When I first met the guy I was going to marry, he told me he had a book called “Dating for Under a Dollar.” I didn’t believe him until he showed me. His parents had raised him in a lifestyle he cheerfully called “frugal” rather than “cheap.” Most of the Read More…
A group called the Squirt Gun Mafia organized a flash mob slumber party at Ikea on Sunday, July 8, 2012. Sleepy shoppers donned pajamas and climbed under the covers to read bedtime stories and eat milk and cookies.
Disclaimer: I am not a “cat person,” or for that matter a “dog person.” If anything, I would be an “animal person,” but that is neither here nor there. I recently played a card game called Kittens in a Blender. The purpose of the game is to save your own Read More…
When I applied to be a Daily Cal columnist, I figured I should pick a topic that was relevant to the student body and about which I could, you know, say a thing or two. So after a moment’s deliberation it was clear: write about the Internet. I’m a member Read More…
Nerds have overrun Fort Mason. None of the coastal batteries or fortifications could hold back this roiling, unkempt tide. Where battleships once docked and carried nearly two-thirds of the total American personnel deployed in the Pacific during World War II, a few overweight 30-year-olds with messenger bags and prolix t-shirts Read More…
Hey, you! Yes, you — mediocre gamer. Yes, that’s right, I know all about you. You’re tired of being beaten by luckier, more skillful opponents, right? Do all of your friends joke that you’re just paying for the company at your weekly poker game? Is a nerd who figured out Read More…
Whenever this column mentions a number, take a drink. It’s the summer of 2008, and it’s getting late — too late to start drinking, but I do it anyway. I’m in Groningen, northeast of Amsterdam, at an apartment 20 minutes from the city’s university. The August air is warm and Read More…
Imagine being guided by an old yet firm hand into a living room and then sat before a growling fire and a bowl of ice cream. The hand pats you on the back after sitting you down and leaves momentarily to retrieve something: a circular wooden board, with semi-spherical divots Read More…
They are everywhere. They walk among us in the daytime and appear no different from you or I — they are neighbors, friends and co-workers. But come dusk they undergo a startling transformation. They occupy the back rooms and clandestine chambers of your cities, passing ghostlike through the streets and Read More…
