Editor's Note

Dear FM, The signs of spring — for most of us, our first on campus! — are all around us: bashful daffodils peek through the soil, Canada Goose jackets give way to cheeky short-sleeved polos, and the oh-so-missed sounds of darties fill the weekend air. Breathe in. Breathe out. Okay, now back to business. We’re proud to present Issue #6, inaugurating the second half of this semester’s FM content. It will make you laugh, cry, spit out your coffee, jump for joy, rethink your life choices, etc, etc. Don’t miss it. AVM beefs up FM’s science content with an astutely-reported Scoop on efforts to develop a pan-coronavirus vaccine, a one-stop-shot-shop that can adapt to future strains of the virus. Is it a utopian dream? Read to find out! Next, a pair of Conversations pieces. From SSL, a profile on David Foster, a biologist and recently-retired director of the Harvard Forest, whose love of trees is rooted (get it?) in more than the fact that his last name is an anagram of “forest.” GRW and JKF talk to Benjamin Bolger, a teaching fellow at the College who boasts an impressive 16 — no, that is not a typo — post-graduate degrees from institutions like Harvard, Stanford, and Oxford. His counsel for others hoping to become a “professional student” like him? “Embrace being eccentric.” FJB and JKM make their way downtown (to Union Square), walking fast (they missed the 86 bus), through the crowd at the No Frills All Fun clothing swap, a sustainable alternative to clothing donation hosted by the organization We Thieves. Despite the sweet sorrow of parting with some well-loved clothing items, they learn about “conscious consumerism” and the hidden waste of clothing donation. JL takes us to another square, Inman Square, to answer the perennial question: where can I find a good Soviet-themed bar? Fear not — New Republik, the “second generation” of Central Square’s beloved People’s Republik bar, which closed during the pandemic, fills that void. For a little levity, HPD (or shall we say Phillip D. W. Leverett-Mather III) recounts his devastating Housing Day experience, which left him in tears and isolated from his friends: he got River’d. Ever the cultural critics, our writers took a skeptical look at social media this week, too. ASG contrasts the Instagram #selfcare aesthetic (think face masks, matching workout sets, and lemon water) with feminist philosopher Audre Lorde’s concept of self-care as “an act of political warfare.” TS wades into the brave new world of BeReal, the photo-sharing app that claims to help users “discover who your friends really are in their daily life,” and asks: how real is BeReal? In this issue’s endpaper, SWF examines the longest relationship she’s ever had: her 12 years as a devoted fan of the Bachelor franchise. From reading tabloids to listening to weekly recap podcasts, she’s been a staunch Bachelor Nation member for 12 years, even as the show’s popularity has waned. “Society has progressed past The Bachelor,” she asks. “Why haven’t I?” Finally, KSG and SWF (again!) anchor our issue with a scrupulously-reported, fiercely-relevant scrutiny into the history of abortion rights activism on Harvard’s campus. From Radcliffe women’s push to expand reproductive justice in the ’70s, to fervent campus debates in the ’90s, to shifting advocacy approaches in the mid-2010s, abortion rights activism has ebbed and flowed over the years. But most recently and since the pandemic, that activism has been conspicuously quiet on campus, an absence made all the more striking in the face of what many experts expect to be an imminent takedown of Roe v. Wade. It’s an excellent scrut, and one that everyone should read. Thank you as always to all our execs for stellar editing, to our designers and photographers for consistently blowing us away with your work, and to JGG for speedy proofing. I’d like to extend a special shoutout to TAS (that’s Taylor Allison Swift, for the uninitiated) for writing the masterpiece that is “Delicate - Seeb Remix,” a surprisingly inspiring anthem for editing a scrut on abortion. And as always, thank you to SLL for cookies and laughs and all-around excellence. Read the issue, and happy Spring! Love, MVE & SSL