Posts by Chip Lebovitz

Voting for our next UCS president has begun, and you should go and do it. Look, we get if it’s your first time, but seriously, it’s just a simple survey link this year, and it’s not that difficult. Depressing fact: only 28 percent of the student body voted last year, and that was somehow an improvement over last year’s turnout. Voting is American like the Fourth of July and baseball, so please stop reading and just vote. We will be waiting for you when you get back.

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Well…wow. Most of the school has already seen the picture above. After looking at this screenshot, I was inclined to think that sure, there are some disappointed people here with this temperature. You know something? If you had told us six days ago it would have been 55 degrees outside, we would have given anything for the opportunity to enjoy it. And you know something? Not only is it warmer today in Providence than it is in San Diego, according to the Weather Channel’s Accuweather 5-Day forecast, but tomorrow is going to be hotter than parts of Colorado and Oklahoma, and almost as hot as Arizona and New Mexico.

This list continues: if you can even believe it, it’s going to be hotter in Providence than it will be in Rome and Sevilla; and it’s going to be warmer than South Dakota, Oregon, Washington, and Michigan.

After tomorrow, we’re going march up to Old Man Winter to take back our spring. Byaaaaah!

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The true Ark of the Covenant

It’s here. It’s finally here. A half-month of lost productivity, illegal betting, and Cinderella stories starts now. Check out BlogDailyHerald’s predictions below.

Midwest Region

The shoo-ins: Not many potential first-round upsets here. Both Middle Tennessee and St. Mary’s are pretty dangerous for First Four teams, so they might give Memphis a run for their money, but I’m going all top seeds in the first round. Don’t listen to any talk about Valparaiso as a potential Cinderella, Tom Izzo has the Spartans way too well-prepared—he always does—for them to lose so early.

The upsets: Creighton over Duke, second round. I’m sorry, I can’t help but root against Coach K and whoever happens to be playing for him. This is how much I don’t like Duke. Makes my day every time. For real, though, Doug McDermott has been averaging 23.1 points per game (2nd in Division I) with a near 50% 3-point shooting percentage. He’s my pick for mid-major breakout player of the tournament (see below). Also, as I mentioned before, Memphis might have trouble with its play-in opponent, but this is sadly a kind of boring bracket, especially compared with the South. Though Oregon is the Pac-12 champ, I don’t think this is the 5-12 upset to pick.

Player to watch: Wooden Award finalist Doug McDermott of Creighton. Just like Jimmer and Gordon Hayward before him, this guy is due to become a household name. Don’t expect him to carry the Bluejays to the national championship, but they might have an upset or two in them.

Regional champ: There are three perennial superpowers in this region, but Louisville isn’t #1 overall for nothing. The team is coming off a huge Big East Tournament victory over Syracuse, and there aren’t many teams who can stop them. Look for them to bounce Michigan State in the Elite 8 and maybe even take the whole thing.

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Everyone loves singing. Everyone also wishes that we could solve the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. Good news is that singing is here to help save the day. Music’s pedigree of helping to solve major crises through musicals — see civil rights and Mormonism — is unmatched, so it may have the strongest résumé of any negotiator currently at the table. Tonight, Brown RISD Hillel Hillel is doing its best to help belt out the first note of a renewed peaceful dialogue by hosting the Heartbeat @ Brown-RISD concert. The event is also sponsored by Common Ground, the Middle East Studies Department, and the Program in Judaic Studies.

According to the event’s Facebook page, the group was founded in 2007 is a “an international non-profit organization uniting musicians, educators, and students to build mutual understanding and transform conflict through the power of music.” Transforming conflict takes time, so it’s a good thing that both Hillel and Heartbeat are patient, as the event has been in the works for two years now. The event, which organizers stress is non-political, will feature songs that blend “traditional and modern Eastern and Western music.” That description seems to run the gamut on global music, which is a good thing: unlike the peace process, the concert should have something that appeals to everyone.

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It could happen here too.

So a 20-year-old was arrested for pretending to be a Columbia University student. Since Columbia needed 9 months to catch this phony undergrad, and we do go to Brown, the Blog figured we’d give the student body a handy guide to identify any would be Brunonian impostor after the jump:

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Those looking forward to MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews’ planned lecture on John F. Kennedy tonight will have to wait until next year to get their fill of Matthews’ unadulterated love for JFK. It seems Matthews’ bosses at MSNBC forced him to play hardball with the University’s scheduling department, resulting in the postponement of the TV personality’s appearance.

Expect Matthews to return sometime during the next academic year.

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Most people don’t usually associate high-quality cuisine with food trucks, but it seems that Plouf Plouf, the newest addition to Brown’s food truck menagerie, hasn’t gotten the message. Distinguishable by its bright red colors and Gallic rooster, Plouf Plouf strives to serve French cuisine at premium prices to hungry students.

The truck holds a good understanding of the on-the-go mentality of the average food truck eater, while still maintaining consistent quality. At peak hours, the wait should be no more than ten minutes, and I found during a recent visit that my food took roughly three minutes to cook. The menu features an assortment of French classics, including escargot and a variety of daily specials.

The food was solid, including the duck burger, which retained a good amount of flavor considering that it was re-prepared in five minutes. However, the truck’s frites (fries) were the stand’s pièce de résistance. The truffle frites, one of the truck’s two frite options, were so good that I was scrounging around in the to-go bin in attempt to gorge myself on any leftovers. This desire for more leads into one of Plouf Plouf’s failings: portion size. Plouf Plouf’s food was tasty, but just not quite filling enough for a whole meal. [Read more →]

College students’ love of Stephen Colbert is pretty widespread, so it wasn’t too surprising to see a group of Brunonians translate his super PAC parody, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow to a University setting. The group, Brown Students for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, was founded by the University’s Democracy Matters branch, and claims to be “secretly pulling the strings behind UCS elections since 2012.”

Besides just having a website, the group recently hired professional professor of psychoceramics, Josiah Carberry, as its director and maintains a hyperactive Twitter feed that spent last the 18 hours spewing out 40+ tweets including, “Remember when Barack Obama killed bin Laden? That was big, but we’ve got an announcement that’s even bigger.”

Earlier today, the super PAC, which is satirically designed to promote awareness about campaign finance reform, recently released a campaign ad attempting to stir up a birther crisis over the UCS presidential candidates’ University acceptance letters. The video’s pretty funny and overtly reinforces the group’s satiric nature; a real super PAC might have enough money to shell out for some better production values.

That being said, you’ve got to like anything that’s sprucing up a presidential race that almost lulled a Herald opinions editor to sleep. Also, we know you all invested $99 in a Colbert Super PAC Super Fun Pack. We want to try a piece of Ham Rove.

Archiving often seems like panhandling for bookworms, but that didn’t stop University library archivist Marie Malchodi from striking gold the other day as she discovered a rare engraved print crafted by Paul Revere. Revere, a Revolutionary War hero and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poetical protagonist, is best known as a silversmith and message carrier, but also maintained a reputation as a skilled engraver, notably authoring the famous print of the Boston Massacre.

Only five copies of Malchodi’s recently discovered Revere prints exist today.

The print, a religious depiction of Jesus and John the Baptist together in the Jordan River was ironically found in a 19th-century physics book. When asked why she was looking through these specifics books, Malchodi told the Boston Globe there were “many signs that theses were somebody’s working books. That’s what slowed me down and made me really want to see them.”

The original owner of the book was Solomon Drowne, graduate of Brown University’s class of 1773. Drowne, a physician who participated in the Revolutionary War, is probably best known for being friends with more important members of the Continental Army including Revere and Marquis de Lafayette.

Image via: Boston Globe