Opinion

By ALEXZANDRIA MARTINEZ As my dramatic life progresses and another failed attempt to form a relationship results in the heartache of unrequited love, my sitting on the couch repeatedly watching “Dirty Dancing” days are questionable. Why should I care to create this deep bond, when I haven’t even figured out who I am yet?  As many before me, I’ve been told, “You will meet your love of your life in college.”  Today’s young people often succumb to the growing popularity of  “hookup culture,” or in my case, guys being straight-up assholes.  There’s the difficulty of getting into a relationship, but it is also difficult to maintain one because of life’s stresses. In fact, it seems like most college students prefer to go on casual dates and not maintain any emotional connection than to be in...

By COSTA B. PAPPAS A few decades ago, online dating was nonexistent.  Sure, some people met through sketchy chat rooms back in the late ’90s, but online dating was nowhere near what it is today.  A few years back, people were forced to form solid connections through face-to-face interactions or risk being single. The world was a sea of possible opportunity where singles could meet a potential soulmate through bar nights, blind dates or by sitting next to them at a coffee shop. Fast forward to 2019: We’re in a world where blind dates are virtually nonexistent, bar nights are spent surrounded by your closest friends with little to no awareness of potential suitors around you and coffee shops are a lot more silent …it appears that live interactions are dead. With our generation no longer...

By JOE GIDDENS William Shatner. One of Canada’s finest exports turns out to have as many careers as he has had wives. You’ve seen him fight men in rubber monster suits, helm the Enterprise and sell you on travel websites. Now it’s time to allow the man to grace your playlists as well.  Shatner released his first spoken word album, “The Transformed Man,” in 1968. Strip away the music of The Beatles and trade John Lennon’s singing for deadpan dramatic reading of the lyrics to “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” and you get what would be the prototype of Shatner’s album-making career. Shatner’s discography is an exercise in irony. It mirrors the late comedian Andy Kaufman, in that the listener is never sure if Shatner’s spoken word is intentionally done for comedic effect or if he’s completel...

By COSTA B. PAPPAS With the Food and Drug Agencies crackdown on Juus to lower the amount of underage vapers in late 2018, many were shocked to find that their beloved mango-, fruit- and crembrulet-flavored pods were no longer sold in stores. The motive behind this decision was to eliminate young audiences from being attracted to these flavors. “Our intent was never to have youth use Juul products,” Juul CEO Kevin Burns said, taking responsibility for the underage crowd getting hooked on vaping. “But intent is not enough, the numbers are what matters, and the numbers tell us underage use of e-cigarette products is a problem.” But the change doesn’t stop there. With California, Maine, New York and Hawaii among the states that have raised the minimum age to purchasing vape products to 2...

By AMARIS ENCINAS Starting this semester, I was not sure I was going to have the ability to be the editor of the Aztec Press.  But after much thought and consideration, I threw myself into it.  This is mostly due to the support of my amazing friends, including Josh, Erik, Andrea and the support that I have found here in this newsroom by my fellow Co-editor Joseph Giddens, my adviser Valerie Vinyard and the Aztec Press’ business manager, Joshua Manis.  These people stand tall behind my efforts, and I am eternally grateful for everything they have done for me.  To most people, becoming editor of their college newspaper isn’t a big deal, but it is to me. I have never done anything like this before, so I thought it was only appropriate to make my first letter to the editor a list of grati...