The light at the end of the tunnel approaches, ladies. Midterms are coming to a close—except for those of you who have a second round the week before Thanksgiving, or those lucky few who have both final exams and papers due on the last day of classes. In any event, congratulations for making it out alive, and I’m sure we all agree that you deserved every last pound of the Halloween candy you ate this past weekend.
One of the many drawbacks of midterms is the inevitable disconnect from reality that they create. Instead of nuclear winter symbolizing the “end of the world,” an unfinished p-set becomes a far more daunting event. People forget what day it is, even the year—I found myself watching a British movie the other day and said out loud “Gosh, I can’t WAIT for President Bush to be out of the White House.” Another student exclaimed in frustration that she wrote “2004” as the date on a recent exam.
The bottom line is, we all need a break. Needless to say, I think that the end of daylight-savings time and the Tanner class-free day may help in our endeavors to get back on track (no more 3 a.m. snacks, I hope), but we all need a few moments to breathe and catch up before the next round of educational terror comes upon us. The days are getting shorter, but we should be able to fill them with just as much fun as we wish, and stop the madness that pervades the campus like a disease. In honor of this newfound relaxation, here is a (brief) collection of events that you may have missed while locking yourself up in your rooms for the last two weeks, as well as ways to de-stress before we meet our next foe: reading period.
Nine Newsworthy Notes:
1. The Dow Jones hit the 10,000 mark, only to fall abysmally back down below 9,800. If anyone can tell me what any of those numbers mean, I will personally give you a cookie. Seriously, take ten minutes to look it up online and let me know, because I’m paralyzed by fear when it comes to economics.
2. The Yankees are in the World Series again, which gives me one less thing to watch on Hulu. Then again, Bostonians expend a lot of energy sending bad vibes towards the Bronx, so this may be more of a deterrent than I had originally thought.
3. Michael Jackson is still dead (too soon?) but his movie lives on. Go see This Is It and cry/sing along. Two weeks only…come on, how many people really believe that one? Joe Jackson would never let that happen.
4. Last Sunday was the New York City Marathon. Start preparing for Boston now: go out there and run 26.2 miles! Or find a runner and give ’em a smooch—whatever you fancy more.
5. President Obama declared Swine Flu to be a National Health Emergency. Try to avoid hugging, kissing, touching and breathing near anyone within a five mile radius of the exact spot on which you are standing at this moment.
6. November is National Novel-Writing Month. Talk about a great procrastination tactic. Or if you really want a break from reality, wait two weeks for the release of New Moon− I promise you, there are going to be some definite characters waiting in line for this event.
7. iTunes just added a collection of new international movies and TV shows, including the classic BlackAdder. Yes, I did just give you another fourteen hours of blissful delay and respite from the real world.
8. Travel Agents declare that this year may be one of the worst for travelers: airline flights are going up by the minute. You may want to find another mode of transportation anyways− apparently two pilots overshot a runway because they were on their laptops. Couldn’t Perez Hilton have waited ten minutes? Either that, or someone has a major addiction to FirstClass.
9. Believe it or not, Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away, followed by winter break. Every time you write another paper, you lose a precious shopping day.
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