THE WORLD AROUND YU | An Experiment in Poetry
By Charles Yu
Toward the end of last semester, and leading into the summer, I began to dabble in the hobby of poetry writing. The works I produced, while some of them are so atrocious that they will never see the light of publishing, were often very cathartic to write.
ATARISTOTLE | Super Smash Bros. in the Black Community
By Evan Reynolds
So if you’ve read my bio or just know me personally, I absolutely adore the party, fighting-game Super Smash Bros. So much so, that winning or losing in a game of four player free-for-all or one-on-one I will physically transform this angry, volatile beast that has me taking my shirt off and foaming at the mouth to play again and again and again.
SERENDIPITY | A Societal Necessity: Women’s Diversity Programs
By Charlie Liao
As an Asian male, it’s quite safe to say that my peers and I get the shortest end of the recruitment stick. It’s no secret that we’re perceived as the meek and subservient types that belong in the professional friend-zone.
f*ckLESS AND FRECKLED | Let Jon-Benét Ramsey Die
By Gwen Aviles
I know how to commit the perfect crime. Or at least I should, given the countless nights I spent watching Court TV (which has since been renamed truTV) and Lifetime with my mom.
MCEVOY MINUTE | How the Sugar Industry Won (and How We Lost)
By Emily McEvoy
Earlier this week, an article was published in JAMA Internal Medicine providing evidence that in the 1960s the sugar industry supplied funding for scientific research that identified fat and cholesterol as the main culprits of coronary heart disease, and downplayed the evidence that sugar consumption can also be linked to CHD. It is likely that this literature, sponsored by the Sugar Research Foundation and originally published in the New England Journal of Medicine, contributed to the rise of low-fat diet in the mid to late 1900s.
TRAVELIN’ WITH JACQUELINE | Hand to God
By Jacqueline Quach
This week, I bring you all another event I attended through the charity of West Campus: Kitchen Theatre’s new play, Hand to God. For those of you (most of us), who aren’t familiar with this company, Kitchen Theatre is an organization in downtown Ithaca that performs plays in a small ninety-nine seat theater.
KRAVITZ’S KORNER | France’s Burkini Ban Misfire
By Evan Kravitz
Over the past several months, France has been ravaged by Islamist terror attacks. On November 13, several ISIS militants executed a coordinated terrorist attack on Paris, leaving 130 people dead and hundreds more wounded.
THE E’ER INSCRUTABLE | Fimbulwinter: Hitler is Sleeping
By Griffin Smith-Nichols
“He knew his heart’s core was a fat, awful worm. His dread was lest anyone else should know.
NOBODY’S OPINIONS | Why Johnson will survive #WhatisAleppo
By Bruno Avritzer
This election season has left people with some tough choices. In our two-party system, it kind of makes things difficult when a lot of people don’t support either candidate.
THE PERSONAL IS POLITICAL | Political Culture and Clinton’s Cough
By Johnna Margalotti
The biggest news story from this past weekend isn’t that our nation just grieved September 11th for the 15th time. Nope, the biggest headline following this historic day is that Hillary has pneumonia.
POLITICS & STUFF | The Problem of College Unaffordability
By Amanda Xu
Arthur E. Levine once said, “When a quality education is denied to children at birth because of their parents’ skin color or income, it is not only bad policy, it is immoral.” It is because I believe education is a universal right, not a privilege, that I believe the United States federal government should help provide affordable college education through grants and federal aid. First, the cost of college has become an obstacle in accessing increasingly necessary post-secondary education.
MANGA MONDAYS | Subculture
By Michael Mauer
I recently visited a department store near Kyoto station, hunting for a power converter so I could charge my laptop. The store was split into 7 floors, each selling different products.
ON MY MIND | Coloring in Mental Illness
By Jeremiah Kim
A truck blocked my path. In the fading light of late afternoon, I could barely make out a group of white faces grinning at me through rolled-down windows. And then a voice called out:
“HEY PIKACHU!”
By the time I’d registered the words and bristled in preface to formulating an appropriate retort, the
AKABAS | A Non-Exhaustive List of People Who I Would Vote For President Over Donald Trump
By Lev Akabas
To Republicans, Donald Trump is like receiving scented candles for a holiday gift: you don’t want it, but for social reasons, you have to pretend like you don’t hate it. To Democrats, Donald Trump is like receiving a pet monkey for a holiday gift: it seems harmless and even amusing at first, but it’s actually the most annoying thing ever.
WHITE KNUCKLES | Ode to Concentration
By Emma Ianni
A few days ago, I experienced the nth-to-last first day of school. Cornell was stunning on that Tuesday, Ho Plaza was crowded and the clock tower immortalized, the sun shone and the green was so bright it seemed to defy any memory or expectation of snow and white ice.
THE DISMAL SCIENCE | Venezuela Can’t Feed Its Cats
By Jack Wendler
Long lines and empty shelves plague Venezuela’s grocery stores as its economic crisis shows no signs of stopping. Pets are also feeling the effects of the prolonged food shortages as residents are struggling to spare a single morsel, according to a report by CBS.
IN LOWERCASE | 50 and Relevant
By Tanisha Mohapatra
I have always had a dumbfounded expression whenever a Star Trek reference has been made around me; I am not the most avid sci-fi fan, nor do I even understand what the Star Trek craze is all about (yes, I have received questioning looks). When my Residence Hall Director, Eric, announced we would be watching an episode at our RA staff meeting, I didn’t qute understand how this related to the usual theme of our discussions, which usually revolve around raging social debates and issues.
SUIT DU JOUR | PINK-Y PROMISE
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Welcome to mi casa, — suit du jour —the place where fashion governs everything. While I am half-kidding, I am also half-not.
KYLIE’S ROOM | Podcasting: No Country for Old Men
By Kyla Brathwaite
An old man drives angrily back home from the supermarket, shouting in disagreement with what seems like no one. He’s shouting a podcast playing over the in-car stereo system.
WELCOME TO THE ZOO | Minimum Wage
By The Cornell Daily Sun
With an open mind and two sides of the story, you’re bound to learn something new. Welcome to the zoo!
COMMON SENSE | Your Weight Is Not Your Worth
By Gunjan Hooja
In the Indian community it often feels as though your worth is derived from your weight. Six months before I’m due to see my family in India again I’m already dreading the opening greetings which will undoubtedly revolve around how much weight I’ve gained or lost since the last time I’ve seen them.
CULTURALLY SHOOK | Donald Trump is Actually Kind of Right, For Once
By Sarah Chekfa
In an interview with ABC this Sunday, Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s running mate, likened Donald Trump’s encouragement of Russia to hack into Hillary’s emails to the infamous Watergate scandal. Kaine’s comment was his way of deflecting negative attention off Hillary by pointing out just how much worse Trump is.
IT’S ONLY LOGICAL | The Tragedy of Diversity
By Samuel Brantly
On its diversity and inclusion webpage, our ever enlightened university boldly regards itself as “a place where intercultural skills are developed and enacted among diverse campus constituencies”. Cornell bumptiously claims that more than 39 percent of undergraduates identify as students of color, and each year the admissions office touts “the most diverse class to date”.
MOSKOWITZ | How Free is our Press?
By Hunter Moskowitz
On August 22nd, Gawker, a blog that had over 800 million page views in the last year, and posted more than 200,000 articles in its lifetime, was destroyed. Some in the media have argued argue that this came about because of Gawker’s own sins and that Gawker’s posting of “non-journalistic” material such as sex tapes and its public outing of powerful people led to its downfall.
BETWEEN BARS | Inside Maximum Security
By Andrew Shi
Auburn Correctional Facility is less than an hour’s drive directly north of Ithaca, in a city whose population is comparable to that of total enrollment at Cornell. Sitting atop one of the Finger Lakes, it looks like any other town to pass by on the rolling hills of Upstate New York.
TINA HE | Castle of the Contagious
By Tina He
“If you can bring this to the States…” He kept his voice low, trying not to make a fuss, but he could not dim the shine in his eyes. Four weeks ago, I probed into the underground art market in China, where insiders trade information with hungry artists trying to exhibit their pieces abroad.
THE WORLD AROUND YU | Culture Is Dying: Welcome to the New Dark Ages
By Charles Yu
Every so often, I like to play this game called “Be the Intellectual.” It’s a game fueled by high pretension; sometimes leading me into an art museum, in which I will pretend to muse at artworks (of which I know nothing about) and stand there, gazing— waiting for the art to speak to me! — gleaming a few extra seconds if the display card to the left mentions an artist that strikes a chord of recognition.
SERENDIPITY | Alpha Delta Phi Pi What? Interviews with Business Fraternity Presidents
By Charlie Liao
Marketing experts say that consumers love choice… but I’m not so sure. Especially in a day and age where all of us are, for some reason, becoming more indecisive, having too much choice can be supremely frustrating.
ATARISTOTLE | How the PlayStation 3 Made Us Obsessed With Power
By Evan Reynolds
Not the first. Not the second.
f*ckLESS AND FRECKLED | Lesbian In A Play
By Gwen Aviles
I think part of me always knew I wanted to be more than friends, but in an attempt to avoid the emotional impaling that often comes with trusting another flawed human being, I kept the burgeoning feelings to myself. It wasn’t until she offered me socks that I realized I was in love with her.
CONSCIOUSLY LIBERAL | On Monetary Policy for the People
By The Cornell Daily Sun
In conjunction with low interest rates, the cash for trash program, or quantitative easing (QE), has led to inflation in asset prices, including housing. In exchange for toxic assets and treasury bonds, QE was supposed to flood banks with cash in order to encourage lending and thus stimulate growth.
TRAVELIN’ WITH JACQUELINE | Niagara Falls
By Jacqueline Quach
I didn’t expect to be so excited about living on West Campus this year, but boy, am I enjoying its perks! This past Saturday, August 27, two charter bus-fulls of us West Campus students went to Niagara Falls for a ridiculously low price of $15 each(price of transportation, boat tickets and breakfast included).
Kravitz’s Korner | Keep the Cornell Plantations Name
By Evan Kravitz
Recently, The University of Chicago notified first-year students that it does not support trigger warnings or safe spaces, going against the current trend in a higher-education system that has been characterized by suppression of uncomfortable ideas. But just when it seemed that the tides had started to turn, Cornell University doubled down on the coddling culture that has consumed American campuses by capitulating to the demands of certain students, with the director of the Cornell Plantations, Christopher Dunn, announcing that he will be recommending the Board of Trustees to rename the Cornell Plantations to the Cornell Botanic Gardens.
THE E’ER INSCRUTABLE | Fimbulwinter
By Griffin Smith-Nichols
The wind was more energetic, rowdier than it should have been. Perhaps I merely wanted the place to be completely silent.
THE PERSONAL IS POLITICAL | Hey, Stanford! “Alcohol Culture” Isn’t the Problem. Rape Culture Is.
By Johnna Margalotti
In the wake of the recent and infamous Brock Turner case, Stanford University has responded with a new policy to combat sexual assault on their campus. Sexual assault is one of the foremost threats to student safety on college campuses across the nation, affecting one in five women and one in 16 men as of 2015.
Nobody’s Opinions | Trump’s Candidacy: Fact, Fiction or Fraud?
By Bruno Avritzer
Most people have probably imagined being the POTUS at some point. Fewer people have imagined their best friend as president, fewer still their business associate, and most have probably not considered actually running for the office themselves.
POLITICS & STUFF | Asian-Americans and #BlackLivesMatter
By Amanda Xu
As the consequences of racial inequality take center stage in US politics, America again uncovers its divisions across racial identities. From the abolitionist movement to the Civil Rights Movement, the fight for black liberation has been passed to the modern #BlackLivesMatter movement.
MANGA MONDAYS | Re: ZERO – Starting a Blog in Another Semester
By Michael Mauer
Welcome back to Manga Mondays. As you can see, not much has changed here.
ON MY MIND | Wake Up Mr. Kim: On Asians Who Say the N-word
By Jeremiah Kim
Hello! Today I want to talk about why it’s not okay for non-black people of color – specifically Asian and Pacific Americans – to say the N-word.
MANGA MONDAYS | Anime and Rural Japan
By Michael Mauer
I recently watched Only Yesterday at the Cornell Cinema (highly recommend it!) and the show really got me thinking about the role of rural settings in Japanese popular culture. Note that I didn’t just say anime there!
BLOGGIN’ IN ALL CAPS | Your #MCM Thinks This is Deep
By Becky Suh
We all have at least one friend –usually from high school –who thinks they are “deep” for posting pictures of maudlin statements like, “sleep doesn’t help if it’s your soul that’s tired,” in Helvetica on a white background with the Valencia filter on Instagram or Twenty-One Pilots lyrics on FaceBook. The people who typically pull this kind of sh*t are the ones that tell you that they are “different” from other guys or the girls that are constantly reminding you that they are “like, super weird.” Characterized by technological literacy, pessimism and melodrama, they are the archetypal members of what Noreena Hertz calls Generation K.
What does the K stand for?
MOHAPATRA | What’s in an opinion?
By Tanisha Mohapatra
Having devoted the better part of my free time to social media (and not proudly so), it has been remarkable to witness the transformation in the kind of material that crops up in my feed. There have been tangible shifts, to the extent that everyone I know seems to have become a political activist at some level.
WATCH ME IF YOU CAN | Hollywood and the Blacklist
By Marina Watts
The 2015 biopic Trumbo depicts the struggle that many screenwriters faced during the Red Scare. Dalton Trumbo (played by Bryan Cranston), along with nine other screenwriters, was tried and charged for contempt of Congress under the accusation of writing films promoting anti-American ideals.
GOOD TASTE ALONE | Sotwatdriaba
By Sarah Chandler
I’m going to be serious about something for one second. Okay, done.
POP CULTURE, POLITICS AND PERCEPTION | The Mythical Now
By Sarah Palmer
The mythical demigod Theseus is a testament to the heroic ideal of the ancient Greeks. King of the Athenians, his mythical slaying of the minotaur is still present in the western cultural narrative.
THE E’ER INSCRUTABLE | 1916 Annus Fructus Extranei: Lynching and America’s Blood Theatre
By Griffin Smith-Nichols
“The chief failing of the day with some of our well-meaning philanthropists is their absolute refusal to face inevitable facts, if such facts appear cruel.” -Madison Grant, The Passing of the Great Race
As a prelude to his article, the second of my series on tumult and upheaval in 1916, I must warn any potential reader that the content may be distressing to those sensitive to racism and violence. I would advise discretion.
MARY’S MUSINGS | Be You, Be Happy
By Mary Burgett
Being happy isn’t something that others can do for you; it’s something that you need to find for yourself. Sometimes, or maybe too often, happiness is a battle.
WELCOME TO THE ZOO | Trump
By Katie Barlow and Rebecca Saber
With an open mind and two sides of the story, you’re bound to learn something new. Welcome to the zoo!
EDITATION | Kill Your Ego, Free Your Soul
By Eddie Dreyer
Do you feel weighed down by stress? Do you ever get lost in thought for long periods of time?
THE PSEUDOSCIENTIST | The Group Chat: Redefining Friendship One Message at a Time
By Charles Yu
While reading through my group chat notifications the other day, I noticed a little scuffle building in one of the groups chats that I was in: What had begun with a playful changing around of group nicknames soon escalated to personal jabs at different group members and real life drama. And at this I scoffed.
TALK IS CHIC | Fashion Forward or Fashion Backward
By Greta Ohaus and Eleni Toubanos
Cuddling in Eleni’s queen sized bed recounting a fun evening, we began discussing our lack of photo documentation this year. By the time you reach senior year, is taking a #selfie in your novel mixer costume lame/sad/pathetic/overdone?
WHITE KNUCKLES | Spell it Right
By Emma Ianni
Starbucks never gets my name wrong: bold and thick, the four letters written with the sharpie mark my Cinnamon Chai Latte with comforting exactitude. My mother hated her name, could not bear the length of it, the excessive r’s and the harshness of the t, or maybe because of the fact that it was two names stitched together.
DAYS OF OUR LIVES | Chemistry
By Brian Guo
In my first year of college, I made the misstep of taking class at the ungodly hour of 8:00 a.m. Against all advice, I, the beaming young student, was eager to tackle the demons of chemistry in the wee hours of the morning. The folly of my decision would soon become apparent through sleepless nights of composing reports and balancing equations, but for the moment I possessed an unrelenting determination to succeed.
MOSKOWITZ | One Summer
By Hunter Moskowitz
One summer, I gutted the prickly bush that sat on the side of my driveway. I was much younger, but I can’t exactly remember when it happened.
MANGA MONDAYS | RWBY, Guns and Important Questions
By Michael Mauer
I’ve been meaning to write this post for quite some time now. Since about the middle of RWBY volume 3, in fact.
GROSKAUFMANIS | Not Like the Other Girls
By Jacqueline Groskaufmanis
Some forms of sexism are easier to detect than others. For instance, we automatically know that when a child is told that they “throw like a girl,” he or she is being insulted.
AKABAS | Bracketology: Who/What is winning 2016?
By Lev Akabas
There are many things that literally everyone on Earth hates, such as hangnails, hotels that charge for WiFi, late-2000s M. Night Shyamalan films, and that moment when you don’t check your phone for an hour and there are 257 unread messages from a single group chat when you come back. There aren’t many things that literally everyone on Earth loves, but one of those things is March Madness, the NCAA basketball tournament.
WATCH ME IF YOU CAN | So Meta: Movies about Movies
By Marina Caitlin Watts
Movies that walk you through how a movie is made give off a metatheatrical vibe. The Academy also happens to favor these kinds of film when choosing best picture.
GOOD TASTE ALONE | A Utilitarian Romance With Mankind
By Sarah Chandler
Buzzfeed, or some similar listicle oracle, recently informed me oh-so-helpfully of the top seventeen most romantic places to visit (I assume they meant with a partner and not just by yourself). Which, of course, got me thinking – what makes a place romantic?
COMMON SENSE | A Demagogue in our Midst
By Gunjan Hooja
I’m baffled. I’m appalled.
GLOBAL IMPACT | The Kurdish Federal Region
By Pulkit Kashyap
This Wednesday, representatives from the Democratic Union Party (also known as PYD) announced their intentions to declare a federal region in Northern Syria. This news came as the UN Peace Talks over Syria continued, and it is impactful because it may pose negative repercussions on the current ceasefire and diplomatic talks in Geneva.
GOD’S OLD PARTY | Made in God’s Image
By Andrew Shi
Everyone has something to say about Donald Trump. People tell me that Trump is winning because Americans are angry.
UGARTE | Trigger Warnings: Wrong place, Wrong Time
By Madeline Ugarte
Arbitrarily, the entire premise of college is to expand one’s knowledge of the world and gain new perspective, both of which can be inhibited without open, uncensored dialogue about controversial topics. While such topics can be difficult to digest for many individuals, certain provoking topics such as sexual assault, cancer and war are the brutal realities of the world in which we live.
THE MCEVOY MINUTE | Trumping Trump
By Emily McEvoy
Over the weekend, Republican candidate Donald Trump was forced to deal with increasingly negative publicity pointed at his primary campaign, as more moderate and “establishment” Republicans grow increasingly concerned about Trump’s likely nomination as their presidential candidate. Trump’s campaign continues to snag at every turn: within the past week, his rally in Chicago was cancelled due to clashes between protesters and supporters inside the venue, and his campaign manager was accused of grabbing a reporter from conservative news site Brietbart so hard that he left bruises on her arm.
MUKHERJEE | How Did a Year Go By?
By Chandreyee Mukherjee
As the months of March and April loom by, the hearts of students in India fill with dread, anxiety and terror. These months mark the peak of final exam season.
ITHACA A-LIVE | Irish Trad Tuesdays + 116 Cook
By Olivia Tice and Ailis Clyne
Ailis is writing solo this week! Today, I’m writing about two small musical events in Ithaca last week: Traditional Irish Music + $1 PBR Tuesdays at Ruloff’s and a Friday night gig at 116 Cook Street featuring Ithaca’s Modern Hut and Shore Acres Drive alongside New York’s Fraternal Twin and New Jersey’s Long Beard.
NDLOVU | Reflections on Consent
By Yvette Ndlovu
It’s especially scary when, on the front page of the news, there’s a mugshot of someone you frequently see in your dorm, the dining hall, parties or classes being charged with rape. My heart goes out to the courageous women who survived these ordeals and rightfully reported them.
KILLING TIME JOYOUSLY | Throwback – The Prince Who Turns Into A Frog
By Vicky Chou
When I went home for winter break and saw The Prince Who Turns Into A Frog broadcasting on television for the twentieth time since its first airing in 2005, I still felt the nostalgia that only certain dramas can evoke in me. The plot is quite cliché and unrealistic at times, but it is one of those classic dramas that unknowingly makes you accept the impossible for the hour that it broadcasts just so you can immerse yourself in the romantic fantasy of the drama.
STUDY BREAK | Un-hindering Happiness
By Joyce Lee
Life can be frustrating. Things don’t always go according to plan.
MANGA MONDAYS | Why Evangelion Hates You
By Michael Mauer
For those who haven’t met me in real life and those who haven’t read the blurb at the end of this blog, let me tell you a not-so-secret secret. I’m a huge fan of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
WHITE KNUCKLES | A Redbreast Robin can Save Us
By Emma Ianni
I’m a firm believer in the necessity of detachment. And by detachment I don’t mean disinterest, or selfishness or insensitivity.
WATCH ME IF YOU CAN | 25 Things You Probably didn’t Know about Citizen Kane
By Marina Caitlin Watts
Even though Citizen Kane is turning 75 this year and I LOVE keeping up with the number of things on the list with their age, I realize that 75 things about Kane would be lowkey obsessive, even for me. But how else could I honor the best film of the twentieth century (and perhaps all time) without going a bit berserk?
ITHACA A-LIVE | ChantiLoft
By Ailis Clyne and Olivia Tice
Olivia was unable to stay for the entire night soAilis will be writing this solo. Ithaca Underground organized yet another fun night of music in the Chanticleer loft space on February 29, a Monday night, featuring Winston Bongo of Ithaca, Shore Acres Drive of Ithaca, Stove of Connecticut and Pottymouth of Northampton, Mass.
NDLOVU | Highlights of Asia Night: The Journey 2016
By Yvette Ndlovu
What were you up to this weekend? Besides the occasional mini panic attack over prelim season (which has finally come upon us) and carefully planned procrastination schemes, which I will regret later this week, the highlight of my Saturday night was actually doing something constructive and worthwhile –attending “Asia Night: The Journey” hosted by Cornell Asian Pacific Islander Union’s (CAPSU) in Duffield Hall on March 5th from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. As a freshman, this was my first time attending this annual event dedicated to showcasing diverse Asian cultures.
WELCOME TO THE ZOO | Guantanamo Bay
By Katie Barlow and Rebecca Saber
With an open mind and two sides of the story, you’re bound to learn something new. Welcome to the zoo!
TALK IS CHIC | Talk(ing to Yourself) is Chic
By Eleni Toubanos
Should I buy these light-pink fringed stilettos? They’re sooooo pretty.
ITHACA A-LIVE | Cayuga’s Lodge X3
By Ailis Clyne and Olivia Tice
On March 5th, this past Saturday, Cayuga Lodge at 630 Stewart Avenue hosted yet another gig. The night featured Modern Hut of Ithaca, Marian McLaughlin – 3 piece experimental folk band of Baltimore, DC and Buffalo origins, and Cornell University’s own _____.
MOSKOWITZ | A Couple Grains of Sand
By Hunter Moskowitz
Every day, and every day for the last couple billions of the years, the sun has risen in the east and set in the west. Bright rays of light have shone over the horizon, reaching into dark chasms and turning earth, dark and damp from the night, into warmth and soft soil.
GOOD TASTE ALONE | Silver
By Sarah Chandler
Sometimes, I tell people my favorite color is silver and they retort, “Silver is not a color. It’s just a metallic gray.” Then I tell them my favorite planet is Pluto just to yank their chain.
Authors
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Coming Soon!
Check out the site!
By The Cornell Daily Sun
Welcome to the Cornell Sun’s new home: Sunspots. We’ll be filling this site with lots of stuff you want to read.
SUH | Schrödinger’s (T)CAT
By Becky Suh
I love the TCAT. When it comes on time, I think to myself, Cornell is great!
WATCH ME IF YOU CAN | The Shift from Character to Personality
By Marina Caitlin Watts
In the twentieth century dd even until today, the emphasis of character has been shifting to that of personality. It is seen everywhere, from the conception and implementation of social media involving major figures to plebeians of today.
READ MY MIND | Deep
By Zoe Kalos
No matter how hard I try, I’ll never be able to explain to you the intricacy of a razor. I don’t really want to, either.
BURGETT | My Bad Days
By Mary Burgett
You cannot understand unless you have gone through the pain. I wish no one did understand.
GOD’S OLD PARTY | I’m an Evangelical and I Don’t Support Donald Trump
By Andrew Shi
There was a time when the title of this piece stated the obvious (nonexistent) relationship between Donald Trump and evangelical Christians. To say it would be like declaring: “I’m a liberal, and I don’t support Fox News”.
THE E’ER INSCRUTABLE | 1916 Annus Rosae: W.B. Yeats and the Wind of Love and Hate
By Griffin Smith-Nichols
“I, too, await
The hour of thy great wind of love and hate. When shall the stars be blown about the sky,
Like the sparks blown out of a smithy, and die?
MUKHERJEE | Inner Child
By Chandreyee Mukherjee
Prelim season is officially back and we are all caught up in the midst ofassignments, problem sets, homework and the occasional fun night out. In thewhirlwind of all that work, the one thing I truly miss is the freedom of being a five-year-old child.
MUKHERJEE |Inner Child
By Chandreyee Mukherjee
Prelim season is officially back and we are all caught up in the midst ofassignments, problem sets, homework and the occasional fun night out. In thewhirlwind of all that work, the one thing I truly miss is the freedom of being a five-year-old child.
GROSKAUFMANIS | Gender, Politics and Punchlines
By Jacqueline Groskaufmanis
There’s an old riddle that goes like this:
A father and son have a car accident and are both badly hurt. They are both taken to separate hospitals.
GROSKAUFMANIS | Gender, Politics and Punchlines
By Jacqueline Groskaufmanis
There’s an old riddle that goes like this:
A father and son have a car accident and are both badly hurt. They are both taken to separate hospitals.
ITHACA-A-LIVE | Beyond the Basem*nt
By Olivia Tice
This past weekend we went beyond the basem*nt of Cayuga Lodge and Ithaca at large, for a show seven hours away in Portsmouth, NH: Animal Collective’s debut of their new album Painting With (2016). The show made the far drive one-hundred percent worth the gas guzzling.
MANGA MONDAYS | One Punch Man and Satire
By Michael Mauer
This week, I want to talk about the One Punch Man hype train, now that it’s had some time to slow down. But boy, what a ride it was.
STUDY BREAK | The Big Picture
By Joyce Lee
I’m all about appreciating the small things in life. The conversations.
WHITE KNUCKLES | Paprika and U-turns
By Emma Ianni
I dyed my hair today. For Christmas, I got one of those DIY hair dye packages, which contains dye that comes off after you wash your hair twice and provides the opportunity to change without the fear that comes with the sincere and courageous commitment to change.
WATCH ME IF YOU CAN | Midnight in Paris: faits amusants
By Marina Caitlin Watts
2011 saw the release of Woody Allen’s film Midnight in Paris. Viewers follow an American screenwriter Gil (Owen Wilson) as he wanders around Paris drunk one evening, gets transported to the 1920’s and grows infatuated with the famous figures he interacts with.
GOOD TASTE ALONE | A High Quality Post
By Sarah Chandler
It’s hard, in fiction, to write about writing. It’s hard to write about most creative enterprises, because if you write about a character who is a world-renowned contemporary poet, you’ll probably have to write about some of his or her poems. Maybe even include an excerpt.
PUTTING INTO FOCUS | Facebook’s Emotional Side
By Ashley Radparvar
Earlier this week, I was greeted by the recent changes Facebook made to its “Liking” platform. Rather than only seeing the familiar blue thumbs up, I was met with a plethora of options, ranging from like to happy to surprise to angry.
WELCOME TO THE ZOO | Death Penalty
By Katie Barlow and Rebecca Saber
With an open mind and two sides of the story, you’re bound to learn something new. Welcome to the zoo!
GLOBAL IMPACT |The Syrian Ceasefire
By Pulkit Kashyap
A big leap forward in the Syrian Civil War arrived this Tuesday with the Syrian Government’s agreement to the ceasefire detailed by America and Russia this past week. The ceasefire agreement should bring the conflict among the Assad Government, Syrian Kurds and moderate Syrian Opposition to a close, while leaving the battlefield open for continued attacks on Isis and al-Nusra.
POP CULTURE, POLITICS AND PERCEPTION |Chai Latte with a Shot of Morphine
By Sarah Palmer
I’m currently sitting in a Starbucks in Edinburgh, Scotland. Before I attract any sass for studying abroad and still going to Starbucks, I would like to say that familiarity can be a blessing and free WiFi is needed at times.
ITHACA A-LIVE | Basem*nt Beats pt. 2
By Olivia Tice and Ailis Clyne
Ailis here — Olivia couldn’t attend last weekend’s concert so I’ll be flying solo this week. Last Friday, Cayuga Lodge hosted yet another concert at their basem*nt venue.
TALK IS CHIC | There Are No Golden Rules, Only Chic Golden Mules.
By Eleni Toubanos and Greta Ohaus
GO: It’s weird when someone says to me, “That’s such a Greta outfit!” I think to myself, duh that’s why I am wearing it? But I also think, wait what is a Greta outfit?
THE MCEVOY MINUTE | The Rules of the Game
By Emily McEvoy
With a week to go until Super Tuesday, candidates from both parties are hoping to establish themselves as the solid frontrunners in the presidential primary campaign. Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton have won the most primaries and caucuses to date, and are leading in the number of delegates that will consequently vote for them at each party’s National Convention this summer.
Killing Time Joyously | To the Dearest Intruder
By Vicky Chou
In more ways than one, To The Dearest Intruder reminds me of The Fierce Wife, as both are Taiwanese dramas that revolve around the themes of family, love and the taboo of adultery. But while the former irritates me more than the latter in terms of the fake mustache of the male protagonist and many other little details regarding the actors and actresses – yes, I am an extremely judgmental person – I still find To The Dearest Intruder pretty intriguing.
MANGA MONDAYS | CGI: The Computers Are Taking Over
By Michael Mauer
First order of business: if you haven’t checked out Ajin yet (airing this season), then go watch the first episode to see what you think, especially if you
were a fan of Tokyo Ghoul or Parasyte (seriously, this main character is Kaneki and Shinichi all over again). At the very least, check out some GIFs, because my topic for this week is Ajin’s animation style.
MOSKOWITZ | Ithaca and Looking Out Again
By Hunter Moskowitz
This Saturday, the world began to melt. Rays of sunlight fell down from the sky, glistening and dancing upon the shining white snow. I decided to see for myself and went for a brief run on the trails that extend past campus and into the surrounding woods.
YU | An Elevator Ride
By Charles Yu
An elevator ride isn’t very long. Depending on the size of the building, from the time you hit the button to call the elevator until you walk out to your floor, you have what?
AKABAS | Top 10 Dunks from the 2016 NBA Slam Dunk Contest
By Lev Akabas
OnThursday, February 11th, over 1,000 scientists were credited with discovering the existence of gravitational waves. Two nights later, at the NBA Slam Dunk Contest, Aaron Gordon and Zach LaVine discovered that gravity doesn’t even exist at all.
WATCH ME IF YOU CAN | Shifting from the Vaudeville Aesthetic to Comic Realism
By Marina Caitlin Watts
As ideals changed in American society, trends in what Americans considered entertaining changed as well. A shift from a vaudevillian aesthetic to a narrative one of comic realism was necessary in order to sustain an audience.
GOOD TASTE ALONE | The Motivator
By Sarah Chandler
After a refreshing romp through The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, I had to ask myself why everyone doesn’t go around making up beautiful new words all the time. Then I logged onto Twitter.
READ MY MIND | It Started With A Whisper
By Zoe Kalos
It started with a whisper, that if that little extra fat disappeared from my body – from my stomach, from my thighs, from my arms, from my face – life might be just a little bit better. Then the whisper got a little louder.
GOD’S OLD PARTY | Why do Christians Support Ted Cruz?
By Andrew Shi
What a race it’s been for both parties. Ted Cruz won Iowa with 27.6 percent of all votes.
MARY’S MUSINGS | To Those Who Inspire Us
By Mary Burgett
Sometimes a person can change your life without even knowing how much they have impacted you. I want to talk about one such person who kept me calm as I was rushed to the emergency room with my arm bleeding and my body and dress splattered with red.
PUTTING IT INTO FOCUS | Let’s Do Ithaca Winter Right
By Ashley Radparvar
While the winter may seem intimidating, it shouldn’t force you to hide yourself in your room. Experience Ithaca’s glorious triumph, and be well while doing it.
GOOD TASTE ALONE | Spacebook
By Sarah Chandler
It’s the year 20-something-or-other. We’ve made contact with the aliens.
WHITE KNUCKLES | Why We Need Storms
By Emma Ianni
I spent Saturday in a most Italian way, with cappuccino in the morning – even though I prefer ginseng coffee.
WATCH ME IF YOU CAN | Hollywood vs. Television: A Brief History
By Marina Caitlin Watts
After World War II, many things changed in American culture. There was a chain reaction, from soldiers returning home to their families, to the baby boomer generation being born.
NDLOVU | Yvette’s Guide on How to Survive Winter Break in Ithaca
By Yvette Ndlovu
This leads me to step two of how to survive Ithaca – find a winter romance.
WELCOME TO THE ZOO | Military Spending
By Katie Barlow and Rebecca Saber
With an open mind and two sides of the story, you’re bound to learn something new. Welcome to the zoo!
POP CULTURE, POLITICS AND PERCEPTION | Unalienable Rights
By Sarah Palmer
While the writing paused, the world of politics and violence continued uninhibited by deadlines and winter breaks. So, what have we missed?
ITHACA A-LIVE | Sunday Underground
By Ailis Clyne and Olivia Tice
Welcome to our new blog: Ithaca A-Live. We’re Ailis Clyne and Olivia Tice, two Cornell Juniors and resident Cayuga Lodgers who love the shows in our basem*nt and around Ithaca so much that we’ve decided to share our experiences with the whole lot of y’all.
TALK IS CHIC | Beyonce Knows She’s That Bitch When She Causes All This Conversation
By Greta Ohaus and Eleni Toubanos
Like most of you, we also attempted to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday… Who played again?
MOSKOWITZ | Personal
By Hunter Moskowitz
The most visited art museum in the world is the Louvre; it amassed 9.3 million visitors in 2014. Among other European museums, such as the Orsay, Prado, British museums and even the Vatican, it is best known as a center of Western art and culture.
MANGA MONDAYS | Anime Romance 101: How to Harem
By Michael Mauer
When you think of a harem anime, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? I’d be willing to bet that, for most people, it’s something like Clannad (or maybe Moster Musume if you’re into that kind of thing).
KILLING TIME JOYOUSLY | What is Killing Time Joyously?
By Vicky Chou
As you may have noticed, I have finally given my blog a name – Killing Time Joyously. It definitely isn’t the best blog name out there, but I guess I am just really desperate to have one so this is what it’s going to be until I can think of a much more creative and meaningful name.
WATCH ME IF YOU CAN | Humble Beginnings: Cinema in America
By Marina Caitlin Watts
If not for the strong desire to assimilate into American culture, the film world would have struggled to launch itself. Immigrants came to America and found it easier to adopt these values instead of embracing their own culture.
THE E’ER INSCRUTABLE | 1916: Annus Miser and the Horse Without a Rider
By Griffin Smith-Nichols
1916, one hundred years on, is still considered the fulcrum upon which the fate of the European 20th century hung. As the surface of a pond agitates and ripples outward when a stone is thrown into its depths, so too did the fabric of Europe itself writhe and contort as the twin Furies of war and revolution waxed, their jaws grinding and their bat-like wings outstretched in horrid pride.
MARY’S MUSINGS | The Memories Will Never Fade
By Mary Burgett
I struggle to go to Cornell. It is an ongoing battle, and while I have made leaps and bounds, sometimes I can only wish that I had transferred.
GOD’S OLD PARTY | The Evangelical Vote
By Andrew Shi
This blog will follow the evangelical vote in the 2016 presidential election. I write about it because I am fascinated by the GOP field and the competition between its candidates to draw the blessing of the evangelical electorate.
MUKHERJEE | Where’d the Winter Go?
By Chandreyee Mukherjee
Gloomy gray skies, thick blankets of white snow and slippery roads —this description of Ithaca winters was reiterated to me multiple times before I stepped on the plane headed to Cornell. In fact, the entire winter break, I spent half my time getting mentally prepared to come back to a cold land where my best friends would be a coat, gloves and cap.
MANGA MONDAYS | The Winter 2016 Hype Train
By Michael Mauer
I’ve written posts like this one for the last few seasons, so I figure I ought to keep up with the trend. Of course, I’ve also been horribly wrong about the things Isay in them and had to post revisions to my hype train.
PUTTING IT INTO FOCUS | Eight Things I Learned During My First Semester
By Ashley Radparvar
By ASHLEY RADPARVAR
It seems like it was just yesterday when I moved into my tiny dorm room on North Campus and started what would be the best four years of my life. Everyone has had that moment of excitement their first few months here — meeting new people, learning from amazing professors, enjoying the gorgeous campus around you.
DENG | Despite Everything
By Sophia Deng
By SOPHIA DENG
I lay in bed this morning, wincing slightly as I gingerly poked at a red welt that seemed to have grown overnight. I threw aside the sheets and shuffled slowly to the bathroom and gazed at the mirror for a minute.
YU | Going Home
By Charles Yu
By CHARLES YU
Like many others this winter break, I will be embarking on the exciting yet frightful journey that is returning home for the first time after coming to college. It’s been almost four months since I last stepped foot in my home in sunny Palo Alto, California, leaving it for the freezing and desolate wasteland (or at least that’s what my parents think it to be) otherwise known as Ithaca, New York.
POP CULTURE, POLITICS AND PERCEPTION | Paris est une fête
By Sarah Palmer
By SARAH PALMER
The attacks of November 13 seemed to strike at the very heart of Parisian culture. The violence left France trying to capture and secure its cultural values.
GOOD TASTE ALONE | The End of the World
By Sarah Chandler
By SARAH CHANDLER
It’s the last day of publication and, as with birthdays, first and last days of school, moving days and other era-markers, I find myself gripped by the anticlimactic. (Which may come as a surprise considering that I just began a clause with “I find myself,” and if that isn’t an indicator of a flair for the dramatic and climactic — even where it doesn’t exist — I don’t know what is.) Most people seem to feel this way, myself included.
MEDIA STOMP | A Brief Look at Superhero Films Part 2: A Flood of Tights
By Mark Kasvin
By MARK KASVIN
In my last post, I went over the relatively brief history of superhero films starting with the 1974 release of Superman. Now, keep in mind that superhero films had been relatively successful before 2008.
WATCH ME IF YOU CAN | December Finals As Told by HIMYM
By Marina Watts
By MARINA CAITLIN WATTS
After the tease of a Thanksgiving break,
Classes for the fall semester have finally ended.
Time to get your party on!
You only have so much more time here until you can go home.
But first, FINALS.
HERMAN | Senior Year Reflections
By Heather Herman
By HEATHER HERMAN
My blog for The Daily Sun centers on activism. Responses from any degree of the spectrum, either support or disagreement, are equally rewarding because any stance sparks the conversation necessary to incite change – change in perspective and ultimately change in reality.
GUEST BLOG | An International Student’s Plight
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By YVETTE NDLOVU
“Wow, you speak really good English. Did you learn it over there?”
Me thinks: “Why shouldn’t I?
SHEN | Tradition and Modernism
By Zhao Shen
By ZHAO SHEN
I recently participated in a discussion on a forum for composers where one person ridiculed the trailer music for the new Star Wars movie, especially focusing on how irreverent it was to force John Williams’s beautifully orchestrated themes for the original films into the modern trailer music formula. This sparked quite the debate.
TALK IS CHIC | We’re Making a (Guest) List and Checking it Twice
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By GRETA OHAUS and ELENI TOUBANOS
From mid-December to New Year’s Day, we all find ourselves attending dinner parties, ugly sweater parties, awkward office parties, awkward family gatherings, cookie exchanges, secret Santa reveals, Santacons and fancy galas with chic after parties (okay, not everyone, but two girls can dream). With the holiday (and party) spirit in mind, we end up answering the age old question, “If you could invite any historical or fictional figure that has ever existed to a party at your apartment who would it be?”
ET: The O.G. queen (literally) of glitter and glamour to me is Cleopatra.
MANGA MONDAYS | All According to Keikaku
By Michael Mauer
By MICHAEL MAUER
Translator’s note: keikaku means plan. For those of you who didn’t scroll past this post due to the awful meme in the title, thanks for bearing with me.
CHOU | What the Pineapple!
By Vicky Chou
By VICKY CHOU
Two weeks ago, I blogged about how I was distracted from my studies because of the drama that I was watching. Today, I am going to blog about how I am – again – distracted from my studies, but this time because of a certain YouTube channel a K-pop idol created.
GUEST BLOG | Gratefulness and Thankfulness
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By MEREDITH CHAGARES
It is November and if you are reading this, you are likely feeling the same emotions as me and everyone else on campus. You are feeling the pressure of a semester coming to an end followed by the inevitable grind of finals.
DAVIS | The Weaponization of Safe Space
By adamdavis
By ADAM DAVIS
In the news lately, we have witnessed the rise of a political movement based not on facts and logical demands, but emotion. Some members of this movement certainly have noble intentions: they seek to “protect” those they deem “vulnerable.” But they have chosen to do this in a way which infringes on the freedom of others, all in the name of creating a “safe space” for themselves and others like them.
MANGA MONDAYS | Gateway Drugs
By Michael Mauer
By MICHAEL MAUER
To everyone guessing that this post is about G.A.T.E., please give me some credit. I promise I can make jokes besides cheap puns … sometimes.
MEDIA STOMP | A Brief Look at Superhero Films Part 1: Tights Through the Ages
By Mark Kasvin
By MARK KASVIN
There is no question that superheroes are massively in vogue right now, especially in cinema. Recent years have seen a staggering influx of larger-than-life characters in costumes go up against bad guys in these huge multi-million-dollar spectaculars made by enough set and post-production crew members to fill a small town.
GOOD TASTE ALONE | A Case of the Mondays
By Sarah Chandler
By SARAH CHANDLER
In one of my hourly wait-what-day-is-it attacks, I was struck by the fact that I only know what day it is because I’m constantly figuring out what day it is. Which I know sounds a little bit redundant.
PUTTING IT INTO FOCUS | Eight Tips for a Stress-Free Day
By Ashley Radparvar
By ASHLEY RADPARVAR
Having a stress free day is not the easiest of tasks to accomplish. Whether you are studying for prelims, finishing work or running from building to building, everyday can be a stressful one.
HERMAN | Paris
By Heather Herman
By HEATHER HERMAN
How do you determine whose life is worth more? This past week, the globe erupted in outrage over the terrorism in France.
GUEST BLOG | Hypocrisy of SJP and BDS
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By EVAN KRAVITZ
A couple weeks ago, the Facebook group “Cornell University Confessions” posted a confession that criticized Cornell’s decision to partner with the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology, and called for the divestment from Israel. Upon seeing this, I was disgusted to say the least.
COMMON SENSE | Not All Muslims Are Terrorists
By Gunjan Hooja
By GUNJAN HOOJA
Not all Muslims are terrorists. Why does this even have to be said?
GUEST BLOG | Let’s Get Coffee, Cornell
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By ANDREW SHI
On this small stub of a hill in the middle of nowhere, the life of the mind teems with activity. Pause and consider that at this moment, 14,000 of ours peers are navigating a hive of courses, clubs, research, jobs and opportunities that are as fascinating as they are diverse.
SHEN | The Hype Train
By Zhao Shen
By ZHAO SHEN
Star Wars: The Force Awakens. A cinematic juggernaut to be sure, and one that is the source of an insane amount of anticipation this holiday season.
WELCOME TO THE ZOO | Climate Change
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By KATIE BARLOW and REBECCA SABER
With an open mind and two sides of the story, you’re bound to learn something new. Welcome to the zoo!
POP CULTURE, POLITICS AND PERCEPTION | Paris Sera Toujours Paris
By Sarah Palmer
By SARAH PALMER
This Friday, Colgate came to Cornell’s Lynah Rink for a fast-paced men’s hockey game. The freshmen continued to deliver, which paints a positive picture for the future.
REMEMBER THE LADIES | Fostering a Better Feminism
By Jennifer Mandelblatt
By JENNIFER MANDELBLATT
I was asked recently, “Why do you identify as a feminist?” And for a few moments, I didn’t have an answer. When I came to Cornell, it was the first time I really started to understand the purpose and value of feminism and then share that purpose and value publicly.
TALK IS CHIC | Drink and Dress Pairing 101
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By GRETA OHAUS and ELENI TOUBANOS
A week from now many Cornell students will be leaving for Thanksgiving break. For most of us that means a relaxing day of family, food and wine.
YU | Seeking Comfort in Rituals
By Charles Yu
By CHARLES YU
My roommate commented the other day that he’d been picking up on a little pattern of mine in my weekly routine: Tuesday and Thursday afternoons I return to the room after lunch, set an alarm and immediately pass out on my bed. When the alarm sounds, I reach over to check my phone.
THE DAPPER MAN | From the Screen
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By JEFFREY BREUER
Inspiration can be a powerful driving force, leading us to take risks we thought we couldn’t deliver on. When we walk down Ho Plaza on a brisk Monday morning or watch television shows and films, we see people who “pull off” outfits, haircuts or even attitudes that we ourselves wish we could replicate.
MANGA MONDAYS | Attack of the Moeblob
By Michael Mauer
By MICHAEL MAUER
A few days ago I watched a few episodes of a show called Anime de Training! Ex.
CHOU | Recent Addiction: High Society
By Vicky Chou
By VICKY CHOU
Korean dramas can be really addicting – I know that for a fact. Which is why I do my best not to start a new series unless it is the beginning or end of the school year, when the amount of time I spend watching the series and daydreaming about what is going to happen next is not that harmful to my studies.
MOSKOWITZ | Versace
By Hunter Moskowitz
By HUNTER MOSKOWITZ
All day long, traversing up the endless hills of Cornell, talking with people over a meal, reading pages of some book whose title I will forget, I hear these words: “Versace, Versace, Versace.” They are the words of some song. It’s a stupid song, I think.
WATCH ME IF YOU CAN | Cinematic Voyeurism
By Marina Watts
By MARINA CAITLIN WATTS
Recently, I have finally come to accept the fact that I am addicted to people-watching. From viewing the great migrations to the Jurassic Park score (I mean, students commuting in between classes) to sitting in my dorm and watching everyone shuffle from place to place from far above, there is some therapeutic aspect to it that I enjoy.
DENG | On “Belonging”
By Sophia Deng
By SOPHIA DENG
I find myself conflicted whenever I hear the word “belonging.” For a while, it used to conjure images of happy, fail-proof friend groups.
GOOD TASTE ALONE | Talk
By Sarah Chandler
By SARAH CHANDLER
We need to talk about talking about not talking about stuff. We often talk about not talking about stuff.
AUDACIOUS | Censorship and Criticism
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By SUTHESHNA MANI
Ever since Donald Trump’s public endorsem*nt of his candidacy in the 2016 Presidential elections, there hasn’t been a phrase that I have heard more often than “PC.”
PC, which stands for “politically correct” is the term used to describe language, rhetoric or actions that are not intended to offend specific groups of people, particularly disadvantaged groups. In recent years however, it has been used as a pejorative term to describe trigger-happy, thin-skinned, bleeding heart liberals who can’t take a joke.
MOHAPATRA | Tea-Lights and Good Faith
By Tanisha Mohapatra
By TANISHA MOHAPATRA
Back in India, the air is freshly recuperating from the Diwali crackers. Half the globe across, I filled up my dorm room with tea-lights and sipped my pathetic rendition of masala chai to cope with being far from home at this time of the year.
MARY’S MUSINGS | My Elephant
By Mary Burgett
By MARY BURGETT
Last Wednesday I gave a speech at the Every1 Campaign’s event, Cornell Cares. I talked about what happened to me: the sexual assault, my suicide attempt and my traumatic brain injury.
GUEST BLOG | Where Are You From?
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By RENE TSUKAWAKI
I cannot count the number of times I have been asked the question “Where are you from?” It’s a seemingly innocent question, one that’s in the list of questions people ask the first time they meet someone; along with “What’s your name?”, “Where are you from?” is a reasonable question to ask a stranger since both the question and the answer are simple and straightforward. Except they’re not.
THE E’ER INSCRUTABLE | The Weeping Meister: Stefan George and the Death of Maximilien Kronberger
By Hunter Moskowitz
By GRIFFIN SMITH-NICHOLS
In a photo dated 1904, the German poet, translator par excellence of Shakespeare and Baudelaire and consummate “aesthetic fundamentalist” Stefan George poses with glowering magnetism in the midst of a spindly crop of German youths, as he was wont to do. This was an early incarnation of the later-dubbed “George-Kreis,” an inner circle of Philhellenists, Renaissance men and introspective esthetes which included the von Stauffenberg brothers, the future would-be assassins of Hitler and which fascinated and perplexed some of the highest names in German literature: Rilke, Thomas Mann and others all met (and occasionally sparred) with George and his acolytes.
GUEST BLOG | The Sanctuary
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By TINA HE
A legend says that if a couple walks around the entire perimeter of Beebe Lake while holding hands, the two are destined to be engaged. It’s 7:00 and I am sliding my feet into my sneakers.
EMOTIONALLY STUNTIN’ | A Bad Depression Day
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By REBECCA KRUGER
Wake up two hours later than intended because in a fun ironic twist, while getting high to forget about how much you hate living, you forgot to set your alarm. Stare at the ceiling for approximately 30 minutes.
MUKHERJEE | Brace Yourselves… Prelims Are Coming
By Chandreyee Mukherjee
By CHANDREYEE MUKHERJEE
Now, let me begin this post with a confession — during the first two weeks of college, I found Cornell easy. I remember sitting in my dorm room and wondering what was so difficult about university that it made everybody crib and complain about the workload and the sleepless nights?
LIBERALLY BLONDE | Movie Ratings and Trigger Warnings
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By KAYLEIGH RUBIN
The familiar green screen and white lettering precede each movie trailer. Before the main attraction can scroll across the screen, the designated rating and following justification first greet the audience.
GROSKAUFMANIS | How Social Media Immortalizes Mistakes
By Jacqueline Groskaufmanis
By JACQUELINE GROSKAUFMANIS
It’s important to make mistakes. I know this from quotes, proverbs, seasoned elders and my own experience.
STUDY BREAK | Helpful Ways to De-Stress
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By JOYCE LEE
Whether you’re young or old, you’ve probably dealt with stress. Some days, college seems to make my stress level go through the roof.
DAVIS | Journalists Against the University
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By ADAM DAVIS
By now, Cornell’s most recent Fox News incident is old news. Jesse Watters and his camera crew came, recorded some ambush interviews of students and cut and pasted a segment together to support their foregone conclusion: that Cornell as an institution is a hotbed of some sort of thought-crushing “liberal indoctrination.”
Many people will also remember Cornell’s last brush with right-wing pseudo-journalism, when an undercover “reporter” from Project Veritas (an organization with less journalistic credibility than Fox News) pulled off his own feat of ambush journalism to make it appear that Cornell would welcome a group which materially supported ISIS.
MANGA MONDAYS | Remember When 4-Chan Made a Visual Novel?
By Michael Mauer
By MICHAEL MAUER
I’m not going to lie; a large part of my motivation for this post is to get people to play Katawa Shoujo. With good reason, I’d like to add.
GOOD TASTE ALONE | Please Don’t Read My Blog
By Sarah Chandler
By SARAH CHANDLER
An open letter from myself and my generation as we discover ourselves:
Please don’t read my blog. I’m in the midst of an ill-fated attempt to make a distinctive impact on the digital world and any interference would significantly impede my ability to humble-brag about my accomplishments to middle-aged aunts and uncles who think a blog is something you’re commissioned to produce, like a biography or a portrait.
WELCOME TO THE ZOO | English as the National Language
By Rebecca Saber
By KATIE BARLOW and REBECCA SABER
With an open mind and two sides of the story, you’re bound to learn something new. Welcome to the zoo!
HERMAN | Failing the Children
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By HEATHER HERMAN
Often when I return from a night teaching at Auburn Correctional Facility, I’m caught raving about my students for their intelligence, wit and insightful comments. This semester, I’m a TA for an English class through CPEP (Cornell Prison Education Program).
GUEST BLOG | Virgins and Ghosts!
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By YVETTE NDLOVU
They say you never forget your first! My experience consisted of waiting in the cold for an hour to get into a Haunted House (shout out to the guy in the line dressed up as the Fox News Reporter: you know, the one who had a lot of nasty stuff to say about Cornell the other day), theatrical make-up, masks, lots of laughter and very few worries about prelims. Though if the Haunted House had prelims, grades and finals jumping out at me, I would have found it a lot scarier!
GUEST BLOG | Losing My Wallet
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By EMMA IANNI
On my way to my first semester at Cornell, I lost my wallet at the Port Authority bus station in New York City. I only realized afterward it was gone as I was rummaging in my purse and I couldn’t breathe — my hands suddenly turned cold.
POP CULTURE, POLITICS AND PERCEPTION | Importing Hate
By Sarah Palmer
By SARAH PALMER
I do not pretend to be an expert in international politics. I’m writing for a college blog, not The New York Times.
GOLDMAN | Education on Hold
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By JESSICA GOLDMAN
I overheard a friend who is pursuing a pre-med education talking about her schedule the other day. “I can tell you everything that’s going on inside this leaf,” she said to the young men sitting next to her, “but ask me anything about personal finances, and I’d blank completely.”
It’s unfortunate that college students today are forced to base their schedules on inflexible requirements that deem them worthy of the their prestigious diploma only once completed.
TALK IS CHIC | The (Big Red) Bear Necessities
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By GRETA OHAUS and ELENI TOUBANOS
As we sit outside CTB on an unseasonably warm November morning drowsy from course enroll, conversing is as difficult as our hike up Cook Street. After some sustenance our discussion transitions from straight-up talking about the weather to defining Greta’s ideal temperature (in fashion terms, of course).
SHEN | The Best Time of Year
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By ZHAO SHEN
October was a good month. Despite my personal distaste for the sudden proliferation of pumpkin spice lattes and pumpkin-flavored Oreos and pumpkin pies and pumpkin everything, it’s a great time of year, especially on campus.
THE DAPPER MAN | Date Night
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By JEFFREY BREUER
Being a good date is all about confidence. Whether you’re out with your partner or someone you might be meeting for the very first time, it is crucial that you dress the part.
MANGA MONDAYS | Better Than Expected
By Michael Mauer
By MICHAEL MAUER
A few weeks ago I wrote a post coveringthis season’s anime and what I thought looked good. My overall impression basically boiled down to “It’s all sequels plus a few interesting shows.
MOSKOWITZ | ISIS and the Power of the Past
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By HUNTER MOSKOWITZ
For the past couple of years, ISIS has been deemed “medieval,” a return to “barbarism” and even apocalyptic in the American discourse. There has been a concerted effort among members of the Western media to paint the actions of ISIS as those of the past, stuck in a static universe.
WATCH ME IF YOU CAN | Why the Marx Brothers Worked
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By MARINA CAITLIN WATTS
In a time where genres and comedic styles were shifting, it became difficult for entertainers to remain popular. But not for the Marx Brothers.
AUDACIOUS | How to Ithaca: A Californian’s Guide to Winter
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By SUTHESHNA MANI
So October 18th on Sunday morning I wake up, put on a nice sweat shirt and mosey outside and all of sudden… Why is there cocaine coming out from the sky?
GOOD TASTE ALONE | #fountainofyouth
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By SARAH CHANDLER
“It is good taste, and good taste alone, that possesses the power to sterilize and is always the first handicap to any creative functioning.” – Salvador Dali
Whether you call it innocence or immaturity, there seems to have always been a place for lightheartedness, exhilarating naiveté and all of the other pleasures of youth, even if that place is in an admonition along the lines of, “This is no place for behavior like that.” Our youth is perhaps the most integral part of who we are, because even after we have “surpassed” it, it remains the foundation of whatever we become, as well as perpetual fodder for whimsy and nostalgia.
DENG | More Than Just a Scare
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By SOPHIA DENG
“Look.” My friend stood transfixed in front of a hallway, beckoning me to come forward. I peered cautiously into the darkness, spooked by the flickering red light that emanated from an Exit sign that seemed to hover in the air.
GUEST BLOG | On Meeting New People
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By MEREDITH CHAGARES
Coming to Cornell as a freshman this fall, I knew that I was going to have a transformative, once in a lifetime experience. What I was perhaps most excited for was meeting new people.
THE E’ER INSCRUTABLE | A Paean to Diogenes of Sinope
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By GRIFFIN SMITH-NICHOLS
“Le fanatisme en résulte, – tare capitale qui donne à l’homme le goût de l’efficacité, de la prophétie, de la terreur, – lèpre lyrique par laquelle il contamine les âmes, les soumet, les broie ou les exalte… N’y échappent que les sceptiques (ou les fainéants et les esthètes), parce qu’ils ne proposent rien, parce que – vrais bienfaiteurs de l’humanité – ils en détruisent les partis pris et en analysent le délire.” -Emil Cioran, Précis de Décomposition
Whenever I am asked the question of what precisely I want to accomplish with an interest in Greco-Roman Classics that I (hope to) pursue through my four years at Cornell, the nagging temptation in the back of my head is to respond with the concise declaration, “I want to live naked in a clay jar and eat nothing but octopus,” as the Ur-Cynic Diogenes of Sinope did. Frivolity and my aversion to the venerated hermit’s famous love of cold baths and the mollusk diet regime aside, I believe that one of the greatest, most salutary and yet utterly intangible influences of Hellenism can be found in his practiced self-abnegation and what James Warren dubbed an upfront “philosophy of protest.” Cornell can learn from him.
MARY’S MUSINGS | Falling
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By MARY BURGETT
I have already mentioned in my previous blogs how uncomfortable I was around guys; parties were not things that I handled well. I drank to be more comfortable around not only guys, but also strangers.
MOHAPATRA | Headless Chicken
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By TANISHA MOHAPATRA
At the end of my freshman year as I witnessed the Class of 2014 posing for graduation pictures on an overcrowded Libe Slope on a gorgeous afternoon on the eve of my 19th birthday, I found myself green. To be surrounded by some 3,000 people, a sizeable proportion of whom had found their calling, wounded me.
CHERNER | Halloweekend
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By RACHEL CHERNER
Halloween Weekend at Cornell. It’s better than Homecoming because instead of dressing up in all red outfits, you dress up in whatever you want!
EMOTIONALLY STUNTIN’ | Food Morals
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By REBECCA KRUGER
It is a brisk fall afternoon. I, exhausted, am plodding back to my dorm from my freshman writing seminar.
MUKHERJEE | The Onslaught of Winter
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By CHANDREYEE MUKHERJEE
Let me begin this post by stating the obvious — it is terribly cold outside. The windchill has ensured that my fingers feel like sticks of ice as opposed to parts of my body and my nose resembles Rudolph’s red one.
BARHYDT | Cornell Fitness Centers Should Be Free
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By JORDAN BARHYDT
Since last week marked the end of Cornell’s mental health awareness week, I’ve been thinking about an issue that has perplexed me for a long time: Cornell’s fitness centers. It’s widely agreed upon that exercise helps reduce stress, anxiety and other mental health issues.
LIBERALLY BLONDE | Privilege and Inequality
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By KAYLEIGH RUBIN
“Since many of you are from upper-middle class families, why care about inequality?”
In last week’s developmental sociology section, this question was asked of my discussion group. While it was a genuine question designed to invite discussion, it nonetheless struck a chord.
GROSKAUFMANIS | Retrospective Clarity
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By JACQUELINE GROSKAUFMANIS
I have 12 notebooks and thousands of stories, but only one meticulous system of journal keeping. When I was younger, I’d fill up diaries and leave them to marinate in their obsolescence.
THE MCEVOY MINUTE | How the Media Got Clinton’s Benghazi Testimony Wrong
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By EMILY MCEVOY
Last Thursday, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified before the House Select Committee on Benghazi – the eighth of its kind since the attacks on the Libyan diplomatic compound in 2012 that killed four Americans. Clinton had testified in front of the committee before, but due to new information and evidence – namely, the emails discovered on Clinton’s personal account that she used during her time as Secretary of State – she was called to the floor again, this time for an 11-hour hearing.
MANGA MONDAYS | OP, Please Nerf
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By MICHAEL MAUER
Anyone who’s played a MOBA has heard it. Most of us have said it too.
STUDY BREAK | Seven Tips for Making a Great To-Do List
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By JOYCE LEE
If I could shareone piece of advice when it comes to being productive, it would be to make a to-do list. Having a to-do list isn’t revolutionary by any means.
CHANDLER | Digiscernment
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By SARAH CHANDLER
Every Instagram like is unique and special, like a snowflake. They each have a different meaning, generate a different emotional response, correspond to a different level of social validation or, paradoxically, social tension.
MEDIA STOMP | Image Comics and the Ideal of Creator Ownership
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By MARK KASVIN
Marvel and DC books operate on the idea of a “shared universe” in which one title’s storyline can be affected (disrupted, some may argue) by that of another. The disappearance of several key characters in an issue of Uncanny X-men could be explained by their appearance in Guardians of the Galaxy, for example.
PUTTING IT INTO FOCUS | Technology, Meet Student
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By ASHLEY RADPARVAR
Memorization has been and is currently used as a learning mechanism for many students. While memorizing may be the rule for some topics, understanding is a major tool to gaining success.
DENG | Napkins Can Wait
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By SOPHIA DENG
Two a.m. in my bedroom: I was reading a post that described cold, rich ice cream sandwiched between two warm cookies, melting and oozing out in a sweet, sugary mess. Then I was reminded of tacos and how the plumpest ones spill out all the finger-licking glory as we bite into the tortilla.
COMMON SENSE | Paid Family Leave
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By GUNJAN HOOJA
It’s the U.S., Papua New Guinea and Oman, otherwise known as the cool kids club. These three are the only countries in the entire world with no paid maternity leave law.
TICE | Someone’s Grandma’s Wool Sweater
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By OLIVIA TICE
I have a love/hate relationship with shopping. I confess that I am one of those people whose ratio of what they actually wear to the total amount of clothing in their closet is astronomically uneven.
WELCOME TO THE ZOO | Voter ID Laws
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By KATIE BARLOW and REBECCA SABER
With an open mind and two sides of the story, you’re bound to learn something new. Welcome to the zoo!
POP CULTURE, POLITICS AND PERCEPTION | A Universal Crisis
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By SARAH PALMER
Here is the promised post on the European crisis. Europe is currently in the grips of the greatest immigration crisis since World War II.
REMEMBER THE LADIES | Women Can’t Be President
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By JENNIFER MANDELBLATT
“‘Not to be sexist, but… I can’t vote for the leader of the free world to be a woman, just because — every other position that exists, I think a woman could do well. But, the president?
GLOBAL IMPACT | Global Warming and War
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By PULKIT KASHYAP
For as long as I can remember, in my history classes we always focused on a few primary causes for war:
Religion
Hunger
Repression
Gain
As far as I know, these factors have been the impetus of most wars for the past few thousand years. However I now believe that global warming, as the Syrian Civil War has shown, is another important factor in the starting of wars.
LIBERALLY BLONDE | Israel
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By KAYLEIGH RUBIN
“Do you identify as Jewish or American?”
Over Fall Break, a relative asked me this question during a conversation concerning religion. This immediately puzzled me as I could not understand why the two identities would be – and were forced to be – mutually exclusive.
TALK IS CHIC | Something Borrowed
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By GRETA OHAUS and ELENI TOUBANOS
ET: I would say that roughly 60 percent of the time I’m wearing something that belongs to Greta. GO: I absolutely love when you borrow my clothes!
YU | Wake Up Sheeple!: How Internet Reviews Are Herding the Masses
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By CHARLES YU
Internet review culture has subtly turned us into perfectionists who must always have the best. The best what?
SHEN | New Stuff and Why It Matters
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By ZHAO SHEN
Time is such a weird thing. Am I the only one who feels like 2007 was only about three years ago?
CHOU | Big Bang “MADE” My Day
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By VICKY CHOU
For those of you who know what I’m referring to in the title of this blog, I don’t blame you for wanting to laugh at how corny it is. But for those of you who don’t, that’s okay because I am going to use this entire blog to talk about what it means.
MANGA MONDAYS | Endlessly Hating the Endless Eight
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By MICHAEL MAUER
That’s right, we’re talking Haruhi this week! I recently convinced a friend to watch the anime, and partially because of that and partially because I’m spending the majority of fall break in airports, I’m hoping to finally get a start on the Haruhi light novels that I’ve had sitting around staring at me disapprovingly from the shelf, saying “Read me you fool!
MOSKOWITZ | We All Lie
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By HUNTER MOSKOWITZ
We all lie. We all say “Nice to meet you” or “I’m good” or “I’m sorry” when we do not mean anything of those things.
KRUGER | Mental Health Treatment, Or Lack Thereof
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By REBECCA KRUGER
Today’s college students are part of a mentally ill generation. 33 percent of all college students have suffered a prolonged period of depression.
WATCH ME IF YOU CAN | That Marilyn Monroe Subway Picture, 60 Years Later
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By MARINA CAITLIN WATTS
The most iconic photo of Marilyn Monroe, and perhaps in cinematic history, is a still of her standing over a subway grate with her dress blown up from the passing train underneath; this image comes from the movie The Seven Year Itch. 60 years later, the picture stands the test of time.
CHANDLER | 13 Reasons Halloween is the Best Holiday
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By SARAH CHANDLER
It’s a time to be creative. Case in point: When you gut a pumpkin for decoration you can then toast his innards as a snack.
MOHAPATRA | Defining Home
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By TANISHA MOHAPATRA
When a new friend said he was homesick and looked at me, awaiting a response, I was a little perplexed as to how to react. I could listen to and talk about pretty much anything with anyone, but this had me on a tightrope.
GUEST BLOG | My Accent
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By EMMA IANNI
Sometimes I say “bitch” and it sounds like “beach,” or vice versa — a confusion of sand, waves and insults. Sometimes I turn a “ship” into a “sheep,” sometimes “sheet” sounds like something else.
MARY’S MUSINGS | Stuck in a Flashback
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By MARY BURGETT
I remember one bad night vividly during my fall semester in 2012. I went to dinner with some friends at a dining hall located in the building where I was assaulted.
THE E’ER INSCRUTABLE | Imagined Aryans and the Banality of History
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By GRIFFIN SMITH-NICHOLS
“I have in this war a burning private grudge… against that ruddy little ignoramus Adolf Hitler… [who is] ruining, perverting, misapplying, and making for ever accursed that noble northern spirit, a supreme contribution to Europe,” J.R.R. Tolkien, 1941. I quote Tolkien, fantasist extraordinaire but also, dearer to my heart, a Germanicist for all seasons, as an emblematic, obstructive sherd standing bravely against the brunt of the all-consuming juggernaut of a peculiarly National Socialist cultural fetish.
MEDIA STOMP | Down the Panel Hole: Five Gateway Comics
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By MARK KASVIN
Comics and games, once considered quite niche, are, as I have mentioned before, gradually opening up to wider audiences and becoming more accepted as part of what is considered to be “mainstream.” Thus, I feel it’s important to ease those unfamiliar into the media that have a reputation for being difficult to get into. I decided to come up with a quick list of five comics for those of you out there who have even the slightest interest in comics.
PUTTING IT INTO FOCUS | Coffee, Chocolate and Lattes, Oh My!
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By ASHLEY RADPARVAR
As I step into the brisk morning air that constitutes fall weather, I am acquainted with the rush of students hurrying to their classes, phone and coffee in hand. With a cup in my own hands, I realized just how compelled people are to drink caffeinated beverages every morning.
GROSKAUFMANIS | The Second Amendment
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By JACQUELINE GROSKAUFMANIS
Millions of words have been devoted to analyzing, defending and criticizing this country’s relationship to firearms and the ownership of them. But despite the directions that contemporary conversations take, these millions of words always seem to be at the mercy of only 27, otherwise known as the Second Amendment.
CHANDLER | An App for That
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By SARAH CHANDLER
We take a lot of things for granted in everyday life, but perhaps what we most take for granted is the fact that we take things for granted. For example, it’s pretty much a universal truth that there is an awkward stage between “It’s rude not to hold the door for someone” and “It would actually be an imposition to hold the door for someone.” Navigating these social situations can be tough, but we have resigned ourselves to dealing with them because we don’t really have a choice.
WELCOME TO THE ZOO | Concealed Carry on Campus
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By KATIE BARLOW and REBECCA SABER
With an open mind and two sides of the story, you’re bound to learn something new. Welcome to the zoo!
HERMAN | She Doesn’t Want Tea
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By HEATHER HERMAN
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM), intended to connect advocates nationwide and raise awareness for women and their children as victims of domestic violence. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV), “1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men have been victims of some form of physical violence by an intimate partner within their lifetime,” and “1 in 5 women and 1 in 71 men in the United States has been raped in their lifetime.”
The statistics are appalling, but the gravity and frequency of the issue hits home when you discover the reason your friend doesn’t go out anymore or upon learning why police shut down the frat party you attended last night.
GLOBAL IMPACT | Russia in Syria
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By PULKIT KASHYAP
A few weeks ago at a U.N. Summit, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin spoke to delegates from around the globe. His talk anchored itself heavily in the past.
POP CULTURE, POLITICS AND PERCEPTION | The American Affliction
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By SARAH PALMER
I was going to write about the crisis in Europe, but in the wake of the shooting in Oregon it seems wrong to write about anything else. Thursday morning I woke up, I went to class, I was tired as I sat through my 8:40, I went to section and dissected Virginia Woolf’s view on the impetus of violence.
TALK IS CHIC | Adventure is in Your Closet
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By GRETA OHAUS and ELENI TOUBANOS
ET: Greta and I really enjoy labeling our outfits with outlandish characters, scenarios or personalities. GO: For example, you’re dressed very “Brooklyn mom returning from Southeast Asia travels” today.
SHEN | The Perfect Paragraph
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By ZHAO SHEN
I’m that guy. The one who does his utmost to make his English paper’s first draft impeccable, and then makes a few tweaks and idles quietly when the final draft guidelines call for “substantial revisions.” The one who will spend as much time as necessary to browse Thesaurus.com for that word at the tip of his tongue, who will take a day-long break to mull things over but will never begin writing the next paragraph if he has any misgivings about the first.
THE DAPPER MAN | Better Boots
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By JEFFREY BREUER
Winters on the hill can be notoriously tough. For new students especially, the frigid temperatures and blankets of snow can come as quite a surprise.
MOSKOWITZ | Another Year, Another Fall
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By HUNTER MOSKOWITZ
The last couple of days in Ithaca have been pretty cold. It has reached the point where shorts and flip flops have become untenable and strolling outside into the morning air no longer feels warm and comforting.
CHOU | Fall into the Trap
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By VICKY CHOU
As a new blogger who plans to write about K-pop – if not about Chinese, Taiwanese and Japanese forms of entertainment as well – I thought it would be nice to tell you guys a bit about how I got into K-pop in the first place. After all, it amazes even myself that I have been intrigued by music of a foreign language for so many years and counting.
MANGA MONDAYS | All Aboard the Hype Train: Fall 2015
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By MICHAEL MAUER
Prelims are here, but so is the fall anime season! For a while I was wondering if I should actually post this during prelim season because I might distract some of my fellow nerds from studying.
WATCH ME IF YOU CAN | Films for Fall
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By MARINA CAITLIN WATTS
Leaves are starting to change color, breezes will soon feel bone-chilling as opposed to refreshing and everyone will shift from iced coffee to the hot variety. As autumn starts to consume our final summer days, here are a few films you can curl up to, especially with a cup of tea when it’s too rainy to go anywhere.
CHANDLER | A Résumé Life
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By SARAH CHANDLER
Rarely before college and certainly never before high school did I ever hear the term “résumé builder.” I can’t remember exactly, but I think a time might have existed long ago in which I wasn’t preoccupied with the “marketability” of each and every one of my actions (blogging for a school newspaper, attending Cornell, breathing, et cetera). It’s one of those things that you look back upon bemusedly, unable to pinpoint the precise instant at which your existence ceased to be your life and became your résumé.
DENG | Why I Draw
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By SOPHIA DENG
Wrinkled paper is a huge pet peeve of mine. In all other aspects, I am not that nitpicky.
AUDACIOUS | From Aztec to Cornellian
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By SUTHESHNA MANI
During my second year at San Diego State University, I applied to Cornell. I can’t really explain why or how I came to this decision, but I clicked the name on my Common Application, filled it out … and now I’m here.
GUEST BLOG | PostSecret: What Is It?
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By MADELEINE GALVIN
To kick off Mental Health Awareness Week, which takes place in the middle of next month, Frank Warren is visiting Cornell to speak about his movement: PostSecret. For all of those who are unaware (as I was just a few short weeks ago), Warren started this project in 2005 as a community mail art project.
OF WORDS AND WILL | I’m Just a Manuscript: Part Two
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By ALI JENKINS
“Nothing stinks like a pile of unpublished writing.” -Sylvia Plath
This week I’m continuing my overview of the book publishing industry. If you missed the beginning of the list, check out my last post.
BARHYDT | The Cost of Perfectionism
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By JORDAN BARHYDT
I was having some trouble coming up with a topic for my blog this week, but then it dawned on me that spending too much time making decisions like this is the biggest obstacle in the way of my creative process. It’s cheesy to start a post like this, I know, but it’s true.
MUKHERJEE | The Art of Battling Homesickness
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By CHANDREYEE MUKHERJEE
I don’t know about you, but I have definitely felt bouts of homesickness hit me in the face as I walk from class to class listening to music or while I study in one of the many libraries on campus. As my honeymoon phase at Cornell ends and the true pressure builds up, I’ve slowly but surely begun to remember the little things I used to take for granted back home — how the sunlight lit up my pale peach bedroom or the way I lounged on the chairs on my balcony on a sunny wintry morning with a blanket wrapped around me.
MARY’S MUSINGS | Why I Blamed Myself
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By MARY BURGETT
Let’s talk about blame. It sounds awful to say that I blamed myself for being sexually assaulted, but I did.
GOLDMAN | A Case for Miranda Hobbs
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By JESSICA GOLDMAN
Photo Courtesy of HBO
For most Sex and the City fans, Miranda Hobbes is the uptight party-pooper friend who cares too much about work. She’s the least sexualized of the four, sporting some hideous outfits, and, yes, even adult braces.
THE MCEVOY MINUTE | Bye, Bye Boehner
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By EMILY MCEVOY
The Speaker of the House of Representatives is undoubtedly one of the most powerful elected officials in our government and an integral member of his political party, tasked with ensuring that policies benefitting the majority party pass into legislation while preventing any opposing legislation from reaching the House floor for a vote. It is worth analyzing, then, what John Boehner’s (R-OH) recently announced resignation means for the future of the Republican Party and what it says about the dynamics of the 114th Congress of the United States.
LIBERALLY BLONDE | Planned Parenthood
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By KAYLEIGH RUBIN
Fury derived from deception, the call to defund Planned Parenthood is the conservative reaction to a series of stock footage and created scenes. With pro-life advocates and Congressmen urging a government shutdown based on a series of lies, it is time to examine the truth.
GROSKAUFMANIS | Hate Speech and the First Amendment
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By JACQUELINE GROSKAUFMANISLaw is interesting. I’ve always found it peculiar that the right to practice religion freely falls under the same amendment that defends the right to speak out against another’s religion.
STUDY BREAK | What I Love About Hawaii
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By JOYCE LEE
Eat, sleep, class, marching band practice, repeat. The first month of college seemed to fly by.
CHERNER | The Real Appeal of Homecoming
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By RACHEL CHERNER
I wish that Homecoming was about the game. Cornell is not a Big Ten school, so don’t be ashamed that you didn’t know we lost 19-14 to Bucknell.
DAVIS | Burger Flippers and What They Deserve
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By ADAM DAVIS
As the Fight For 15 movement has gained notoriety and momentum here in the U.S., it has predictably drawn some sharp criticism from right-wing circles. The wage demanded by the movement is clearly a drastic enough increase from the current $7.25 per hour federal minimum wage to shock people into forming strong opinions.
MANGA MONDAYS | Re: Naruto
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By MICHAEL MAUER
Photo Courtesy of Studio Pierrot
Before you ask, that title was a lame attempt at referencing Naruto’s 8th opening song, “Re: member,” by Flow. It’s an awesome song by an awesome band, so if you haven’t heard the song, listen now.
HABR | Third Culture Thoughts
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By KATY HABR
40,000 feet in the sky, I am floating, balancing, hanging. I am in between borders, continents, countries, lands.
CHANDLER | (The) Office Hours
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By SARAH CHANDLER
Just because prelim season is a time for testing doesn’t mean it’s not longer a time for learning. As told by The Office, here are just a few things we can learn from this most marvelous and preliminary of seasons.
HERMAN | Homelessness
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By HEATHER HERMAN
The first time I remember passing someone living on the streets, I was in middle school, heading to my father’s office to pick out a new winter coat from the fashion company he works for. There I was, on my way to spend my parents’ money on an expensive coat I probably didn’t need when we passed a homeless man.
GUEST BLOG | To a Father Who Lost His
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By TANISHA MOHAPATRA
A piece of short fiction
You always walked me to the playground – not too many times, but in my mind, those few times constitute “always.” I don’t quite remember how many counts “always” comprises, and most of the times we spent together are hazy anyway. But I remember you always walked me to the playground because that’s what I conditioned myself to remember.
TICE | Cartoons and Cereal: Rick and Morty
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By OLIVIA TICE
What could be better than eating cereal while watching cartoons on a Sunday morning? Here’s what: Eating cereal on a Sunday morning while watching a cartoon that directly references/totally comedically annihilates the very cereal you are eating.
PALMER | The Legacy of Student Activism
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By SARAH PALMER
When I entered the college sphere, I had no grandiose plans. I just wanted to survive.
TALK IS CHIC | Fashions Fade, Style and Friendship Are Eternal
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By GRETA OHAUS and ELENI TOUBANOS
Based on our mutual interests, match.com would — for a lack of a better word — “match” us in a second, but most Millenials would rather tinker with Tinder and I’m not so confident that we would have matched on this more superficial app. We were fortunate enough to meet in real life and run into each other frequently because of our shared major, Fiber Science and Apparel Design.
LIBERALLY BLONDE | Practice, Don’t Preach
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By KAYLEIGH RUBIN
50 years ago, Rosa Parks defied legal segregation by refusing to sit in the “colored” section of a Montgomery bus, becoming the first lady of civil rights. Two weeks ago, Kim Davis violated the Supreme Court’s opinion on gay marriage by refusing to issue marriage certificates to same sex couples and was consequently and is now being hailed as a martyr for religious freedom.
COMMON SENSE | Gun Control
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By GUNJAN HOOJA
I distinctly remember the day that the Sandy Hook Shooting happened. I was a senior in high school living in Stamford, Connecticut — barely an hour away from Newtown.
YU | Vulnerable, Yet Not Alone
By Charles Yu
By CHARLES YU
We’ve stigmatized the concept of “vulnerability,” and as a consequence, we have cast it as a mentally unwanted state among all other psychological ailments and malicious states of being. Ingrained in our speech and in our culture, it’s become a pejorative for weakness.
MOSKOWITZ | Reconnection
By Hunter Moskowitz
By HUNTER MOSKOWITZ
The first week of school this year, my laptop broke. Without it, I found myself spending an extraordinary time using my smartphone.
CHERNER | Winter Wear
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By RACHEL CHERNER
“Worried about the Ithaca winter?”
I am asked this weather-related inquiry more times than any other Cornell-Ivy-League-Academic-related question you could imagine. To answer, NO — I am not worried about the Ithaca winter because my Cornell acceptance letter wasn’t only a first class invitation to a world-renowned research university, but also an opportunity for an entirely new coat wardrobe.
MANGA MONDAYS | Romance Anime
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By MICHAEL MAUER
When you think of a romance anime, what comes to mind? Not in terms of favorite shows in the genre, but in terms of tropes and conventions.
CHOU | Got Work? I GOT7
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By VICKY CHOU
I have to admit – I have never actually finished watching the Harry Potter series in its entirety, let alone read all seven of the fantastical novels. For some unknown reason, I am simply unable to sit down in front of my computer or laptop for two or three hours straight and watch a movie, and not just Harry Potter movies, but all movies in general.
THE DAPPER MAN | Quick Tips for an Upgraded Look
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By JEFFREY BREUER
For many young men in college, dressing “well” is a thought that has never crossed their mind. A morning’s routine consists of not much more than throwing on a t-shirt and pants, paired with whichever shoes are closest nearby.
WATCH ME IF YOU CAN | Maybe American Hustle Wasn’t That Bad
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By MARINA CAITLIN WATTS
David O’Russell’s 2013 film American Hustle was probably the biggest disappointment of Oscar season that year. It garnered 10 nominations from the Academy and walked away with nothing that evening.
AUDACIOUS | The Problem With Political Parties
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By SUTHESHNA MANI
In the midst of debates, political banter and talks of which candidate we want as president, we once again face a nation politically polarized. The conservatives vs.
CHANDLER | In Defense of Not Knowing What You’re Talking About
By The Cornell Daily Sun
By SARAH CHANDLER
I sat down two minutes early for my 10:10 in a huff of barely concealed rage. Convinced that I would never figure out how long it takes for me to get from one place to another, I decided that I would just set up a lean-to on Central Campus to eliminate some of the disparity.
DENG | Remember Your Roots
By Sophia Deng
By SOPHIA DENG
Yesterday, I had one of my first spells of homesickness. It came as a surprise.
