I’ve gotta get out of this place (and back to school)

Published August 5, 2010 by Peter Goffin

Peter Goffin
Executive Editor

It’s not that I don’t appreciate it you know, because I do, Jim, I really do. It’s just that it’s getting to be a bit much. Not that I think it’s too much of a good thing, mind you, but more that it’s too much of a so-so thing, see? Too much of a bland thing. Too much of a shoulder-shrug, lay-about, atrophying, drowsy, nothingness thing.

Uncertainty, I think you’re trying to seduce me

Published July 8, 2010 by Peter Goffin

Peter Goffin
Executive Editor

I graduated. It sounds like a big deal. And in a lot of ways it was. I went to convocation, which was put on just for me, or we, the graduating class. I met the university’s chancellor, I shook his hand, I wore a robe, I got my picture taken. It was a good day. And it was supposed to be. I had graduated, I had crossed one of life’s defining planes.
I am told that pride is the recommended sentiment. And I feel it from time to time. I know some other people are proud of me, and that makes me prouder. But most days, I don’t feel any different, no different from the way I did before graduating. I’m out of class, I’m working, it feels just like any ordinary summer.

Elizabeth May wants you (to vote)

Published July 8, 2010 by Peter Goffin

PETER GOFFIN
EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Elizabeth May wants you to have faith in government. Just, however, not the current government.
The federal leader of the Green Party was in town on July 5 to speak at a political fundraiser. While her speech to party supporters dealt largely with the Greens’ role and hopes within Canadian politics, she took the opportunity of a pre-event interview to discuss the environment and youth activism.
Sitting in the wings of Hamilton’s Workers’ Arts and Heritage Centre minutes before addressing the crowd, May was emphatic that in order to affect change on the environment, or any other cause they care about, young people will have to start visiting the polls in greater numbers.

Violent protest has no place at G20

Published June 16, 2010 by Peter Goffin

PETER GOFFIN
EXECUTIVE EDITOR

In all fairness, The Peak is right about one thing. The leaders of the world will, from their conference room in a Toronto skyscraper, most definitely take notice of the bottle-throwing, cop-baiting, disguise-wearing protestors wielding pieces of metal barricade. But what the editors fail to realize is that it’s not enough to just get noticed. You have to be understood, you have to be persuasive, you have to garner some kind of respect. And if you go carrying handfuls of brick you’ll get none of that. You’ll be dismissed by those leaders as stereotypes: ineffectual, anti-social, violent crazies.

State of the union: MSU President speaks

Published June 3, 2010 by Peter Goffin

PETER GOFFIN
EXECUTIVE EDITOR
It has been nearly four months since Mary Koziol was elected President of the McMaster Students’ Union. It has been four weeks since she took office. The Silhouette sat down with her recently to discuss her progress, plans, and objectives for the upcoming year and how they’ve evolved now that she has gotten a taste for the job. The following are selections from that interview.

How to build your own still

Published June 3, 2010 by Peter Goffin

Peter Goffin
Executive Editor

Feel that hot, hot sun on your back. You’re getting sweaty and tired now and all you want to do is kick back on the porch to replenish and refresh. We’re talking liquid refreshment. We’re talking libations, firewater, booze. But, dear God, the LCBO is a ten minute bus ride away and it closes at 9 p.m., often too late to make it there when you need your fix. Thanks for nothing, government regulation.
But wait, fair drinker, the prohibition can be ended any time you want. From Al Capone to Hawkeye Pierce, to shiftless hillbillies everywhere, people have appreciated the value of stills for years, and it’s high time that students jump on the bandwagon of falling off the wagon. Follow the Silhouette as we present to you, “How to make a home distillery”.

Congratulations, it’s a newspaper

Published June 3, 2010 by Peter Goffin

Peter Goffin
Executive Editor

Ladies and gentlemen of the reading public, what you see here and in the surrounding pages are the first words of a newborn infant. The child in question is the eighty-first volume of the Silhouette. This is issue one. Cute, isn’t it? We couldn’t be prouder.
Now take a look at the genes for a moment, if you please. The Silhouette may appear to have our News Editor’s nose, our photographer’s eyes, and the Executive Editor’s great head of hair, but recognize one trait above all else: this newspaper has your voice. This is your baby. We the editors are essentially just nursemaids. We tend to it, nurture it, put it to bed each week, but in the end she’s all yours.

Hold on, it’ll get better… Or maybe not

Published June 3, 2010 by Peter Goffin

PETER GOFFIN
EXECUTIVE EDITOR

There will be losing streaks. There will be hard times. There will be days when, regardless of your intentions, regardless of how hard you try, you will fail. Life won’t be fun. You will lose a friend. An opportunity will pass you by. And it won’t be because you are bad. And it won’t be because you did anything wrong. Sometimes bad things just happen. But you must remember that it’s all an exercise in random cosmic chance.

Listen for those summer jams

Published April 1, 2010 by Peter Goffin

Corrigan Hammond
MUSIC EDITOR
Without fail, every summer there is that one song that’s absolutely everywhere. At first it’s great—almost refreshing. It is an opportunity to say… Continue Reading ›

Learning to love a 30-km run

Published April 1, 2010 by Peter Goffin

PHYLLIS TSANG

ASSISTANT INSIDEOUT EDITOR

Have you ever experience post-something depression? Like the post-Olympic depression many Canadian experienced. Or post-vacation depression? After spending a week or so with a group of people, I miss them terribly when the trip is over.