Recent Stories

MCJ

Protected: The Fight for All-Ages Shows

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Jes Skolnik (1254 read)

This essay is one-of-a-kind, because you can see how much work the author has put into not just the writing, but the planing behind creating an all-ages space. This is unlike most of the other articles that I read because it doesn’t feature much in the terms of multimedia use. Skolnik relies heavily on their own emotions to drive the story, rather than pictures, graphs, etc. They do include links that give more detail about other situations or related topics that the reader can look into, which is helpful. This whole essay seems like a brainstorming piece because the author is constantly asking questions, that they don’t have the answer to.

MCJ

Protected: The Greatest Story Reddit Ever Told

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Kevin Morris (5562 words)

People on the internet, as a community, can be so inexplicably nice, for no reason. I’ve never had any experience with Reddit so I can’t attest to that platform personally, but from this article I was able to get a closer look into that community of helpers. From the beginning of the article I didn’t know what to expect, honestly I was half expecting the story to actually take place on Reddit through threads. This was much better. It was a long article, but I think that each part was important.

MCJ

Protected: Interview With a Woman Who Recently Had an Abortion at 32 Weeks

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Jia Tolentino (8,145 read)

After reading this article, I have so much respect for both the woman being interviewed and the author. This is such a s difficult topic to discuss for a woman going through this painful process and for a woman trying to understand why she’s doing it. IT’s hard to see how abortion is a selfish act when it is used to save a life. I think the set up for this article is what makes it so easy to read and understand what’s going on. It’s conversational and it’s as if the author knows each of the questions that you’re thinking of, but they are able to actually ask it.

MCJ

Protected: The Most Deranged Sorority Girl Email You Will Ever Read

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Caity Weaver (1597 words)

“Thank god Arcadia doesn’t have sororities,” was my first thought when I read this article. I think this piece was a work of art, and after reading it for a third time I will begin to explain why but first, I need to talk about my own brief run in with sorority girls. I believe in order to fully appreciate this article in particular you have to at least know or experienced what it's like to be around a sorority girl for an extended amount of time. I never actually believed that the Sorority Girl trope was a real thing until I studied abroad in London for the summer. I somehow managed to befriend four sorority girls and for the brief four days that I spent with them, all they talked about was LITERALLY (exaggerated for emphasis) their respective sororities and how amazing they were.

itallmakessense

Protected: For the Love of Science!

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Is there a box of Kleenex in the house? Because Mandy Lee Catron’s “To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This” has definitely struck a well of tears over in this neck of the library. Besides the fact that Catron and her not-so-much-of a stranger beau actually ended up falling in love after conducting Dr. Aron’s study on themselves, this story has left me in awe for a number of reasons, which I will lay out shortly.

MCJ

Protected: Disrupters, Disconnects, and Dicks

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Disrupters, Disconnects, and Dicks
Emma Healy
I’m not a huge fan of Nev Schulman or the show Catfish in general, but I didn’t think it was this bad. Personally, if I’m not super into a person or show I’m not going to check up on them, which is probably why I didn’t know that he was (according to Healy) and complete dick. Apparently he has changed his ways since his days of getting kicked out of Sarah Lawrence, but can becoming celibate really cause such a complete 180? From assaulting people and being called a “condescending, entitled, reprehensible tool” to becoming an international man of *online dating* mystery, Schulman seems to be alright (I guess). I think what I most agree with is Healy saying that the show Catfish is more like a small bundled of weird and awkward short films rather than a “reality TV show.” Overly dramatic and super, SUPER awkward bursts of human interaction are way too much for me to handle watching for five minutes, let alone having me sit through an entire episode.

MCJ

Protected: To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This

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To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This
Mandy Len Catron
I’m so happy that I decided to read this article, as I think it might actually have just become my new favorite article on the internet. As someone who loves love, this really hit me right in the feels. I love being in love, I love watching other people fall in love, I love reading/seeing/hearing about love; I’m an emotional person okay, get over it. To be honest, at the beginning when the writer starts to talk about the work of psychologist Arthur Aron and how he managed to make two complete strangers fall deeply in love… in a laboratory. So, off the bat, weird, but I’m into it.

MCJ

Protected: Could the Student Aid Program Have Helped Hannah?

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The multimedia publication Student Aid: How one school board is defeating bullying, one friendship at a time was a really interesting read, especially after just finishing the new TV series 13 Reasons Why. It is perfect to read at this moment, as there is a whole lot of controversy about the show due to the fact that they did not give any solutions to depression and bullying. I know at the beginning of the show the principal does end up pairing up two students, but the way she does it (in her office by saying you should be friends) and the people she pairs up (two new students) make it seem unstructured. I think Crystal makes a very good point in her interview: “I find it better if you talk to someone who’s older than you because she can relate to it because she’s been through it.” It is hard to talk to someone about the hard stuff when you are in the middle of it. It made me wonder if had the main character in 13 Reasons Why had this kind of connection with a peer mentor if she still would have killed herself.

MCJ

Protected: Coding is a Broad Subject

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Paul Ford: What is code? is more like a short novel than an article. Broken up into seven chapters, Paul Ford tries to explain in simple terms what code is. I thought I was at least able to follow a conversation after having learned a bit about CSS, but boy was I wrong. There is so much that I never knew I should know about coding and computers.

MCJ

Protected: Divisions of Labor

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Divisions of Labor by Barbara Ehrenreich

The first thing I will say about this article is that I really liked the lead. I think people on the left--especially those who may have voted for Clinton--are far too quick to dismiss supporters of Trump as simply racist, or just plain stupid. Instead of dismissing Trump supporters (one of whom I’m related to, others of which I’ve been friends with for years), I prefer to attempt to understand why they are voting that way, which is the goal of this article. The lead clearly defines what the author is seeking out in this article: “Why do they believe Trump’s promises? Are they stupid or just deplorably racist?

itallmakessense

Protected: For the Love of Science!

By |

Is there a box of Kleenex in the house? Because Mandy Lee Catron’s “To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This” has definitely struck a well of tears over in this neck of the library. Besides the fact that Catron and her not-so-much-of a stranger beau actually ended up falling in love after conducting Dr. Aron’s study on themselves, this story has left me in awe for a number of reasons, which I will lay out shortly.

MCJ

Protected: Disrupters, Disconnects, and Dicks

By |

Disrupters, Disconnects, and Dicks
Emma Healy
I’m not a huge fan of Nev Schulman or the show Catfish in general, but I didn’t think it was this bad. Personally, if I’m not super into a person or show I’m not going to check up on them, which is probably why I didn’t know that he was (according to Healy) and complete dick. Apparently he has changed his ways since his days of getting kicked out of Sarah Lawrence, but can becoming celibate really cause such a complete 180? From assaulting people and being called a “condescending, entitled, reprehensible tool” to becoming an international man of *online dating* mystery, Schulman seems to be alright (I guess). I think what I most agree with is Healy saying that the show Catfish is more like a small bundled of weird and awkward short films rather than a “reality TV show.” Overly dramatic and super, SUPER awkward bursts of human interaction are way too much for me to handle watching for five minutes, let alone having me sit through an entire episode.

MCJ

Protected: To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This

By |

To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This
Mandy Len Catron
I’m so happy that I decided to read this article, as I think it might actually have just become my new favorite article on the internet. As someone who loves love, this really hit me right in the feels. I love being in love, I love watching other people fall in love, I love reading/seeing/hearing about love; I’m an emotional person okay, get over it. To be honest, at the beginning when the writer starts to talk about the work of psychologist Arthur Aron and how he managed to make two complete strangers fall deeply in love… in a laboratory. So, off the bat, weird, but I’m into it.

MCJ

Protected: Could the Student Aid Program Have Helped Hannah?

By |

The multimedia publication Student Aid: How one school board is defeating bullying, one friendship at a time was a really interesting read, especially after just finishing the new TV series 13 Reasons Why. It is perfect to read at this moment, as there is a whole lot of controversy about the show due to the fact that they did not give any solutions to depression and bullying. I know at the beginning of the show the principal does end up pairing up two students, but the way she does it (in her office by saying you should be friends) and the people she pairs up (two new students) make it seem unstructured. I think Crystal makes a very good point in her interview: “I find it better if you talk to someone who’s older than you because she can relate to it because she’s been through it.” It is hard to talk to someone about the hard stuff when you are in the middle of it. It made me wonder if had the main character in 13 Reasons Why had this kind of connection with a peer mentor if she still would have killed herself.

MCJ

Protected: Coding is a Broad Subject

By |

Paul Ford: What is code? is more like a short novel than an article. Broken up into seven chapters, Paul Ford tries to explain in simple terms what code is. I thought I was at least able to follow a conversation after having learned a bit about CSS, but boy was I wrong. There is so much that I never knew I should know about coding and computers.

MCJ

Protected: Divisions of Labor

By |

Divisions of Labor by Barbara Ehrenreich

The first thing I will say about this article is that I really liked the lead. I think people on the left--especially those who may have voted for Clinton--are far too quick to dismiss supporters of Trump as simply racist, or just plain stupid. Instead of dismissing Trump supporters (one of whom I’m related to, others of which I’ve been friends with for years), I prefer to attempt to understand why they are voting that way, which is the goal of this article. The lead clearly defines what the author is seeking out in this article: “Why do they believe Trump’s promises? Are they stupid or just deplorably racist?

MCJ

Protected: Taylor Swift Runs The World

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Taylor Swift Runs The World by Chuck Klosterman

My first (and only) exposure to Chuck Klosterman was over the summer when he was a guest on The Daily Show. I did a little bit of research on him, and all I remembered was that he apparently hates soccer. I also do not really have any particular positive feelings toward Taylor Swift, so why did I decide to read this article? Well, while I’m a bit offended by his stance on soccer, I did remember Klosterman being an intelligent guy, so I figured I would give this article a read. And I’m glad I did…

The organization of this article was pretty strange, but I thought it worked.

MCJ

Protected: BATTLEGROUND AMERICA

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BATTLEGROUND AMERICA by Jill Lepore

A bunch of my friends back home own guns. Over Spring break, one of my friends told me we would go to the shooting range by the end of the break. It never happened, although I did attempt to shoot a bow in his backyard (at which I failed miserably, unable to even pull it back). I’ve also seen one of my friends’ dad leave guns lying around in interesting places. These are just a few of my friends, not to mention a large portion of people from my high school that own guns.

MCJ

Protected: THE CARELESS LANGUAGE OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE

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THE CARELESS LANGUAGE OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE by Roxane Gay

Before I delve into the content of this well-written article, I would like to briefly explain why I chose to write about this piece. A few weeks ago (at least a month ago at this point), I was getting on the Market-Frankford Line in Philly after catching a show at Ortlieb's. While waiting for the train to arrive, a man sat next to me, and I started a conversation with him (yes, I-Kirby Sibiski-actually initiated a conversation with a stranger!). We talked from the time he sat next to me until I got off at Jefferson Station. While conversing, I asked him what brought him to the train station.

MCJ

Protected: Keep the Things You Forgot: An Elliott Smith Oral History

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Keep the Things You Forgot: An Elliott Smith Oral History by Jayson Greene

While I have been exposed to this article before (in Writing and Communications if I’m not mistaken), this was the first proper read through I’ve done, start to finish, of this piece. I’ll start by saying that my first exposure to Elliot Smith came in high school. The teacher of my creative writing class would sometimes play a song as we walked in the room for the start of class. After complimenting a track or two he played, he told me I should check out Elliott Smith. A few weeks later I listened to “Between the Bars” and I thought it was a really good song.