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Dear Joe,
I know that I go to a tough school, but I can’t take any more whining. I’m surrounded by complainers, and feel as if they’re always raining on my parade. Any ideas on how to change their attitudes, or make me more complaint resistant?
—Whiny in West Wing
Dear Whiny,
You would think that living in a wonderful city, receiving a great education, and having the world at your fingertips make you happy. Unfortunately, Whiny, for those who are always trying to take from the world, nothing is ever good enough. A week-long vacation to a community college in Bulgaria would teach them a lesson in being thankful. As much as we would like to change the wave of negativity that floats around campus, there’s not much we can do. Like sun radiation, or ugg boots, some experiences simply have to be dealt with. The difference is the protective measures we take against them. Avoid unreasonably negative people. For instance, those who complain about cookies, funk music, and high fives are suspect for investigation.
You should probably note that all people can be whiny at some times. It’s a natural product of being overworked and eating at Skibo Coffeehouse. An important responsibility of friendship is helping friends feel better. When a friend is starting into the downward spiral of misery, try to lift him out before it’s too late. And contrary to popular belief, LEN’s law does not occur. No matter how helpful you are in spreading your optimism, no one will steal your sunshine.
Turn that frown upside down, Joe
Dear Joe,
Don’t laugh at me, but I have a stamp collection. Even for being a Carnegie Mellon student, I get harassed every day for searching through catalogs and the Internet to find that perfect stamp. Why is everyone so hostile toward stamps?
—Posted in Porter
Dear Posted, If you were five years old, I would say that everyone is just jealous of your totally awesome stamp collection. The fact of the matter is: stamp collecting is dorky, even at Carnegie Mellon. Your activity falls into the “classical nerd” category. These are tasks considered “cool” to nerds 40 years ago, but now have given way to blogging, Internet gaming, and hygiene. Examples of classical nerd activities include wearing suspenders, bug or stamp collecting, cartography, and pen pals. Unfortunately, these activities are feverishly fun, which means they’re hard to get rid of when you realize that Eisenhower’s not in power.
Does this mean that you should give up your passion? Absolutely not, Posted. Fight the good fight and defend your quirky and somewhat antiquated hobbies. It’s people like you who tell the world how everything is sorted or what kind of glue goes best with balsa wood for that perfect model plane. Maybe the newer nerds aren’t impressed with your toys, but so be it. At least collecting stamps doesn’t result in repetitive stress injury.
Return to Sender, Joe
In an ideal world, you'd think Saturday would mark the decommissioning of cliche. You'd hope it would deposit a stark, bailiff's squiggle under the little, satirical jibes we so enjoy at Leinster's expense.
After all, they roughed up just about everything we mistook for knowledge in Croke Park. It was like seeing Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen cut loose with a chainsaw.
See, we still can't really help ourselves.
As evening bled into night across Dublin, it was quite something to sweep down towards O'Connell Street, this strange blue army tramping in a blur of Chinos and dockers and Ugg boots.
Odd, plummy voices pierced the air with cries of revolution, people who wouldn't ordinarily get vexed in the presence of a burglar now marching with chests expanded like great bay windows.
"I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams," says Andy Dufresne in 'The Shawshank Redemption'. Now Leinster know it is, Andy. First time you see it, it's bluer than a field of cornflowers.
What did Saturday tell us? Maybe that even the most lampooned and put-upon creature eventually locates a temper. The much derided 'ladyboys' devoured a side we had, in our imaginations, put up somewhere with the gods.
In our understanding, Munster, you see, stood for everything that was real and identifiably heroic in rugby. Leinster amounted to a grandiose conceit. We just gathered to watch nature do its cull.
Kim Sterin, a graduate of Archmere Academy, The Independence School and longtime Delaware resident, recently produced the Honors Humanities’ 2nd annual Undergraduate Research Symposium at the University of Maryland, College Park. The daylong conference was centered on the theme of “Re-imagining the Political Sphere: Critical Thought and Social Justice in Everyday Life” which aimed to engage participants in open dialogue about new approaches to politics with an investment in creating a more socially just world. The research presented reached beyond the traditional notion of politics by recognizing the political issues present in all facets of life from identity construction to popular culture. It featured 14 panel discussions and a keynote speaker, Dr. Diana Owen of Georgetown University. Kim also participated as a panelist and presented her two year long Keystone project, a requirement as a President’s scholar in the Honors Humanities program at Maryland. This subset of the Honors program is regarded as the premier program at the University and is limited to talented undergraduates with interests in the humanities and creative arts. The rigorous and specialized curriculum explores the dynamic history of the humanities, practical applications in the arts, and foundational issues in the disciplines of the humanities. Kimberly’s deans list performance in this program culminated with the book she published of original poetry along with critical essays about contemporary American culture. Entitled, “Busting through the Billboards with my Ugg boots” it creatively directs transformational thinking about American consumer culture and its effects on everyday life. She is the daughter of Jay and Maryann Sterin and will earn undergraduate degrees in both English and Spanish in 2011, along with a citation in Honors Humanities and the Jimenez-Porter Writer’s House.
