Last Wednesday, Russian television journalist Tikhon Dzyadko warned the Middlebury community about the similarities between Donald Trump’s behavior toward the American media and Vladimir Putin’s restriction of the press in Ru...
It is easy to discount “American Culture” as a loose, insufficient, reductionist term for the patchwork heritage of the U.S. As we all know, America is called a “melting pot” for a reason – this country is primarily...
“Oh, I’ve spent my time pondering my existence, contemplating life and death, wondering what it all means.” It’s the cliché joke about intellectuals – sitting around at a coffeeshop or a pub, discussing life’s bi...
The end of my second week in England is coming to a close. I have started getting into a routine. I finally know how to walk from my building to Oxford’s library. Research has dominated most of my days this week; I have buckled...
It’s been a hard winter and a hard spring semester. We grow restless as the cold weather drags on long into April, and we’re given only a few of the most tantalizing warm days to enjoy. Project upon test upon essay upon book...
Alright. Four guards patrolling the room to the right, one guard in an alcove to the left. Shoot forward and they’ll all come running. But I’m standing in a bottleneck, so I should be able to get all of them. Okay, let’s...
Often I find myself debating against people who argue that it is impossible to know the best way to live a life, or the best moral code, or the best way to understand the universe. More often than not, I find that Middlebury st...
It opens with a view of sand. Dark tan and flashing in the sun’s rays — this is clearly the desert. The camera pulls up and shows heatwaves emanating from the sparkling sand, and behind a hill the large sun beats down on the...