Culture and Society

This year the Applied Imagination team added the exhibition's first roller coaster, the Coney Island Cyclone. With the Cyclone are the Coney Island Wonder Wheel (complete with LED sign) and the Elephantine Colossus, a gigantic elephant-shaped hotel from the 1890s that burnt down in a fire.

With the passage of Proposition 67, California became the first state to ban single-use plastic grocery bags. It also requires most stores to charge shoppers 10 cents for either reusable plastic bags or paper bags. The idea is to manipulate people into using cloth totes to carry home their groceries. Hooray for the environment? Maybe.

"We Are X" - Are there curses destined to repeat in our lives? When is enough enough?

Balancing the desire for childbirth with long-term health will become an increasing concern as many women choose to delay childbirth.

Vogel tells this tale of assisted-living life in an old-fashioned Jewish-humor style, but steers clear of schlock and schmaltz, stripping his characters to their more-or-less lovable essences while revealing what seems to be a hopeful, even sunny view of human nature. It's a refreshing dose of positivity in a city blindsided by recent realities.

To all the college students, celebrities, protesters, and social justice warriors crying over the election, let's get one thing straight: you aren't as special as you think you are. Get over it.

Ready for another crazy weekend of college football? We certainly are. With our picks record sitting at 35-15, we're pleased with the chaos we've managed to get right. The real wackiness begins next weekend. Between the rivalry games and conference championships, we are tentatively expecting over half of the current top ten to fall.

The economic divide exploded into the sunlight with the ascendance of the Tea Party movement, identified more or less with the right wing, and the Occupy movement on the left. The difference between those two phenomena was more cultural than philosophical.

This play, this production, is a masterwork that will resonate with you long afterward.

This compelling play from Holland digs into the guts of a couple's personal tragedy while maintaining a subtle distance by means of delicately off-natural dialogue.