Monday, February 14, 2005

On the quaint, quiet, maple-lined Harrisonburg street called Greenbriar is a nice, big house in which any 80-year-old grandma would love to live. It’s nestled behind the elegant President Rose estate and faces the home of a JMU professor. It stays tidy and always smells like a baking cake. Covering its warm-colored interior walls are family portraits. Its residents cook four army-sized "family meals" each week, and always spend two hours every Sunday evening in "family meetings."

Fashionab-Lee

What do your unmentionables look like? Talk of underwear is taboo, yet it is an essential fashion item that we often take for granted. Since our undies are covered by clothing most of the time, we tend to feel that we can wear whatever we like, since usually no one sees them, whether one prefers sexy lingerie, granny panties or his favorite seventh-grade boxers.

With a little more than mild trepidation, I entered the College Center Grand Ballroom to be utterly surrounded by more than 40 intelligent women, all gathered to celebrate the one characteristic they all share: their vaginas. I didn't know what to expect as I opened the door. Would it be enemy territory— the women finding a focus for their rage in me, a representation of male oppression?

Reel Reflections

"Hotel Rwanda," the first full-length film from writer and director Terry George, embraces the difference that one person can make.

Day in the Life

Those of us who enjoy UREC group fitness classes sometimes view our instructors with envy. How do they remain so endlessly peppy and energetic every day? How do they sweat it out cheerfully at 7 a.m.?