Just Sayin'

Let me preface this by saying that my roommate is reading Ethan Frome for one of her English classes, which I have not read but apparently has a traumatic sledding accident. She was quite upset by this because it "destroyed my [my roommate's] childhood". Now, while I feel sorry for all you lost souls out there who must discover the evil's on sledding as adults, do not say I did not tell you so .  For better or for worse, I'm one of those people who, once they have a bad experience with something are forever opposed to that particular thing (that's why I don't use chocolate syrup anymore, but we are not getting into that ). Which is why I am highly suspicious of sleds, toboggans, and the tomfoolery associated forthwith. Because sledding is the winter sport of the devil. Just the image of children in snow pants sitting in plastic flying-saucer dishes makes me narrow my eyes suspiciously. Think about it, you are going down a sharply inclined plane on a ...

As those of you who go to Penn State know, last weekend was State Patty's day. For those of you who do not go to Penn State, State Patty's day is PSU's version of Saint Patty's day which is basically like any other Saturday in a college town (use your imagination) except for everyone wears green. Anyway,  on Saturday night, two of my friends and I were going to a concert so we took the bus across campus. Most of my friends and I do not participate in State Patty's but, it's always great fun to sit quietly on the blue loop and observe the intoxicated. Not that anyone was black out drunk or anything, at least not when we saw them; most people were just buzzed enough to be talkative and quite funny. Without further ado, I present to you a series of vignettes or a very short play, depending on how you want to look at it, entitled Friendly Drunks (based on a true story). *** Scene 1 On a CATA bus. Enter drunk girl, being supported by two friends. Drunk girl...

So, I've been required to read Frankenstein twice, once in college and once in high school, so I know that the book raises a lot of questions and themes, like the nature and importance of beauty and appearance in society and literature, what is considered monstrous in popular culture, the dangers of scientific exploration, etc, etc. But, to me, perhaps the most important question the book raises is what happened to Ernest ? In case you are unfamiliar with Frankenstein, let me give you a brief plot summary. Victor Frankenstein, the title character, decides that it's a good idea to build an eight foot tall quasi-man, animal creature while he's away at college. After he brings the creature to life, he has a freak out and runs away. After this, his creature, through a series of convoluted events, ends up killing everyone Victor cares about as revenge for Victor not creating a female creature for the monster. That is, everyone except Ernest. At the beginning of the book, V...

Okay, so, I've come to the conclusion that no one cares about this as much as I do; but this still blew my mind and I feel it is my civic duty as a denizen of the internet to tell you about it: So, you know how when you're a little kid and see/hear something and it just stays lodged in some dark corner of your brain  and then years and years later, you see or hear the same thing and you're all like "that was the thing from thing from the time! I finally understand the world!" Well, that happened to me today. I don't know how many of you watch The Borgias (probably not many because it's a massively underrated show), but, anyway, it's a show on HBO about the family of Pope Alexander VI, who presided over a rather dubious papacy during the renaissance (the Borgias have been called the original crime family). Long story short, it makes for good television. Anyway, I've been watching this show for two seasons, which equates to about twenty episod...