December 2010
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Anonymous asked: Please don't ever delete Sex and the Ivy. I know I speak for a lot of girls at Harvard besides myself when I say that reading it and the chicktionary provide a huge sense of solace and inspiration that we can find nowhere else on the Internet or in real life. So thank you, and please, never take it down.
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Then & Now, Once Again →
I wanted to write an end-of-year round-up of my favorite posts, press mentions, published articles, but in the middle of going through my archives, I stopped seeing the point. Everything is on this website, if you want to read it. (My most interesting pieces, I found, were usually written in response to reader questions.)
Anyhow, instead of reveling in the awesomeness that was my year, I took a...
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Then & Now, Once Again →
I wanted to write an end-of-year round-up of my favorite posts, press mentions, published articles, but in the middle of going through my archives, I stopped seeing the point. Everything is on this website, if you want to read it. (My most interesting pieces, I found, were usually written in response to reader questions.) Anyhow, instead of reveling in the awesomeness that was my year, I took a...
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“I also went to a low-performing public school and lived in a rather working...”
– Erin, in a comment on my post about college admissions
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Anonymous asked: Dear Lena,
Thank you for your most recent post. I've wanted to send you an email for months now, because your blog has helped keep me grounded through the last year I've been out of school. I discovered your blog (SATI, actually, before this) when the Jeremy Pham/Dartmouth incident happened, and followed you ever since. Basically, the last four years were me trying to...
Thank you for your most recent post. I've wanted to send you an email for months now, because your blog has helped keep me grounded through the last year I've been out of school. I discovered your blog (SATI, actually, before this) when the Jeremy Pham/Dartmouth incident happened, and followed you ever since. Basically, the last four years were me trying to...
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Freelance Friday: Revisiting Personal Essay...
Since tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, Freelance Friday is coming early this week. Apologies to readers who became fans of the lapsed feature! In 2011, I’ll be bringing it back with new author interviews, advice columns, and personal essays about writing.
My blog was started as an exercise in discipline, a daily writing routine for which I would be held accountable by my intended readers:...
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Freelance Friday: Revisiting Personal Essay...
Since tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, Freelance Friday is coming early this week. Apologies to readers who became fans of the lapsed feature! In 2011, I’ll be bringing it back with new author interviews, advice columns, and personal essays about writing.
My blog Sex And The Ivy was started as an exercise in discipline, a daily writing routine for which I would be held accountable by my...
Anonymous asked: Dear Lena,
Thank you for your most recent post. I've wanted to send you an email for months now, because your blog has helped keep me grounded through the last year I've been out of school. I discovered your blog (SATI, actually, before this) when the Jeremy Pham/Dartmouth incident happened, and followed you ever since. Basically, the last four years were me trying to...
Thank you for your most recent post. I've wanted to send you an email for months now, because your blog has helped keep me grounded through the last year I've been out of school. I discovered your blog (SATI, actually, before this) when the Jeremy Pham/Dartmouth incident happened, and followed you ever since. Basically, the last four years were me trying to...
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A fat envelope is not what it's cracked up to be. →
A reader wrote:
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford…
I think most people go through a phase during which they want to go to a school like that. They believe that they could go to a school like that. Up until recently, I wanted/believed that I could get into X.
“I’m different,” I told myself (in vain, I suppose). “I like this school for x, y, and z reasons. I have this visceral response ...
Anonymous asked: http://germanheit.com/
http://deutschoftheday.tumblr.com/
Tumblr blogs that teach German. Hope you like them.
http://deutschoftheday.tumblr.com/
Tumblr blogs that teach German. Hope you like them.
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Gay is just the tip of the iceberg.
Speaking of my friends, the fact that Jason is gay is really quite minor, considering that my social group contains individuals at varying levels of crazy. Legit crazy! In the medicated sense of the word. Just among my closest friends, I can count a bipolar, a narcoleptic*, and an obsessive-compulsive. Who have all, at one point or another, literally wanted to kill themselves. (All these...
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Anonymous asked: I hate to sound like a superficial jerk, but you've won so many cred points in my book for having a gay bestie. I'm a gay male myself, and well, whenever one of my female besties dates a new guy, I judge the guy sharply on how decently he treats someone like me. It's almost like the waitress gauge, if you catch my drift. It speaks in volumes when a straight male can approach me like...
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“Philosophy is to the real world as masturbation is to sex.”
– Karl Marx Something to keep in mind as I look into graduate programs. (No, not seriously considering anything and not sure my grades are up to snuff, but do have a couple schools in mind for 2012.)
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“Philosophy is to the real world as masturbation is to sex.”
– Karl Marx Something to keep in mind as I look into graduate programs. (No, not seriously considering anything for the immediate future and not even sure my grades are up to snuff, but do have a couple schools in mind for 2012. I’m going to need to take the GRE soon!)
Anonymous asked: I hate to sound like a superficial jerk, but you've won so many cred points in my book for having a gay bestie. I'm a gay male myself, and well, whenever one of my female besties dates a new guy, I judge the guy sharply on how decently he treats someone like me. It's almost like the waitress gauge, if you catch my drift. It speaks in volumes when a straight male can approach me like...
the coy and the abased →
Kennedy is brilliant and this piece on her blog hits a little too close to home:
We are all of us half in love with our own flaws. And when we, unsolicited, point them out to others, it is not self-reproach that drives our confession, but self-adoration. We bring attention to them as a way of bringing attention to ourselves. Look!, we say, not only am I introspective enough to recognize this...
“Do you find the ‘fro to be an impediment in bed?”
– important questions I ask of my Bestie (the black, vagina-owning one, not the gay one)
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A Harvard Education
I was once in a lecture where a student tried quite earnestly to explain the concept of Engrish to Gerald Gabrielse, the dude who passed me in “Reality Physics” but is better known for being among the first to trap anti-matter.
To put this in perspective: this is kind of like explaining Ebonics to Einstein. While he’s teaching you the theory of relativity.
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A Harvard Education
I was once in a lecture where a student tried quite earnestly to explain the concept of Engrish to Gerald Gabrielse, the dude who passed me in “Reality Physics” but is better known for being among the first to trap anti-matter.
To put this in perspective: this is kind of like explaining Ebonics to Einstein. While he’s teaching you the theory of relativity.
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This Is What Rape Culture Looks Like →
I’m not going to comment on the Julian Assange case again, because I already did once (see preceding link) and if I have to read more rape-apologist bullshit, my head might explode. (My sinuses have already been numb since Tuesday, so I’m not going to do this to myself.) Instead, enjoy this post from robot-heart-politics:
jgh-2:
“The day we realized that liberal men don’t give...
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Anonymous asked: http://germanheit.com/
http://deutschoftheday.tumblr.com/
Tumblr blogs that teach German. Hope you like them.
http://deutschoftheday.tumblr.com/
Tumblr blogs that teach German. Hope you like them.
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In New York Until The 20th
I’m staying in Chelsea, seeing friends, helping Zac move, and filming for Sex Really. Will be blogging on/off and taking care of some last minute freelance assignments and life tasks before my big trip to Germany! (Patrick and Hamlet are already in Osnabrück.)
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Someone got venture capital funding for this?
Dear Lena, Please see the attached press release for HowToGetTheManOfYourDreams.com’s new Urgent Response Mobile Application, which offers quick, personalized dating and relationship advice for women on the go. Please let me know if you have any questions and have a great day! Thank you,
[redacted]
UM, I love poorly targeted PR emails in the middle of the afternoon. (I am the...
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This is not what Jason went to law school for.
Bestie Jason: Just read this piece about German courts, and the author was saying how the German people stand in awe of Germany's "massive apparatus of justice"
Me: Mmmm ... that sounds hot.
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Our alma mater is a permanent liability.
Kennedy: Do you know any straight men who are competent at dating?
Me: Um, no. Hello, we went to Harvard.
(Though the whole socially awkward schtick can be awfully effective ...)
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What To Expect When You're Expecting
Poop.
I’m just going to say it here and now, since soooo many of my female friends have expressed shock and surprise at this fact. (C’mon, we’re college grads! We should know this stuff by now.) You poop during childbirth. Almost everyone does. And there’s sometimes diarrhea beforehand, which a sign that you’re about to go into labor.
So. The more you know!...
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My Dog Is Cute, But Also Gross
And one time, he had diarrhea in a MOVING CAR. We were en route to Frankfurt Airport to catch our return flight to America last Christmas and I was so certain we were going to miss it. We somehow wiped up the watery mess, even though part of it seeped into the backseat cushion, and we told the car rental people that the last renter’s baby was likely responsible.
But! The cute anecdotes far...
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reaganing asked: I know that Hamlet travels with you many places, and now that I have a dog, I'm curious how he travels. He seems to be bigger than a carry-on dog - do you usually fly him in cargo, or do you have another trick up your sleeve?
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Hamlet Has Better Health Insurance Than I Do
Just took him to the vet to get his papers for his flight to Germany on Sunday. Name brand doggie meds, organic kibble … oh, the life of my spoiled little jet-setting hound.
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Julian Assange Captured by World's Dating Police →
Trigger warning for descriptions of non-consensual intercourse
I’m extremely, extremely disappointed by Naomi Wolf’s dismissive piece about Interpol’s arrest of Julian Assange for alleged sexual offenses. I could frankly care less if Assange is in charge of WikiLeaks or if there’s a government conspiracy to put him behind bars. Reality check: Liberals can be assholes....
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WatchMy video response to a question (“Can hamlet do cute little doggie tricks like play dead?”) submitted on VYou.
More burning questions that you want answered on-camera? Ask Lena Chen. (Tip: After you submit your question, you have to request a response by clicking “yes”)
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WatchOkay, I know there are a million of you who want to ask me about Hamlet. This is your chance.
Burning questions? Ask Lena Chen on VYou. (Tip: After you submit your question, you have to request a response by clicking “yes”)
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Anonymous asked: now that you've become a really legit writer, you've spent less time answering questions and talking to us. :(
I just accepted 100+ LinkedIn Invititations
Which have been sitting around my inbox since before I graduated from Harvard in May. Let me tell you: wafting through all the friend requests (or “connections” as LinkedIn likes to call them) and sorting out all the former hook-ups is a really great reminder that there’s no better networking than a one-night stand! Alas, I do not work in financial services, the preferred...
rachelsweeet asked: This isn't really a question so much as a virtual high-five. I just discovered you, Ms. Chen, and your Sex and the Ivy blog, at learned about the horrid ordeal you had to go through thanks to a batshit crazy ex. I know it's old news to you, but I just wanted to say, you are inspiring. You have such guts for talking about the things that other people refuse to. Our culture is obsessed...
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