Category Archives: .edu

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Serial S2 E7-8 Recap: The Midnight Ride of Bowe Bergdahl

Posted on February 19, 2016 | 1 comment

Clearly Sarah Koenig does not read my blog because she opens episode 7 by saying “cootchie” five times, followed by the word “concocted.” Maybe podcasts seem like the type of medium that would attract a more sophisticated audience, but doesn’t Sarah Koenig know that her listeners’ minds are in the gutter? If Sarah Koenig read my blog she would also know that making two episodes of season 2 in one week (4x her bi-weekly promise) is unacceptable when Adnan Syed was on the stand a mere 200 miles south in Baltimore. Okay, I don’t think Adnan was ever technically put on the stand, but maybe I would know that if Sarah Koenig had stuck around to cover the rest of the hearing. Continue reading →

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The (Sur)real World: Charm City

Posted on February 12, 2016 | 1 comment

In the Netflix documentary Making a Murderer, an NBC Dateline producer says, “Right now murder is hot.” I’m not sure that this woman knows what “hot” means, because on the scale of things that are incredibly un-hot, murder falls somewhere between peach fuzz mustaches and amateur taxidermists. Murder trials are “in” right now, though. Just look at the success of Serial, Making a Murderer, and The Jinx.

From the beginning of Serial, Adnan Syed’s story has really resonated with me. Maybe it’s because I so value my freedom. Just kidding. It’s obviously because I have a soft spot for first-generation Americans (re: every boyfriend I’ve ever had). That’s probably why it has been so hard for me to adjust to season 2 of Serial. I’m not as invested in Bowe Bergdahl’s case. I miss the ole Woodlawn crew.img-Adnan-Syed-could-get-new-trial

But the gang got back together for Adnan’s hearing. It’s like a Real Housewives reunion. Hey, since Sarah Koenig didn’t stick around for the end of the trial, maybe Andy Cohen can host it. Continue reading →

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Serial S2 E5 Recap: That sounds like a personnel problem.

Posted on January 26, 2016 | Leave a comment

Think about your favorite hole-in-the-wall pizza place, the one you order from every week. Imagine that it suddenly becomes popular. You don’t even have to convince your friends to eat there anymore so that you have someone to talk to about it. They all love it as much as you do.

But then something changes. Maybe the chef can’t handle the pressure of millions of customers and takes on too big of a menu. Maybe the way she used to make the pizza was sort of illegal and now that she’s famous she has to follow the rules. Or maybe the pizza just doesn’t work without the ingredients she used last time. Either way, the quality isn’t as good as it used to be. When Thursday comes around, you aren’t even excited about your weekly pizza anymore. Sometimes it takes you a whole day to finish. Your friends are like, “Lucy, why did you make me order this? This pizza sucks!” You keep eating it anyway, though, in hopes that one week it will taste the way you remember it.

Then one Thursday morning–with no notice–you call to order your pizza, and they say that they’re only delivering every other Thursday now. The chef says she is going to start getting better ingredients from people who really know about pizza. The ingredients are going to be so good that it’s going to take her two weeks to collect them all. But she promises it will be worth the wait. Two weeks later, your pizza shows up. You wake up 30 minutes early so that you can walk to work and eat it during your commute. That’s how excited you are.

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Posted in .edu, Reel Life & Recaps, Serial

A Tree Froze in Brooklyn

Posted on January 24, 2016 | 2 comments

Alternate title: Snow Diggity

28: Hours since Mayor de Blasio declared a Winter Weather Emergency in New York City.

85 million: People in the path of Blizzard Jonas.

30: Inches of snow predicted in southern New York.

26.8: Actual inches of snowfall in Manhattan.

16: Emergency alerts on my phone from Notify NYC.

11: Texts from my grandmother asking if I’m alive.

500: People in line at Trader Joe’s on Friday night.

4: Free scones the guy at the coffee shop by my apartment gave me since they were closing early.

5: Minutes it took to regain feeling in my fingers after writing this.IMG_8803-1.JPG Continue reading →

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Posted in .edu, Just Life, New York

Serial S2 E3 Recap: Stuck in Nomad’s Land

Posted on December 25, 2015 | Leave a comment

Unanswered questions going into episode 3 of Serial:
1. Was Bergdahl ever actually at a kuchi tent?
2. Did Sarah Koenig put the Taliban on mute so she could laugh at the word “kuchi”?

“Did he just say ‘cootchie tent’?! Wait, Dana, do you want to drive around Afghanistan to see if it’s even possible to get from Mest to the cootchie tent in under 21 minutes?”

3. Should “kuchi tent” be a euphemism for something?
4. Do I have the maturity of a 12-year-old boy right now?
5. Is “Taliban” singular or plural?
6. Seriously, can someone help me with this one?
7. How did Bergdahl escape? Continue reading →

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Posted in .edu, Reel Life & Recaps, Serial

Serial S2 E2 Recap: You had me at Hilal

Posted on December 19, 2015 | Leave a comment

Since last week’s episode of Serial, there has been a new development in Bergdahl’s case. He is going to the general court-martial on charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, and he could face a life-sentence in an American prison. Koenig’s question is, has Bergdahl already been punished enough?bergdahl

My question is (still), how does Sarah Koenig know the Taliban? Is that a perk of working for NPR? Do you have contacts in most Islamic fundamentalist political groups? Continue reading →

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Serial S2 E1 Recap: Bergdahl, Don’t Be a Hero

Posted on December 12, 2015 | Leave a comment

It has been over a year since I learned about the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee through the Peabody Award-winning podcast Serial, yet certain details of the state’s case against Adnan Syed still eat away at me. I mean, who out there hasn’t woken up in a cold sweat over the Nisha call? Continue reading →

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Posted in .edu, Reel Life & Recaps, Serial

My 5-Step Guide To Boy-Girl Relationships

Posted on July 7, 2013 | Leave a comment

1. “A BOY?!”tumblr_inline_mo36mhanNT1qz4rgp

2.tumblr_inline_mk4e8sG72Q1qz4rgp
Continue reading →

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Posted in .edu, GIF, Salopes Aiment Ceci

Mot du Jour: Crasseux

Posted on December 9, 2012 | Leave a comment

Crasseux(-euse) (adj): grimy.

So my 17-yr-old host sister Anna and I are reading an article from the New York Times to practice our English/French, and Anna asks me what the word “grimy” means. Of course I decide to do this English lesson sans dictionnaire because I think that I am the master of all things French, and I say “Oh, grimy, ça veut dire grumeaux.” I go on to use les doigts (fingers) grumeaux as an example. Turns out grumeaux means lumps (plein de grumeaux means lumpy), so really I used lumpy fingers as an example, and crasseux means grimy, which is confusing to an American speaker because don’t grumeaux and grimy sound like presque the same mot?! And where does crasseux come from??
31565071 Continue reading →

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Posted in .edu, Mot du Jour

La Sorbonne 2.0

Posted on December 9, 2012 | 1 comment

As somewhere I go presque everyday, I feel like my first post about la Sorbonne didn’t do my experience justice. From the overcrowding to the language barrier, everyday is a new adventure strugfest…

When I'm on the metro, my anticipation building...

When I’m on the metro, my anticipation building…


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Posted in .edu, GIF, Paris