Yuck, Harvard.

As a member of the distinguished alumni of a distinguished university, I enjoy frequent emails updating me on further distinguished awards and achievements obtained by my university, as well as increasingly desperate messages from increasingly important people entreating me to donate money to my alma mater.

I don't mind these emails. They are sometimes interesting, and otherwise easily ignored. But today I received an advertisement, which featured:

Back by demand. ... This new[ly reopened online] store now features youth sizes, so you can now get [insignia clothing] for your future Harvard athlete with his or her anticipated class year!

I am disgusted.

1. Harvard admissions are now so competitive that legacy children are by no means assured acceptance. (I do not know that they ever were, but there is a general belief that this is the case.) The alumni magazine features articles about current Harvard students, showcasing their amazing skills and genius, for the purpose of consoling irate Harvard parents whose children were not accepted.
2. No child deserves the familial pressure of bearing insignia clothing that he must fulfill. That is cruel.
3. Where is it socially acceptable to wear a "Harvard 2020" sweatshirt?
4. Yuck.
   

If you nonetheless desire some shamelessly branded clothing, you can obtain it and my disapproval here.


This post's theme word: churrigueresque, "baroque, lavish, over-the-top."

DVD playback

I spent the last hour getting Paradelle to play DVDs, following a series of unilluminating error messages across the vast wasteland of Ubuntu message boards. Now that DVDs are playable (thank you, hundreds of forums, two of which had the answer to my particular instance of the "known bug," given my hardware), it's too late to watch anything. Tired, slightly sick Lila signing out for the day. Goodnight.


This post's theme word: contumacious, "stubborn, insubordinate."