My grandfather used to tell me about growing up in the Italian suburbs of New York City. The Church, family, shared hardships – all these made neighborhoods more than a place where you lived. In a time before the Internet and cell-phones, personal connections, loyalties and reputations ran peoples ...
Like many Catholics, I spent last Sunday nodding off in Mass or trying to get the toddler in the pew in front of me to laugh. Like still more Catholics, I promptly forgot the sermon and jostled with my fellow parishioners to exit the Church when the one hour time limit was reached. I went to Church ...
Does anyone know how to disable the news column on your Facebook newsfeed? You know the little column that gives you 30-word blurbs about various nonsense happening in the world today? You know what I am talking about? It usually keeps me up to date on important things that qualify as “news” like, ...
I am not a fan of unsolicited advice, and with that in mind I am going to give some. This is the last generation of Febs I will be here to see before tragically graduating a little less than a year from now. While I will hopefully be ready to go by then, three years ago I could have used some frank ...
NOTE: I would like to take a paragraph this week to apologize for a line in my last Op-Ed. While many of you were focused on the strange new rivalry between NARP’s and athletes, a poorly thought-out, badly phrased hypothetical appeared at the end of my piece. Had it been merely an opinion that was ...
My family members have never been “gun people.” Nobody has ever owned one; it is doubtful any of us could tell you how to load one and it is highly unlikely any of us will be buying one in the future. I was always told as a boy that guns were like needles on the street or strangers, that you should ...
I am a little late on the uptake, but it appears our campus has taken a renewed interest in our social, or lack thereof, lives. Or perhaps long-simmering tensions have boiled over and all our angst and frustration is being made known. Or maybe we just had an opportunity to complain. No matter what perspective ...
I hope I will not appear as too much of a nerd by assuming you know about the world famous Italian plumber Mario. Mario spends his time jumping on turtles and saving Princess Peach in the aptly named “Super Mario” video games. By today’s standards Super Mario is a quaint game as it contains no ...
I had the remarkable experience of growing up as an ex-patriot. Yes, I grew up in the strange and foreign land of Canada, our friendly neighbor to the North. While my citizenship remained firmly American, an interesting thing happens when you live abroad. You suddenly become the spokesperson for your ...
What seems like a long time ago, I made a choice I proceeded to doubt. It was not until a few years had gone by that I understood why coming to Middlebury was one of the most important and best decisions I have made. However, I am sure by this point that sounds cliché. Lately it seems our institution ...