The Wake

The Wake’s Multimedia Staff covered this years Democratic and Republican caucuses.

A Vote

This past September I moved to my fourth house in three years. I’ve never really had a sense of community. I’ve lived in Dinkytown, South East Como and for a semester, the East End of London. That short stay in London was the closest I’ve ever felt to belonging somewhere, but even then I was an outsider. Five months ago I moved into a home in Ventura Village. Cramped between Hiawatha, I-94 and 35W, it is a community that lost its identity when it was cut off after the construction of I-94. This Franklin Avenue community was once adjoined by Elliot Park, Whittier and the Stevens communities. From the 1960s onwards it lost its identity across seventeen lanes of traffic and became a derelict and dangerous neighborhood as it, then a part of Phillips, struggled …

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Illustration by Ben Alpert

A blending of cultures was the theme at the Chinese New Year Celebration on January 26 in Coffman Union’s Great Hall, presented by the Chinese-American Student Association (CASA).

The event’s opening performance, a traditional lion dance, was followed by a tongue-in-cheek Justin Timberlake tribute by Jimmy Huang, who shared emcee duties with Catherine Wang. Pop and R&B ballads played during the intermission as guests dined on Chinese fare like rice, noodles, and stir-fry. Chinese-American university students performed “Canta Per Me,” an Italian-titled song from the Japanese anime series Noir.

The celebration, though highlighting Chinese culture, clearly embraced the principles of diversity and acceptance championed by CASA. According to President Jennifer Liu, their mission is to promote …

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Photo by Abbey Kleinert

Inside the old Riverside Café at the intersection of Cedar and Riverside Avenues is something old, but also new. The walls have transformed from lime green to a ruby red. The booths are now made of old coffee bags stuffed with foam and lined with a coat of plastic. There is even a bar with 28 beers on tap. This old café has transformed into the new Acadia Café.

The Acadia Café, which was previously located at 1921 Nicollet Ave. in the Stevens Square neighborhood, is moving to the West Bank and is expected to open sometime in mid-February. The café has been known for offering good food, coffee and pastries. More importantly, it has been know for its eclectic musical …

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I would have a hell of a time trying to find Armenia on a map. Chances are it’s near Turkey, but the whole Eurasian area is a mystery to me. The important thing is that there is a restaurant repping the region right here in Dinkytown.

Arax Armenian Cuisine (a poorly-chosen name if I’d say so myself; it evokes images of a chemical scare) is the newest addition to the pantheon of ethnic eateries that call our campus home. Located in the Dinkydome, Arax is in good company, with Little Taj Mahal Indian food right next door.

Arax operates a lot like a street vendor cart – there are a limited number of dishes, all of which are cheap, and the service is rapid-fire. The ambiance of the dining process is wholly excusable, seeing that the restaurant …

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We’re into February now, and spring is on the horizon. Soon, the snow will begin to melt and it will be time to pull the baseball mitts and footballs out of the closet for some recreational outdoor sporting action. Unfortunately, with the constant building and construction that has consumed this gigantic campus, it can be difficult to find a nice grassy field to set up shop and toss a ball around with your friends. However, during my three-and-a-half years at this school, I’ve managed to stake out some pretty good spots. Here, for your consideration, are my top four favorites (complete with horribly arbitrary names that I invented myself):

CAVEMAN FIELD – Oak St. and Washington Ave.
Located just outside of McNamara Alumni Center, this grassy and tree-filled area is a classic spot for throwing around a …

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On a prominently displayed whiteboard in the Gopher football department of Dinkytown’s Gibson-Nagurski Complex, a brief and cryptic message is scrawled in dry-erase marker.

Recruit! 24/7. 365. E.D.S.

The series of letters and numbers may seem like gibberish to some, but to Tim Brewster it represents the most important expectation he has placed on his newly assembled staff.

Twenty-four hours a day. Seven days a week. Eat, drink and sleep recruiting.

“I was committed to putting together a staff that, one through nine, were going to be outstanding recruiters,” Brewster says. “I wasn’t going to have one recruiting liability on my staff.”

The emphasis on recruiting new players should come as no surprise. Improvement is on the mind of just about every person involved with the football program in the aftermath of a brutal 1-11 season that saw the Gophers …

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The Cedar-Riverside neighborhood has seen many changes through the years. The sense of community has shifted as populations have moved in and out and the neighboring colleges (the University of Minnesota and Augsburg College) have expanded. The North Country Co-op was a common thread in the community throughout its 35 years in service to the southeast Minneapolis neighborhood. Empty shelves now line the once defiant store, a piece of Twin Cities history. This past summer, North Country reached out to other co-ops in the Twin Cities for help as they faced a financial crisis. Mississippi Market volunteered General Manger Patrick Werle, a 15-year veteran of the cooperative business, to lend a helping hand. He came in thinking that he could solve the problems that have plagued the struggling grocery store, but he soon realized that …

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On Tuesday, November 6th, the University of Minnesota hosted its third annual Student Parent Visibility Day. High school student parents from around the metro area gathered in the St. Paul Student Center Ballroom to participate in the event. Student Parent Visibility Day is put on by the Student Parent HELP Center and co-sponsored by the Student Parent Association. The purpose of this event was both to recognize the student parent population on campus and to familiarize high school student parents with life as a student parent at the university. Student Parent Visibility Day included a resource fair with 20 participants from both the U of M and the surrounding community. Organizations ranging from community colleges to childcare programs to student parent housing programs set up tables, representing a sample of the options available to student …

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Unless Daddy picks up the credit card tab without asking any questions, college students are under constant pressure to make ends meet. After all, you can’t party if you can’t afford the booze. And damn it, you can’t pay for the booze if your landlord kicked you out of your run-down old apartment after you neglected to pay the rent for the last three months. Let’s face it: most of us are unmotivated, lazy, apathetic citizens who would like little more than a few extra dollars to blow on organic Hippie Crunch cereal rather than a big bag of Toasty-O’s. We demand double-ply quilted Charmin’ rather than Target brand. We’d prefer Grey Goose to Karkov. We demand VANS because, damn it all, Payless Shoe Source just isn’t good enough anymore. We demand cushy jobs so …

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Asian food is a lot like pizza. It’s hard to get it really wrong, and when you taste the good stuff, you know it’s good, and there’s nothing better.As college students, we have a social and moral obligation to eat as much Asian takeout and drink as much coffee as humanly possible. Luckily for us, we are blessed with a campus that provides numerous options for satisfying these cravings, and the options we are given are good more times than not.Village Wok on Washington Avenue is a campus landmark, and it has been considered by many (myself included) to be the pinnacle of Asian food in the area. At least, it was until late October, when Pagoda on 4th and 15th in Dinkytown opened its doors to the public.Stepping through the front doors of Pagoda, …

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The University of Minnesota’s athletics department has taken a firm stance that they will not be playing teams with American Indian nicknames and mascots that are regarded as offensive. Well, except for the eight games the men’s and women’s hockey teams will collectively play against the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux this year. And then there was the football team’s homecoming match against the University of Illinois Fighting Illini earlier this month, along with the matches against Illinois that most Gopher athletic teams have on their schedules. In fairness, those examples might be tough to avoid, since Illinois plays alongside the U in the Big Ten Conference, while the University of North Dakota (UND) is a conference rival of the Gopher hockey teams. Still, in glancing at the men’s basketball schedule, we find upcoming …

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According to Wikipedia, the most reliable source for any information, the word rickshaw in Japanese literally translates to “human-powered vehicle.” Though actual rickshaws are not used in the United States, bicycle rickshaws, or pedicabs, have been around for a decade.Right here on campus, you may see one of them zipping around on game days or when you are extremely intoxicated. The driver of that “party bike,” as he calls it, is Ben Young of Local Sports, Inc. If you are hammered, want a ride to Mariucci or just enjoy the novelty of a pedicab, then hop aboard.The Wake: When did you start this homespun pedicab business?
Young: Well, I’ve been doing it for five years. This is my second year in the Cities. I’ve been doing it in St. Paul, and I’ve been doing Minneapolis …

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I know it might seem a little tardy of me to be breaking out my top-ten list of do’s and don’ts on how to date a Chemical Engineer now, after the romance of midterms and Homecoming. But this advice is worth the wait. Let’s not even narrow the field that much; this list not only applies to Chemical Engineers, but to anyone who has taken introductory-level physics by choice. My previous rants about the stress and strain of loving a nerd evolved when I couldn’t remember the point of “dating” anymore. But good things can come not only from becoming friends with a science-y type of a guy, but eventually waking up next to one, too.The following are suggestions from my arduous–and sometimes fun–years dating the one and only Boyfriend:10. DON’T make your science-y …

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University economics professor Leonid Horwicz recently received the Nobel Prize for lifelong work in his field, but no one seems to know why. Is Horwicz’s theory too esoteric for the Average Joe, or is the media deciding that Horwicz’s work isn’t important? According to professor Narayana Kocherlakota, head chair of the University of Minnesota economics department, the basis of Horwicz’s theory is not only simple, it is essential to understanding what people will do in any instance of interacting parties. Professor Kocherlakota defined two terms that Horwicz was responsible for bringing into the field of economics: mechanism, and incentive constraint.A mechanism is the rules of interaction between parties, where each individual must input the information that they possess into an order for a desired outcome. Incentive constraint is what verifies that every individual tells the …

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