Friday, April 11, 2025

Take a peek behind the curtain and test drive the NEW StateNews.com today!

Features

FEATURES

Cake mix can turn hamburger into dessert

I was raised a meat eater. We liked steaks and ribs and all that kind of stuff. As a now-converted vegetarian, I’m quite happy with my existence in terms of food. As blasphemous as it may be for me to say, I am still human and sometimes there are things I crave. For me, one craving is a hamburger. To remedy this, I came up with the perfect antidote — a hamburger cake.

FEATURES

Freshmen fifteen Q's

College is a whole new world for many freshmen traveling campus for the first time. The State News sat down with one of these brave explorers to get a glimpse, in 15 questions or less, at a new face on campus and her perspective of her new frontier.

FEATURES

Pedicab works for tips, love of biking in E.L.

Wearing a black leather jacket reminiscent of Johnny Ramone, well-manicured facial hair and a big grin, Tony Benedict, owner of Pure Power Pedicab, is East Lansing’s one and only bicycle taxi. Benedict, an East Lansing resident and former paramedic, has been serving the East Lansing community since November 2008 with his human-powered mode of transportation.

FEATURES

Rolling on the river

The Michigan Princess has become the equivalent of the old-time bar in the Wild West to John Chamberlain. It’s the town hall, the bar, the restaurant and the wedding chapel — a place people like to gather. But the difference between the old-time bar and the Michigan Princess is that although the Wild West evokes images of deserts, horses and surly men in cowboy hats, the Michigan Princess, a paddle wheel steamboat, chugs along the shoreline of Lansing’s Grand River.

FEATURES

Brilliant Sky Toys fills void in Lansing shopping

When Brent Taylor decided to open Brilliant Sky Toys & Books, he and his wife had a very specific idea of what the concept behind their toy store was going to be. “We put a lot of focus on the aesthetic inside of the store and the interactive nature,” Taylor said. “It’s for kids to be able to play with and to play and touch and feel (the toys) before they buy them.”

FEATURES

Barbie: 50 and still fabulous

In her 50 years, she has run for president four times as an independent, had a total of 108 careers, cared for 50 pets and starred in 14 direct-to-DVD movies. She’s also been outfitted by 70 famous fashion designers, represented 50 nationalities and ended a 43-year relationship with her boyfriend, Ken, on Valentine’s Day 2004. To say it has been a wild ride for Barbie Millicent Roberts, or Barbie, would be an understatement.

FEATURES

Barbie's influence can be spotted around MSU

As a 7-year-old, I had an excellent sense of fashion. I would slip on a black slinky dress, complete with some realistic, but fake-looking, rhinestone embellishments around the neck, brush out a head of long blond hair, throw on a thick lining of blue around my eyes and top it off with a sexy pair of hot pink stilettos.

FEATURES

Weight issues

I don’t really have a question, I just want to make a statement. Could you please tell your readers that just because I am heavy, it does not make me fat. I am tired of people making snide remarks and laughing at my size. Why do people have to do this?

FEATURES

Freshmen fifteen Q's

College is a whole new world for many freshmen traveling campus for the first time. The State News sat down with one of these brave explorers to get a glimpse, in 15 questions or less, at a new face on campus and his perspective of his new frontier.

FEATURES

First Sparty straightens record

William Clitherow, a 72-year-old MSU alumnus, was frustrated that a 2007 State News article published about Sparty’s history gave inaccurate descriptions about how the mascot came to be. The now-defunct fraternity Theta Xi should have been given credit for creating Sparty and Clitherow should have been known as the original man behind the mask.

FEATURES

Monologue movement

This week, the letter ‘V’ has three meanings for a group of past and present students and community members — it stands for Victory, Valentine and Vagina. As a part of a global movement to end violence against women and girls called V-Day, a group of about 30 MSU students, alumni and faculty are putting on Eve Ensler’s award-winning play “The Vagina Monologues” this weekend at Fairchild Theatre.

FEATURES

Spring into style

There are few things in this world that we can count on to continually move forward. Fortunately — or unfortunately, depending on your outlook — fashion is definitely one of those things.

FEATURES

Use caution when running to stay healthy

If you’re looking to trim down that extra winter weight in time for spring break or to improve your cardiovascular health, running may be your exercise of choice. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends an hour and 15 minutes of vigorous exercise, like running, per week.

FEATURES

Cubcakes make adorable treat

There are two things I love above all other things: baby animals and baked goods. So, when I came across a picture of the adorably named Cubcakes, I jumped at the opportunity to personalize them to my liking and have a little bear cub forest of my own.

FEATURES

Acquiring dance skills part of coming of age

I couldn’t tell if she was trying to dance with me or if the room was crowded — an all too common problem in the throbbing masses of people dancing to blaring music. Growing up in metro Detroit and raised as a Polish Catholic, dancing was never a social skill that was emphasized or encouraged (see “Polka”).

FEATURES

Freshmen fifteen Q's

College is a whole new world for many freshmen traveling campus for the first time. The State News sat down with one of these brave explorers to get a glimpse, in 15 questions or fewer, at a new face on campus and his perspective of his new frontier.