Word: annusing
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...more apocalyptic. The famous "Winter of the Blue Snow" of 1886-87 turned rivers of the American West into glaciers that when they thawed, carried along inundations of dead cattle. Theodore Roosevelt was virtually ruined as a rancher by the weather that destroyed 65% of his herd. In the annus mirabilis of 1811, the Mississippi River flowed northward briefly because of the New Madrid earthquake...
...year of Harvard-bashing in the media, we at least thought we could count on the fair-minded Economist to say something nice. Those nice chaps tried, but they didn't succeed. A recent article in the magazine chronicles Harvard's annus horribilis with zeal, but in the end discounts the last year as an aberration, falling back on Harvard's name and stature to complacently dismiss the unfortunately events as novelties. In doing so, The Economist entirely misses the point and does Harvard a great injustice...
...have indeed had an annus horribilis. On May 28, Dunster House Junior Sinedu Tadesse stabbed her roommate 45 times with a hunting knife before hanging herself. Disturbing occurrences like the delivery to The Crimson of a mysterious foreboding letter with a photograph of Tides and endless speculation of roommate tensions, have cast a nasty pallor over the University community. There were two other suicides in Dunster House this year, and another in Kirkland House. In March, a Harvard Square bank was robbed in broad daylight and resulted in what The Economist called a "shoot-out at high noon...
...seems that money, the logical preoccupation of this magazine, has blinded it to some of the lessons we might learn from our annus horribilis. In its self-congratulatory complacency, The Economist's article sounds in tone entirely too Harvard: that despite a devastating year, we can still rest comfortably on our laurels, unshaken by the collapse of things around...
Harvard's annus horribilis has not merely been a fluke, a "bad year;" this year speaks volumes for the type of world in which we find ourselves today, and for the trends of our progress and regression. It should provide us with pause for some careful examination of the state of the world and of how we might do better. A new sense of compassion and unflinching rejection of the trappings of a decadent mass junk culture are thing we should be preaching and pursuing. Educated people learn from their misfortunes and mistakes; they read and interpret the world around...