“That picture looks nothing like me!”
I went to get my graduation picture taken a few weeks ago. It was a long time in the offing. I bought a new white… Continue Reading ›
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Dirty Comedy
“A guy walks into a talent agency and says, ‘Have I got an act for you…’” So begins the vilest joke ever conceived. That’s the… Continue Reading ›
30 million fans and one lonely student
I can’t win. The biggest hockey game in eight years and I had a yet-unbegun proposal due the next day. And of course I wasn’t going to miss the game to work on it. But nor was I going to head to the bar or a friend’s house, like every single other sentient Canadian. No, I wasn’t going to do any of that to watch the national team play the Americans for the ultimate in international sports acclaim. What I was going to do was sit in my basement apartment and watch the game alone so that I could work immediately before and immediately after it. He shoots, he scores.
Forget the podium, try owning some pride
Kevin Elliott
OPINION
Do we as Canadians even understand our own patriotism, yet alone our own country? A recent nationwide poll revealed that over half of respondents voted the 2010 Vancouver Olympics as the defining moment in Canada’s history.
In defence of the military’s recruitment methods
Dave Pridham
OPINION
In the Feb. 11 edition of The Silhouette, Peter Goffin argued that recent military recruitment commercials encourage criminals [sic] to join the Canadian Forces (CF). He also suggested that CF members are “stunted” or “deficient” in some way. As a former soldier, I would like to respond to these claims.
Mr. Goffin pointed out three separate cases of CF members who were charged with or convicted of violent crimes in 2005, 2008, and the recent case of Colonel Williams. He then argued that violent imagery in current CF recruiting campaigns is partially to blame for attracting such violent personalities to the military. But the new recruitment ads only began in late 2006, and the soldiers involved in these crimes would have enrolled in the military years earlier. For example, Colonel Williams joined the CF in the late 1980s. It therefore seems fair to say that the three-year-old recruitment campaign did not draw these people to the armed forces.
Why is everyone nailin’ Palin?
John Galt
OPINION
It’s been quite easy for politicos the world over to dismiss Sarah Palin as a backwoods joke hellbent on embarrassing the nation each time she opens her mouth: her inability to name a newspaper she reads, her claim that she can see Russia from her door, her folksy way of speaking. But are the experts making a big mistake in writing Palin off as a joke? You betcha.
Adventures in reading week
Cassandra Jefferey
SILHOUETTE STAFF
Throughout the stress and fatigue-driven first few months of school, most students rejoice at the thought of reading week. Although, let’s be serious, reading is rarely the focus of the long awaited break from constant note taking and studying. After the daunting tasks of midterms have finally come to an end, we look forward to a week of track pants, endless movies, late nights, reunions with old friends, and of course delightful, home-cooked meals.
Right or wrong, opinions are vital
Peter Goffin
OPINIONS EDITOR
In recent days, this publication and I have come under some criticism for ideas presented in an article which I wrote and published in the Opinions section of the Silhouette. It has been suggested through this criticism that the Sil does not have the right to publish such material because of the views presented within it.
Now, my views may seem wrong to some, they may seem inappropriate to some, they may seem offensive to some, but that is the nature of opinions. They are subjective, they are highly personal, and they are never unanimous. And you, the reader, consumer of ideas, are free to accept or dismiss whatever notions you come across, not just in this publication, not just in print, but everywhere, in every facet of your life. You are free to ignore and free to look away. You need not feel compelled to agree or even to read on.
It is not my place, nor anyone’s, to enforce any single belief as gospel truth. It is not my place, nor anyone’s, to carve any words in stone. But it is, and has been for two years, my job to introduce ideas, ones which I hope will hold some relevance to the readership. I cannot do anything more. I cannot tell you what to believe, what to think, what to value, what to despise. You can do that for yourselves. But I do strive for my articles to spark critical thought. And with that as the goal, it does not matter whether I am right or wrong, or whether you or anyone agrees with me. In fact, I would rather you disagree with an article if it means that you are thinking and evaluating and forming your own opinions.
An open letter on Art History (full version)
Dear Peter:
It is with regret that I turn to the matter of the closure of the Art History program at McMaster, the Canadian university at which the discipline has been longest taught. I thought this issue had been settled after the troubles of four years ago and the repeated denials that closure was ever contemplated. (But we both know the then-dean and then-provost proved somewhat short on veracity. The present Dean was then Associate Dean.) I ought to have known better. The program has been systematically starved, or deprived, of resources until, it is now argued, we are not viable. But that has been a matter of choice on the part of the administration, specifically the Dean of Humanities, not necessity. The Dean claims she has no resources to sustain Art History, but appointments are being made elsewhere, even within the School of the Arts, and as part of the current plan she proposes vast new expenditures.
McMaster Theatre Presents: Little Shop of Horrors
McMaster Musical Theatre’s Little Shop of Horrors
Directed by: Ashley McAskill
Starring: Alex Doyle, Haley Midgette, Josh Dayboll, Tom Costie
McMaster Musical Theatre is putting on Little Shop… Continue Reading ›
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Riaz Sayani-Mulji
