Campus Chronicle

Josef Stalin complained that the problem with democratic elections is that you didn't know who was going to win. Last weekend, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez lost his first referendum since he was elected in 1998. Had this referendum passed, it would've abolished presidential term limits (giving Chavez an opportunity to rule for life), given him control of the central bank, allowed him to appoint regional administrators and further eroded property rights.

This Christmas season, many retailers, cities and government buildings will omit traditional Christmas images or phrases in hope of not offending people who don't celebrate the holiday. According to an Opinion Dynamics poll presented by Fox News, 96 percent of Americans celebrate Christmas.

There I am, downtown on a Saturday morning, walking in the cold with Roland Barthes' "A Lover's Discourse: Fragments" held to my body by my arm as the snow begins to fall around me. Maintenance men had just installed a new heater in my apartment and now I was running late for work.

In the spirit of the best and worst of lists of 2007 that will be coming out shortly, I will forego the typical measures and do my 'list' in prose. Allow me a minute of your time to give you new, updated version of the widely popular song "My Favorite Things" written by Rodgers and Hammerstein for the 1959 musical "The Sound of Music.

The year started out with a surge in Iraq / Blackwater threatened and launched an attack / Iraqis were scared and rightfully so / These are a few of my-least favorite things. 2007 the Year of the Dolphin / A year when Chicago saw none of its teams win / The Bears lost it badly so early last spring / These are a few of my-least favorite things.