2008 Woodie Awards
Vote Absentee
Letters from Berkley
I came to Berkeley to know that I wasn't crazy. I came here because I knew that there are crazier people than me, and that I can learn from them.
Nothing is as it appears. That's why we go to Harvard; it's why our parents want us to go there.
Maybe that's a good thing right now.…
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Wilco, live and barely kicking at the Avalon Ballroom
Back in 1994, the now-legendary alternative country pioneer band Uncle Tupelo was suffering an intense schizophrenia. Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar, the two primary singer-songwriters, struggled to sustain an increasingly fractured and turbulent musical marriage, but to no avail.…
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Post-modern rock brings wickedness home to roost
"How do you think I was brought in this world? / I was coughed up in 1963," spews Tim Feleppa in the opening lines of The Better Button,. "How do you think I got good with guns? ..." And while lyrics like these aren't likely to earn the Mink Lungs airplay on Clear Channel stations in the coming weeks, listeners to this fearsomely accomplished album should be gleefully unconcerned.…
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Shortsighted Retribution
Proponents of retribution often overlook key aspects of their theory, as does Ms. Hartline in her article "Retribution is Right." The principle of "an eye for an eye" is a bit more complex than she indicates and achieving proportionality is decidedly more difficult.…
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Epicurean ecstasies at Dunkin' Donuts
Porter Square has the finest dining around, and its most renowned establishments are McDonald's Restaurant (no relation to People's 37th most eligible bachelor, Shawn McDonald) and Dunkin' Donuts. My opponent in this debate, the esteemed "Colonel" Parker, with his typical rustic ignorance of good taste, claims that the best restaurant in Cambridge is Chez McDonald's.…
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For the full meal, only McDonald's
Before embarking on this assignment, I took a cue from my crush, Justice Antonin Scalia, and looked up the work "restaurant." Black's Law Dictionary defines "restaurant" as "a place where meals are served to the public." "Meals" implies more than one of these occasions: breakfast, lunch and dinner.…
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How to explain WD
"I see you have a superlative transcript, and ... but what is this WD?" Ah, the feared interview question for the unlucky students who happened to drop that oversubscribed course just minutes too late. Time to pay the Piper. You begin sweating profusely. "What am I going to do now?" you ask yourself.…
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Fenno
The sound of the helicopter's blades whirring made it tough for Fenno to hear what was being said to him. Outside of the window he could see a miniature Cambridge down below. As the helicopter passed over the law school, Fenno thought that he could actually make out the sight of Sasha Volokh on the roof of Austin with a rifle, but he couldn't be sure.…
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Vino & Veritas
Learning about wine is a relationship. Like any relationship, it takes work. And like any relationship, it's often important to look good in a restaurant. (Yes, I'll retire this lead eventually.) Dealing with wine in a restaurant can be intimidating, even if you think you know what you're doing.…
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