Columns
The Vanishing Life of the Mind
Once upon a time the summer after senior year meant packing a Volkswagen and driving cross country with three of
On Listlessness
My friends have started making lists. Not the usual late-October variety: buy Thanksgiving ticket home, start attending Lit and Arts
The New Frontier
The time to pull the trigger on my life has finally arrived. I find myself deciding between working for five
What's Wrong With Final Clubs
Last week, with a Yard-based postering campaign calling on students to “Swat the Fly,” the Radcliffe Union of Students (RUS)
The Ideology of Our Enemies
We are not at war with Islam , we have been told repeatedly by pundits and preachers and the President
Banned Without a Cause?
What a shamefully discriminatory institution is the U.S. military! None can dispute the damning fact: our armed services continue to
Can't Buy Me Young Love
On Sunday The New York Times Magazine published an exploration of “Love in the 21st Century.” The Times covered all
A Cauldron of Empty Metaphors
Last Friday, under a perfect Cantabridgian sky (magically arranged, of course), academically distinguished men and women garbed in hooded, harlequin
The Media War
On the eve of the one-month anniversary of the World Trade Center attack, CNN.com ran a front-page headline that read,
They Doth Protest Too Much
We have little memory for weather, but Yardstick recalls that last Monday the climate was not conducive to protesting Columbus
Put Your Breast Foot Forward
As an English major and word-monger I was aghast when the my eyes skimmed over “Beauty and the Breast,” Glamour
Gulf Oil, By the Numbers
Since Sept. 11, a number of people, from both the right and the left, have suggested that the U.S. reduce
Citizen or CEO? Community or Corporation?
Is Harvard a company just like GM? Many of us would be dismayed by such a conception: students as consumers,
Debt Relief, Global Poverty and Larry Summers
(Warning to readers: the following columns opens with an over-the-top name drop. Forgive me. It does help the story.) t
Winning the War on Censorship
The war goes on. It is “every day, every night,” as President George W. Bush said, “unrelentingly.” Only we hear
From Hypocrisy to Humanity
Others have been touched by American flags. By candlelight vigils in New York City and peace rallies on Widener steps.
Imagination Overdrive
Before Sept. 11, 2001 it was hard enough to pile down the jetway into the belly of a preposterous flying
Pathological Progressivism
Most everyone at Harvard slaves and sweats over the social cause of their choice: “Ten dollars an hour!” “Color-blind love!”
Space to Slow Down
This summer, Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 sent each of us a letter entitled “Slow down: Getting
What We Should Have Done
As America moves from shock, to grief, to revenge, there is an ever-increasing onus on our leaders and experts to
Cells and Cigs
The cell phone, that nifty digital clamshell, has conquered campus. Where once you permanently stowed it in the AC-adapter cradle
In Praise of the Big Dig
Last week in this newspaper I suggested that an appropriate response to Sept. 11 would be a massive development program
A Moment to Stop and Reflect
On Monday, September 4th, I sat in my economy class seat on a plane headed to Providence, Rhode Island. I
Operation Infinitely Invisible
Whatever happened to Operation Infinite Justice? When President George W. Bush spoke last week his vague rhetoric was acceptable, because