In our BlogDH staff meeting last Sunday, David pitched that he’d be writing his RomCom Thursday post on Love Actually. The majority of our staff lit up with excitement, but Ana was skeptical, especially after having read David’s piece on When Harry Met Sally last week and vocally disagreeing with his concerns with the rom-com. As Ana expected, David went on to explain that he hated Love Actually. The two decided to duke it out and go head-to-head over Love Actually on the site for your reading pleasure. Enjoy. 

David: Any proper post-2009 discussion of Love Actually must begin by mentioning Valentine’s Day and New Year’s Eve, the American offspring of the UK box office success. These films, though perhaps less beloved, are peers to Love Actually in box office success (actually, V-Day doubly more successful than the other two). And of course, the American movies ripped their entire structure and premise from Love Actually. But are they all that discernibly worse?

Certainly, I am not qualified to answer the question—I’ve seen neither Valentine’s Day nor New Year’s Eve. But I’m inclined to respond with another question—is it possible they could be that much worse? Because Love Actually is a slog. The Rotten Tomatoes consensus for Valentine’s Day—“Eager to please and stuffed with stars, Valentine’s Day squanders its promise with a frantic, episodic plot and an abundance of rom-com cliches”—could easily swap in “Love Actually” for “Valentine’s Day” and read just as well.

What does Love Actually actually offer that’s special? [Read more →]

As much as our parents can relate to our freshmen experience– we have all tasted questionable cafeteria food, burned the midnight oil at the library, and attended sketchy frat parties– our experiences also diverge. The NYT recently opened an online debate about changing nature of freshmen year.

Join in the conversation!

The Obama administration announced on Tuesday that Larry Summers, the Director of the National Economic Council, would be leaving his post in Washington at the end of the year and go back to teaching at some school in Boston.

Glenn Loury, the Merton P. Stoltz Professor of the Social Sciences, debates Fox News’ James Pinkerton about Summer’s legacy and Obama’s economic policies in a recent Bloggingheads video: Was Summers a Mistake?

After last week’s Janus Forum debate on D.C. v. Heller, we invited two opinions columnists to debate a small yet salient facet of the gun control debate: the prohibition of firearms on college campuses. After the jump, read Michael Fitzpatrick’s ’12 argument in favor of allowing students to carry personal firearms on campus and Dan Davidson’s ’11 argument against. Then share your opinion, blogdailyherald readers, in the comments section.

[Read more →]