Halloween is the best holiday. It’s a day dedicated to dressing up in goofy, scary costumes, eating candy, and partying—what’s not to like? The only thing that can put a damper on a day so devoted to fun is being forced to listen to cheesy Halloween music, like “The Monster Mash,” ad naseum. So, no matter what bash you choose to attend or who you choose to dress up as (be it a traditional costume like Dracula or something topical—baby Spears-Federline seems to be a popular choice this year), make the most of the best party night of the year with tunes that set a festive mood, but aren’t so glaringly obvious or overplayed. Seriously, give up on “Thriller,” save the “Ghostbusters” theme song for another day, and for God’s sake don’t play “Time Warp.” Cue up the following songs and watch your scary shindig come to life.
I’ve never been quite sure what to make of The Weekly World News. On one hand, the stories are so ridiculous, so funny, and so stupid that it’s easy to assume that the paper is just a parody of news tabloids, written by a bunch of hippies down in Florida with nothing better to do than make fun of conspiracy theorists by blowing their crazy ideas out of proportion. How else to explain articles with titles like “Aging Space Alien Applies for Social Security,” or “I Was Bigfoot’s Love Slave?”
In My Freshman Year, a book about college life by Rebekah Nathan, a student gets busted by her dorm supervisors for drinking beer in the student lounge. As any college student would, she quickly fumbles for excuses, apologizes profusely, and receives a threat of disciplinary action from her supervisor. But Rebekah Nathan isn’t just another college kid chugging a late-night beer. She isn’t even Rebekah Nathan.
Autumn is officially upon us and for those who don’t wear cowboy boots throughout the steaming hot August months, this marks the beginning of boot season.
Malcolm Gladwell’s recent New Yorker article entitled “Getting In: The Social Logic of College Admissions” tells the very ugly story behind admissions practices at elite private universities like Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. Most students know that in the old days schools like Harvard explicitly discriminated against certain students based on race, religion, and sex (women were first admitted to Harvard in the 1970s). But before reading Gladwell’s article, I had no idea they barred some students from admission because they were short and had big ears. Yet according to Gladwell’s article, the old-fashioned elitism of Ivy League admissions never really ended, and decisions about who goes to Harvard continue to be made based on factors like looks and personality, rather than merit. In fact, the admissions process started off using much fairer and more effective methods of selection than those in place today.
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