It's the most difficult time of the year This is my official holiday season ode to a very specific, very misunderstood community: the bad gift-givers. To be clear, “bad” does not  refer to the re-gifters, the ones who pass off free company merch, or the novelty-socks-with-a-bad-pun crowd. I mean the people who take gift-giving seriously, who want to get it right, make a small annual promise to themselves to improve, but somehow still end up in the same position every December. I mean us : the...

What happened to doing something for its own sake? The typical hobby has a pretty predictable life cycle: initial interest, a few too many purchases, and practice that’s mixed with a faint promise that you’ll actually stick with it. Before you know it, it’s collecting dust next to the ukulele your uncle bought you three years ago. Somewhere along the way, we decided hobbies had to define us. Hobbies are meant to take up space — in our time, our thoughts, even our personality. But in practice,...

A letter to the town from a concerned student Dear St Andrews, I say this with love, but you’re changing. Not in the “we need to talk” kind of way, where someone’s accusing you of becoming distant. More in the way that your old friend suddenly starts using brand partnerships and saying things like “content strategy” unironically. You’re still you, just a little more polished, a little more… commercial.  Every time something new opens, I get a little too excited. Maybe it’ll be a café that...