Columns
Thinking Right
A world without religion, rotary clubs, wealth-equalizing measures, and norms of decency might be a better one for me, Joshua Lipson.
Bye Bye Bloomy
Critical as I still am, there have been times I have been proud to call Michael Bloomberg my mayor.
The Politics of Divestment
Right now, by supporting fossil fuels, the endowment is advancing right-wing goals. Divestment activists want it aligned with the progressive values of Harvard University and its students.
Snap Crackle Pop
Interstate thirty-five doing eighty in an Audi A6, alright? You’re zipping north from San Antonio with a Dr. Pepper, tater tots, and instructions to keep the car immaculate. Sister is driving and you fidget shotgun. Together you giggle at a billboard prophesying the 2027 Apocalypse but for the most part it’s a dull dead shot to downtown Dallas. A periodic highway sign reads, “2214 Deaths on Texas Roads This Year.” You think: since January, how often is that? Do most of them occur on weekends?
My Old Kentucky Home
Congressional Republicans are spinning—with remarkably straight faces—an alternate narrative where the shutdown is the consequence of Democratic intransigence and unwillingness to compromise.
The Internet, Savior of Television
Now, Marvel can create “S.H.I.E.L.D.,” rife with “easter eggs” to the comic book series and oblique references to the movie, and not worry about a core audience—the core audience, they know, will come. And if someone else clicks “if you watch this other show, you may like…”? Well, Marvel’s even happier. Now, internet… what are we going to do about “Firefly”?
Female Empowerment or Exploitation?
In her recent open letter to Miley Cyrus, Sinead O’Connor warns of the consequences of letting the music industry “pimp” singers. She claims: “It is absolutely NOT in ANY way an empowerment of yourself or any other young women, for you to send across the message that you are to be valued (even by you) more for your sexual appeal than your obvious talent.”
You Can Punch If You Wanna
Belonging is as fundamental a human desire as food and shelter. We find belonging in a host of places: In our blocking groups, our relationships, our sports teams, our newspapers and literary magazines and theater troupes and service groups and fraternities and sororities and, you guessed it, final clubs.
Biking for the Better
“You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”
The Lighthouse of Economics
Very few economists enjoyed decades of anonymity followed by decades of recognition. Ronald Coase is one of them.
Harvard University Library
But I am worried. Harvard’s collection did not spring from nothing, like Athena from the pained skull of Zeus, but from 300 odd volumes from the Reverend John Harvard and the accumulated profit of 375 plus years of diligence, resourcefulness, and prioritizing.
Rank and Defile
At the end of the day, the rankings really amount to a pseudo-objective reflection of subjective reputation.
You are Better than Punch
By choosing to punch, you are reinforcing and legitimizing this system of shame, where people are made to feel inadequate and ashamed solely by dint of being poor, of color, queer, or a whole host of other things that don’t fit with the socially reinforced norm of being a wealthy white straight man
Viva Viva
Harvard Square, meet Viva Viva, a Boston rock band through and through. Though you hear fewer and fewer musicians these days professing their allegiance to the seemingly outdated genre, the members of Viva Viva proudly wear a rock’n’roll ethos on their sleeves. There’s no pretense about it: Viva Viva revels in stomping grooves, gritty guitars, sweaty bars and basement shows.
