Education

As I whiz down Agricola Street on my bike, going to work at a screenprinting collective, I find a certain comfort in knowing that my hijab is safely tucked in under my blue helmet. Those few minutes on my bike give me a certain amount of anonymity that walking doesn’t. My hijab has become like […]

Jason Brown Dalhousie University On the homepage of Dalhousie mathematics, statistics and computer science professor Jason Brown’s website, he states: “Everyone…can benefit from adding just a bit more mathematics to their daily routine.” For Brown, one of the best ways to do this is with music. While working on his undergrad, Brown would TA and […]

August 30-September 9 Atlantic Fringe Festival The Atlantic Fringe Festival has been putting on curiously charming acts for over 20 years. Original works of playwrights, musicians and dancers enliven downtown theatres “on the cheap,” from the really funny to the deeply felt. Highlights include the one-man melodies of Merv Hartlen (Merv’n Out), the comedy and […]

Renting a room in a packed house seems appealing to a lot of students. Reality shows have infected young minds to the point where living out a university-version of Jersey Shore is many people’s idea of a good time. We all know more people equals more fun, right? But roommates are like liquor—one or two […]

“Is it a giant, exploding dick?” So asked an American classmate of mine back in 2003, drawing my attention to an unusual sculpture on campus at Dalhousie University. Fresh-faced and 18 years old, my teenage brain couldn’t associate the sculpture with anything other than the male member either—though certainly not the kind I’d like to […]

Fred: “George, I think we’ve outgrown full-time education…Time to test our talents in the real world, d’you reckon?” George: “Definitely.” Fred and George Weasley are an interesting pair of wizards in the Harry Potter universe, but one thing makes them stand out from most of the other characters: They never graduate from Hogwarts. The twins […]

In the dusky August sunshine, eight Dal students sit in a living room on Cedar Street debating the finer points of garlic presses. One insists they are a godsend to harried chefs. Another retorts, “A garlic press is too bourgeois!” They are The Loaded Ladle, a food co-operative preparing for its first semester as a […]

We feel for you, you who are reading The Coast’s Back to School issue with no foreknowledge of Harry Potter. It’s hard to imagine there are any of you left out there. Maybe one or two. Well, you aren’t forgotten. Pay attention to what follows. It’s 2011 and the nerds are in charge, where what […]

I do have one quibble with Hollywood’s Harry Potter: nobody listens to secular music. While I enjoy a sweeping, stolidly British orchestral score as much as the next person, it’s also an interesting exercise to imagine which local bands might suit the tastes of individual Harry Potter characters. I took my best crack at it, […]

I have the worst travel karma. I book a flight and the country blows up. Case in point: Japan, my original vacation destination. I planned to visit my friend who was teaching English—Mother Nature had different plans. Scared out of going for fear of one day giving my parents three-headed grandchildren, I was forced to […]

Hogwarts has Hogsmeade, Halifax has downtown: When Hogwarts students need a break from strict professors and all those confusing, moving staircases, they’d head down to the village of Hogsmeade for a beverage at a pub. Likewise, Halifax students can find respite at local taverns. They may not serve butterbeer, but Henry’s House’s six British-style ales—non-pasteurized, […]