No, this is not another UC election stunt to convince you that they, finally, will be the ones to get Harvard students out of their respective study shells (or so we think). However, in yet another effort to increase interactions between undergraduates on campus, the website, www.harvardlunch.com, has been launched, to randomly pair up students to share a dhall meal together.

According to the website, “After freshman year in Annenberg, we often settle into groups (blocking groups, concentrations, houses student groups) and don’t venture outside them. HarvardLunch gives you the opportunity to meet and/or network with people you might never meet otherwise in the Harvard community.”

Annenberg...where social interaction comes to live and die at Harvard. (From the Office of the Arts website.)

It’s not clear who started this website or exactly when it was launched, and it’s still listed as in beta form. However, all you need is a Harvard e-mail address to add your name to the group of 52 people (and counting) that the site claims it has already helped introduce.

Let’s see if Coe-Odess-Li, Ebrahim-Cao or Jones-Davis can do any better.

Here at the Voice, it’s pretty obvious that we have a special place in our heart for internet memes, particularly those that take advantage of online anonymity. That’s why we fell in love with I Saw You (at Harvard), a CS50 project serving as the “source for posting and browsing missed connections,” according to its founder Tej Toor ’10.

Browse through the first page to see if anyone is professing his/her love to your oblivious “Hunky Australian philosopher” blockmate. A more interesting aspect of the site is the posted stats, collected from the submission demographics. Of all four classes, seniors are submitting the most sightings, perhaps in attempts to take advantage of the last opportunities to get to know the Serena van der Woodsen lookalike or the guy stuffing his face with pita chips at brain break. But most surprisingly, sightings occur more frequently at the 12 Houses than anywhere else on campus. Looks like more than a few people are too shy to chat even in the dining hall.

Read Noice’s favorite declarations of unrequited love after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

For all you foodies and other starved students out there, I lovingly bestow upon you my midterm pick-me-upper, my “fml General Gao’s chicken again” curative, my black book of food fetishes – a collection of my food porn pics.

These are pictures of dishes that were just so good that I needed a visual testimony to their toe-curling deliciousness, and can only be fully appreciated one at a time.

So my first treat comes from Susan Feniger’s Street in Los Angeles. These savory little packages of pleasure are Spinach Varenykys, Ukranian pan-fried dumplings filled with spinach and a light layer of salted cheese. Fried onions and lemon marmalade offset the luxuriously creamy filling.

Now if this isn’t masochism for the palate, I couldn’t tell you what is.

Follow these tips for '80s flair and you can be a boy toy too. Minus the making out with Britney thing.

Hand it to Leverett to make gyrating in a throng of sweaty freshmen a serious, sartorial affair. Advertised as one of the biggest Lev events of the year, HoCo co-chair Isaac Martinez ’10 advises people to dress up for its annual ’80s Dance and “expect a lot more enthusiasm.” Those looking to make a noice neon impression this weekend should take note of the following fashion pointers that’ll even make Madonna in her “Like a Virgin”-and-pointy-breasts era salivate.

Sweatbands. Remember all those Richard Simmons workout videos from two decades ago? It was tacky, it was tasteless, and it serves as the perfect example of how your outfit should center around your hair accessory on Saturday night, not to mention that it should prove useful for wiping off the sweat you will rub off from the guy in the pink tights, leading us to…
Bright spandex. And by bright, we mean fucking radioactive rainbow. Bolder is better. We don’t know if we can find anymore alliterative phrases to drive this point deeper into the ground. Oh, wait–glaring garishness.
Hair that’s been battered and bullied. Can’t go wrong with teasing the crap out of your hair. Unless, of course, you’re Carrot-Top, in which case, touché–you’ve killed two birds with one stone.
Big glasses. Hey, you’re at Harvard; shouldn’t be too hard to find a pair lying around.
Consider a celebrity costume. Michael Jackson, pre-child molestation allegations. Madonna, pre-pre-divorce. Cyndi Lauper, pre…. well, in general. Go all out, and you might just find the Harry to your Sally on the dance floor.
Anything from American Apparel. Extra brownie points to whoever dons only the unitard.
Refer to the hipster sitting right next to you in lecture. Enough said.

Also, props goes out to Lev HoCo for a music video remake of the ’80s hit Jessie’s Girl, complete with procreating bunny. See the video and event details after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m always ecstatic (really, I get that excited) when I see the board menu bar in our dining halls. That one special little section of the dining hall where I am finally given the opportunity to cook, actually more like assemble, my dinner. Luckily for me, my favorite of the board menus is the most recurrent – the panzanella bar.

Panzanella is a Tuscan bread salad that traditionally contains tomatoes, basil, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and, yes, stale bread. The dining halls put their own spin on it by also providing us with arugula, olives, and pickled onions. When the panzanella has been prepared appropriately, the slightly dense, crusty bread is mollified by the absorption of some of the oil, vinegar, and juices from the vegetables; however, it still gives the salad some texture by retaining a bit of its chewiness.

I find it to be a lovely, well-balanced salad, but am always slightly put off by the bags of pre-cubed, mass-market bread, and also miss an integral part of my meat-loving, quotidian diet: protein. Read how I improve upon the panzanella after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hot breakfast delicacy: Pizza with egg on top.

Recently (and by “recently” we mean this morning), Noice emerged from its cozy riverside home to traverse the Yard and into those forgotten depths of Annenberg, that hallowed hall of yesteryear, in search of hot breakfast, the forgotten delicacy which upperclassmen can now only dream of.

Indeed, the hot breakfast was found, but to our great dismay, it was not as delightful as our anticipatory minds made it out to be. In fact, it was actually kind of bad. The difference between those inferior, cold plates of upperclassman breakfasts and these silver platters of toasty meals can be broken down into a simple list:

That Which Annenberg Hath Which Upperclassmen Hath Not

• Sausages
• Pizzas with eggs on top
• Tasteless potatoes
• Tasteless eggs

That’s all.

Perhaps this is simply an anomaly — perhaps Noice arrived on a bad morning? Nevertheless, Noice gives Ye Olde Annenberg Breakfast 2 out of 5 stars.

Delicious, and you made it yourself!

Today the dining halls were serving chicken wings (more like chicken skin) and our ever-recurring golden nuggets. Not being in the mood for these dining hall delicacies (out of fear for immediate heart attack), I opted for one of my favorite salad bar creations.

Barbeque chicken salad is just a good thing. It breaks up the monotony of simple green salad, is heartier and less frilly than other varieties, and most importantly, is incredibly easy to prepare when you’re in a dining hall rush. Read the quick and easy recipe, after the jump!

Read the rest of this entry »