Author Archives: Charles Gariepy

Fact: Getting points is always more fun then losing them. This applies to points of all types, really: points on an exam, points on the field (of love and war), finger points and Power Points. Personally, there’s nothing more exciting then being rewarded with a full set of points. Extra points are nice as well, »

If I talked as fast as a track star ran, would you call me an athlete? Suppose I weighed 5,000 lbs and couldn’t move in any other capacity, but I could talk faster than anyone in the world. The body-parts that produce sound in me would move faster than those of anyone else. The track »

I walked down Wall Street with a friend of mine yesterday evening. As we approached the street corner at College, my friend, who saw a Sprague Hall balcony hanging over the street, shouted out: “Oh, a balcony! Let’s climb all the way up there!” To which I responded: “No, dearest friend-of-mine, I shan’t do anything »

Imagine a rectangular room seeping with a damp mist. The inside of the room maintains itself at 105 degrees Fahrenheit. The front wall is covered in mirrors. It is densely packed with heaving, perspiring bodies succumbing to gravity’s supple entreaty, contorting with the capabilities of animals and writhing under the strain-induced tremor of their aching »

Once again, the picking time has come, and not a moment too soon. You can feel it in the air as a warm breeze, folding gently in the sun around bare arms and scarf-less necks. We’re picking strawberries and summer plans. We’re deciding whether it’s warm enough to wear flip flops and whether we’re going »

There was a blizzard on Monday, so it’s hard for me to write the words that will follow. But a little snow has never stopped me before; so onward! Onward to spring break! We’re all chomping at the bit. So pleasant is March, don’t we all think? Right after the bleak, cruel, skin-curdling February, March »

Anything that can be done clothed would be far more interesting if done in the nude. Let’s look at a particular case: taking notes in class. There’s a guy who sits next to you in an anatomy lecture that you sometimes attend. You don’t know anything about him outside of the fact that his handwriting »

I have been skiing only once in my life. Once. It was during a late 1990s winter on Beech Mountain in North Carolina. They call it the highest ski area in eastern North America. What a place, Beech Mountain! It was there, it that finger-snap of time in my life, that I formed the opinion »

Terrell Owens is my favorite actor — wait, professional football player. Same thing! I love to hear about him so much that I almost bought a nifty cap off his personal web site as a daily reminder of my devotion. The embroidered symbol is a wispy “T” overlaying a double-ringed “O” — a must-have, in »

By the time Super Bowl Sunday rolls around each year, the air has already chilled beyond understanding, Mardi Gras celebrations have begun and I begin to expect a few things: funny commercials, tasty snacks, big parties and a good halftime show. I remember in 1996, Diana Ross was clumsily yet magically flown off the field »

My suitemate can never get up in time for 10:30 French. But somehow, with a strange and unnatural enthusiasm, he awoke Sunday morning at 4 a.m. — a time that doesn’t exist to me — to catch the finals match of the Australian Open, the Grand Slam of Asia/Pacific, as it’s known. Priorities! When someone »

Held captive in a meeting that lasted all of Sunday afternoon, I missed the 3 p.m. kickoff. After I was released, I gripped my New Orleans Saints cap — I’d been carrying it with me all day — and bolted to the nearest television set. As I passed along the path that runs between JE »