It’s the early morning and I’ve already read a few newspapers, some blogs and a couple celebrity gossip sites.

I know a lot—sometimes too much—about our nations state of cultural affairs. But hey, at least I’m informed about something and it IS my job, right?

There was a day though, particularly all four years of my undergraduate career (save the Thursday Style section of the NYT) that I knew nothing about current events.

Apparently, I’m not alone in this. In a recent study based on 1,800 Americans, only 18% of those from ages 18-30 read a newspaper everyday. The results found that our generation is more of a glance at the news type of group than any other.

And although we spend hours in front of our computers each day, most of the news we do watch is from the television.

Even more importantly though, it isn’t the ways in which we are receiving our news, but the fact that we are getting it at all. It is sad to think that of the many times I spent hours mindlessly surfing the internet, I never once really went to the New York Times homepage or even USA Today, which is slightly fluffy, to find out really what was going on in the world. Read More »

Does the food at your cafeteria suck? Want to make some extra cash? Can you cook candied olive crumble with fish, braised short ribs with scallops, robiola cheese with fizzy carbonated grapes or chai ice cream with miso-sesame chocolate and powdered peach and pineapple? Didn’t think so.

Fortunately for Duke senior Bryan Zupon, who just loooves food, all this was a possibility. So, he opened a restaurant…in his dorm room.

Those Duke kids, they’re always going the extra mile. Damn overachievers.

“I don’t think that New Southern cooking has changed since the mid-’90s,” Zupon said to the New York Times. “I’d talked to a lot of big-name chefs in the area — for personal reasons and also for the newspaper — and they were so apprehensive to change. I was like, this is frustrating, so I’m just going to do my own thing and see where it takes me.”

Now I know, having grown up in North Carolina, that the state is not known for its culinary wiles. Although there aren’t any top restaurants, there are still some delicious places I look forward to eating every time I go home that could rival some of the best southern cooks out there.

Allow me to share: Read More »

• When you live in New York City things like this are a disappointing reality. Thank God there’s a hilarious video parodying it! (YouTube)

• Listen up incoming Freshmen: Think your parents are like, so totally annoying? At least your mother doesn’t write about all of your short-comings. In the New York Times. (Gawker)

• Leona Helmsley’s bitch is a total bitch. But damn if she isn’t rich as hell! (NY Daily News)

• We all know to carry Mace and not trust men in public places. So, what’s this I read about 1 in 3 of us totally dropping trou at a moments notice? Didn’t we all read this article? (Houston Chronicle)

• Courtney Love might get sued because she cares about her suicidal friend. Ugh. Let’s just all agree to never do drugs again, okay? (MTV UK)

• Senator Larry Craig got arrested and the police report is taken word for word to make a mock Dragnet spoof. Bravo MSNBC! (MSNBC)

Girls, hang on to your purses, it looks like we’ve finally surpassed the men when it comes to salary—at least in a few big cities.

The New York Times recently reported that in New York City, full time working women aged 21 to 30 made 117 percent of men’s wages. They made even more than that in Dallas, at 120 percent.

Once the survey branched nationwide, however, full time female wages fell back down to 89 percent

Regardless, this new trend is still a good sign, especially to women of older generations who have been fighting the wage battle as long as females were invited into the workforce. Many companies seem to be getting the message that boobs and lipstick don’t equal less skill.

While it’s not entirely clear why women are making more cash in cities like New York and Boston, some experts speculate it could be because women are graduating from college at higher numbers than men, and many of those graduating girls are “gravitating toward major urban areas”. Read More »

Elle Woods was way ahead of her time. Not only was she a trendsetter in the fashion sense but apparently in the working world as well. Remember her video resume to Harvard Law complete with requisite bikini shot?

Six years later, the idea finally caught on. Forget the paper resume and cover letter, the video resume is about to take its place.

Following on the heels of the trend are various video resume websites. Each has its own unique spin. One even hails itself as “job networking on steroids.” And if the working world takes its cue from pop culture, the video resume is about to blow up.

Sean Combs, the illustrious Diddy, posted a short clip on YouTube in the attempt to find an assistant to replace umbrella toting Fonzworth Bentley. His only requirements were that the video “interview” be less than three minutes and his new assistant have at least a college degree.

If you feel like being belittled by Diddy, film your own short and post it to his YouTube group.

But if you’re like the rest of us (just wanting a normal job with benefits) try filming your own video resume. You never know when the trend will start to take off. Read More »

Okay, I’m pretty sure that the last people to ever use “Sponges” as a contraceptive method were our moms…maybe our grandmas. Well, that might be a little overdramatic. I think Elaine on Seinfeld was the last person to discuss their death on that famous Sponge episode. And seriously, the thought of using a Sponge nowadays is as obsolete as the idea of boy bands making a comeback.

So, it came as a surprise to me when I saw an article in the New York Times reporting that “The Sponge is Back, With a More Modern Approach.”

Apparently, the pharmaceutical company has updated the packaging for the Today Sponge from conservative and feminine looking to pictures of “hip-looking women, playful typography, and colors that officials call ‘fuchsia and wine.’”

Interesting marketing ploy, but I have a hard time believing that young women will start using the Sponge again, mainly for the statistics of inefficacy.

“16 percent of American women who had never given birth and may have used the sponge incorrectly or inconsistently became pregnant within a year, while 32 percent of women who had given birth and used the sponge this way became pregnant. The pregnancy rate for women who relied on condoms for birth control and may have used them incorrectly or inconsistently was 15 percent, while the rate for women using birth control pills in this way was 8 percent.” Read More »

I’m not a big drinker, but I love me a well-made cocktail.

Why, just the other weekend I ordered a $12 concoction that sounded wonderful at a swanky outdoor bar (the drink did not, in fact, taste wonderful, but you better believe I sipped that sucker dry — $12 cocktails are always to be finished, no matter what).

Because I’d rather go with quality rather than quantity, I was super psyched to read this little article in the New York Times about organic cocktails.

No more Red Bull and bottom shelf vodka here, these new fruit and vegetable fueled drinks are popping up in bars all over the United States.

With recipes “like freshly juiced organic carrots, Granny Smith apple juice, elderflower liqueur and vodka”, the new “organic” cocktail trend allows health conscious connoisseurs feel better about topping off that third drink.

And while nothing is going to make sipping an alcoholic beverage healthier than eating an apple, researchers at the United States Department of Agriculture recently reported, “adding alcohol to strawberries and blackberries increased their antioxidant capacity”. Read More »

Many months ago, CC introduced you to a new club at Harvard University called the “True Love Revolution”. Sounds exciting, right? Well, if you read the previous article, you know the name is a little misleading.

Begun around a year ago at Harvard by students Justin Murray and Sarah Kinsella, the “True Love Revolution” club is all about abstinence.

That’s right. A club devoted to sexless—until marriage—relationships.

As of today, Murray and Kinsella are still dating, still keeping their club alive (with activities like sending out 800 pink cards to female Freshmen last Valentine’s Day which read “Celebrate love, celebrate life, celebrate you: Why wait? Because you’re worth it”), and still doing almost nothing except “kissing and cuddling”.

How they’re holding on is anyone’s guess. Read More »

The first time I chopped a nice frontal fringe, I was in college. I never knew the hard times that came with growing out your bangs because, well, I never had to. So I saw my stylist and cut some bangs because the regular old blonde needed an update. But until today, I never realized the statement my bangs were making. I thought I just needed a change.

Apparently bangs say so much about you, that the New York Times felt the need to write an article about it. Oddly, older women aren’t jealous of the tight, svelte bodies of their younger counterparts. They’re jealous of their bangs. Read More »

The only reason I hesitate to proclaim LL’s career completely dead is because comebacks are so big these days. She could land herself a E! series, or maybe even some giant Barbara Walters special where she cries. There’s a chance Lindsay could rise again.

But just in case she doesn’t, Hollywood had better start looking for new big-boobed starlets.

A New York Times article (yup, even the grand old NYT is digging through Tinseltown garbage these days…) claims now that Lindsay has been arrested twice, she’s basically uninsuriable. And when you’re uninsuriable in Hollywood, everything fades to black.

If a production company can’t be sure a star will show up for work or stay out of jail, it’s unlikely she’ll be hired. One missed day can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars down the drain, and almost no actress is worth that kind of anxiety. Combine Lindsay’s unpredictable behavior with her less-than-stellar film record, and you’ve got a girl who can be (and most likely already has been) replaced.

Poor Things, a small independent film (that was supposed to begin shooting shortly) in which LiLo had only a supporting role, was recently plagued by rumors of an early demise after Lindsay’s first rehab stint. Since the starlet was arrested a second time, the movie’s producer claims the film is “moving on” – supposedly without the troubled star. Read More »