 Grounding the electroshock revival.
By Marianne Moore
Spring 2008 [Number 1]
“a little dab’ll do ya...”
Two orderlies press down on his shoulders while a pretty nurse spreads conductant on his temples. He puts on a show of bravery, joking and cooperating, but when she shoves the rubber mouth-guard between his teeth, his brow contracts and he starts breathing hard. To show he’s not afraid, he hums loudly through clenched teeth, like John Glenn on fiery re-entry. The nurse holds his forehead and jaw between her palms while he seizes violently, his limbs thrashing against the restraints that pin him to the table. |
Inside the urban exploration of Cornell’s campus.By Rachel Ensign
Spring 2008 [Number 1]
For most, the different facades of Cornell buildings mainly recall vague notions of different time periods. There’s the austere Uris Library with its clock tower, harkening back to days when freshmen wore beanies and the school of Human Ecology was the school of Home Economics. There’s Malott Hall, suggestive of experiments of dubious morality from the ‘50s—reminiscent of the film A Beautiful Mind. There’s the engineering building, Duffield Hall, whose sterile interior dashed periodically with blood red makes it seem new and innovative, part of some very important present in which we use a particle accelerator to decode the true nature of the universe. |
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Celebrating 50 years of typographic hegemony.By Sarah Andrus
Spring 2008 [Number 1]
Helvetica: some have called it the perfect typeface, a masterpiece of graphic design that will never go out of style as long as man has a soul. Others have claimed that its conformist look promotes the evils of corporate-sponsored American foreign policy (yes, seriously). Most people would just say, “What’s Helvetica?” But you already know. |
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A comedian’s brief campaign as an exercise in postmodern politics.By Elliott Feedore
Spring 2008 [Number 1]
If I had a nickel for every time a journalist covering the presidential campaign said, “We want to focus on the important campaign issues rather than on personalities,” I’d be rich enough to buy out NewsCorp. Even respectable journalists and credible news sources harp on the campaign trail melodrama, treating polls as prophecy and the inter-candidate conflicts as plot twists in soap operas. |
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Innuendos abound as fans append favorites.By Helen Havlak
Spring 2008 [Number 1]
FF. Slash. These are the terms of the underground genre of fan-fiction. You might even be one of the millions of fan-fiction addicts scattered across the Internet. Right now, fans across the globe are logging on to their favorite fan-fiction forums, where they are reading and posting an endless array of derivative stories that touches on virtually all fiction, both the “classics” and pop-culture alike. In effect, they are revising their favorite works to incorporate their own visions of what should happen in a world where writers are not restricted by a publisher’s decisions. |
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Sildenafil citrate, more commonly known as Viagra, turns 10.By Andrew Wolf
Spring 2008 [Number 1]
“Oh, there are also some reports of penile erections,” said a minor clinician running trials on a new treatment for angina, a form of heart disease. This simple observation erected a giant, bulging profit amounting to $1 billion in just its first year on the market, all packed into a little blue pill which entered the national folklore by the name Viagra. |
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and a very merry V-Day to you.By David Bower, Emily Cergol, Allison Fischler, Stephanie Meissner, and Laura Phillips
Spring 2008 [Number 1]
Dear Jennie,
I love how droplets of sweat settle on your upper lip when it’s hot out. I love the adorable way the fat under your chin jiggles ever so slightly when you laugh, and how crescents of dirt form under your fingernails at the end of the day. The sound of your laugh is like music to my ears, like the screech of a cicada in heat or the brakes on my '88 Volvo. Your scent—wet dog, but in a good way—drives me wild with desire. Scrumptiously sturdy and preciously pungent, you are my darling wittle hippopotamus.
Smooches,
Billy Bob |
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Just when you thought the nightmare was over...By Elliott Feedore, Laura Phillips, Heather Pusey, and Joel Dankwa
Spring 2008 [Number 1] |
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