March 17, 2021

THE TIMES-DELPHIC The weekly student newspaper of Drake University Vol. 140 | No. 15 | March 17, 2021

FEATURES

SPORTS

COMMENTARY

Drake pharmacy students serve the community and fulfill academic requirements by administering COVID-19 vaccines at the Harkin Institute.

Senior Adam Fogg competed at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championship this past weekend, earning the title of All-American.

For one writer, St. Patrick’s Day 2021 serves as a reminder of how much things have changed over the past year.

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Journalist Andrea Sahouri acquitted on all charges

Sarah Bogaards Breaking News Manager sarah.bogaards@drake.edu

The trial of Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri ended with an acquittal of all charges last week.

After a three-day trial at the Drake Legal Clinic, a jury found both Sahouri and her former boyfriend Spenser Robnett not guilty of interference with official acts and failure to disperse.

She was at Merle Hay Mall reporting on a George Floyd protest when she fled from tear gas and was pepper sprayed and arrested on May 31, 2020.

The prosecution argued that both defendants did not respond to police’s dispersal orders and interfered with Sahouri’s arrest by pulling away.

Des Moines police Lt. Chad Steffen testified about whether or not a dispersal order was given prior to Sahouri’s arrest.

His body cam footage recorded him and other officers clearing the street while messages “disperse” and “protest peacefully” were delivered over a public address system. Defense attorney Nicholas Klinefeldt argued these statements did not constitute a clear order for everyone to leave the scene.

Luke Wilson, the Des Moines officer who arrested Sahouri and Robnett, testified that he pepper sprayed a group of people to urge them to disperse and arrested Sahouri when she did not leave. He also testified that when he went to arrest her, Sahouri pulled away and Robnett also attempted to pull her away by grabbing her arm, which led to the interference charges.

On the stand, both Sahouri and Robnett denied Wilson’s claims that they resisted her arrest.

“I charged her with

interference for trying to pull away from my grasp, as I charged Mr. Robnett for interference when he tried to remove her from my custody,” Wilson said.

The arrest was not recorded because Wilson said he thought he had turned on his body camera when he arrived at the protest, but discovered later that he was not recording at the time he arrested Sahouri. Body cam footage can be retrieved even though an officer was not recording, but Wilson did not realize the camera was not recording until too much time had passed to go back for it.

Defense witness Des Moines police Sgt. Natale Chiodo captured footage on his body camera of Sahouri being arrested and Robnett on the ground.The footage recorded Sahouri telling police she is a journalist covering the protest.

Former Register reporter Katie Akin, who covered the protest with Sahouri testified she did not hear orders to disperse from police and did not witness resistance from Sahouri or Robnett during her arrest, although she did not see the first moments of their interaction.

“I started to yell that we were reporters because I wanted to make it clear to the officers that we were there to do our job,” Akin said. “I understood us to be in the right and to be able to continue to report, and I didn’t understand why they were beginning to detain Andrea.”

Sahouri testified to her actions when Wilson pepper sprayed and arrested her. She also said she was only there to report on what was happening.

“I didn’t think it was a good idea to run from officers because I wasn’t doing anything wrong,” she said. “I put up my hands and said ‘I’m press, I’m press,’ and he grabbed me and pepper-sprayed me and as he

was doing so he said, ‘that’s not what I asked.’ “ The fact that Sahouri’s role as a journalist was not mentioned more during the trial was surprising to some first-year Drake law students who watched the whole trial either in-person or through a livestream.

“They pretty much decided right away that it didn’t matter that she was a reporter. Both prosecution and defense said that that wasn’t really a factor because it didn’t matter,” first-year law student Kolby Whisner said. “I didn’t expect that, I expected it to be more about whether or not you could discern that she was a reporter doing the job.”

“I thought [being a journalist] mattered in the law beforehand, so it was surprising that it didn’t matter but knowing that it didn’t, I wasn’t surprised that they didn’t highlight it.”

After each day of the trial, students discussed the case with professionals from the legal and journalism communities including a retired judge, a former KCCI employee and Drake’s dean of journalism and mass communication. Whisner said he learned during these sessions that the law does not actually provide a legal right for journalists to be at protests. He also said the group discussed whether this right for journalists should be a codified law to avoid arrests like Sahouri’s.

For Thomson Coffey, another first-year law student, this lack of legal rights for journalists at protests illuminated why it

ANDREA SAHOURI and her former boyfriend Spenser Robnett were acquitted on all charges after a three-day trial at the Drake Legal Clinic. PHOTO BY BRADY LOVIG | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

was not a dominant factor in Sahouri’s trial.

“I thought [being a journalist] mattered in the law beforehand, so it was surprising that it didn’t matter but knowing that it didn’t, I wasn’t surprised that they didn’t highlight it,” Coffey said.

Both students said they suspected the case would end with a not guilty verdict after watching the trial the first day. Coffey said he noticed that the defense presented more evidence and called more witnesses and thought it

strengthened the case.

“Once [the defense was] able to call three people who were all saying the exact same thing, it was like we have a good idea of what’s happening,” he said.

“There were some arguments that you could see maybe getting a guilty for one [charge] or the other here or there,” Whisner said. “There were bits and pieces, but just knowing how the court system works it’s not enough to just be maybe to convict, it has to be beyond a reasonable doubt.”

drake environmental science takes on march mammal madness

MARCH MAMMAL MADNESS was originally created by Katie Hinde, a professor at Arizona State University. PHOTO BY MAIA SONGER | CONTRIBUTING WRITER Maia Songer Contributing Writer maia.songer@drake.edu

While March Mammal Madness is taking hold on a national level, Drake University’s environmental science program started their own bracket, inviting students to participate for the chance to win a prize.

Dan Chibnall, a professor at the university, said the event started thanks to Twitter.

“It’s obviously based on March Madness, the NCAA basketball tournament. But this professor at Arizona State, Dr. Katie Hinde, decided ‘it’d be fun if we replaced the basketball teams with mammals,’” Chibnall said. “It all started with her and some of her colleagues and then

she branched out on Twitter to other ecologists and biologists and now there’s a whole team of people all across the planet that help her with this every year.”

Sophie Van Zee, a sophomore environmental science student, elaborates on how Hinde’s idea evolved into the national phenomenon that it is today.

“It’s simulated battles between different organisms,” Van Zee said. “They use cited scientific literature to determine which animal would win in a fight and they assign attributes.

There’s stuff like motivation for the fight and speech and strength, and so they give them numbers for that and then it’s basically probability for which organism would win.”

Chibnall teaches a class at Drake called Communicating

Science where students have the opportunity to participate in March Mammal Madness for extra credit.

Van Zee, alongside fellow sophomore Emma Cress, helped to turn March Mammal Madness into an event for the whole environmental science department.

Chibnall believes March Mammal Madness serves as a great educational tool for scientists to communicate to the public and help “foster trust” in scientists.

“Part of the point is that science for a long time has been perceived as being dusty and academic and complex and hard to understand and it’s done by people in lab coats and old white men with beards,” Chibnall said. “The thing is, we

have so much potential to get science out to the public and so even though something might seem silly, like a science TikTok or a one-minute video about how duck billed platypuses are really weird, in the process you’re learning something about nature.”

To add to the fun of Drake’s bracket, Van Zee and Cress are working on finding some sort of prize at the end for the winners.

While they haven’t quite figured out what the prize is going to be for Drake’s bracket quite yet, Van Zee is already making plans for next year.

“I think this year it was kind of scattered to do it because I decided to do it a couple weeks before, and then I was very busy before we got the bracket up,” Van Zee said. “I didn’t

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start pushing it until about four days until the bracket was due, so I definitely want to implement this and get more people involved from a lot of different places. We’ve been talking about prizes and we want to make them really cool like donating to environmental organizations, maybe funding planting a tree, or something like that.”

The event has been a way to build community, have fun, and “communicate about science in a relatable way,” Van Zee said.

Chibnall echoes those sentiments.

“If we’re going to appreciate nature and protect nature, especially with climate change upon us, then we need to be able to recognize that we’re not alone,” Chibnall said.

FEATURES

Features

March 17, 2021 | Page 2

Harkin Institute, Boys and Girls Club host vaccination clinics Andrew Kennard Staff Writer andrew.kennard@drake.edu

Every week, students at the Drake College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences help members of their community overcome the pandemic and fulfill academic requirements by administering COVID-19 vaccinations at the Harkin Institute at Drake University.

Most of them are second-year pharmacy students who need practical experiences required by the pharmacy school, said Michelle Bottenberg, an associate professor of pharmacy practice at Drake. Bottenberg also said all pharmacy students are required to earn an immunization certification through the American Pharmacists Association, and she said the college has “built [vaccination practice] into our curriculum.”

“So now, you know, this stuff with COVID, we’re ready for it,” Bottenberg said. “Because we normally do it every fall with the flu shots.”

Second-year pharmacy student Molly Nelson said that she has spent 15 hours volunteering at the clinic in addition to required hours for academic credit.

“From this experience in coming and being here for 40plus hours, I found out I love vaccinating, I love being able to actively interact with my patients, and be able to explain things that they are confused on and just bring some light to their life because I know so many people are scared right now, which is completely understandable,” Nelson said.

“It’s just a great experience to be able to work on a skill that I was just new at and to be able to help the community out.”

Nelson said that she also worked one of the two vaccination days at the Boys and Girls Club on Drake’s campus. Bottenberg said that together, the two events—one on Feb. 13, the other on March 6—fully inoculated about 1000 educators and school faculty members.

The vaccination clinic at the Harkin Institute is the result of a partnership between the College of Pharmacy, the

DRAKE SCHOOL OF PHARMACY STUDENTS have helped administer COVID-19 vaccines at clinics held at the Harkin Institute and the Boys and Girls Club. PHOTO BY BRADY LOVIG | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Harkin Institute, the Hy-Vee Windsor Heights pharmacy and the Polk County Health Department, Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice Nora Stelter said.

“We’ve really appreciated what Drake has been able to contribute as far as how many students, and the location itself—being able to socially distance that many people and vaccinate that many people at one time is amazing.”

The college provides student pharmacists and faculty supervisors, while Hy-Vee takes on more of the administrative tasks that come with running a vaccination clinic, Stelter said.

For example, appointments at the Harkin Center are made through the vaccine portal on the Hy-Vee Pharmacy website.

“I think it’s a perfect example

of a private-public partnership coming together in a time of need to serve our community,” Stelter said.

Hy-Vee Director of Public Relations Christina Gayman emphasized the value of the partnership.

“We’ve really appreciated what Drake has been able to contribute as far as how many students, and the location itself—being able to socially distance that many people and vaccinate that many people at one time is amazing,” Gayman said. “It’s something that you can’t even do inside a pharmacy location because of space.”

According to their website, the Harkin Institute is open from 12 p.m to 4 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays and from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Fridays.

“So, we work a lot with [student pharmacists] to make sure that they’re educated on their counseling and they’re really practicing those skills,” Bottenberg said. “We don’t want to just give a shot and then say, ‘Okay, go sit for fifteen minutes.’”

Bottenberg said that the

Moderna vaccine is the only vaccine in use at the Harkin Institute. A fact sheet provided to patients at the site states that doses of Moderna should be administered a month apart and lists both common side effects and symptoms of rare allergic reactions.

“And so we have every patient after they get their vaccine, they wait in the auditorium here and they’re monitored for fifteen minutes,” Bottenberg said. “If we have a patient that has a history of having a reaction to a vaccine or a component in the past, we make them wait thirty minutes.”

According to Bottenberg, the number of vaccinations that the clinic can perform each day depends on supply.

“We could do almost 200 every day that we’re here, but unfortunately, you know, we just don’t have enough vaccines,” Bottenberg said.

Gayman said that the greatest challenge facing local vaccination efforts is probably supply.

“I think that’s the general consensus across the board no matter who the administrator

is…we can still vaccinate more people than how many doses we’re receiving week to week,” Gayman said. “And obviously the federal government has a plan to increase those—we hear it in our calls with the CDC every week that that number continues to increase, so it’s getting there, but that is probably still the greatest challenge.”

One section of wall in the Harkin Institute is covered with Post-It notes of several different colors. Written on each note is something that someone was looking forward to after their vaccination. One reads, “I am anxious to get back to the YMCA,” another, “Finally meet my new classmates,” and a third, “I want to hug my kids and grandkids again!!”

“Everybody has somebody that they are getting it for, or something that they gave up, right, because we wanted to be safe,” Bottenberg said. “And so I think that they feel like they’re taking that power back and they’re getting back to their lives. And that’s exciting.”

Alumnus Spotlight: Morgan Stutzman Charleigh Reinardy Staff Writer charleigh.reinardy@drake.edu

DRAKE ALUMNUS MORGAN STUTZMAN applies the skills he learned at Drake to his new job at Sutter Home Wines. PHOTO COURTESY OF MORGAN STUTZMAN

Drake University Class of ‘20 alum Morgan Stutzman is thankful Drake encouraged him to be a leader and prepared him for the future.

Stutzman grew up in Johnston, Iowa.

Upon graduating from Johnston High School, he made the decision to become a Bulldog.

“I liked the culture around Drake,” Stutzman said. “I wanted that small school feel while still having sports, Greek life and everything in between.”

Stutzman kept himself busy, participating in many activities on campus. He worked in the Admissions Office, participated in the Adams Academy Leadership programs, and was heavily involved with his fraternity, Sigma Phi Epsilon.

Stutzman held many leadership positions, including chapter president.

“One of my favorite memories while at Drake has to be bid day with fraternity life or studying abroad in New Zealand for one of my J-term trips,” Stutzman said.

Stutzman took full advantage of Drake’s study abroad

program by participating in all four of his J-terms and spending a semester abroad.

“I did a semester abroad in Dubrovnik, Croatia, and I did J-terms to Lead at Sea in the Bahamas, New Zealand and to Israel and Jordan,” Stuzman said.

“Build your connections while you’re in college, with both your peers and your professors and outside of Drake.”

Stutzman feels that the leadership positions he held throughout his time at Drake helped to prepare him for the working world.

“With the activities around Drake and a lot of my marketing classes, I was really prepared for the opportunities post-grad,” Stutzman said.

After graduating with degrees in both data analytics and marketing, along with a

concentration in leadership, Stutzman began the process of finding a job.

After spending summer 2019 working as an intern for Trinchero Family Estates, Stutzman had the opportunity to interview with the company once again–this time for a full-time position as Assistant Brand Marketing Manager for Sutter Home Wines. He nailed it, and began working in the position in Sept. 2020.

“I manage our Sutter Home brand, which is our biggest brand,” Stutzman said. “We do about ten million cases a year and there is always a lot of wine to be drunk.”

Stutzman works with their data analytics and brand marketing, everything from Sutter Homes’ advertisements to their social media.

Stutzman encourages current and future Drake students to build their networks while in college.

“Build your connections while you’re in college, with both your peers and your professors and outside of Drake,” Stutzman said. “Postgrad, it’s really who you know and not what you know so really work the phones and get face time with people.”

Sports

SPORTS

March 17, 2021 | Page 3

Fogg continues to shatter records and make history

EVEN AFTER BECOMING THE FIRST ATHLETE IN DRAKE HISTORY TO BREAK 4 MINUTES FOR THE MILE, FOGG WASN’T DONE YET. Adam Fogg qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championship on Friday, March 12, where he took fourth place and was named “All-American.” PHOTO COURTESY OF DRAKE ATHLETICS

Emily Godsey Sports Editor emily.godsey@drake.edu

A Drake University senior made history this past month running track for the Bulldogs, and he plans to add more to his long list of achievements at the NCAA Indoor Championship this weekend in Arkansas.

Adam Fogg is a 22-yearold runner from Brisbane, Australia, who began running when he was just seven.

“I’ve been running for a very long time, but I got my first proper coach when I was 16,” Fogg said. “I started training under Ben Norton with the OnTrack Running Group and from them on my running progression has been pretty linear.”

Midway through February, Fogg became the first man in Drake’s history to run a sub4-minute mile. Later in the same month at the Missouri Valley Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships, he continued to set a record in the 3,000m run, taking first place in the competition. Because of these milestones, Fogg qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championship set to begin on March 12.

“Breaking 4 minutes for the mile and becoming the first athlete in Drake University history to do so was massive for me,” Fogg said. “The immediate feeling when I crossed the line and knew I’d broken 4 minutes was great, but at the same time, I was a bit disappointed that I got beaten on the day.”

Like many other runners of the same capacity, Fogg works hard to maintain a positive mindset while constantly trying to improve his abilities and his times. Over the next few years, he plans on continuing to practice and improve so he can run at more national championships.

“It’s really difficult to drag yourself away from just focusing on running fast and racing well, but there is a lot more to it, and joining the team at Drake has taught me that,” Fogg said. “I’m loving every moment of training with the guys and getting to race – even with COVID-19 happening – is a massive bonus.”

Even Drake’s head cross country and track and field coach Jay Koloseus has shown

his unrelenting support for Fogg and the rest of the team.

Koloseus took to Instagram with the caption, “One of the toughest runs I have ever witnessed. Fogg lead from 700m on and Schweizer absolutely goes for broke! So proud of these men!” following a tough second place upset for Fogg in a Feb. 13 competition.

When Fogg was able to break the record, Koloseus posted again on Instagram.

“Frustration of this past weekend is beginning to dissipate.

The moment trascends any qualifying marks and will truly be a moment many people will remember for the rest of their live,” his post read. “Need to simply be grateful for being here after a crazy year. FIRST SUB 4 MILE

IN SOUTH DAKOTA.” But breaking that record was just the beginning for Fogg.

“My goal is to make the finals, which will definitely be tough,” Fogg said. “If I can make the final, anything can happen, and so I’ll just try and get myself in the best position I can during the race in order to give myself a good chance of running well.”

The semifinal heats, set for 2 p.m. on March 12, proved to be a simple task to finish for Fogg as he was able to progress to the finals, competing at 2 p.m. on March 13 as well.

Fogg finished with an impressive 4th place win in the mile at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, earning the title of All-American, the first in Drake University’s history since 1990.

Women’s tennis player named singles player of the week

LIZA PETUSHKOVA, A MEMBER OF THE WOMEN’S TENNIS TEAM AT DRAKE UNIVERSITY, IS NAMED SINGLES PLAYER AND ATHLETE OF THE WEEK IN THE MVC CONFERENCE. Women’s tennis has been dominating the court recently, as well as Evan Fragistas, who was named men’s singles player of the week for men’s tennis.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DRAKE ATHLETICS

Darinka Stepan Contributing Writer darinka.stepan@drake.edu

After three dual matches from both men’s and women’s tennis this past weekend, the Missouri Valley Conference MVC gave this week singles player of the week for women to senior Liza Petushkova.

The league announced on March 3 that Petushkova had received it. Petushkova is now on her fourth year here at Drake and is continuously bringing more and more wins for the Bulldogs.

Over the past weekend Petushkova went 2-0 in both her singles and doubles matches.

Petushkova played singles

and doubles one for all of her matches. Petushkova’s overall record so far for this season in singles is 5-3.

Petushkova has won her singles matches against players from the University of North Dakota, Grand Canyon University, the University of Nebraska Omaha, University of Colorado, and Wichita State University.

After winning both of her matches against Omaha and Colorado in straight sets she was given player of the week.

Although this was not the first time Petushkova has been given player of the week, she is happy that she was able to get it again.

“I’m super grateful that I was

able to get player of the week once again,” Petushkova said.

Petushkova is proud of how she has done this season so far.

“For the most part I think this season has been going well, I keep going out every match with a positive mindset and play my game” Petushkova said.

“I can’t wait to keep competing and finish this season strong.”

Head coach Mai-ly Tran is also happy and proud of Petushkova for receiving the award.

“I’m extremely proud of how Liza has been competing,” Tran said. “She’s displayed confidence and composure in her matches which has helped her beat her opponents quite comfortably in the last three

matches. I look forward to seeing her continue to compete at a higher level.”

Petushkova is not the only Bulldog who received player of the week from men’s tennis the Summit League also gave the men’s singles player of the week to junior Evan Fragistas.

As of this season, Fragistas has a record of 3-0 in singles.

Fragistas has beaten other players from Northern Illinois University, University of Utah, and Illinois State University.

Fragistas is grateful that he was able to receive player of the week.

“I’m glad that I was able to receive player of the week, and help my team get a win,” Fragistas said. “I’m excited for

the rest of the season and to see everything that the boys are going to accomplish.”

Fragistas has played both singles 3 and singles 4 throughout the season so far and doubles three. Over the past weekend, Fragistas won both his singles and doubles matches against Illinois State University.

In singles Fragistas won his match 6-1,6-0. Fragistas and his partner Freddie Powell won their doubles set 7-5 against Illinois State.

Men’s and women’s tennis have quite a few matches still left in March with lots of opportunities for both Fragistas and Petushkova, as well as the other Bulldogs to get some more matches under their belt.

COMMENTARY

Commentary

March 17, 2021 | Page 4

From fad to fixation A reflection on obsession in the modern world

Colin Frier Staff Writer colin.frier@drake.edu

People adopt little infatuations that snowball into addict-level fetishizing.

Happens all the time. Just go watch any Quentin Tarantino movie. Throughout this article, I hope to document the absurdity of said habits.

You take a look around (though not for too long— don’t want to miss the last five seconds of that Instagram story), everyone’s attached to their phone, figuratively and literally. It’s no secret. An MRI of your brain would reveal an Apple-shaped right frontal lobe.

It’s like Minion in Megamind: if you make a nice circular incision around the forehead and lift up the lid to reveal your cerebral cortex, an iPhone X is probably living in there, floating in brain fluid, like the CPU of a computer.

Which, speaking of CPUs, Elon Musk released his “Neuralink” a few moons ago— not sure why he bothered. We already had it: the iPhone.

Wall-E is becoming reality sooner than anticipated.

“Everyone’s attached to their phone, figuratively and literally. It’s no secret. An MRI of your brain would reveal an Appleshaped right frontal lobe.”

Your phone is your pet, you know, you take it on little walks… soon enough you turn into the Hunchback of Notre Dame with your neck bent over in that position for so long.

You’re essentially Flex-Sealed ™ to your iPhone. You’re a moth to a light— nothing is going to break that downward gaze. I’d wager my entire retirement savings that if, in broad daylight, a UFO landed atop Hubbell, and the aliens got out, and striked a ceremonial gong, and used a megaphone to address Helmick passerby, no one would look up.

If your phone is the heart, the coffee shop is the lung. I never understood the hype with coffee shops. They crank the thermostat so high you feel like you’re in a sweatbox. To me, the coffee smell makes the list for top five undesirable scents, the number one being B.O. You walk into a Starbucks, the potent odor hits you as if it were a pull-door you tried to push.

Seriously, even an anosmic bloodhound from Australia could smell the noxious fumes emanating from Smokey Row. Coffee shops are asylums.

You get done with a marathon, soaked in sweat, and think to yourself, “I could use a cappuccino-mocha-frappèlatte-macchiato-americano right about now.” Never mind your bromhidrosis— rancid body odor. You walk in, no one bats an eye. You’re a chameleon.

Among the host of other smells, your stench is a pea in a mattress. You fit right in.

A like on Facebook and a cold brew is good for a small dopamine hit, sure, but if you really want to be over the moon, order a package on Amazon.

What happens until the day you receive that Gabriel-delivered package... that’s all background

THE DIGITAL AGE has left many people hooked on cell phones and other computerized devices.

GRAPHIC BY RACHEL JAMES | EDITOR- IN - CHIEF

noise. The blessed cardboard box is paramount.

So it finally arrives. And at that very moment, your neighbor miraculously wins the lottery. He comes screaming all the way to your front door, pulsing with ecstasy: “I WON! MEGA MILLION! THE NUMBERS MATCH! I’M RICH!” You: “That’s cute. Look, once you’re cooled off, mind giving me a hand in moving my Amazon package to the garage?”

Maybe you just received your vitamin supplement. People are very particular about their vitamin supplements. “I take Vitamin A, O, and X, and my Nose Elongator every other

day.” You ever walk down the vitamin aisle at Walmart?

Gives you the sense that you’re taking the wrong pills. Like— “This one says, ‘May boost sexual performance.’ $49.99 for a two-week supply. Well, if it’s expensive, it must be effective…”

We won’t even have to eat in the future. It’ll be like Brave New World, you know, all the nutrients you need in one pill.

That’s the sense I’m getting here.

Then there’s the Flintstones gummies you took as a kid; you chewed on those just because you liked the bottle design and the TV show. Next thing you know, movie theaters will be selling that stuff as concessions.

It’ll replace Sour Patch Kids or Hot Tamales. “You grab a box of Flintstones Gummies?” “Of course. Oh, good. The previews have just begun. Maybe I can finish these off before the lights dim…”

With all this vitamin talk, I’m even beginning to feel some FOMO. People recommend supplements like they do doctors: “You try the Nails Now? I heard they keep your toenails from blackening. Don’t want to have ugly toenails.”

Hell, with my luck, the minute I die, scientists will invent a supplement that prevents death.

St. Patrick’s Day and celebrating the little things Rachel James Editor-in-Chief rachel.james@drake.edu @kindisgroovy

Saint Patrick’s Day, a day of merriment for those corned beef and cabbage fans across the globe.

You wear green and count leaves of clovers. You drink beer (or Sprite for you kiddos). Not just the birth of the shamrock shake or a day to binge-watch all the “Leprechaun” movies.

With both religious and cultural roots, the day serves to commemorate Saint Patrick, patron saint of Ireland. There’s even some controversy around the holiday, as some believe the tradition has morphed into a time where foreigners

misrepresent Irish culture and “commercialize the event.”

But for me, it also serves as a reminder of time passed. Of how much has changed.

I recall being in Chicago two years prior my first-year at Drake, as the river was dyed green and people flooded the streets. I recall one year ago, scrambling to get home after finding out that classes would be online for an extended two weeks after spring break. This year’s celebration is naturally going to look a bit different, with the global pandemic of it all.

I was supposed to be 21 finally this time around, and I mourn that lost chance. This isn’t meant to trivialize the greater loss and tragedy that has been Covid-19, but it is to

THE TIMES-DELPHIC The student newspaper for Drake University since 1884 RACHEL JAMES, Editor-in-Chief rachel.james@drake.edu JEFF INMAN, Faculty Advisor jeffrey.inman@drake.edu

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EMILY GODSEY, Sports Editor emily.godsey@drake.edu NALA GAUVIN, Commentary Editor nala.gauvin@drake.edu EMILY HANNA, Business Manager emily.hanna@drake.edu

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say I think we can hold more than one type of grief. And there is something to be said for all the mundane moments, fun holidays and small celebrations that never came to pass.

But I am not the same person I was my first-year. For starters, I am far better dressed and I also get far less sleep. But in all seriousness, as we look around and see how different things are, I hope we still allow ourselves the grace to find melancholy joy in the little things.

My lovely roommates and I are still planning to do something together in the safety of our apartment. I didn’t get to have this great group of quarantine buddies a year ago, so I want to make sure I do take a moment and still cheers a green glass to that.

CHICAGO RIVER gets dyed green every year in honor of St. Patrick’s Day (pictured: river in 2013). Last year, the coloring was canceled due to covid-19, but the event recommenced this year. PHOTO COURTESY OF DOUG BELSHAW | FLICKR

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