Being pun-y counts for something / Girls just wanna have pun / Here comes the pun

My friends make fun of me for my puns, but apparently, puns can pay off.

I received an honorable mention for headline writing from the Illinois College Press Association for this headline I wrote last fall about a new minor in evolution:

Rats in the dining hall and elevator stereotyping

Two Chinese New Year stories:

1) This was part of a flyer I received from nuCuisine, Northwestern’s dining service.

Something about “Year of the Rat” and “delicious dinner” on the same flyer doesn’t quite mesh with me.

2) In the elevator the other day in a classroom building, a professor-looking adult got on, along with a few other students, including an Asian girl (I forgot her name; let’s call her Jane).

Professor: Hey, Jane, happy Chinese New Year!
[awkward silence]
Jane’s friend in elevator: Um, actually, Jane’s Korean.
Professor [mortified]: Yeah, well, you know, these days, the Chinese New Year has become so mainstream that all of us celebrate it!

Happy Chinese New Year, everybody.

Hallelujah! It’s Super Tuesday!

My polling place is a church and my synagogue is a polling place.

If there’s supposed to be a separation of church and state, why are all the polling places in houses of worship?

Of the 53 polling places in my home district Niles Township, 11 of them (21 percent) are churches and synagogues.

When I go to vote and think about issues like abortion and gun control, is it right to have Jesus looking down at me? Is it right to fulfill my civic duty of voting and then step into the sanctuary to fulfill my religious duty of praying? Is it right to elect politicians who work endlessly to separate religion and government in a building where the two are at a crossroads?

Maybe Mike Huckabee, the presidential candidate who called for the Constitution to be “amended according to God’s standards,” has won the battle. I wonder why he never caught on with the electorate.

Outside Alice Millar Chapel, a polling place for Northwestern students voting on campus.