I Refuse To Donate To Kenyon College Until They Acknowledge The Academic Value Of McDonald’s Lore

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The four years I’ve spent here at Kenyon College, this bucolic intellectual wonderland, have been some of the most special of my life. I’ll be walking away from graduation this spring with a profound conceptual toolbox with which to approach the world. However, as I leave the campus behind, I’m left with a sour taste in my mouth and a painful awareness of this school’s inexcusable shortcomings. That’s why, after much thought, I refuse to donate any money to the college until they do what’s right and acknowledge the academic value of McDonald’s lore.

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Why ‘Jonah Hex’ Is The Greatest Western Of All Time

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In 1979, John Wayne quietly passed away in Los Angeles at the respectable age of 72, leaving behind a whopping legacy of 83 Western films and generations of kids who dreamed of becoming rugged gunslingers. Subsequently, scores of American essayists would tie Wayne’s death with the death of the Western film genre, which is a tad insulting considering that one was a living, breathing figure while the other was a specific form of entertainment designed to capitalize on public interest.

The biggest problem with this John Wayne analogy, however, is that the Western genre never croaked the same way its biggest star did.

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Alums Who Kind Of Have Their Shit Together: Brendan O’Connor ’12

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Brendan O’Connor ’12 in the digital flesh.

While Kenyon’s proud of all our alumni’s accomplishments, sometimes it’s easy to forget that success isn’t always measured in book deals or starring roles in mediocre PBS miniseries. Plenty of grads are up to interesting things in the real world without getting notable mentions. To rectify that, I talked with Brendan O’Connor ’12 about journalism, the liberal arts, and Ben & Jerry’s.

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