Alyssa Work

“Thanksgiving,” I was informed the other day, “is the only pure holiday left.” In at least one sense, this is true. A day set aside for giving thanks — to your local turkey farmer, to God, to your per…

'Stage Beauty': Curiously pure film magic

In light of the numerous contradictions in “Stage Beauty,” the film has absolutely no business being as good as it is. The script teems with a cleverness that often digresses into the nonsensical; the…

Where did you watch?

“Scrubs” was on. So was the opening night of the NBA. But for the hundreds of Swarthmore students crowded Tuesday night around big screens, small screens and computer screens alike, there was no b…

Get in the spirit! 'Ween at Swat

The crunch of dead leaves underfoot on the walk across campus. The overnight appearance of orange streamers and sparkling pumpkin décor in Sharples. The last-minute sprint down Chester Avenue to Goodw…

Erotic Swat magazine revived with big bang

“What could be more universal than sex?”

Nothing, thought three Swarthmore students, and so they embraced that common thread and set out to form a new erotica magazine, ! mag.

“Bang mag,” as the m…

Hi, I live in Dukakis

It may be, technically, the newest dorm on campus, but the building formerly known as the “New Dorm” will soon be known by another moniker.

With a $6 million contribution by an anonymous donor cap…

Alumni-tastic!

After four years of South Street visits, restaurant-sampling and theater-going, plenty of Swatties decide to live in Philadelphia when they get into the real world. In fact, five hundred and twenty-se…

Seeking cash and glory at the poker table

It’s after midnight. Silence fills a darkened room as hardened gamblers peer over racks of cards, trying hard to decipher their opponents’ every glance. A stack of chips sits in the center of the tabl…

Getting the rubdown with SMUTers

After a long day of classes, meetings, athletic contests, studying, reading, and more reading, what Swattie wouldn’t enjoy a foot massage, some acupressure, or even a full-body rubdown?

For stressed…

Jealous yet? Students lovin' life in spacious New Dorm

The grass may not be greener at the New Dorm — construction workers are still in the process of landscaping and dust is the primary groundcover at this point — but the walls are certainly whiter, the …

Postmortem voyeurism at the Franklin Institute

Tell someone about the new “BodyWorlds” exhibit at the Franklin Institute Science Museum this fall, and you’ll get one of two reactions: a horrified recoil or an immediate “When can we see it?” The ex…

Thousands of murals are bright spots around Philly

Walk around the city of Philadelphia for a little while and eventually you’re bound to stop, look up, and marvel at what you thought was just a bare wall of a drab apartment building. More than 2,500 …

Worth vs. Flu: No-holds-barred germ warfare

Been sick since January? Makeup case being overtaken by medication? Have your hallmates forgotten what you look like and refer to your room only as the “typhoid pit?” Worry no more — good health is ju…

A wee bit o' Gaelic goodness

If you woke up this morning with the pitter-patter of tiny shoes doing a jig on your pillow ringing in your ears, a craving for boiled potatoes and salt, and the sneaking suspicion that those little b…

Exhibit explores found art as way of retelling history

“Book Art as Witness,” an exhibit by New York-based artist Maureen Cummins, is now on display in McCabe Library. “Witness” incorporates text from found personal and public documents — historic papers,…

Love is just around the corner

There’s Valentine’s Day romance, traditional-style. It’s extra-dark Godiva chocolates that are gone too soon, leaving nothing but a teasing photo on the box. It’s months-in-advance reservations at ove…

Singing in the sunlight

As the final rays of daylight filtered into Lang Concert Hall last Sunday, Dawn was just beginning: Dawn Upshaw, that is. In a concert that brought an audience of Swarthmore students, faculty, communi…

Asian artists display at Kitao

Photos, pottery and painting, along with other art forms by Asian students at Swarthmore are on display at Kitao Gallery this Thursday and Friday as part of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

Cher…

'Art of Kissing' not a turn-on

It used to just be tongue, or no tongue. But we like to problematize the simplest of things, and kissing is no different.

Hundreds of Swarthmore students, apparently still reeling from awkward braces-…

Cartoon

Photo Project gets snap-happy

Forget digital. Darkrooms too. The Awesome Swarthmore Photo Project kicks off this week with a click and a grinding advance sound, as individual students and groups use disposable cameras to capture v…

Sexual Health Counselors release raw data from survey, revealing patterns in sexual activity, STDs

Quaker matchbox or hookup culture? Students might be surprised to hazard a look at the recently published results of the Sexual Health Counselors’ Sexual Health Survey conducted earlier this semester.…

Touching a no-no at Paces go-go party

There is a moral to the story of Friday’s faux engagement party at Paces, and it is this: you don’t really know what your boundaries are until you push them. Anne Kolker ’08 and Dominic Lowell ’08 pus…