Emily Crawford

Examining the etymology, art of getting 'crunk'

Please know that I am thoroughly embarrassed by the fact that I am about to quote from UrbanDictionary.com. With that in mind, here it goes: 

According to the above-mentioned website, the term “crunk…

Barbie’s legacy: female beauty ideals overextended

Barbie dolls. Plastic surgery. The Plastics from “Mean Girls.” Over the past 50 years, give or take, the metaphor of an idealized female body as “plastic” has become ingrained as part of society’s pop…

Chatroulette taps into our voyeuristic curiosities

I should open this column by saying that Chatroulette absolutely terrifies me. As I’m sure you all have heard by now, Chatroulette is an online chat interface in which the user is randomly connected w…

Judging the judges of an evening of spectacle

I was quite pleased when I realized that the Oscars were going to happen during spring break this year. The annual ceremony is the type of television event for which I have absolutely no patience for …

Celebrity sex tapes can promote public sex lives

The celebrity sex tape has long been a cultural institution in America. Famous faces combined with bare buttocks, dirty words and flailing unmentionables is without a doubt a recipe for instant fame a…

Mythological creatures take over the mainstream

So in case you’ve been living in a hole for the past year — or in the library, as may be more likely at Swarthmore — vampires have been a very popular topic recently, starting with Stephenie Meyer’s “…

The Bumpit: From Sarah Palin to the masses

There are certain things in today’s popular culture that become so naturalized by society that we rarely stop to think about how truly absurd they are. Concepts and images become so ingrained into the…

Party without going out

Let’s be honest: there are times when the tasks of making yourself look decent, bundling up to go outside, or even just leaving your dorm room at all seem like too much effort. Sometimes we have bad d…

A dire coffee bar dilemma

Last week, I was trying to grab lunch on the way to class, and decided to go to Kohlberg because the bag lunches were gross. But there were no good vegetarian sandwiches in Kohlberg, so then I went to…

Paces Cafe brings social life to the weekdays

Come out of hibernation, McCabe dwellers! In light of the imminent springtime, and all the hormones and happiness that warmer weather brings, I would like to call for more weeknight socializing at Swa…

Saving your Saturday night

Welcome to the magical mystery tour of the (above) average Saturday night at Swarthmore, when epic plans are made and never carried out, where hopes are built up and then torn to shreds, but when we a…

Paces: how to avert your existential crisis

Occasionally, a Swarth-more student will come to the conclusion that his or her life of academic endeavors and lofty pursuits is irrational and pointless. The intellectual milieu will turn into a blur…

Olde Club: the age of the hipster

Last Friday, as I had cheap beer sloshed on me by some guy I see every day on my walk to class while struggling to weasel my way through the writhing mass that is Olde Club on a concert night, a thoug…

Infamous 'Terror' at old penitentiary is a screaming good time

Eastern State Penitentiary, the local abandoned prison and site of many a first-year seminar fieldtrip, takes on a more sinister role every fall when it becomes “Terror Behind the Walls,” the number-o…

An affair to remember: The XYZ Affair comes to Olde Club

Quirky pop band The XYZ Affair has experienced a sudden surge in attention from the press in the last year; the virtually unknown Brooklynites have suddenly become the kinds of buzzworthy stars writt…

Peter Paone's 'Creative Wellsprings' on display at the List Gallery

“Creative Wellsprings,” the newest exhibit in the List Gallery as of last Thursday, marks Philadelphia native Peter Paone’s first solo painting exhibition in the area since 1983. Renowned for his inve…

Catching up with RJ

Until this Tuesday, the identity of the “special guest” opening for Broken Social Scene at this fall’s Large Scale Event had been a secret, albeit a poorly kept one. The loss of the element of surpris…