Victoria Flood

The ten year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks has brought back a lot of sad memories for Americans. In one of my classes, the professor asked what we were doing when we heard the news. She found that most of the students were in their elementary school classrooms and libraries at the time of the attacks. Being about ten years senior to the average AU student, I was surprised at the detail of the accounts and how observant these young students had been of other people's suffering.

Alfred students brave winter’s sequel to experience some of Hot Diggity Dogs’ not-so-dainty morsels.

Whether you’re looking for the after-hour melodrama of GJ’s at closing time, or you’re just plain hungry, you can find satisfaction at Hot Diggity Dogs.

While I’m not in the habit of going out for hotdogs at 2 AM (or anything short of a Ben and Jerry's crisis, for that matter), I have been meaning to try the popular hotdog stand for the better part of this semester. Patrons often stop for a quick bite on their way to, or home from one of the area’s proximate bars.

After surviving my latest challenge of spending two weeks as a vegetarian, I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate being an omnivore again than by diving into a plate of piping-hot lobster claws.

Now, in order for this to be an official fear-conquering, I couldn’t just place an order at Red Lobster (not that we have one of those), I had to prepare it myself. This meant that I would have to embrace my inner savage and kill a lobster.

Boca burger, you’re the one … you make meal time lots of fun … Boca burger, I’m falling in love with you.

Ok, I’m exaggerating … a lot. Veggie burgers may not be my favorite “would-be-meat patty,” but they aren’t hockey pucks either, which is what I was expecting.

AU was taken by surprise yesterday, when five yellow school busses full of grade school students wearing face paint and ninja costumes took over the campus.
Armed with smart phones and full access to the academic transcripts of every Alfred student, the surprisingly efficient children sectioned off one building at a time. They assured us that our grades would not be harmed as long as we all sat on the floor quietly and raised our hands before we spoke.
A pair of first graders guarded my group. Periodically they waived their smart phones at us, flaunting their access to banner web.

On my list of fears, encountering public displays of sexuality is one of the most intimidating. Sure, I’ve been to bachelorette parties and played along with all of the fun and naughty games, but I’ve never really been comfortable with the exposure. So for this issue, I decided to work out my fear of porn.

Since the beginning of this year’s quest for a braver self, I’ve been toying with the idea of eating sushi. To put it mildly, I find raw fish intimidating. Actually, I find all fish intimidating, even canned tuna. I think it relates back to a tragic childhood incident with a suicidal goldfish. Perhaps finding the tiny, orange corpse on the carpet was visually suggestive of sushi, but we’ll never know for sure.

For those of you who have had your fill of mystery chocolates and desperately affectionate teddy bears, I might have just the suggestion to help you break out of your Valentine’s Day stupor. Forget about long-stemmed roses, look into a wife carrying competition.
Nope, I didn't make it up, it's real. This quirky sport for the young-of-heart and strong-of-legs originates from Sonkajärvi, Finland, which is widely (though perhaps not thoroughy) accredited as the birthplace of wife carrying and the annual World Championship for the sport held there since 1994.

Happy belated Valentine’s Day, Alfred. This is your friendly "mis-happed" columnist checking in with my latest adventure. In the spirit of healthy relationships, I have a confession to make. Through my column, I was attempting to pan handle moral support from you. I was a mere click of the mouse (or tap of the touchpad) away from sending off my piece titled, “Just one more reason why I’m awesome” to the Fiat. Well, I hadn’t really titled it yet, but that was more or less the direction that I was headed in.

Happy belated New Year! It usually takes me until the tail end of January to reevaluate the many promises I made to myself, so I thought it would be fun to share some resolutions with you. Aside from slipping into a size 7 wedding dress by October, my only real goal for 2011 is to be more courageous in my day-to-day life.