Top Tan List: Weird Things That Happened This Week

Either the planets have aligned, the world is coming to an end, or God just picked this week to toy with us. Whatever the cause, this was a very strange, though very enjoyable, week. In fact, instead of the usual This Week in É format, I've put together a post of the ten weirdest moments of the past few days.

10) Confirming a few of the rumors, the Boston Red Sox traded one of their stars, Manny Ramirez, to the Dodgers. The weird thing is all the former Red Sox stars are becoming Dodgers - Manny joins Nomar and Derek Lowe! Four years ago, that was OUR lineup!

9) As you should know, I'll be leaving this site when I move in to Emerson. Subsequently, Glen dared me to reach 1, 000 posts before I depart - and I did, by tagging older, previously untagged updates. Hooray for tags!

8) On this blog, you hear a lot about a famous linguistics professor/author/political aficionado named Noam Chomsky. This week, Professor Chomsky became aware of our little site AND had a little talk with our own Glen Maganzini. Good work, Glen.

7) Chris Mogni...yes, THAT Chris Mogni...made a splash, as he tends to do, with his first work as an Étudiant - two posts about his summer homework. Don't worry, incoming juniors - the required reading doesn't get worse than Walden. You'll like some of your required reading. You really will.[/foreshadowing]

6) Chris DeCarlo makes this list not for any post he made this week, but for any post he didn't. After a couple Daily Recommendations, he disappeared from the blog to focus on his homework. Congratulations to Chris for getting a life!

5) Glen's been posting videos for a while now, but the content of those clips has gone in a direction far from the daily newscast format. This week saw the darkest, most personal, most introspective video yet, besides, of course, Rex Lam's return to Wakefield. Joking aside, check out Glen's look back on the last three years, in a video that just might destroy any chance he might have had of getting a girlfriend THIS year.

4) New Étudiants aren't too unusual. This week, we welcomed a few new additions, Mike Brisbon, Brian Hickey, Rob Reinold, Petar Todorov and...Chris Mogni. Yes, THAT Chris Mogni.

3) The other co-founder, Chris Morrill, is a bit of an insomniac. It's not weird for him to be out somewhere in another town long past midnight - but for me? Anyway, I had plenty of fun hanging with Chris and Brian Hickey on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning - and the strangest moment had to be when we were approached by the most insane stranger we've ever encountered.
She spent about ten minutes talking to us - each sentence having nothing to do with the last. It sounded something like this...
"Excuse me, but would you happen to know a restroom I could use? I like your haircut. You don't put sea kelp in your hair, do you? Because I do, and it costs 83 cents!"
I could go on, but any more would drive YOU insane.

2) Liz, Glenna Regan, and I danced the samba. This story began when Liz posted about a dance class at MIT and invited her fellow Étudiants to it. Unfortunately, only two of them went, because only two of them aren't pussies.

1) I went to a George Michael concert. I've always thought he was talented, and liked a few songs, but I never thought I'd actually go to see him at the TD Banknorth Garden. But when my cousin invited me to go, I asked, "Why not?" And you know what? It was a good show.