A Bro Encounter

Socializing at Brad’s and the Like

I was in Brad's the other night, jammed in that bottleneck of a passageway between the front and the back of the bar, preoccupied with holding my cup above my head like a torch above water (‘cause, ya know, God forbid a precious drop of Brad's Brew went to waste…), when an over-eager pushy classmate angrily urged me to, "MOVE, bro."...

Four Score and Two Years Ago

Vaughan ’12 Surveys Seniors on What They Remember from DWC

We all do it: the shameful slouch in the seat, the apathetic glance at the ground, the classic doodle approach. Anything to pretend we didn't just hear our professor ask: "Who remembers this from DWC?" In my experience, nine times out of 10 this question is met with an inevitable, awkward silence, which seems to suggest that Civ, the very course that Providence College prides itself on, is something of a forgotten one come junior year. I was curious to find out just how much (or how little) the average student retains from his or her beloved DWC education, and decided that the best subjects to question were those who've gone the longest without a Civ lecture.

Tangents & Tirades

The Grey

: Contains Spoilers.

If you're looking for a romantic night out with your significant other, do not take the individual to see The Grey. I wasn't completely opposed to the idea; having the opportunity to admire Liam Neeson for two hours was enticing (yes, I appreciate his male form). However, watching him nearly freeze to death in the heart of Alaska was awful. And I'm not attracted to the nomadic man. The movie is focused on an oil drilling team's struggle to survive after a plane crash strands them in the wild. Hunting the humans is a pack of wolves that sees them as intruders.

Corr Values

NOLA Lost Reflection

Toward the end of last semester, my friends and I decided to try something new. As devout fans of the former cult television classic Lost, we decided it would be fun to watch the show from beginning to end, one episode per night. Just the other day, we watched as the survivors discovered the island's underground hatch. The hatch was equipped with everything from food to weapons, from books to old records. But what makes the hatch so unique, other than its location on a deserted island, is the 20-year-old computer that requires a specific numeric code to be entered every 108 minutes. But why? What happens if they don't enter the code? The answer does not reveal itself for a long while—in typical Lost fashion—but that very question becomes the central conflict for the survivors. Is it simply an experiment? A mind game? Or are they actually saving the world?

Senior Says Don’t Take Advice from Tiffany & Earl

Upperclassman Thinks the Jokesters Took It Too Far Last Week

Week after week, The Cowl's own Tiffany and Earl try to "make PC an emotionally stable place" by offering relationship advice to PC students. While their commentary can sometimes be tasteless, last week's column crossed the line. A young woman wrote in after an argument with her pro-life boyfriend over her pro-choice stance. After reading Tiffany and Earl's responses, I thought that perhaps our perennial dispensers of advice could use some guidance themselves.

In My Humble Opinion

....Follow Through.

In my humble opinion, you should not say you are going to do something and then not follow through. A lot of people dream big. I get it. I like to shoot for the moon on occasion as well. After all, if you miss you can still land among the stars! La-dee-freaking-dah. But more often than not, if you miss, you fall off the planet and screw a lot of people over. Do not tell everyone in your club that you are going to send a really important e-mail and fail to get around to it. Do not fail to keep up your end of the bargain with group projects.

Faith Matters

It's perfectly natural to struggle with your faith from time to time. Everybody–from the most devout believers to those who have a more casual relationship with the Church–has moments when God can seem to be absent from the their lives. It could be over something significant like the loss of a loved one or breaking up with a boyfriend or girlfriend. It might not be due to any one specific situation, but rather a pervasive feeling that you're alone in the midst of thousands of other students.

Subliminal Mind Control, Manipulating the Masses

Is subliminal advertising or sensory manipulation another form of mind control? Many psychological studies inaccurately portray subliminal messages as influences over individuals over a short period of time. The media influences people on a daily basis with both subliminal advertising and sensory manipulation, in both public and private facilities, indoors and outdoors. These messages are hidden in pictures, movies, music, and phrases.

WWW.’S Big Three

The Never-Ending Story: Social Media’s Crimes Against Humanity

Social media is taking over our lives. This thought hit me over Christmas break. First when my little cousin said "LOL"—not typed, but out loud. Later, I was working as a cashier, casually scanning someone's groceries when I recognized someone across the store. It took me a while to figure out who he was and I was slightly embarrassed when I did. I didn't know him at all, in fact. I recognized him as a former friend's boyfriend that I had "stalked" on Facebook. I had never met him before and I had not talked to that friend in more than five years. Embarassing? Maybe. But I know you've all done it, too. 

Letter to the Editor

Show Professors the Respect They Deserve

I recently experienced something that I have never once experienced in my four years at PC (and it is not on my college bucket list either!)—I felt uncomfortable and awkward in a class because of the way a fellow student was talking to our professor. This student (a freshman) decided that the beginning of our class time was the best time for her to rudely criticize how our professor was running the class and was blatantly sarcastic in the way she was speaking. I, as a senior in a mostly freshman class, was not the only one who felt uncomfortable, either.

#NEWTLOVESDRAMA

In case you missed it, Newt Gingrich has risen from the ashes, achieving a commanding first place finish in South Carolina. If you did miss, don't worry. It has happened before, and it will happen again. Newt Gingrich has quickly disproven the premise that balloons can inflate and deflate faster than humans. Such rapid swings in momentum seem to play to Newt's sense of the dramatic (and his sense of himself as playing the pivotal role in history).

Tiffany & Earl

Making PC an emotionally stable place one letter at a time

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You're So Vain, You Probably Think This is About You