It's time to get a few things off my chest. As a college student, there's nothing more relaxing than cozying up on the couch and checking out what's on the tube, or sitting in front of my computer surfing the Net for hours on end. It sounds lazy, but come on - we all do it.
When I first read the news of the pope's death on an away message Saturday, I immediately felt a sense of loss and relief.
Imagine how much more peaceful human history could have been if people kept religious beliefs to themselves. Jesus seemed to agree: "When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret" (Matthew 6:6). Many religious people live in general harmony with that wise advice.
Alan Anderson, Tim Bograkos, Chris Hill and Kelvin Torbert, I thank you. Thank you for your dedication to your university and to the team. Thank you for never giving up, giving in, becoming daunted or distressed. For four years you played with resolve.
St. Louis - What a guy. That says it all about MSU head coach Tom Izzo, who personifies everything you could want from a coach on and off the court. On the court, he is a fiery professional who stands up for his team when the situation calls for it, but he also is an extremely classy individual who shows the proper respect to the opposing team and its players. Off the court, Izzo has a larger-than-life personality, but that does not translate at all to his ego, which, like his team's, is nonexistent. Junior center Paul Davis calls Izzo's passion for the game unmatched and says that he wants to have just a piece of Izzo's passion.
It's Monday and, for most of us, that means returning to the humdrum of daily existence. For me, it means returning to life after one of the most surreal weekends ever. As a writer for The State News, I had the opportunity to cover post-game celebrations in East Lansing after Saturday's basketball matchup between the MSU men's team and the University of North Carolina.
It is great to see that The State News is excited about the issues that ASMSU is facing and what ASMSU is doing to affect the student body today and in the future.
The R-word. It has four letters and can be used in both verb and noun form to describe a particularly aggressive or hazardous manifestation of human emotion.
Before I even start, let me say this: I am not one of those vegetarians who lectures everybody they know about how eating meat is a cruel, inhumane and barbarous practice.
At one time, it seemed like the purpose of photography was to document social interaction, not create it. But as cameras find ways to stick themselves on almost any device, computers make sharing easier and people become obsessed with self-expression, creating interaction seems to be the norm. This notion came to me the other night when I was running around covering the hundreds of fans who were celebrating the MSU men's basketball team's defeat over the University of Kentucky.
It's more fashionable today to bash President Bush than to wear Ugg boots and a North Face jacket, but as much fun as I have reading and listening to all the criticism, another side of me wants to give the man credit where it's due. First and foremost, we are safer than ever.
One night, I was driving down a dark street where kids ran after each other to play tag. Their families sat on the porch talking comfortably, sharing a laugh and even a drink.
A player of this type does not come through the door often. In this day of shoe contracts, enticing multi-million dollar pro deals and selfishness, it is rare to see a player with the type of team dedication that will forgo personal statistics in order help his team to the highest level possible. But that is exactly what Alan Anderson has done his whole career for his head coach Tom Izzo. Anderson is a rare breed, someone who can effortlessly play any position asked of him and do it with the type of precision that makes him look like he was born to play it. After manning the point last season, Anderson was asked to move to - of all spots - power forward this season.
It doesn't matter whether nice guys finish first or last. The fact that guys actually are in the race is an accomplishment in itself. Remember the scene in "Waiting to Exhale" when Angela Bassett's character took all of her husband's possessions and set them ablaze in his BMW?
There is so much dissension and varying ways of thinking in the world, that I am not sure if we will ever smooth out all the wrinkles and come to any kind of peaceable middle ground.
What do a courthouse, a church and a school have in common - aside from being the foundations by which the law, spirituality and education are, respectively, delivered? All three are places you can get shot. Here, in this country, March Madness has taken a literal connotation. If you are clueless as to what I'm talking about, let me fill you in. On March 11, a man who had been charged with breaking into his ex-girlfriend's house and raping and sodomizing her repeatedly over a three-day period went on a rampage.
I am a closet romantic. Or at least I was until I just announced it to approximately 28,500 State News readers. And I'm going to defend myself before any self-proclaimed feminists start burning their bras in defiance of any chivalrous views I might have.
"No more homework, no more books. No more teacher's dirty looks." Headlines in recent news have completely coined a new meaning for this last phrase.
Sometimes it feels like I have a sign hung around my neck: Missionaries, this one's good pickings!
Not long ago, a random reader e-mailed that he'd grown weary of my joyless and monotone columns; he urged me to "lighten up" and write about something that made me happy.