Author Archives: Scott Stern

This column is going to be about grammar. Don’t get too excited, now. Today I will discuss a national emergency — the complete deterioration of our ability to write well. Even at Yale I have experienced disdain for my love of grammar. When I told people of my interest in the freshman seminar “Grammatical Diversity »

The Occupy New Haven encampment has been having a hard time. Reports of infighting and crime on the Green coincide with city efforts to dismantle the site completely. On Monday, city workers took down the wooden barricades surrounding Occupy, calling them a fire hazard. Not to worry, though: Quinnipiac to the rescue! Not the school, »

On September 25, 2010, Luis Luna was arrested. His crime? Filming a police officer. Yes, when Luna used his iPhone to record several arrests being made on Crown Street by then-NHPD Assistant Chief Ariel Melendez, his phone was confiscated and he was placed under arrest. Melendez ordered another officer to erase the video on Luna’s »

Last weekend, Yale had more visitors than usual. Slightly confused-looking kids wandered around in herds, mostly staying close to Science Hill but occasionally straying into the heart of campus. They were here for Yale Engineering and Science Weekend (YES-W). The goal of YES-W is to impress prospective students by playing up Yale’s resources in science »

When you own a cow in Cuba, you can drink its milk, but you may not slaughter it, said Patricia Alejandro ’12, who was born in Cuba and is a member of Yale’s Cuban American Undergraduate Student Association. When they wanted to buy beef, Alejandro’s family had to pay 40 or 50 convertible units — »

For six and a half years, Margaret Lippitt, a student in the Yale Graduate School of Public Health, worked for an organization with a slightly jarring name: Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive. HIPS provides services including disease testing and support groups to prostitutes, intravenous drug users and other at-risk individuals. One of HIPS’s many services is »

Fewer than 45 minutes after Robert Bork was nominated to the Supreme Court in 1987, Senator Ted Kennedy stormed onto the floor of the Senate and gave one of the more passionate speeches of his career. Kennedy’s speech, forever known as “Robert Bork’s America,” discussed an America in which Robert Bork was a Supreme Court »

Remember Rick Perry? That tough-talking, gun-slinging, boot-wearing, job-creating machine from the Lone Star State? It turns out things haven’t been going too well for him. First he mumbled his way through the GOP debates, managing to sound loopier than even Michele “The MMR Vaccine Causes Autism” Bachmann. Then there were revelations about his unfortunately named »

As you walk into Yorkside Pizza, look to your right. On the wall, a little above eye level, you will see a framed magazine cover — the August 1998 edition of “Pizza Today,” which praises Yorkside. It’s been hanging there for over 10 years. On the cover of the magazine is a glossy picture of »

On a sunny and brisk Friday afternoon, Yale was invaded. The invaders came like marauding bandits, swarming in from all sides, armed to the teeth with cell phone cameras and winter clothing from home. I am speaking, of course, about our parents. First things first: It was great to see them. As a freshman, I’ve »

It’s still a little surprising to me how close Yale is to New York City. I’m from Pittsburgh, which — while not on the other side of the country or anything — is prohibitively far from the Big Apple. On Saturday, I took advantage of New York’s proximity for the first time. For one glorious »

We have a habit of canonizing the dead. Michael Jackson went from alleged pedophile to tragic god of pop music. Ted Kennedy went from heartless, manslaughter-committing politician to storied liberal lion. William F. Buckley is utterly idolized — across the country and particularly at Yale. Yale students across the board respect and admire Buckley for »