Life's Rich Tapestry
Hey readers. It's Jim again. Cultural critic for South Carolina's fine print digest The Cousin, and guest columnist for the OxStu.
Columns: The Real World
One cannot move to London without experiencing a bit of a culture shock. Or a lack-of-a-culture shock. And with the shock come various peeves and annoyances. The question is: How do I get them off my chest? And then, my Columns Editor conveniently asked me what I hated in London. Well...
Columns: Another world
I got turned away from the Pub Oxford the other day. Not, as you might expect, for looking too young - I got turned away for not being a student! Talk about falling between two stools. I walked over to Magdalen instead (nearest college I knew anyone in) & played some pool. My mate then challenged me to table football. I'm rubbish at table football. So, once he was safely seven-nil up, he told me some dodgy Magdalen rule about taking certain articles of my clothing off if I didn't score at all. I quickly offered to get the next round & ran away. I hate exposing myself in public....
Columns: Conforming to Stereotype
To become an Oxford Hack, one must content oneself with having friends in a purely professional capacity. This is not necessarily your fault, your time is merely taken away from you and redistributed to your two main tasks - establishing your 'slate', and denying the existence of your 'slate'.
Columns: Go Ask Your Mother...
I represent an institution that is in severe financial crisis. We feel we have exhausted every option and tried every scheme to alleviate the economic burden on our members. But it's just no good. Last week, for example, we tried discriminating against poor people. Yet we're still not even bottom of the Norrington league tables, despite the dense population of posh retards here. Does this indicate we are lagging behind in attracting the cream of the six-fingered gentry? Our focus group told us that we should implement a "Target Toffs" policy; perhaps even put on a fund-raising ball to raise awareness of elitism. We're just so confused, though. Can you help? ...
Columns: Newsfight!
Call me an unreconstructed Bolshevik, but I like strikes - and the tube strikes earlier this year were the best thing to happen to Britain's crumbling transport system for a very long time. Transport workers and passengers were united in demanding a publicly owned, properly funded system: despite denunciations from all the major political parties and tabloid headlines like 'Hang the Tube bullies', public support for the strikers remained firm. It's just a shame that the pathetic bootlickers who run the rail unions have doffed their caps to Massa Tony and wimped out of another round of strikes. (They might have won, and we can't have that...)...