Tangents & Tirades

Its the Most Slumberful Time of the Year. I think that the reason everyone loves Thanksgiving so much is because it is a holiday designed to give us a good night's rest. Think about it: you eat copious amounts of turkey which gives you a mighty dose of tryptophan. You drink a glass of wine, or two, or three. You watch Snoopy floating by in a balloon for three hours. You watch football games that generally are not very competitive. And you're left with your family. That is enough to tire anyone out. All of these ingredients make it so that by late evening Thursday night you are either passed out or ready to. It is a great feeling. -Andy Kowal '10

The Host's Woes. Over Thanksgiving break, I had the luxury of hosting 25 people at my house for a feast. Not an easy task by any means, with 20+ pounds of turkey and 15 pounds of potatoes. Normally we have Thanksgiving at my house, but I have been lucky the past few years to not have to partake in the morning-of routines necessary to allow for a successful Thanksgiving. When in high school, I was always at the football game, missing the stress that arrives even before the people arrive. This year I was not as lucky, and was forced to help more than usual. This year, we decided to have a typical Thanksgiving in which we tried to fit everybody in the same room around one table. Well, we got 19 around one table, and took the six smallest kids and placed them on a side table. In order for this to have happened, I was in charge of rearranging one of our rooms and finding a way to get enough chairs for everybody. Although it was all a lot of work getting everybody in one room, it was worth being able to look around and see everybody in the family. -Jeff Gahan '11

Whose Side Are We On? In 2004, Iraqi terrorist Ahmed Hasim Abed brutally murdered four American security contractors who were working in Fallujah at the time. The bodies of the Americans were then burned and dragged through the streets of the city, with two of the corpses hung from a bridge on the Euphrates River. As photos of the bodies were broadcast over the world, the murders in Fallujah received much publicity, making Abed one of the world's most wanted terrorists. The troops, then, had what should have been a moral booster when the news broke that Abed had been captured by three US Navy SEALs several months ago. Instead of being praised as heroes, however, the SEALs are facing criminal charges. As The New York Post reports, such controversy has resulted from Abed's showing officials a "bloody lip," alleging that his captors punched him. The SEALs, who have hired lawyers, will be arraigned on Dec. 7 with the proceedings for their court-marshal likely taking place in January. America is surely the only nation in history to so blatantly treat its noblest servants with such dishonor. -Mark Scirocco '10

Dannys, Clubbies, or Phillips? Someone once said, "Let the good times roll." Sure, college is a good time but eventually the fun has to end. Every decision that we make at this point in our lives has a consequence. With finals approaching, it is important to have your priorities in check. Doing poorly on a final exam results in a bad grade in a class and a bad grade in a class lowers your GPA and a low GPA results in you being a less competitive job applicant. It is quite the domino effect! So make the right choice and take a night off from the fast life of Providence and study for your exams. You also really do not want to have your parents on your back about your grades. It is brutal hiding anything from them and it really is one of the worst feelings in the world. Avoid the ever-popular, "No they haven't posted the grades yet." Your parents will see right through that because they used to pull the same garbage in their day. Don't let one class throw you off the deep end and drop you down into poor academic standing. Keep in mind that we attend Providence College to get an education and everything else, though it may seem more important, is really secondary. Trust me, I have to remind myself of this all the time. My great grandfather used to say "Education is a power." So do yourself a favor and don't waste it, even though there are many temptations. -Jenn DiPirro '12

From the Fairway to the Driveway. The transition from driving a golf cart to driving a car is an odd feeling at first. I learned this when I played 18 holes on Sunday and then drove home. Tiger Woods learned this last week when he drove a real car for probably one of the first times in his life. In an attempt to escape his deranged, nine iron-armed spouse, Woods fled his Florida estate in his obviously seldom-used SUV. As Tiger found out when he slammed on the gas and ran into a fire hydrant and a tree, the accelerator on an actual motor vehicle is much more sensitive than that of a golf cart. The golfer handled this rare exciting event in his life as expected: boringly. Despite his enormous potential to be a vibrant public figure, Tiger is just as boring as every other boring golfer that has ever golfed. He is handling his recent curious car crash with as little excitement and with as many dull remarks as we have come to expect from him and his bleak personality. He remains just as bland as he was before his scandalous fender-bender but has proved that we should all scream "FORE!" whenever he gets behind the wheel of anything other than a golf cart. - Chris Slavin '12