Voices

This Georgetown Life: First days of school

On the last day of summer before the start of second grade, I sat at the pool with some friends playing with a bee sting remover. The device is like a plastic syringe and uses suction to pull the sting out of the flesh. Who knew that suctioning the thing to your chin could be so outrageously fun? Prancing around in my little Speedo, I exclaimed, “look, I’m a Pharaoh!” as it dangled from my chin, or “now I’m a unicorn!” when stuck to my forehead. What I should have anticipated is that I’d be showing up on the first day of school with perfectly round purple dots about one inch in diameter all over my face.

By the Voice Staff August 22, 2008

Page 13 Cartoons

Play honest, not nice

It would be much more helpful for all of us if our papers left those classrooms in shards. Instead, it seems like the barrier to raising your hand is having some point of praise to help the criticism go down easier. At twenty-one, I’d rather leave this Mary Poppins treatment behind; in a writing class for upperclassmen, criticism is neither rude nor unnecessary. Even good writers sweat out bad pieces, and I hope they’d like to know it when they do. The decision we make everyday in those classrooms is to value politeness over honesty, and it leaves us victims as much as perpetrators.

By Mike Stewart April 24, 2008

Voices

Collecting homes in Cairo

In the last nine months, I have shuttled between Cairo, Dublin, Vienna, and Haifa. I’ve climbed Mt. Sinai, danced in an Irish ceilidh, been force-fed schnitzel by my Austrian family, played billiards with Bedouins in Jordan, and wandered through Jerusalem at night.

I haven’t been back to Portland, but somehow home has found me anyway.

By Simone Popperl April 24, 2008

Voices

Primaries a primary lesson

As our plates steadily emptied of their honey-baked ham and sweet potato pudding last Christmas, I suddenly realized my family had nearly exhausted our usual yuletide conversation topics (including plans for escaping the grimy winter months ahead through trips to Pennsylvania’s version of the Riviera—Florida) and was headed directly for that reliably disastrous discussion topic: politics.

By Sara Carothers April 24, 2008

Voices

This Georgetown Life: Crazy little thing called summer love

Elektra always wore a sailor hat on top of her short auburn hair that swayed when she drove home a contention in a debate. She was a year older than me and the hottest thing at debate camp in Cameron, Oklahoma. Best of all, she wanted me. Bad.

By the Voice Staff April 24, 2008

Voices

Trying to cut down on the costly habit of parking in Georgetown

It’s 6:03. I race past St. Mary’s and down Reservoir Road. I’m stopped by the ridiculously long light on the corner of Reservoir and 37th Street. I check the street for cars as I race across the street. I continue down 37th looking for my car. There it is. Damnit, I’m only three minutes late. I curse loudly while removing the offending leaflet from my windshield—another ticket to add to the ticket wall.

By Nicole Bush April 17, 2008

Voices

A Papal visit without pontification

On the first day—well, Tuesday—the Pope crossed the Atlantic, and he saw that it was good.

By Tim Fernholz April 17, 2008

Voices

It’s the end of the world and we know it, and I feel fine

I recently read a New York Times article about a new particle accelerator in Switzerland. Articles in the Science section don’t normally fill me with a sense of foreboding and doom, but this one succeeded where others failed. With the accelerator, scientists hope to recreate the “Big Bang” on a small scale in order to explain the origins of the universe. It seemed alright until I got to the paragraph which said that two men “think the giant particle accelerator that will begin smashing protons together outside Geneva this summer might produce a black hole or something else that will spell the end of the Earth—and maybe the universe.”

By Dan Newman April 17, 2008

Voices

Geography porn, or: How not to study abroad

My interest in studying abroad was inspired by my first visit to the Epcot World Showcase at age eight. For those of you who weren’t as lucky as I was, Epcot’s World Showcase is Disney’s take on globalization, a mini-park featuring small-scale replicas of eleven countries, centered around a beautiful lagoon. At Disney’s Epcot Center, not only is China walking distance from Belgium, but every “country” serves French fries, accepts VISA and closes at midnight. The fantasy climaxes every evening in a choreographed display of global friendship performed to inspirational music and accompanied by fireworks and lasers. This experience is the reason I thought the entire world spoke English until I was 12.

By Sarah Harman April 17, 2008

Page 13 Cartoons

The refusal to veil religious freedom in the U.S.

My English friends and Dutch cousins are smart, contemporary, educated and enlightened. But over the last few years, whenever we’ve discussed the differences between how Europe and the U.S. have handled Islamic women’s veiling, I’m always somewhat shocked at how, uniformly, my enlightened “Euros” are passionately biased against the veil, saying that they wish Muslim women in Europe would be prohibited from the practice.

By Lauve Steenhuisen April 10, 2008

Voices

Combatting homelessness and its preconceptions, one paper at a time

How many times have you walked down M Street and carefully averted your eyes, sped up or even crossed the street to avoid someone asking for change on a street corner? Trained from a young age in the philosophy of hard work and self-sufficiency, my own justifications for doing so are almost automatic—“How dare they stir up these feelings of embarrassment and discomfort? Why don’t they get a real job instead of sitting on the corner, or worse—sleeping (even though it’s known that many sleep during the day so they can stay awake at night and guard themselves and their belongings)? Won’t they just use the money for drugs or alcohol? It’s just a scam.”

By admin April 10, 2008

Voices

The political purgatory of abortion

Assessing my political beliefs is a simple enough task. I am a liberal and a Democrat. I believe in healthcare for the needy, in the critical need for compassionate government and true to my rust belt roots, I believe in the importance of unions. I also believe in gay rights, in the decriminalization of marijuana, the importance of sex education and making birth control available. I am a feminist, and will accept all the bra-burning connotations that come along with that.

By admin April 10, 2008

Voices

Shattering the myths of recycling on campus

Some people say it with a hint of boastful pride. “Me? No, I never recycle!”

By Robyn Liska April 10, 2008

Voices

Shirt is a symptom of a larger problem that afflicts the campus

We are not saying that individuals in the Georgetown University Grilling Society are sexist, but the marketing tools that the Grilling Society and other organizations on this campus choose to employ systematically serve to demean women. The decision to associate their week with “Girls Gone Wild” and their initial decision to sell a t-shirt that read “GUGS, Grade A, Size D,” was a combination of marketing tools that we found offensive. There is a fine line between humor and sexism, and this line has been blurred—especially for the average Georgetown student.

By admin April 3, 2008

Voices

GUGS admits shirt has offended some, Grills Gone Wild moves forward

From April 21 through 25, the Georgetown University Grilling Society (GUGS) plans to hold Grills Gone Wild Week, which will include a GUGS burger eating contest, ribs and pulled pork day, a grilloff competition, a sausage extravaganza on Georgetown Day and a BYOF (bring your own food). The GUGS Grillmasters will be grilling up pizzas, lamb, kebabs and all sorts of delicacies throughout the week to celebrate yet another successful semester on the Hilltop.

By Jake Styacich April 3, 2008

Voices

April Fools’ Hoya issue is tasteless and mean

A disclaimer on the front page of the Hoya’s annual spring joke issue advises its readers to proceed with caution. “Chill out, tight-ass,” it reads. “This issue is a joke.” Ah, so Jack the Bulldog didn’t actually have an affair with the West Virginia Mountaineer.

By Sam Sweeney April 3, 2008

Voices

Pushing papers all around campus

Seeing that The Fire This Time’s latest edition had come out gave me a strange thrill.

By Tim Fernholz April 3, 2008

Voices

Looking past the smoke and mirrors

Contemporary airlines have done everything they can to convince squirrelly passengers that riding in their jolly contraptions is virtually the same as traveling in a car. Southwest Airlines, with its uniformly perky staff, brightly colored planes and incessant “ding!”-ing has become an industry leader, largely thanks to the company’s ability to make truculent travelers feel at ease. Nevertheless, on March 6th, the F.A.A. levied a record-breaking $10.2 million fine on the airline for its failure to ground planes that had not been properly inspected and certified as up to code. And no khaki-clad, coddling flight attendant or cute cobalt-blue plane could change that.

By admin March 27, 2008

Page 13 Cartoons

Lying her way to the highest office in the land

When did misspeaking become synonymous with lying? When Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) suggested that she merely misspoke about coming under sniper fire in Bosnia, her statement was not an error in recollection, it was a lie. It is only one of many lies put forward by the junior Senator from New York as she desperately scrambles to save her nearly mathematically impossible campaign for the Democratic nomination.

By Timothy Kaldas March 27, 2008