With the latest figures from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) pointing toward a largely limited public option, some national commentators are wondering what the big fuss about the public option was about. The truth is that having the public option as part of the health care reform serves two purposes. One purpose is practical, based on the idea of providing competition against private insurers. The … Continue reading Much ado about public option? Not quite.

Has the memory of move-in day already faded in your mind, or does it seem like it was maybe last week? It’s November, and that means snow, ice and the arctic breeze are on their way. I know you probably don’t even want to hear about it right now, but it’s November, and let’s face it, we all get a little down on November every … Continue reading It’s November

We have all seen Gustavus’ new tagline, “Make your life count,” displayed throughout campus and plastered on the new website. I don’t know about the rest of you, but this freaked me out just a little bit. It might be the realization that, as a senior, the real world is about to hit me in the face in just a few short months, but now … Continue reading Making it count

About a month ago, I awoke in a dreary daze to the screeching of my alarm clock, my body unwilling to leave the womb-like covers of my bed. My head throbbed and ached due to an over-consumption of Vault and frost-your-owns the night before. The room reeked of Cheez-its and stale pizza. As I struggled to gain consciousness, I was immediately confronted by the existential … Continue reading Thank God my life counts at Gustavus!

In the September issue of Glamour, a nude photograph of plus-size model Lizzi Miller caused quite a stir—a very positive one, that is. Often referred to as “the woman on page 194” Glamour apparently received massive amounts of positive feedback about seeing the “naked and adorably pot-bellied” Miller, as Kate Harding refers to her in an online forum. There was so much positive feedback that … Continue reading Get over glamor

We’re halfway through the semester …When’s the last time you did something silly? In the complete relaxation mode of my Reading Days, I questioned just how I was able to keep going during those previous seven action-packed weeks. How did I cope with the pressures of extracurriculars? The focus required in classes? What prodded me to walk up from the Greens House every day as … Continue reading The art of intentional failing

For how many atrocities we commit in their name, it is strange, is it not, how our society views idealism in such positive light. Of course we only recognize it as such because we each have our own ideal, or at least for those less imaginative, have borrowed one from another. When I say idealism, I simply mean someone who has envisioned or been shown … Continue reading The folly of idealism

Since Google didn’t exist back in Shakespeare’s day, where would young William turn if he didn’t know something? I mean, what did he do when he was reading Ovid and didn’t know the definition of a word? He didn’t have Microsoft’s right-click option when he needed a synonym to make his word-choice interesting, and there were no electronic library archives to find articles written by … Continue reading Are we smarter than Shakespeare?

I’ve been home these past few weekends back in the Twin Cities, seeing concerts, spending time with family and enjoying what little fall we had. If you haven’t managed to take a walk in the Arboretum yet, you’ve missed out this year on the wonderful array of fall colors some of us have the pleasure of seeing from our dorm windows every day. I loved … Continue reading Color and Form

As a senior environmental studies major, I have developed more than my fair share of skepticism. It may be impossible to think about environmental issues and engage actively in discussions concerning the environment, day after day after day, without feeling the weight of the wide variety and scale of the challenges that face us. We are living in a society where it is perfectly acceptable … Continue reading The time for a turbine is now