Gawker
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trendwatch
Privileged Elites Offer Each Other Helping Hands
The players: Manhattan media playboy Jared Kushner's younger brother Joshua (pictured); Harvard students; rich people; and NYT faux-trend specialist Allen Salkin. It's a case where both an idea and the meta-coverage of the idea are equally enraging! More »
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Comment by FrozenHaddock: Wouldn't posting on craigslist's erotic services accomplish the same thing--probably much more effectively? "18 year-old Harvard student seeking endowment from... 2 Responses | Other threads
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ivy league
Let's Talk About That Harvard Murder and Race
So, a young black man is murdered on the Harvard campus by another young black man; a black female Harvard student is kicked off campus as a result, and charges racism. Can you spot the elephant in this Ivy room? More »
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Comment by Oh No You Di'int: If I were a student at Harvard I'd stay far away too, being white or black or any other race.... 19 Responses | Other threads
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ivy league
Dumpster-Diving Townies Menace Princetonians
Princeton was on lock down because somebody saw somebody walking around with a gun! But now the "all clear" has gone out. It was just drunk dumpster-diving townies threatening the Ivy Leaguers with a squirt gun, as usual: More »
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Comment by Private Hangnail: Where I come from, underage Townies wander in packs armed with assault rifles. They drink a thick liqueur distilled from... 7 Responses | Other threads
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the rich
Stereotypical rich boy Jared Kushner is helping needy college kids get loans! Harvard kids only.
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ivy league
Monster Rats Pouring Out of Harvard
Are you aware that rats "big enough to put saddles on" are currently streaming out of Harvard University's secret underground science experiment cave, in record numbers? We thought you should know. More »
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Comment by naugahydeinplainsight: Sounds like an episode of Fringe. What would Walter make of it all? (Does anyone else watch that show? The... 5 Responses | Other threads
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kids these days
High school kids' top "Dream schools": Stanford, Harvard, and Columbia. Frat Party Aspirations Fail.
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Nerdery
Harvard Faces Day Without Pi
Today in Ivy League math event news: Harvard has canceled its annual digit-reciting extravaganza "Pi Day." Despite last year's "pretty crazy" pi blowout: More »
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Comment by Smitros: Everyone must have been geeked out in a very wide radius. 5 Responses | Other threads
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ivy league
Yalie Demands $1 Million for Lost (Magic) Xbox
Yale junior Jesse Maiman is suing US Airways for $1 million because his Xbox came up missing from his checked baggage. Excessive? Not when you consider that Xbox saved his friend's very sanity. More »
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Comment by Sarcastro: I never thought I'd type this, but I really wish I were still living in New Haven. 5 Responses | Other threads
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shut up, college
Keith Olbermann Now Just Andy From The Office
Which I guess makes Ann Coulter... Angela? See, here he is pointing to his Cornell Diploma in order to settle some ridiculous argument. So this is what he'll do without George Bush to kick around!
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By PareeneComment by PrettyNotPretty: Wait, people actually frame their diplomas? I thought that was just something doctors did so you can make sure they... 15 Responses | Other threads
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ivy league
College: Still Not Safe For Nerds
Salacious college gossip site JuicyCampus is going out of business. You'd think collegians would learn to be polite! But here's "cool" blog IvyGate, calling this nice article the "nerdiest story of the day." That's mean: More »
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Comment by tunamelt: Model UN is real? I thought that was some joke thing from like, Saved by the Bell. 7 Responses | Other threads
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shut up, college
Harvard Needs a Bailout!
According to financially troubled magazine US News & World Report, the best college in the world is financially troubled Harvard, whose endowment has "suffered investment losses of at least 22% in the first four months of the school's fiscal year," according to the Wall Street Journal. Turns out all those colleges investing in real estate and private equity and commodities was only a brilliant idea for like ten years. This is a loss of $8 billion! So now the endowment is only like $29 billion. Is the Ivy League too big to fail? More »
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By PareeneComment by partyatthemoontower: I never understood the stuffwhitepeoplelike entry on the Ivy League until I started reading Gawker. 3 Responses | Other threads
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shut up, college
Fancy Colleges Hocking Their Diamond-Ring Endowments
Ever get to the point at the end of the month where you thought about putting something in hock to shore up extra cash? That's what colleges are doing, especially the multibillion-endowed Ivies who have invested in the types of things that there is "no public market for," explains the New York Times. Now that the economy's tanked, the result is that schools—especially billion-dollar-endowed Ivies—are short on money. They're desperately trying to sell off some of these investments for only half of what they'd get under normal circumstanes. “It is a little like having to go to a pawn shop,” said one university endowment manager who said its policy is not to discuss performance publicly. “People don’t want to admit they have to sell this stuff." More »
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By SheilaComment by ADismalScience: The fact that illiquidity is causing irrational short-term investment decisions just isn't funny, Sheila. You should be fired. 4 Responses | Other threads
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shut up, college
How To Make Fun Of College Kids
As I was journalistically perusing the internet last night, I came upon an entry in a web log ("blog") that tickled my ol' funny bone. It seems that well-off Ivy League students at Princeton University are participating in short role-playing games in order to "experience the virtual realities of poverty." "Quite unlikely!" I scoffed. Do I detect a prime opportunity to make fun of college kids? Why, this one is straight from the textbook!:
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Comment by raesanni: Hey hey now. I agree this is a stupid exercise, but I take exception to the notion that all Ivy... 12 Responses | Other threads
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shut up, college
Ivy Students Forced to Give Back to Community Due to Recession
While Ivies like Harvard, Princeton, and Yale are bleeding endowment money in the market downturn, their graduating seniors are facing a decimated job market upon graduation. What to do? "Prompted by inequalities in American society—or sensing that the economic crisis limits their short-term career opportunities—young people are applying in force to such organizations as Teach for America," reports the Columbia Spectator. It's amazing how altruistic the unemployed can get! "With many top firms in jeopardy, Columbia students who in other years would have landed prestigious internships or six-figure jobs are simply out of options." And now they will have to resign themselves to two years of teaching poors, where they will annoy people ad nauseum about how much they "learned" after they finish the program. More »
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By SheilaComment by bigleggedwoman: That photo looks like it contains eight images of the same guy, wearing different shirts. 3 Responses | Other threads
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ivy league
Ivy League Losing All Of Its Precious Money!
Hey Ivy League students, did you think that the walls of the Ivory Tower would shelter you from this global financial crisis? Figured you'd be able to continue pulling in your financial aid and frolicking in your school's brand new buildings full of fancy professors who teach one class per year and spend the rest of the time writing little-read books? Think again! Because it looks like even the mighty Harvard is losing billions in the current market downturn. More billions than you might expect: More »
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Comment by ADismalScience: This post is dead fucking wrong on Harvard at the very least. PE sub-funds held by Universities are different than Endowments.... 11 Responses | Other threads
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ivy league
If Only We Had An Ivy Leaguer In The White House...
Oh, good one. The smaller text on this ad (for a website that sells college info) gives all of Barack and Michelle Obama's Ivy League credentials. The payoff line: "From Bush League to the Ivy League." See, everything's better now that Ivy League grads will be in charge! Except that George W. Bush went to Yale and Harvard. Taste the failure, Ivy League. Failure of all you stand for. Click for the big version. [via Adrants] More »
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Comment by Triborough: Given the track record of Ivy Leaguers in the White House, common sense says to avoid electing them. 12 Responses | Other threads
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shut up, college
Taxes Cause Death of Institutions
Everyone's forgetting to pay their taxes these days—from gay club Mr. Black to every celeb (especially Wesley Snipes) to private men-only Harvard clubs. Don't they know that you can conveniently pay your taxes online? It's easy! Notice a pattern here: it's men who are bad at paying their taxes. [Crimson]
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By SheilaComment by hatey: I mention only in passing: 'men WHO are bad at...' Please? Thanks. 1 Responses | Other threads
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events
McCain, Obama to Share Elitist Stage on 9/11
No plans for 9/11 day yet? Why not enjoy Barack Obama and John McCain at Columbia, one of those Elitist East Coast Ivy League Colleges of The Elite, where they will talk about civic duty for "ServiceNation, an organization that aims to increase public service participation." You know, "public service participation" like "community organizing," which, as we all know, is gay and elitist and not something seriously important like shooting wolves from airplanes. Anyway. We assume Obama will talk on behalf on public service and McCain will become confused and angry and speak against it. [CollegeOTR]
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By PareeneComment by Kid Twist: I predict that McCain will be greeted by vitriolic protests from the same people who warmly welcomed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. 4 Responses | Other threads
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ivy league
Her Royal Highness Of Princeton
Hey everyone, IvyGate would love to introduce you to a charming new member of Princeton's incoming class, one "Stephany Her RoyalHighness" of Facebook. Probably DYING to escape the sweltering heat and unwashed rubes of Plano, Texas, Stephany has penned something of a manifesto for her freshman year, and posted it to the Princeton 2012 Facebook Group. Sure, it's a wildly elitist piece of work, starting with "do not let ANYONE tell you that you are not better than them, because you are," and continuing on to, "You have deserved this. You are Hitler the fourth, Alexander the Great the Second, Napoleon the Fifth, here to destroy the world we know." But also, and perhaps more importantly, it's a sort of cartoon Ivy League elitism as plausibly imagined by someone from a politically conservative Republican family in a place like, say, Plano, Texas. So maybe the post is a mocking satire? Or an escapist fantasy? You try figuring it out:
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shut up, college
Grads From Same Six Colleges Making Money, Feeding Their Souls
Grads of the same six schools that everyone went to (as famous novelist Keith Gessen once said) are doing pretty well in terms of earning power, reports Business Week. "...Graduates of prestigious institutions, especially Ivy League universities, earned the biggest salaries... 'The happiest and richest people look for schools to help them develop their talents in whatever field that owns their soul,' says [Washington Post columnist Jay] Matthews, who graduated from Harvard." May we suggest a semi-well-paying career that you probably haven't thought of that might feed your soul even more? (No, it's not blogging—that destroys it.) More »
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By SheilaComment by Miss Pontificating: Why have not the companies of this county learned that they can do better than just Harvard. Is it the... more » | Other threads
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love like anthrax
Anthrax Babes' Lament: 'We're Boring!'
Bruce Ivins, the scientist who killed himself after the government linked him to the 2001 anthrax attacks, reportedly loved sorority girls. As all Americans do! He was supposedly obsessed with the Kappa Kappa Gamma sisters of Princeton. Now, as you can imagine, those girls are fielding a lot of media requests. They don't get it, though! As a sister writes to IvyGate: "i dont really get why he would be so interested in Kappa…i mean of all the sororities on campus we are the most diversely boring…and also the most unworthy of obsession." Regardless of whatever the hell "diversely boring" means (Ivy League education!), surely there's something interesting enough about these ladies to encourage a man to commit bioterrorism, right? We may never know, if these Facebook messages imploring everyone to keep silent are effective. More »
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By PareeneComment by ohnothimagain: Coming from Regan Books: "Dr. Ivins Can't Say That, Can He?" More musings of a "mad" scientist... Sequel to... more » | Other threads
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class warfare
Harvard Prof Tired of Rich Students, Like Jared Kushner
We just discovered this recent gem from the Times Higher Education. A certain Harvard professor is tired ofbabysittingteaching those "post-pubescent children of notables" who can buy and sell him! Especially Jared Kushner, son of real estate developer Charles Kusher—also known as the boy who bought the New York Observer. Professor John H. Summers recalls him as a student—which was not that long ago, as Kushner is 27. The juicy bit? Kushner's Observer takeover resulted in a pay cut for Prof Summers, who did freelance reviews there. More »
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By SheilaComment by janjapuddle: This guy was not a history professor at Harvard. He was a tutor and lecturur, and he only worked there... more » | Other threads
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shut up, college
The Ivy League's Diet Maven
Daphne Oz, Princeton '08 and author of the freshman-15 battling book, The Dorm Room Diet, also put out an awesome workout video. The perils of gaining a couple pounds must be fought tooth and nail, says the daughter of frequent Oprah guest Dr. Mehmet Oz. Click for the gayest workout video of our time, starring Daphne's ex-boyfriend (says Ivygate) and sister. (Lessons: the "dorm-room workout"? It's Pilates. But never underestimate the power of a connected parent in publishing.) More »
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By SheilaComment by raincoaster: So totally NOT the gayest workout in the world. Confession time: I love this man. I was BORN to be a... more » | Other threads
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priya venkatesan
Student-Suing Prof Wrote a Lame Senior Thesis
Former Dartmouth lecturer Priya Venkatesan famously tried to sue all her students for being mean to her. Now, as a researcher at Northwestern, she's probably less likely to have her academic feathers ruffled by entitled little Ivy frosh retching at talk of power structures. But she does still have to deal with their student newspapers digging up embarrassing things about her. Embarrassing things like... her senior thesis. It's called Montaigne and Macbeth: Rebellion, Gender and Patriarchy in the Renaissance. Of course. More » -
ivy league
Fancy Harvard Mag Gets New Downmarket Owner
For some reason we thought 02138—the annoyingly named pretend Harvard alumni magazine that proclaimed itself Vanity Fair for people who went to Harvard and wished to read a second, inferior Vanity Fair each month—had already been shuttered by Atlantic Media. Well, it's alive. Tiny, unknown Manhattan Media (they own the New York Press and some things you've never heard of) bought the magazine from Atlantic Media for an undisclosed price. The publisher will remain cofounder Bom Kim (for now), but Manhattan Media has decided to expand the brand into—wait for it—social networking. Then they will introduce new versions of the magazine for every other Ivy League school, because if there's a group of people who don't have enough media outlets to write for, it's Ivy grads. Amusingly, the Manhattan Media press release announcing the deal leaves out their only existing holding anyone remembers reading: the embarrassing second-string alt-weekly New York Press. That release after the jump, along with a selection from this week's Press "guest sex columnist." [NYT] More » -
priya venkatesan
Everyone Passes Student-Suing Prof's Class!
Finally, some good news for the students Dartmouth lecturer Priya Venkatesan (we can spell her name without looking it up now! Christ!) tried to sue, or is maybe still trying to sue, or who at the very least will soon end up in her tell-all book. The writing class they took with her last semester is now retroactively pass/fail! School officials "reviewed the grades she gave to students in the Winter term and have concluded that they were not consistent with the feedback that she provided to the students." So said Associate Dean Lindsay Whaley, who will now be added to the lawsuit, in the court of make-believe. [Dartmouth Review] -
priya venkatesan
Welcome to Northwestern, Student-Suing Prof!
Former Dartmouth lecturer Priya Venkatesan, the woman who threatened to sue her students for being mean to her and not caring about post-modernism, is now a research associate at Northwestern. She'll definitely end up with plenty of material for her forthcoming book at NU, especially because the blog College On the Record has already published her email address and invited students to harass her. Venkatesan declined to speak with the Wall Street Journal when they wrote that terrible op-ed about the situation, saying she'd said all she needed to say to The Dartmouth Review (and boy, did she). And today, the Harvard Crimson weighed in! More »
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By PareeneComment by Northwestern: true. an example of how we evaluate some of our professors: [media.www.dailynorthwestern.com] more » | Other threads
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pompous tools
Student-Suing Professor Roundly Disliked
Now it's official: everyone involved in any capacity with the Priya Venkatesan affiar annoys the hell out of us. To recap, Ms. Venkatesan was a Dartmouth lecturer who decided to sue her students for harassment or something because they heckled her. She is clearly a pompous tool. Her students are also probably pompous tools. Now a pompous tool who writes for the Wall Steet Journal editorial page weighs in with an indictment against academia. Joseph Rago attended Dartmouth, you see, though he totally didn't like it very much and didn't even try very hard in his classes. Because of post-modernism. Writing papers for lit classes is just like "filling in Mad Libs," he explains. Writing indictments of academia for the Wall Street Journal editorial page, on the other hand, is more like Pictionary. After the jump: amusing student reviews of Venkatesan's class from an internal Dartmouth page. The kids didn't really like her!
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By PareeneComment by quinticire: If she gets fired, she'll scream post-feminism or post-racism. more » | Other threads
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scandal
The Decaf Deception: Yalies Rail Against Sleepy Sneak
The Yale Daily News has uncovered a bombshell: The University Dining Services-operated Thain Family Cafe secretly replaced its caffeinated espresso with decaf beans. They've been serving useless, unstimulating brown water to caffeine-fiending students since April 15, with no intention of revealing the ruse. This scrappy student paper got their hands on the documents that prove it: "An unsigned letter received by the News last week included a supposed photocopy of a Thain Café logbook entry from Feb. 29 that reads: 'We will also run out of reg. espresso and French roast most likely—secretly use decaf espresso to substitute the espresso—for the French, I don't know—I think we'll just have to be out.'" Cafe Manager Brian Yezierski denied the charges. But! Journalism! More »
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By PareeneComment by BlinkyMcChuck: Uh, at least five of those kids are going to sue over reduced performance during the important end of semester... more » | Other threads
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cheap shots
Dartmouth's Dearth of Dictionaries
Dartmouth Dean of First-Year students Gail M. Zimmerman, in an email to students threatened with a lawsuit by Priya Venkatesan:Questions arose as to our ability to block Prof. Venkatesan's emails. Whether that ability exists or not, it would not likely stop her emails from reaching your inbox given the dearth and ready availability of other free email systems such as hotmail, gmail, and yahoo.
Ah, yes. The "dearth and ready availability" of free email addresses. You never cease to impress us, Ivies! [Dartlog via IvyGate] -
priya venkatesan
Ivy League Lawsuit Update
In case you hadn't heard, Dartmouth lecturer Priya Venkatesan has dropped the discrimination lawsuit she inexplicably filed against her former students. Hopefully it'll still all end up in the book! (Complete with thinly-veiled Gawker, if we're lucky.) Venkatesan is now a research assistant at Northwestern, btw. [Dartlog]
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By PareeneComment by mrtrailsafety: You mean this isn't a 'performance' art piece, like Ms Shvarts'? I saw the blood, vaseline...no disrespects. more » | Other threads
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books
Keith Gessen Defended by Former n+1 Helper
Oh noes! Someone at the Spectator, Columbia University's student paper, wrote a negative review of literary mag n+1 editor Keith Gessen's novel, All the Sad Young Literary Men. Now another Columbia kid, Mark Krotov, is coming to the rescue! Wait for the disclosure: "I have done a little work for Gessen and his magazine, which has a very low circulation rate." NEG! Is it just us, or is Keith's entire world very incest-y? More » -
lawsuits
Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her
A Dartmouth lecturer is suing her class for discrimination, as she revealed in a series of regrettable and bizarre emails that promptly ended up all over Dartmouth blogs. Priya Venkatesan (Dartmouth '90, MS in Genetics, PhD in literature) emailed members of her Winter '08 Writing 5 class Saturday night to announce her intention to seek damages from them for their being mean to her. The email, and so, so much more, below:
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By PareeneComment by AdjunctingSucks: Amazing. She has a PhD in English, yet keeps revising her revised emails in order to revise how much she... more » | Other threads
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shut up, college
Yet Another Disturbed Ivy Leaguer
This week's f-ing crazy Ivy Leaguer is from Princeton. (Finally, someone taking the heat off Yale!) A frosh, previously kicked out of school, has been charged with "kidnapping, aggravated assault, endangerment of an injured victim and making terroristic threats." Specifically, he beat up his pregnant ex-girlfriend, although without using his hands: "'he is a pianist' and did not want to injure his fingers." [Daily Princetonian] -
shut up, college
Weirdest Grossest Abortion Art Project Ever
For every genius the Ivy League cranks out, there are a few duds. Reports the Yale Daily News, art major Aliza Shvarts artificially inseminated herself "'as often as possible' while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood..." Sounds awful! Plus: we were not aware that one could auto-artificially-inseminate outside a clinical setting. But we must all try to be sophisticated: what is the statement? Oh, she wants to "spark conversation" about art, the human body, etc. Mission accomplished! Consider the conversation officially sparked. [Yale Daily News]
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By SheilaComment by Buzz Killington: @maevemealone: No, lots of people are pro-abortion. I know girls that have had multiple abortions and don't think twice about... more » | Other threads
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how things work
Because Diamonds, Like MBAs, Are Forever
We always had a feeling that the ruling class had little workshops that they kept from the proles: which forks to use, how to keep your hair shiny and blonde, etc. "Secrets about islands, about horses, about French pronunciation," as Jay McInerney wrote. Well, they do! Harvard Business School's Luxury Goods Club will teach you how to purchase your first diamond. More »
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By SheilaComment by DonPardoCalrissian: @they_live: Oh yes, you'll note the time progression. These are post-1876 Republicans. more » | Other threads
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scandal
The Facebook Wall of Yale Imposter and Smitten Gay Lover
Akash Maharaj faked his way into Yale and was ultimately brought down by his vindictive Latin lover, Skull and Bones member Victor Cazares. Theirs was a torrid affair, we can only assume, filled with explosive fights and banal Facebook Wall postings, IvyGate reports. These Facebook Wall notes are notable both in their level of obsession, and as a window into the minds and unique courting rituals of the MySpace Generation. "Wait. if you're 'studying with victor,' why aren't you here?" More » -
urban anthropology
Let's Take Over the Private Fancy Clubs!
There are lots of membership-only oak-paneled private clubs in this city, former Gawker Joshua Stein reports in Page Six magazine. And you're probably not a member! But why not? There's been a thinning of the (dues-paying) herd lately: the olds who run and populate the places are "dying off." In order to attract youngs, they're going absolutely wild: "relaxing dress codes, holding mixers, staying open past 10 pm." Sounds stuffy, but... how would you like the cushy surroundings of your very own private club? More » -
The Blogosphere
How You Fanned the Flames of Ivy Fraud Fallout
Sure, Akash Maharaj—the 26-year-old Trinidad-and-Tobagonian who lied his way into Yale and was snitched out by his jilted ex-boyfriend—is only the latest in a long line of fraudy fraudsters to bamboozle the Ivy League institution. But the big deal? He's the first one to do it in the Internet Age. Now it's a big, stinking pile of mess, and Yale blames you!
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Comment by BlinkyMcChuck: This is like how Abu Ghraib is the media's fault too. Oh, media. When will you stop with all the looking?... more » | Other threads
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ultimate guide
The Strange World of Yale Imposter (Now with Photos!)
What do we know so far about fake Yalie Akash Maharaj? First, that his ex-lover is the one who brought down his ruse. Second, that the ex in question may be Victor Cazares, thought to be a member of the secret society Skull and Bones. Third? We have a pic of the jilted Cazares (see left), and he is definitely wearing a pink bunny (or kitty?) hat. However, bunny hats and duping Ivy League universities may only be the tip of this crazy iceberg: More »
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By SheilaComment by hipstergirl: @Grantstomb: um, in your 7:23 pm post on 4/13/08, you wrote, "But I know him. And once the stories came out,... more » | Other threads
ivy league
New York, 6:57 AM
Fri Jul 10
44 posts in the last 24 hours
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
