Student-run Brandeis meme page celebrates door week
Created on Feb. 17, 2022, the Instagram account @brandeis.chungles continues to bring joy to the Brandeis community. The anonymously-run meme page pokes fun and makes light of different aspects of the Brandeis campus. At the end of the fall 2022 semester, the account even organized and ran a full scavenger hunt, complete with clues scattered […]
Brandeis professor cited in article about reproductive health care for women with disabilities
Monika Mitra (HS), the Nancy Lurie Marks Associate Professor of Disability Policy and Director of the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy at the Heller School, recently spoke about reproductive healthcare for women with disabilities. In a recent Youth Today article, Mitra spoke on the barriers and difficulties women with disabilities face in accessing reproductive healthcare. […]
Is Jell-O actually good, or are we fooling ourselves?
This article is part of an ongoing collaborative column by Gonny Nir and Jamie Trope. In this column, the authors explore questions big & small, worthwhile & worthless, obvious & absurd, all for the humble pursuit of knowledge, truth and sanity (or lack thereof). Greetings, Gonny! First and foremost, I would like to […]
Why do I like art museums now?
For a long time, I have harbored a dreadful secret: I found art museums dull, boring and not as exciting as the more interactive museums. If someone would suggest attending an art museum, I would casually offer an alternate idea. “Why don’t we go to the natural history museum?” And now, I find myself inviting […]
Jelle’s Marble Rally Season 6: Race 4
For race four, there was again a slight headwind and the same sand condition (3/5) and weather condition (4/5) as there was for Race 3. The similar conditions could be of benefit to the marbles, who have already raced in this environment and may now know some tricks to overcome the previous hurdles. Commentator Greg […]
Jelle’s Marble Rally Season 6: Race 3
The sixth season of the marble sand rally is off to a fantastic start. Though there have been more marbles that did not finish (DNFs) than expected over the previous races, the marbles have made full recoveries and were back for another round. (Spoilers for Race 3 below.) The sand condition was a touch below […]
Whimsical mouse paintings and more: an interview with Stuart Dunkel
Like many people, I often find myself frequenting the Instagram Explore page, well, exploring. On one such occasion, I came across the sweetest post of an oil painting. The subject? A mouse. I was absolutely delighted to discover that the artist, Stuart Dunkel (@stuartdunkel on Instagram), focuses entirely on paintings of mice interacting with different […]
Jelle’s Marble Rally Season 6: Race 1
On Feb. 3, 2023, the first race of Jelle’s Marble Sand Rally Season 6 commenced. The course was in a more stable condition than what occurred during the qualifiers; Race 1 brought with it a sand condition of 4/5 and weather conditions of 5/5, with no wind in sight. The marbles were clearly ready to […]
How important are shoes?
This article is part of an ongoing collaborative column by Gonny Nir and Jamie Trope. In this column, the authors explore questions big and small, worthwhile and worthless, obvious and absurd, all for the humble pursuit of knowledge, truth and sanity (or lack thereof). Hello Jamie, Well, my first question is, who’s asking? […]
Jelle’s Marble Rally Season 6: Race 2
The second marble sand rally race took place on Feb. 10, 2023. Sand and weather conditions were rated at 4/5 and 5/5, respectively, consistent with the Race 1 conditions. (Contains spoilers for the results of Race 2.) The line-up, from 1-16, consisted of Silver Bolt (SBO), Cool Moody (CMO), Red Number 3 (RN3), Lollipop (LOP), […]
A long-awaited analysis of Edward Gorey’s ‘The Doubtful Guest’
From the darkened black cross hatching within its illustrations to purposeful and ominous poetry, “The Doubtful Guest” by Edward Gorey is a brilliant children’s book. Or is it? Indeed, this book may not even be for children, as Gorey’s publisher refused to publish the story in the children’s category. With a growing unease that rivals […]
Optimizing your bookshelf through data visualization techniques
Data visualization, most commonly associated with infographics and reports, concerns how a body of information is presented. Consider now how your bookshelf is a set of data with many different ways to organize and present it. Books, spanning genres, authors and time periods, at first spread across a bookshelf in an unorganized manner. The audience […]
Jelle’s sixth sand marble rally season: the qualifiers
Based in the Netherlands, Jelle’s Marble Runs is a unique athletic sport division. Teams of marbles race one another through perilous sand courses, Olympic games and “Marbula” One tournaments. To great excitement and anticipating, the sixth sand marble rally has finally commenced. (This piece includes spoilers for the qualifying races.) The qualifiers, aired on Jan. […]
Winter break book roundup and review
I have wanted to break out of the young adult genre for a while now. The stories have grown repetitive, and I cannot keep reading books about high school students. Over the past year, I have branched out into non-young adult genres with great success. However, it was over winter break 2022-2023 that I really […]
Prioritizing utility over swag?
This article is part of an ongoing collaborative column by Gonny Nir and Jamie Trope. In this column, the authors explore questions big and small, worthwhile and worthless, obvious and absurd, all for the humble pursuit of knowledge, truth and sanity (or lack thereof). Greetings Gonny! In one of our previous in-person discussions, […]
What’s in and out at Brandeis: spring 2023
New year, new you. With winter weather officially settled in on Brandeis campus, there are some things that are simply no longer fashionable, or are now “out,” as you will. That being said, some things have also become more in season, or are now “in.” Here is the official list of what is in and […]
The world needs more scratch patches
Do you want to purchase shiny rocks and stones by walking into a store and simply plucking them off of the shelves? No. You want to pay for a little plastic bag and scavenge like the hunter gatherer (emphasis on gatherer) you are. You want to fill up your little plastic back with shiny rocks […]
Top ten liminal spaces at Brandeis
A liminal space is a threshold of unease, a place that is somewhat uncomfortable to be in and yet could exist anywhere. Brandeis University hosts an astonishing number of these liminal spaces, and today, for all of the devoted Hoot readers out there, I will be ranking my top ten favorite liminal spaces on campus. […]
Lower Usdan’s ultimate creation: The bubble grilled cheese
At 6:05 p.m. on a Monday, I walked into Lower Usdan with one goal only: to eat dinner. Valiantly, I scoured the dining hall, scanning every nook and cranny for the sacred item for the Excalibur of cuisines: the grilled cheese. It was a simple desire—all I wanted was bread and melted cheese. But with […]
Everyone should attend an organic chemistry class
Back when I was in high school, it felt as though my science teachers were always announcing how difficult organic chemistry classes were in university. In 10th grade, my teacher would regale the students with stories of the fabled organic chemistry weed-out class and how more than 40% of students would drop the class by […]
