What’s Your (Personality) Type?
"Fine, I write personality quizzes, I donʼt write about the Great Issues of the Day,” says Amy Dunne in Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. “But I think itʼs fair to say I am a writer.”
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"Fine, I write personality quizzes, I donʼt write about the Great Issues of the Day,” says Amy Dunne in Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. “But I think itʼs fair to say I am a writer.”
Some people keep diaries; I keep sketchbooks. On days when I’m home from school and nostalgia has dug its Crayola–stained fingers into my thoughts, I pull them from the shelf and begin a trip through time.
In the tumult of midterm season (which is to say, anytime after the second week of classes) Penn students need motivation. What better way to fuel a study session or shift at work than with music pointing toward the ultimate end goal? According to some, it’s not love—Valentine’s Day is over. Not altruism either: “Changing the world” is much harder than your college admissions essays might’ve assumed. The answer is cold, hard cash—but not according to all of these tracks, which provide a variety of outlooks. All that glitters is not gold, but these songs sure are.
On Nov. 17, 2023, I got an email from the New York Public Library. According to the announcement, in less than two weeks, the city would see the last day you could enter one of their branches on a Sunday—thanks to budget cuts. In addition to the impact on libraries’ hours, NYPL explained that they needed to “reduce spending on library materials, programming, and building maintenance and repairs.” While the community reaction was instant and impassioned following the NYPL “#NoCutsToLibraries” campaign last spring, it wasn’t strong enough to prevent the reduction of funding from $36.2 million to $12.6 million a year for 2024. But it should have been.
With the arrival of Valentine’s Day, it’s time to ask: How do you say “I love you”? Well, other than in those words exactly. A box of chocolate–covered strawberries? A handcrafted card? An all–expenses–paid surprise vacation? (Maybe not that last one if you’re a college student.) If you’re lost, there’s even a very popular theory of five “love languages.” For a time, the mixtape was the pinnacle of thoughtfulness and accessibility in gift–giving. Burning a CD or packing a cassette with songs that perfectly described one’s feelings for their loved one was not only inexpensive but also seen as an art form. Nostalgia for this artifact of the past persists; mixtapes feature even in relatively recent films as a symbol of love. With the rise of music streaming services, it seems the art of the mixtape is dead. But Spotify Blends might be the 2020s’ adaptation of a beloved tradition.
Good grief! As finals season approaches, so does the holiday season. Synonymous with this time of year is a certain franchise: Peanuts. With five feature films and 51 television specials under their belts, Charlie Brown and company are the epitome of consistent cultural presence. Though it seems there’s a 25–minute to hour–long short for every holiday—from Easter to Arbor Day—true Peanuts primetime arises as soon as East Coast temperatures hit the fifties. The best of the best cover the three major American events of the season: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Millions have watched these specials air each year for decades (a fact that led to considerable backlash when Apple TV+ acquired them and it appeared the company wouldn’t allow the tradition to carry on). Aside from Charles Schulz’s instantly memorable characters, however, there’s another element that contributes to the Peanuts specials’ charm, and it’s all thanks to Vince Guaraldi.
As an avid secondhand–book buyer, I have certain rituals when I enter a bookstore. I always step into the horror section to see if I can catch a stray Stephen King; I walk through the classics looking for beautiful hardbacks and marbled pages; and, most importantly, I reminisce among the Young Adult shelves and see if I can spy the iconic black, white, and red–toned Twilight novels. If one part of my bookstore explorations is comfortingly predictable, it’s that I’ll find Stephenie Meyer’s infamous series—often, in its entirety. As of 2021, the saga had sold more than 160 million copies, and according to Publishers Weekly, Twilight was fifth on the list of top–selling books between 2004 and 2021 (just under Dr. Seuss’ Oh, the Places You’ll Go!). If you entered a teen girl’s bedroom in the 2000s or 2010s, chances were you’d find at least one copy—and maybe even a poster or life–size cardboard cutout of a character or two.
“What’s your favorite scary movie?”
* Cooking time varies with microwave wattage.
Immediately, three beats of the song’s percussion draw you in. Friendly strings lead up into piano notes that hop back down before jumping into a funky beat. Sweet female vocals begin to sing of love and disco. From this description, “Plastic Love,” which was released in 1984, seems like your typical ’80s hit—perhaps an exemplary karaoke song, but nothing particularly groundbreaking.
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