gammily friendly programming
created so that everyone can enjoy
the weekend
FRIDAY. quorum call @ 4pm (wexner commons) + gammas get baja blasted @ 5:30pm (brookline or kendall square taco bell - check slack for the game time decision!)
SATURDAY. brendan and andrew t.’s super smash and mario kart tournament @ 1pm (11 westford street, allston)
SUNDAY. day of rest
what, you don’t like art?
gazetteditor’s note: this cursed image accompanied a truly terrifying article about ozempic, the diabetes medication, being used for weight loss. read more at your own risk.
hot goss
oh hello, my sweet gams!
what on earth is going on in the house of commons gamma? i’m fairly certain i’ve already started hot goss with an assessment that the vibes were bad this week several times before, so i’ll spare you from another—though the vibes do feel most horrid.
instead, i’ve been thinking about some of the things that seemed to be creating those bad vibes. a common one i’ve heard lately is pushback on pae content ranging from stress that you’ll have to create two separate reports (one for school documenting your actual assessment of the problem and a watered down one to make the client hire you happy) to being told your language was inflammatory (e.g., being told not to refer to a place banning abortion as a “hostile state” when the state is…quite seriously very hostile to women’s reproductive rights??????)
this feels like another strand of a thread that has ungirded our time at hks: we operate in the context of a school, a vocational field, and maybe even a social climate that places high value on keeping the waters steady, one being agnostic observers approaching the real-world clinically lest we risk others viewing us as overly partisan. to that i say, horse puckey! what hks needs is a whopping dose of courage. and i believe that the gammas of “toxic” (aka boundary-setting!) fame are bursting at the seams with courage.
whether you’re calling out the failings of a federal government program or advocating for higher pay for yourself in a job negotiation or making noise about the kennedy school’s continued struggle with accessibility accommodations (i see you britt and becca :*), know that gossip gamma is so very proud of you.
GAMMA’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT!
oren was apparently justin bieber’s hockey pal—hey oren, why do you hate me because clearly you must if you haven’t told me this before!!!!
GOSSIP GAMMA EXCLUSIVE: the bieber fandom has memorialized the atlanta knights. also see fun and games for oren’s reflections on his brush with fame
ketaki, our resident librarian, got told off by the hks resident librarian for leaving her stuff at the monitors too long
AIN’T THAT A SHAME
even with its $1.7 billion endowment, hks is no stranger to inflationary pressures
there seems to be a détente between maya c. and andrew t., one i intend to ruin by asking them to resurrect their feud
TEN POINTS TO GAMMA-DOR
sources tell me aneesa is a star baker—ask her about her cardamom cupcake recipe
an anonymous gamma made such an effective intervention in class that she received several emails about it from classmates
rejecting ricky bobby’s number one rule, a super gamma trivia team placed second at aeronaut’s games themed trivia this week
spotted: jacob getting his vegetables in. overheard: jacob demonstrating the texas state pledge of allegiance to mica in the cafeteria
TEACHER BEAT
rosenbach thought alo and sophie were dating. related: a close source tells me two mpp core professors were spotted out for drinks together on v-day…as friends. get your minds out of the gutter you sickos! despite what dave matthews and when harry met sally say, men and women can be friends
an anonymous tipster expressed concern that graham allison walks “dangerously fast for a man his age”
xoxo gossip gamma
ask not what your cohort can do for your gossip—ask what your gossip can do for your cohort. kindly submit your gossip.
cultura
remember the great television writers’ strike of 2007/8 that left many of our favorite scripted shows with truly batshit storylines for half a season and ushered in the golden age of the reality genre? well, sadly, the crystal balls are predicting we are due for another as writers fight to get compensated fairly for shows that stream. while the gamma gazette is, of course, #prolabor #proworker #prounion, the only compensation our writers demand is your readership, praise, and admiration. so i promise that cultura’s 2-week hiatus wasn’t protest-driven. it’s good to be back with you. there’s a lot to catch up on.
5. the oscars (aka hollywood’s biggest night) are officially one week out and both the races and the drama are heating up. a few top stories:
i know we’re a bit late to the discourse on this one, but even though weeks have passed since ariana debose’s cursed rap about the female nominees at the BAFTAs (think british oscars), the internet can’t get the song out of its collective head. please muscle through the whole thing if you haven’t already. it’s… something.
everything, everywhere all at once is officially the best picture leader after winning the bellweather producers’ guild award for best picture (since 2013 the pga for best picture has predicted the ultimate oscar winner); also, ke huy quan’s SAG award acceptance speech is truly worth a watch
the SAG awards gave us two iconic reunions: spiderman co-stars sally field and andew garfield and parent trap co-stars elaine hendrix and lisa ann walter (OMG!)
“you want the 411, i’ll give you the 411”
4. in royal news: no one wants to perform at the coronation of king charles. harry styles, adele, the spice girls, elton john and others have apparently all turned down the offer. maybe it’s because charles makes baffling choices like evicting his son and daughter-in-law from their british homebase (for which they recently paid back $3m+ in renovation costs and pre-paid more for a long-term lease) in favor of an accused predator???? who is advising this man?
3. to me, there is nothing better than an ensemble celebrity photoshoot. check out vanity fair’s annual hollywood issue featuring selena gomez, keke palmer, florence pugh, jonathan majors, jeremy allen white, and more, for some beautiful photography and fun quotes. inquiring minds want to know: which cover group would you join?
2. it’s the politics/media/entertainment crossover story of the year. rupert murdoch has admitted that fox news stars lied about the 2020 election for ratings. here’s to hoping that the defamation lawsuit brought by voting machine company dominion brings down this propaganda machine and the crusty old men who keep it running.
which reminds me: succession is back march 26 for its final season. CANNOT WAIT.
1. a feud is a-brewing between selena gomez and kylie jenner + hailey bieber, who have been engaged in week-long back and forth on social media under the guise of laminated eyebrow jokes (?? not kidding) but what is likely hailey bieber’s insecurity about her husband’s former relationship with selena (maybe bieber buddy, oren adam has insight). the not-so-subtle subtweets have revealed that kylie and hailey are true mean girls and that selena would be wise to log off. you may be wondering why this piece of news (“news” is working hard here, i know) is today’s top story: well, selena has gained 10 million followers since this began, and hailey has lost hundreds of thousands. peripheral stars like taylor swift have been dragged into this mess. the headlines are everywhere! for a full break down of the fight, check out this story.
fun and games
it happened to me: oren adam’s brush with fame
it’s not every day that one gets the chance to meet a celebrity, much less hang out or play a sport with one. while my nearly 20k followers on instagram may say otherwise (yes, the selfies speak for themselves), i’m just like you all.
here at harvard, we sometimes get the opportunity to meet or get to know famous people. maybe we have classes with a mayor or former governor, maybe we’re friends with the sone of a congressman, or maybe we get taught by a teacher who was a war criminal.
yet, only i am blessed with the privilege to say definitively that i knew justin bieber before he was famous (cue the infamous justin bieber hair flip).
justin and i first met in 2009. for those of the millennial generation, this was a formative time for music. jay-z’s the blueprint 3 had come out, many of us were either heading to our first ever bar mitzvah or entering high school and starting to hit puberty. whatever age, timbaland, rihanna, and dj unk’s walk it out and two step were there every step of the journey.
around this time i was 14 years old, and my entire life centered on playing competitive ice hockey. while in the middle of our season, this scrawny kid named justin from london, ontario randomly showed up to one of our practices, and later joined our team. little did i know this soon-to-be teen heartthrob would go on to win two grammy awards, one latin grammy award, eight juno awards, two brit awards, 26 billboard music awards, and 18 american music awards—and be named on the 100 most influential people in the world in 2011 by time.
in my min, he was just a short kid whose cockiness didn’t match his ability as an ice hockey player. 👀
nevertheless, we did our best to welcome him to the team, even if he did ride the bench for much of the season. my parents became somewhat good friends with his mom, pattie, and occasionally this guy named scooter braun would stop by and watch our hockey games. justin came over to my house, and we’d hang out. we even occasionally would play piano together (i was the classical music snob while he would try to riff on our piano).
as the season came to a close, my parents asked pattie whether justin would come back and join the team the following season, and i still remember her response to this very day: “well, his manager says that he’s going to be bigger than the jonas brothers, and once his career takes off, he’ll be working with usher and probably won’t play hockey every again.”
after i heard this, i fell out of my chair laughing. now mind you, at this time the jonas brothers were being compared to the beatles (a terrible comparison), and in the pop world they were kind of gods. the season ended, months went by, and I all but forgot about justin. it wasn’t until the start of ninth grade where everything change. that was the year “baby” came out.
if you were in middle or high school during this time, you know the chokehold this song had on everyone. he became an overnight sensation and was catapulted into stardom as one of america’s newest teen heartthrobs of the 2010s. it later led “one time,” “what do you mean,” and the list goes on and on.
his rise to fame represented a seismic shift in the music industry. he became a poster child for youtube as the best platform for identifying new musical talent, and in many ways is what laid the groundwork for much of what we’re seeing on platforms like tiktok.
nevertheless, my brush with fame is only just the beginning. rather than looking for the next justin bieber, i’m more likely to find the next bayard rustin, the next david axelrod, or maybe even the next president of peru (minus the going to jail part).
check out below for pics of justin and i playing hockey. look at that smirk, i think i could have been a better teen heartthrob. ;)
send us your most revealing targeted ads, real life stories, fun and games ideas, or guest column pitches at hksgamma@gmail.com
the blacklist
pae “drafts”
having to actually read and incorporate your advisor’s comments on your pae
slush
justin bieber
loan notifications; related: the supreme court
honestly loved
taking the night off
IHOP, i guess?
stark raving (someone give this girl a book deal)
kelsea ballerini’s seething divorce album
the gamma gazette has 100 subscribers! wowza. thank you, you loyal readers.
new here? please enjoy some of our most popular editions about making friends in a hopeless place, harry styles’ questionable acting chops, and a best-of hks list with our friends over at the (now defunct?? rip) beta bugle.