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In This Issue

• The Many Temptations of Jesus Christ, CC 20 AD
• Slackers Take a Stand on Work
• Letters to the FEDitor
• From the Archives: Volume 14, Number 1 - February 1999
• David Foster Wallace, 46, Found Dead in Apartment
• Found: Lost Diary of a Sensitive Frat Boy
• ‘Roo 08: The Fed Reports
• Last Nightʼs Study Break on Hartley 5
• Confessions from a Member of God’s Flock
• The McCain/Obama Liveblog From Hell
• The Rime of a SEAS student
• Bra Burning is sooo passé
• Stephan Vincenzo: The Man, The Legend
• Orientation Activities: The Horror, The Horror
• Straight from the White Board of my NSOP Hookup
• The start of a new year...
• And now, two freshmen getting it on.
• Columbia Court
• Secret Oval Office Tapes Exposed! George W. Bush: “Fuck the Economy. And Fuck You.”
• THE FED Presents: A Political Cartoon
• A Public Service Announcement
• THE FED has this to say
• The Staff of 24.1
• THEY Watch

David Foster Wallace, author of books The Broom of the System, Girl With  Curious Hair, and the acclaimed magnum opus Infinite Jest¹, was discovered dead on September 12th, apparently having committed suicide, and while his family and friends mourn his passing, so too does the literary world which will now nevermore entertain another new novel produced by this troubled yet still quite talented and just frankly incredible author, whose witty and often playful writing mated with serious themes regarding earnestness, communication, irony, addiction², media, artificiality and just generally subjects of great gravitas well worth reading about, but with the single most important and significant focus on the way we must, to be wholly human, present ourselves to others honestly and without figurative³ masks and also how we, as humans, yearn for others to be pure and/or genuine w/r/t their feelings, desires, ambitions, etc. and yet are frequently diligent in denying those things to ourselves, especially when we get caught in traps like drug addiction, casual sex, believing that material wealth will make us happy and so desiring to be investment bankers or generally wishing things are a way that they aren't and can't be not because of principle nor pragmatism nor physical law but rather because we fall into patterns of deluding ourselves not about the reality of the world but about what's truly important to ourselves (priorities, in other words), whose preponderances on what it is to live in America and to be American⁴ considering all the challenges that each entails in the modern day are some of the sharpest written on the subject, whose writings, with their indisputably unique style - hardly imitable - of labyrinthine grammatical construction, expansive vocabulary, informative and often amusing footnotes in excess and frequent changing up of his writing with colloquialisms and local slang⁵ or dialect that served to intrigue and involve his reader, never really even touched upon the Internet and not because he thought it was a series of tubes but rather because he felt he could have written himself to exhaustion on the topic⁶: however, we must remember that life, to paraphrase Wallace himself, is pro-death and that all people and things who live and bring joy and generate happiness also pass.

1. And also many essays and articles, including an epic account of his time on the campaign trail with McCain in 2000, entitled Up, Simba, combining journalistic cynicism with a gee whiz wide-eyed amazement at the world of the campaign that makes one thing - here I read through the eyes of an amazing man.

2. Addiction not merely to substances, but also to good deeds, malice, women, men, love, hate, pity, self-pity, and also definitely to substances.

3. Though communicating with literal masks is also quite difficult.

4. Not in the sense of buzzword patriotism, but rather like a person who lives in America and senses that they do so, that is, the fundamental Americanism that can be distinguished, say, from Canadianism.

5. Facebook, especially, could have been written about at great length.

6. His extremely literary yet novel and varied writing style is perhaps the greatest reason why so many critics agree the bitch be trippin' balls.*

*A slang phrase originating from the idea of "tripping one's balls off", originally in reference to a state of hallucinogenic intoxication, but now used to express awesomeness.