Word: absurdities
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...exempt properties. The extra $1.7 million that Harvard pays voluntarily under the PILOT is all gravy. We are not at all opposed to the PILOT program as such, but for Cambridge to anxiously squeal for more, instead of graciously acknowledging this gift from one of its largest taxpayers, is absurd. Cambridge will always put voting residents ahead of the students who call the city home, so trying to get more money out of the University is an understandable move; but to pursue this policy relentlessly and arrogantly, to pursue it in the face of a preexisting ten-year agreement, pushes...
...scorching-hot issue of gay marriage, progress is even more certain. The occasional discriminatory ballot initiative notwithstanding, there has been a sea change in public attitudes toward homosexuality since the early 1990s. The mere idea that Will & Grace could have been a mainstream hit 20 years ago is absurd. Today millions of red-state residents enjoy shows like Queer Eye, even if most Americans still aren't ready for his-and-his nuptials. Polls indicate that about half the population supports some form of gay union. And younger Americans (those under 30) are vastly more accepting of gay marriage...
...ruling is only the latest hurdle for Jeunet, who has spent more then ten years trying to film A Very Long Engagement, based on Sebastian Japrisot’s best-selling novel. The series of blows in Jeunet’s own home country is particularly absurd given that, aside from an outstanding performance by American actress Jodie Foster, the film is utterly and beautifully French. In fact, her inclusion in the film is obviously the exception to the rule: Jeunet had been adamant that the movie be filmed in French, by a French cast and crew, in France...
Under-the-radar to the world, perhaps, but not to friends. “Yan surely has a tongue-in-cheek ironic self-promotion about him,” Wong says. The snowshoe that hangs on his wall is a testament to his love of the absurd. “I don’t snowshoe,” he says. “It’s meant to be ironic...
Looking back on it all, however, I’m saddened that the average, non-council, non-newspaper Harvard undergrad was largely deprived of the really absurd, interesting stuff. Why? You could blame The Crimson for not giving in to sensationalism, or chalk it up to general student apathy about council-related news. But either way, people really missed out. In the interest of never letting the smallest story fall through the cracks, here’s just a sampling of the quirks of this winter’s council campaign...