Author: Sarah Hutchins

At first glance, paying the Student Senate, Elections Board, Judicial Board and two executive branch positions seems like it would cost a lot of money. With 25 voting members and three nonvoting members in the Senate, each being paid about $200 a month, several thousand dollars would be paid to the senators every month. Yet, it’s only fair that the Senate is compensated for its work within student government. Compared to the millions of dollars that students pay in student fees each year, the stipend is a small drop in the bucket, especially if it pays for itself by producing a more efficient and effective student government.

If drug addiction and violent team sports are your two foremost interests then Hero of the Underground is going to be your Great Gatsby. Ex-NFL player Jason Peter, with the help of Tony O’Neill, who has previously written fictionalized accounts of his own days as an addict, chronicles his climb to success that crumbled into despair and depression.

What do you want to be when you grow up? The familiar question that seemed easy to answer in elementary school often stumps college students, even those heading toward their senior year. When our parents went to college, a bachelor’s degree practically guaranteed them a decent-paying job, so that they could buy the two-story house, two-car garage and the white picket fence. Today, with more people graduating from college and a recession, employers are often looking for more specialized skills.

“The Joker, actually that was the most fun I’ve had, probably ever will have, playing a character,” Heath Ledger said during a YouTube video. Post death, Ledger’s words have an ominous ring to them. Indeed, he will never have fun playing another character ever again. Ninety-nine percent of Americans own a TV. When the owner is suffering from influenza, boredom or loneliness, he or she turns to celebrities for cheering up. Celebrity images follow us to the newspaper laying open on a Starbucks table, the magazines that our friends are reading, the billboards on the commute to school and the propaganda sitting next to the cash register at grocery stores.

It’s hard to approach Kerry Cohen’s Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity without expecting something at least halfway salacious, and Cohen happily delivers. However, the book also travels far beyond the realms of dishy gossip to deliver an intimate portrait of one woman’s search for self-acceptance. The Vanguard talked (or e-mailed, rather) with Cohen this past week about Loose Girl, hate mail and why this author chooses to reside in the Land of Ports.

“Impeach Bush! Impeach Bush!” command the posters, bumper stickers and protesters eagerly waving their signs around Portland. I smile at their valiant effort, but then a wistful thought snakes through my mind. Too little, too late. As much as I would love to see George W. Bush booted out of the White House, sprawled on the concrete while passerbys sneer at his dopey face, it isn’t a realistic goal.

What do Trump hotel toiletries, chocolate Twizzlers and hilarious Eugene anecdotes have in common? They were all given away as prizes from humor writer Laurie Notaro to an expectant crowd on Tuesday at Powell’s City of Books.

If beauty is truly only skin deep, we ought to take that as a warning to protect our hides from the sun and tanning beds. Skin comes in so many beautiful colors: ebony, mocha, cafe au lait, cream, and many more browns and beiges. However, the worst skin colors that inevitably pop up every summer are fiery scarlet and tanorexic burnt orange. It’s important for people to learn to love the skin they are born with because, not only do these artificial shades look bad, they are also extremely unhealthy.

Want to feel healthier and help fight global warming? Go vegetarian or vegan! When I stopped eating meat in February 2005, my indigestion disappeared, I lost 15 pounds and I had more energy. Three years later, all of those things are still true. So when my omnivore friends complain about being tired or that their stomach hurts or they want to lose weight, I suggest cutting meat out of their diet. For the ones who listen, that usually does the trick.

One of Hollywood’s cutest couples is getting married this summer. They were planning on just having a ceremony to commemorate their love, but as Ellen DeGeneres told Sen. John McCain on her May 22 TV show, “It just so happened that I legally now can get married. As everyone should.” That’s right, Ellen DeGeneres and Portia DeRossi, her partner of four years, are finally able to marry thanks to the California Supreme Court overturning the ban on gay marriage May 15.

Tsk. Tsk. Haven’t parents learned by the Britney Spears insanity that pop stars do not make good role models for their children?