What happens when your study abroad experience isn’t the one you wanted? After months away, Otto Fritton PZ ’27 picks up his abandoned column and reflects on the four months he spent in Reims, France. Between cooking with his host mother, playing soccer in the hail and galavanting in a couple of fields, Fritton realizes how hard it is to notice life while you’re still living it.
Arts & Culture
A Girl’s Guide to Terrible Men: Tony Montana’s fragile masculinity
In her latest column, “A Girl’s Guide to Terrible Men,” Bianca Mirica PO ’29 revisits the seductive excess of “Scarface” and the women who expose the insecurity beneath Tony Montana’s power.
Looking for New York: Is it finally time to ban Central Park’s iconic carriage horses?
The carriage horses in Central Park have been a part of the New York City tourism canon for over a century. But following the recent deaths of both a tourist and several carriage horses, it might be time to put the practice to rest. Arianna Kaplan ‘27 investigates the history of carriage horses in New York, and determines that the industry is an anachronistic nod to an imagined past, not a true representation of New York history.
Off the Shelf: K-Ming Chang reinvents Asian American narratives
In the second installment of her “Off the Shelf” column, Corina Yi PO ’28 reviews K-Ming Chang’s short story collection “Gods of Want.” Featuring cigarette-ad models coming to life, ghost-cousins, shape-shifting daughters, various nameless widows and nine-headed birds, the collection blurs the line between realism
A Girl’s Guide to Terrible Men: Men think they invented liking “The Godfather”
When columnist Bianca Mirica PO’29 was fourteen, her father decided it was time to watch “The Godfather” together. Years later, Mirica reflects on the iconic film’s male power dynamics, Al Pacino’s face card, and all of “The Godfather”’s unsung heroes — the women.
Audrey Between Frames: ‘The Boroughs’ contention with ageism is weighed down by Netflix banality
Audrey Green SC ’27 partially praises Netflix’s new sci-fi thriller “The Boroughs” for its novel concept. Moving past the script’s quippy nature and poor execution, the show was thematically provocative, especially for those with a deep-seated fear of being deemed nonsensical.
What Makes Us Human: Five things AI can’t replicate
In her first column, Kira Heller ’29 dives into her thoughts about what makes humans distinct amid the rapid growth of artificial intelligence. She uses Notre Dame’s DELTA framework to explore five human qualities that AI can’t replace: dignity, embodiment, love, transcendence and agency.
Looking for New York: Inside Canal Street’s illicit counterfeit market
On Canal Street in Lower Manhattan, one can find a Gucci bag for $60, a Knicks jersey for $30 and a Valentino fragrance for $15. Or at least, that’s what the vendors say. We know that the items are fake. But does it matter? Columnist Arianna Kaplan SC ’27 investigates the illegal counterfeit market in New York and examines the role of our purchasing power in the illicit counterfeit market.
The Writing Process: Narrative Space and the New York Knicks
What happens when a writer has too much good material? Otto Fritton PZ ‘27 returns with his not-so-weekly column, The Writing Process. In this edition, he covers Elmore Leonard, widely regarded as the master of crime pacing and dialogue. In “Get Shorty,” that tension manifests in Bo Catlett, whose unrealized potential becomes the novel’s most revealing loose end.
Looking for New York: A love letter to the rats of NYC
In New York, rats are everywhere. In Malibu, not so much. Why is it that we are so viscerally disgusted by rats, so instinctively opposed to their presence?