Last week I watched the children of a family friend. After leaving the house, I e-mailed the mother warning her about her child’s hair, since I had forgotten to shamelessly tell her such to her face. Apparently, my attempt at pretending that the child’s hair was challah in order to make a braid ended up giving the girl flowy waves for school the next day- mind you that her hair is usually pencil straight. It’s times like these when I truly reflect on my identity.

In the wake of the latest Wikileaks disclosure, how much should we, as people, know? Is there such a thing as knowing too much? Or are some things best left unsaid?

Peter Singer spoke at Rutgers last week, giving his renowned talk on donating to charities. In this weeks JVP Speaks, the Johnsonville sounds off on the event and the argument.

You’re out and about or in and around, just doing what you do when you’re one or the other, and, ka-pow, you’re knocked aside the head with a seemingly racist comment. What do you do?

I thought I only watched Rachel Ray’s 30 Minute Meals for a good laugh, but she proved me wrong. Ray was doing a quickie meal of American favorites, including sloppy joes and macaroni and cheese, but with a twist: making them healthier and adding “adult flavors” to appeal to children. The twist was not quite a 360 degree turn; it was closer to zero.

Project Civility is in full swing at Rutgers, whether you noticed it or not. The initiative’s aim is to get people to ask questions about what it means to be part of a community, about how people should treat one another, and what can be done to improve the quality of people’s treatment of others. Of course, the whole initiative is voluntary rather than mandatory, which means that, chances are, one likely won’t be prompted to participate in Project Civility in one’s day to day. At the very least, I’ve yet to be prompted, so I figured that I’d prompt myself and my fellow JVPers to participate ourselves with this week’s question: Should America have a notion of civic duty if it doesn’t already? Why or why not? If so, what should it entail?

Hello and welcome to JVP Speaks! In this soon-to-be-a-recurring-feature, contributors will kick-off a discussion on a particular topic by writing on a single prompt. This week the JVP asked itself: are you voting? Why or why not? Feel free to answer the question yourself, comment on any of our answers, and to generally get the ball rolling on this important topic! Here’s what we had to say:

Since I have been a student at Rutgers I have noticed the increaFolding Bike in New Brunswicksing amount of bicycles on campus. When I was considering my commuting options for my last semester at Rutgers,I realized that since jetpacks aren’t available to the public yet, my best option was to start cycling. Now that I have become “one of the pack” I am able to understand the ease and relaxation that cycling brings. But I have also come in contact with horrid drivers who prefer that I be squeezed between two cars. Guess I can never be too thin, eh?

An enlightening article, including original photos.

Readers only get a taste of Gourmet Grub editor Rebbeca Zandstein from her articles, so with this Q and A I was aiming to serve up a hearty portion of Becca. As our conversation progressed, I learned plenty about my fellow JVPer that I didn’t know, so much so that a single piece simply will not suffice. Luckily, Becca’s the sort of writer that can be counted on to provide her fair share of articles, so I wouldn’t be surprised if some of what we talked about ends up inspiring future pieces. Until then, bon appetit!