SPEAK UP!

I want to write in regards to the "controversy" that has presented itself in the past few entries. To be honest, its great. I'm glad people are writing comments and sharing their views. THIS IS A GOOD THING. If there is something that you disagree with, make yourself heard. Thats what this whole blog is about. We want you to speak up! Seriously, send us something. We'll put it up. Anything that matters to you.

-Outsider

I know this blog contains some heated issues but I have to ask that the comments be kept clean and professional. Please don't make any personal attacks or comment will not be published or even removed. If you take issue with a post WRITE YOUR OWN VIEW AND SUBMIT IT!!! If it is clean, we will post it. This site needs post created by the reader to continue to thrive. The site has more than a 1000 hits so people are reading. Come on I know someone has something to say and wants to put it in writing, WE NEED NEW POSTS.

- thanks for reading
A message from Spooky D

This post comes a bit late, perhaps after anyone can relate. But last week in the Acorn, i read an article on cosmetic medical procedures. The article was accompanied by a very good, but somewhat disagreeable, drawing of two women's profiles. One looked young and pretty, the other was old, wrinkled, and grandmotherly. The younger-looking face had arrows pointing to various parts that proclaimed "Botox injections" and "chin lift," while the elder face had things such as "50th anniversary" and other pleasant memories.
The article spoke about how the high standard of beauty in today's society is pusing people to try with all their might to look beautiful, and pondered why respect for our elders and the aged beauty and wisdom they posess is at a low. The article asks, "since when is beauty strictly physical?"
I say: "So what?"
Beautiful doesnt mean vain. Attractive doesnt mean unloving. Gorgeous doesnt mean inexperienced.
What's wrong with Botox? or a face-lift? or a boob job? Really, what's wrong?
Beauty can be on the inside, but the ouside is definitely a place beauty should reside. And as if physical beauty has only been put on a pedestal recently! The ancient Greeks were definitely on a level here, not to mention numerous other cultures.
But i digress.
What i really got miffed about was how the article trashed my life's work. You see, i'm at college to go to med school, and my dream is to become a plastic surgeon. And there's nothing wrong with that.
Also, you cant change the standard of beauty with a tyrade of dissent. You can try really hard, but all you'll ever get is mad. Fat is gross. Wrinkles are undesirable. Zits arent rising in popularity either. We have the technology to help people improve their self image and dramatically change lives for the better. And i have to ask: what's wrong with that?

-savagery&grace

Norovirus Strikes Campus

Norovirus has landed. This nasty virus has struck Fairleigh Dickinson and now the Drew campus. According to the CDC, the symptoms of Norovirus illness usually include

• Nausea,

• vomiting,

• diarrhea,

• stomach cramping

Sometimes

• low-grade fever,

• chills,

• headache,

• muscle aches,

• general sense of tiredness.

The illness often begins suddenly, and the infected person may feel very sick. In most people the illness is self-limiting with symptoms lasting for about 1 or 2 days. In general, children experience more vomiting than adults. Most people with Norovirus illness have both of these symptoms.

Treatment

Currently, there is no antiviral medication that works against Norovirus and there is no vaccine to prevent infection. Norovirus infection cannot be treated with antibiotics. This is because antibiotics work to fight bacteria and not viruses.
Norovirus illness is usually brief in healthy individuals. Those who are infected should drink plenty of fluids to prevent dehydration. Dehydration is the most serious health effect that can result from Norovirus infection. Sports drinks do not replace the nutrients and minerals lost during this illness.

I know one person who had all these symptoms. So BECARFULL all those out there beware
beware the virus it transmitted through touch and ingestion so wash your hands and don’t share food

- Spooky D

Its Comic Time

The Nutcracker is looking for funny comics , we need funny comics! So send in some those ideas or even better some of your comics

Heres one of a not funny comic, Click on the image to make it full size then post any comments

To Be Honest......

The V-Day movement is obnoxious. For anyone that doesn’t know, it’s some creepy cult’s plan to make Valentine’s Day into a celebration of female independence through vagina-empowering rhetoric and rape stories formulated to stimulate male guilt. The chief weapon employed by this fringe faction is known as the Vagina Monologues, and it is Eve Ensler’s (a militant lesbian vengeful over being abused by her father) episodic play in which some women get on a stage and say stuff about vaginas.

So I figured I’d get into the play, sit down, and sit fuming for two hours about all the bullshit the audience was being fed. But to my surprise, there wasn’t nearly as much of that as I anticipated. In fact, the whole ordeal was pretty un-evocative. I don’t mean just fury, I mean in general. I was actually quite pleased to discover that about two thirds of the play is potty humor.

Yes, there was some bullshit, obviously. Like in the monologue of the woman who gets all offended that no one’s invented a more comfortable tampon. Takes it personally that it’s uncomfortable to go to the doctor’s office. Thinks that it’s a conspiracy against women.It might have been a joke, but it was hard to tell.

And in all the stories about all the abuses men inflict. Every story about rape built up dramatically to it, putting the event on a pedestal from which it could be seen by all men, that they might feel ashamed. They sometimes seem even to go so far as to neglect touching on the woman’s trauma at being raped in favor of using the story to lash out against the male gender.

But for the most part, the Vagina Monologues was just some harmless fluff. Some gross-out anatomical descriptions, some crude references for shock value, some lame potty humor, some cutesy kid-babble, some stupid would-be poetry about the vagina as some sacred something-or-other. Final opinion: Skip it next time. It’s hardly even worth getting mad about.

-Enoch

FREE MUSIC!

Coming back to this whole "free shit on the internet" thing, we found a great program where you can download FREE MUSIC. Check it out Ruckus.com. Designed for college students, Ruckus allows you to download any of their 2.5 MILLION songs for free. The only catch is that you cant play it on itunes or through an ipod/mp3 player. Legally that is. Go to the website, download the player. Get music.

-Outsider

WHERE DID SHE GO!?

There is one question that I think has been at the back of many of our minds...

What happened to the cookie lady!?

Meeting with the Students for a Democratic Society

On Wednesday night, the 28^th of February, I attended a gathering – no, something much more – a passionate convergence of highly motivated and inspirational Drew University students; a convergence vibrating not only with a want and determination for a functioning democratic participatory system, but above all, vibrating with frequencies of peace, love and a desire to do good by bettering our campus and its inhabitants. If you have not already guesses, the meeting I attended, was a Students for a Democratic Society meeting. After an hour an a half of observing and conversing with the members of this group, I, myself, was inspired to produce a reaction to what I experienced which I present to you now.

The meeting adjourned at approximately 10:00 pm with students commenting around the circle what SDS was in their eyes. Newcomers like myself, of which there were a few, were also encouraged to comment on why they were at the meeting. I mentioned that having heard about SDS through several friends, I was there to learn more and also that I had sat in on an SGA meeting and now I wanted to sit in on an SDS meeting. The meeting then continued with the first topic on the agenda which was to discuss the execution of a police brutality workshop to inform students what they can and can’t say or do to Public Safety and police in general, as well as other information pertinent to DPD officers being dicks towards students.

Now I will not try to pretend that I am the most outgoing person on campus, nor that I am quick to make friends or even casual acquaintances, least of all as a newcomer in a group of people, the majority of which I have never met before, however I was almost shocked as how quickly I felt that my presences at the meeting was not only acknowledged, but what’s more, greatly appreciated. Forget for a moment the fact that SDS is a group of people aspiring to function as a truly participatory system which would required them to acknowledge every voice that speaks up. Throw this aside, and trust me when I say that this is a group of genuine, sincere, wholeheartedly caring and accepting people that want to be your friend. I truly feel as though I have just made a dozen now friends with whom I could go to right now and strike up a conversation with.

Now toss back into the salad the fact that all these real and caring people are gathering under one roof and you’ve got a band of powerfully compassionate people with vibrations of devotion and sincerity resonating together into one strong voice that deeply desires to bridge the gap between the administration and the students of Drew University.

I am seriously turned on and I want to hear more.

-Dan Bindschedler