The Wake

Last week, in comments reported by the Associated Press, former first lady Barbara Bush suggested that low-income refugees housed in temporary shelters had it better there than they did before devastation visited New Orleans in the form of a hurricane.I was in New Orleans about a week before the storm hit, and at that time it seemed to me that little had changed since I lived there about four years ago. At one point, I rented a house in the ninth ward, one of the cityís poorest neighborhoods, the neighborhood where both Master P and Juvenile grew up. …

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The electronic signs along the M4 were rather ominous. They usually reported any number of everyday traffic mishaps, but at the moment they simply read: “Avoid London Today.” It was the evening of July 7 and our disobedient tour bus was heading back to central London. Not knowing what to expect, my family and I were pleasantly surprised when the traffic continued to flow freely and the bus was able to drop us off just across Hyde Park from our hotel. There were a number of people out and about — jogging, sitting on benches talking, picking up last-minute …

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In the back of my mind, I always wonder. The University of Minnesota campus seems relatively safe, but there are times when paranoia and news reports of sex offenders moving in to my neighborhood lurk large in my mind after I pull an extra late night working or hanging out with friends. Will I be safe in my walk home tonight? And if I won’t, is there a way to undo the damage? If I really needed emergency contraceptive, could I get it?The answer is that at the national level it hasn’t become any easier to obtain the pill. The …

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Neyland Stadium
University of Tennessee Arguably the best college football stadium in the nation is in Knoxville, Tenn. Built in 1921, Neyland Stadium hosts more than 100,000 screaming fans. Located next to the Tennessee River, the stadium hosts tailgaters who arrive via boat hours before game time to “prepare” for chaos inside the massive structure. The checkered end zones and passionate fans who form a sea of orange create an atmosphere rivaled by only a handful of top programs across the country. Tennessee fans sing “Rocky Top” repeatedly during the two-and-a-half-hour spectacle.Notre Dame Stadium
Notre Dame Notre Dame Stadium has …

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The “ohs” used to cascade down the bleachers like a wave. Arms flailed in unison. And the traditional war chant of Native American tribes was heard on a television in front of millions of people. “We are the Fighting Sioux,” one man shouts, beer in hand. There is an emptiness to his statement, like someone had taken the plug out of a drain.“You were the Fighting Sioux,” another man corrects him. “Times have changed, buckaroo.” The two men sit down to reminisce over their past. “It just sucks,” the beer-holding man says. “That name was ours just as much as …

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I’m not sure how many times I’ve been awake before five o’clock in the morning during the summer, but once was enough when a solar-car driver put me to work by ripping off the sheets and leaping on my hotel bed. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I signed up for this project. I came away from a 2,500-mile race with the strength and confidence to build race cars; I’m a different person than I was when I first decided to work on this project, and I can only attribute that rift in my personality …

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