A cross-cultural phenomenon
By: Andrea Sadowski
Can we all just appreciate for a minute that in basically every cuisine worldwide there exists a food that is essentially deep-fried dough stuffed with some kind of filling? St. Lucia has floats stuffed with cheese, Brazil has pastels stuffed with every filling you could think of, India has samosas stuffed with potatoes, Mexico has empanadas usually stuffed with meat, Vietnam has banh ran man filled with meat and vegetables, Russia has chebureki filled with ground beef and onions, and Pakistan has kachori stuffed with moong dal, to name a few.
If you prefer deep-fried dough of the sweet variety, there are Mexican churros, Canadian BeaverTails, American funnel cakes, French beignets, Brazilian bolinhos de chuva, Indian jalebis, Norwegian smultringer, Swedish rosettes, Polish paczki, Croatian krofne, and the list goes on my friends.
Whenever you travel or try a new cuisine, I encourage you to try their version of deep-fried dough. You will never be disappointed.
How many coyotes could I take out?
By: Jessica Barclay
The other evening I ran outside in the dead of night to face a pack of roving coyotes who were yelping near my outdoor barn cats. This got me thinking though: how many coyotes could I realistically take on in my bare feet with only a common kitchen broom?
Coyotes are the trash pandas of the dog world. They are similar in size and appearance to a stunted German shepard and about half as threatening. They aren’t as intelligent as a wolf and can generally be scared away by a child throwing rocks and pretending to be large.
With my menacing 5’6 stature and pink, fuzzy kitty cat pajamas, all but the most dedicated foe would be sent scrambling away in fear, so I would be facing only the most vicious of coyotes. I have extensive training with stick swords and plastic lightsabers, so I know how to use a broom, but also coyotes have teeth, it’s the dead of winter with limited prey options, I’m between them and food, and I’m barefoot.
I’m going with seven; eight if I grab the wooden broom.
The quiet horror of dead spaces
By: Nicholas Ashenhurst-Toews
There’s something very eerie about empty spaces. Not like a big open field, or a forest with no one around, but spaces that are normally filled with people that are suddenly just empty. I’ve been taking a class that ends at about 8:30 at night, and the difference in how many less people there are on campus than normal is startling. I’m so used to there being movement and voices that the absence of that is slightly terrifying.
In September, I interviewed for a job at a mall, and I had to be there just as the mall closed. A mall devoid of people is one of the most haunted places in existence. It’s worse when the mall is still open, and all you can do is wander from shopfront to shopfront, and reflect on how still it is. There’s this really good video series on YouTube called the Dead Mall Series by the channel This Is Dan Bell in which he goes and records what is left after a mall has closed or sales have gone down. These places feel haunted, even if there is still activity there. Maybe it’s just us who are haunted.
Beating the algorithms
By: Sam Young
I try to enjoy (and create) small pleasures in my life whenever I can, and lately I’ve been entertaining myself in a brand new (and absolutely frivolous) way. We all know that Google and the gang love to spy on our searches and send us ads they think are relevant to our interests, but what you might not know is that it doesn’t take much to throw them off your scent completely by exploring ridiculous topics you have no actual interest in.
It might seem like it isn’t worth the effort, but taking just five minutes each week to explore weird Halloween costumes or fringe YouTube channels can lead to months of bizarre content showing up when you surf, constantly spicing up your everyday browsing. It’s a gift that keeps on giving, sometimes long after you’ve forgotten that you ever added “sexy fish suit” to your Amazon wishlist. When you’re struggling to make it to the end of another depressing article about world politics and suddenly find yourself staring into the grinning visage of a man dressed like a Big Mouth Billy Bass with the words “buy now” flashing next to him, you’ll thank your past self for being so forward-thinking.
Illustrations: Kelly Ning
Andrea Sadowski is working towards her BA in Global Development Studies, with a minor in anthropology and Mennonite studies. When she's not sitting in front of her computer, Andrea enjoys climbing mountains, sleeping outside, cooking delicious plant-based food, talking to animals, and dismantling the patriarchy.
