Being a student at the University of Florida comes with a lot of perks.
There are student-priced tickets for plays, concerts and other cultural happenings that would otherwise cost an arm and a leg. There’s the beloved Gator 1 that allows you to frolic around the Harn Museum of Art and the Florida Museum of Natural History free of charge. (If you haven’t been to the butterfly gardens yet, you’re missing out.) And of course, there’s access to the sweaty, loud, drunken perfection that is the student section of The Swamp.
Thanks to UF Student Government, the perks don’t stop there. With your “ufl.edu” email address, you are now granted a free subscription to one of the largest metropolitan newspapers in the United States: the New York Times.
The NYT has been published since September 18, 1851, has won 114 Pulitzer Prizes (more than any other news organization) and is now available to you, completely free. Just register with your “ufl.edu” email here and then get crackin’ on the list below, which contains a few of the best NYT stories.
“What if It’s All Been a Big Fat Lie?” by Gary Taubes – July 7, 2002
The fat in your food is not evil. Carbs are the real enemy. In the 1980s, the American Medical Association was uninformed and biased at best and negligent at worst. In this article, Gary Taubes tells us how America got its diet oh-so-wrong and, with facts and numbers, unravels the reasons behind our country’s obesity problem.
“Liking Is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts” by Jonathan Franzen – May 28, 2011
In this piece, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jonathan Franzen uses verbal sorcery to link technology, love and birds, leaving readers shell-shocked by the superficiality of Facebook, which Franzen calls “our private hall of flattering mirrors,” and the risk and reward of falling in love. If you can keep up with Franzen’s conceptual twists and turns, you will walk away from this article feeling both disillusioned and invigorated to distance yourself from technology and, instead, approach reality.
“Can Bill Simmons Win The Big One?” by Jonathan Mahler – May 31, 2011
You may not like Bill Simmons, the man, but you probably respect Bill Simmons, the enterprise. Simmons, as a sports journalist, recognizes that you won’t get the good stuff by lurking courtside after the final buzzer or barging into the locker room post-game. Instead, he uses his knee-jerk reactions to athletic fanfare as his frame of references and applies astute observational and analytical skills to give readers a more visceral, discerning lens to view sports with. In this article, Jonathan Mahler takes you through Simmons’ humble beginnings at a Boston paper, to his rise as one of the first ever “bloggers,” to “dysfunctionally codependent relationship” with ESPN and, finally, his then-fledgling venture, Grantland. If nothing else, Mahler provides context for better understanding the flippant figure who’s recently made headlines for doing what everyone else seems afraid to do: criticize.
“As Not Seen on TV” by Pete Wells – Nov. 13, 2012
Pete Wells’s review of Guy Fieri’s Times Square joint American Kitchen & Bar is the review to end all reviews. The most scathing indictment in culinary history, “As Not Seen on TV” asks Fieri venom-laced questions that range from, “Any idea why [the watermelon margarita] tastes like some combination of radiator fluid and formaldehyde?” to “Were you struck by how very far from awesome the Awesome Pretzel Chicken Tenders are?” Fieri’s entire career was called into question by this single review, which will not only keep you from eating at American Kitchen but also keep you highly entertained.
“What Broke My Father’s Heart” by Katy Butler – June 18, 2010
Katy Butler’s retelling of her father’s battle with old age and the commonplace maladies that come with it puts to shame all past attempts at the “little person, big story” approach to journalism. She gives readers a statistics-laced piece within a touching narrative, and finds a way to humanize a condition that is more often than not painted as merely clinical, and a burden, at best.
Featured photo courtesy of: osxdaily
