I went to see a play the other night. This being Tucson, in the middle of the performance a train went by somewhere outside the theater, and the dialogue was barely audible over the sound of the whistle. I sat annoyed for a while at this obnoxious intrusion of real life in the fantasy I'd been enjoying watching.

There's a play that many of us like to imagine about democracy. Like a lot of plays, it has a neat beginning, middle and end. In the opening act, a constitution is drafted. In the middle, a joyous and grateful people ratify it, each member represented. At the conclusion of the final act, the players take their bows and waltz off stage, confident in the new life democracy will offer. [Read article]

Someone once said that the meanings of all Jewish holidays could be summed up in three sentences: "They tried to get rid of us. They didn't. Let's eat."

But starting last night and ending tonight is Yom Kippur, the Jewish holiday of atonement, in which observers are instructed to fast for the entire 25-hour-long holiday. Jews around the world today will be spurning food and drink in favor of daylong prayer sessions punctuated by moments of hunger-induced unconsciousness. [Read article]

"How many of you want to go to into real estate?" the English-accented professor asked one regional development course on the first day of class this semester. About half the hands went up.

Warning, warning regional development majors: listen up. You're about to go into an overcrowded field that has over the last two years become much more so. You're going into a field with bleak future growth prospects, and you're going into a field that is gradually being replaced by technology. [Read article]

At Duke University, it's considered a rite of passage to camp in front of Cameron Indoor Stadium for days, sometimes weeks at a time to get men's basketball tickets and become one of the "Cameron Crazies." Here at the UA, students also have a rite of passage involving camping, though it has nothing to do with athletics.

The same die-hard determination exuded by Duke students in pursuit of a court date with Mike Krzyzewski was found in journalism seniors last week as they pursued another dream - graduation. [Read article]

UA wasting money on ugly aesthetic 'improvements'

Why hasn't the Arizona Daily Wildcat done a story or some editorializing on the "uglification" of the UA campus the past few years? First, landscapers poured faux red rock as groundcover around Old Main and elsewhere. Then it was the silly rockretaining walls in front of the Douglass building and Old Main. These buildings were here for 100 years and no retaining walls existed. [Read article]