I find David Denby's Slate article on how Americans can spread the good word (We aren't so bad, here's what's good about our culture) inspiring in a way I have never been inspired before.

Ooh ahh, ooh ahh, ooh ooh diddy, tell me about the anthrax found at a mail processing facility in Kansas City. In retrospect, I was kinda foolish to hope that anthrax would confine itself to …

Philip Zimbardo and Stanley Milgram went to the same high school. Also, a band exists entitled "Stanford Prison Experiment." One reason I was poking around for information relating to Zimbardo: I've recently started using the …

I found myself, over the past few days, repeating "Happy Halloween!" in a strange, half-macabre voice. Yesterday, I finally remembered why. When I lived in Freeborn Hall, I knew Mike Carns, and his aunt had …

I wrote a poem a few weeks ago. Here it is. Consistency Bias Negotiating with a terrorist! I did it every day -- no gracious dance Would save me from my dad. There's no romance …

I attended Professor Reginald Zelnik's office hours earlier this semester. He teaches Imperial Russian History -- and quite well, too, if I may add. I waited outside as he talked with another student. A woman …

Yesterday afternoon, I saw a young Sikh boy turn the corner of Milvia and Channing, carrying a cricket bat. Cricket! Crikey! I wonder if there are cricket pickup matches at some undisclosed location in Berkeley. …

Avoiding dangling participles in Russian class: "I can hear the TV and I can hear Pavel." "But can the television hear you?" "Ahhh... Televizor, eto Bolshoi Brat. [Television, it is Big Brother.]"

Defensive patriotism: My parents hang a little US flag in their car, held in place by the sunshade for the front passenger seat. A few days ago, I sat there and the thing dangled right …

Aaron Sorkin often has various characters in "The West Wing" say the same line throughout an episode. "Did you get the new EPA stats on child asthma?" repeated various characters to Josh last night. They …