Sleezy

NBC makes bad call with ‘Marriage Ref’

There are many things on which I would defer to Jerry Seinfeld.  Comedy and how to make millions, for example, are things on which Seinfeld has an authority. Marriage advice, however, is not one of them. Unfortunately, NBC disagrees and this week premiered “The Marriage Ref,” a show in which a star-studded celebrity panel (which […]

Once was ‘Lost’ but now am (hopefully) found

No television show in the past decade has captured the American imagination quite in the same way as ABC’s “Lost,” the enigmatic program that recently embarked on its sixth and final season. With its seemingly infinite meanings, the show now has a finite space—ten episodes—in which it must bring the divergent threads of its sprawling […]

Non-cents

You may be wondering why a university committee charged with saving the university money would want to cut a program that is revenue-positive by $100,000. We’re wondering the same thing. While The Hoot editorial board would like to give Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe (and the rest of the Brandeis 2020 Committee) the […]

Questioning activist ideals and attracting attention

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day about activism. She told me how much she disliked the fact that she was having fun at school. That’s actually just an overstatement of what she said to get your attention.  Did it work? She said she felt that by spending more time on […]

Brandeis’ green monster, and other observations

It’s a process that I imagine most prospective students go through on their first visit to Brandeis. You drive under the bridge and through the main gate, excited to see the place that could become your home for the next four years.  There’s the castle; wow, you’ve already heard about it, but nothing can prepare […]

Stand with the Pomona dining hall workers

At Pomona College in Claremont, California, 90 percent of dining hall workers have signed petitions demanding a card-check neutrality agreement from the school’s administration. The agreement would mean that workers could freely form a union by signing union cards, without being subject to discrimination or intimidation by the college. This display of unity and force […]

Book of Matthew: Trying to eat gluten-free on a college campus

Complaining about the poor quality of dining hall food is an integral part of attending Brandeis.  Everybody does it.  With every passing dining survey, the results are about the same: Students want better food, a greater selection and longer hours.  But imagine if you could only eat a fraction of the mediocre food available to […]

Borde-nough: Bunning vs. the Senate: What’s the score?

Political scorekeepers spent much of the last two weeks charging Hall of Fame pitcher and United States Senator Jim Bunning with a terrible error for delaying an important piece of legislation.  But in politics, as in baseball, there’s a lot of discretion involved in keeping score. What Bunning threw at his colleagues was well outside […]

The single-payer failure

Last Thursday, President Obama and leaders from both parties deliberated for seven hours to espouse their talking points and delve into the intricacies of health care policy.  They discussed a multitude of topics, ranging from health savings accounts to medical malpractice reform to the “Cornhusker Kickback.”  What they did not mention, however, was the possibility […]