This September, waves of students arrived on college campuses and readied themselves for the academic challenge ahead. Armed with lists, schedules, planners, and budgets, they sought out classes, classmates, bookstores, dorm rooms, financial aid offices. There it was, that energetic, refreshing, busy to-and-fro of individual
A peculiar and noteworthy feature of mankind can be observed in the importance we lend to certain pieces of matter. Consider the perilous quests on which men have launched, both mythical and historical, in pursuit of certain objects--like a wooden cup (the "Holy Grail") and
With the passing of Pope John Paul II there have been more calls from the religious establishment for more spirituality. Indeed, in his first official visit to the gathered faithful in Bari, Italy, Pope Benedict XVI said, "It is not easy for us to live
A recent article in USA Today ("Enough Already With Kid Gloves," June 1) exposes some of the absurdities committed by the self-esteem movement in education, such as the prohibiting of red correction marks. It seems the color is "frightening" to students, and teachers should use
Last May, perhaps the most highly-anticipated new film of the new millennium opened to rave reviews and record-smashing box office receipts, eclipsing another, more modest film that had opened just a few days earlier. Both films were more than just entertaining summer spectacles, or "popcorn flicks,"
In the run-up to the election last fall, religious conservatives intensified their campaign to censor "obscene and indecent broadcasts" on television and radio. Constant nagging from groups such as Parents Television Council, Family Research Council and Morality in Media met with success: The FCC slapped
There is one thing on which our lives depend. It is woven into the very fabric of our culture. It sustains us. It is the lifeblood of any venture we attempt--from the construction of a skyscraper to the discovery of new physical laws. It gives
The life of the mind has a friend in modern culture: the coffee house. Sprinkled throughout college towns, dotted at the feet of financial-district high-rises, tucked away in the fashionable corners of middle-America hometowns, cafes wait to welcome the intellectual. Coffee has become more than
In recent weeks, with the world's eyes fixed on the deteriorating health of an ailing Pope, Google quietly offered users a God's-eye view of Earth via its newest innovation--satellite imaging. The feature augments Google's widely lauded mapping service. Detailed digital photographs allow users to scope out
Breaking every viewer record and emerging as the #1 primetime TV sensation, ABC's Desperate Housewives has been called the Sex and the City of the suburbs. Writer Marc Cherry told The Age that "Desperate Housewives is a kind of skewed homage to suburban life," and