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VOLUME XCIV, ISSUE 4
Construction workers at Pachyderm Place stage protest, accuse Tufts of labor exploitation Carly Hope and Amelia Rice
News Editor and Contributing Writer
On the first day of classes this fall, students were met by workers protesting outside of the Joyce Cummings Center, who accused the university of wage theft and other labor violations during the construction of new upperclassmen housing building Pachyderm Place. For nearly two years, the North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters has been organizing against worker exploitation happening at Tufts. The NASRCC has accused Tufts of wage theft, tax fraud, insurance fraud and worker abuse on its recent construction projects, including the construction of Pachyderm Place. The NASRCC protestors distributed flyers with their accusations, including a claim that workers on the site were promised a rate of $23 per hour but only received $20. They also claimed that workers have been paid under the table, denied overtime pay for work done on
Workers are pictured finishing the exterior of Pachyderm Place on Sept. 23. Saturdays and that some workers are still owed past wages. On their webpage, the NASRCC explains their demands, calling on Tufts to adopt “Responsible Contracting Standards” to ensure
that all hired contractors treat workers fairly. “Institutions like Tufts, who hold tremendous wealth and have significant resources at their disposal, can avoid contributing
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to wage [theft], if they choose. We hope they will,” the website reads. “Tufts has the power to demand accountability.” Recently, members of the NASRCC have been protesting
outside of the JCC, and other locations on campus, against Erland Construction, the general contractor for Pachyderm Place. Tufts claims that the NASRCC’s accusations are completely baseless, instead placing full responsibility on the property’s developers. According to Patrick Collins, executive director of media relations at Tufts, the university has no part in paying the tradespeople working on the new residence hall. “The developer of the residence hall project is solely responsible for the construction and operation of the property, including selection of contractors to perform the work,” Collins wrote in a statement to the Daily. The university has not had any contact with the NASRCC relating to the Boston Ave. developments, and does not have a labor relationship with the Union. “The North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters did not submit a bid for the see PROTEST, page 3
Medford City Council, mayor take up divergent positions in divestment ordinance lawsuit Josué Pérez
Senior News Editor
Originally published Sept. 30. The Medford City Council has distanced itself from the mayoral administration’s retreat from defending the Values-Aligned Local Investments Ordinance in a lawsuit it currently faces in federal court. The council passed a formal declaration setting out its position during its Sept. 15 meeting in a 6–1 vote. The city council’s declaration states that the city administration, led by Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn, has supported a motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent the divestment ordinance from being enforced — without the approval of the council. The lawsuit was filed by residents Zachary Chertok and Eliot Jokelson. They are backed by the Gevura Fund and the National Jewish Advocacy Center. “The City of Medford hereby stipulates and agrees that it
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The John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse, located in Boston, Mass. is pictured on Sept. 25. will not enforce, implement, or [attempt] to enforce or implement the Values-Aligned Local Investments Ordinance,” a stipulation submitted on LungoKoehn’s behalf by the municipal law firm KP Law reads. The ordinance prohibits the city from investing in any
company that is “directly, knowingly and over time contributing to severe violations of human rights and international humanitarian law as determined by international legal and humanitarian bodies and conventions.” The resident plaintiffs allege that the divestment
ordinance — still in effect following a November 2025 override vote — violates state and federal laws because “no Massachusetts statute authorizes municipalities to mandate divestment based on political, moral, or ideological criteria.”
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In her stipulation, LungoKoehn states that the city wished to minimize any further expenses related to the litigation due to constraints in the 2027 fiscal budget. City Council President Zac Bears does not see this as a valid excuse. “We, at multiple occasions, have brought forward pro bono or low bono counsel to represent the city, to defend the ordinance, to minimize the cost, and really at every turn the mayor has kind of delayed, or outright rejected, our efforts to work with her to get this case wrapped up,” he said. Both the council’s declaration and the mayor’s stipulation state that at least $35,000 has been spent by the city to defend the ordinance. In an April city council meeting requested by Lungo-Koehn, the council voted that the mayor allocate $75,000 toward litigation costs in the ordinance lawsuit. see MEDFORD, page 3 News Features ARTS & Pop CULTURE fun & Games opinion Science Sports
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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2026
T he T ufts D aily Editorial Julian Glickman Editor in Chief
Olivia Bye Sadie Roraback-Meagher Managing Editors
Julia Segal Maya Godard Associate Editors Amelia Sammons Executive News Editor Sera Kwon Executive Features Editor Sophie Herron Executive Arts Editor Olivia Zambrano Executive Opinion Editor Luke Fredericks Executive Sports Editor Addison Dion Executive Science Editor Gus Gladstein Executive Investigative Editor Max Lerner Editorial Board Chair
Multimedia Ellie Broscow Executive Audio Editor Elliot Riseman Executive Video Editor Christina Jamieson Executive Photo Editors Josué Pérez Elise Lea Samson Executive Graphics Editor Sophie Penenberg Executive Fun & Games Editor
Committees Sorsha Khitikian Ethics & Inclusion Chair Zach Halverstam Education Chairs Dylan Tanouye Shea Tomac Social Chair
Production Angelina Moy Josh Solomon Production Directors Jamie Song Executive Layout Editors Diego Rodriguez Caroline Baker Executive Copy Editors Elyssa Cabey Max Lerner Executive Social Media Shea Tomac Managers Keira Krisburg Executive Newsletter Editor
Business Julia Critz Business Director
Top-two primaries and same-day voter registration proposed on Massachusetts ballot Theo Weller and Zachary Lundman Deputy News Editor and Contributing Writer
Two of the record-tying nine ballot initiatives that Massachusetts voters will consider this November could change how the state conducts its elections. Question 3 would replace Massachusetts state primaries with a single nonpartisan jungle primary in which the top two vote-getters advance to the general election. Question 4 would allow same-day voter registration, eliminating the current 10-day registration deadline. According to Evan Horowitz, executive director of Tufts’ Center for State Policy Analysis and a research professor, the two questions differ in scale. “Question 3 will change the way we run elections. It will change who gets into office,” he said. On Question 4, Horwitz said, “the scale of potential impact is much, much smaller.” Currently, Massachusetts uses separate party primaries, in which the winners of the Democratic and Republican primaries face off in the general election. Under Question 3, candidates from all parties would compete in an open primary, meaning the two candidates competing in future general elections could come from the same party. Rishabh Handa, political director of the Tufts
Democrats, supports Question 3, saying that a top-two primary includes the perspectives of Republican voters in the candidate selection process in a blue state like Massachusetts and “encourages candidates to reach across the aisle.” He added that a top-two primary amplifies the voices of third parties and independents within a two-party system. Horowitz argued that Question 3 would make general elections in Massachusetts more competitive because of the possibility of two Democrats competing. He added that the change could also bring more money into politics because candidates would need to fund two competitive election campaigns. In contrast, Eitan Hersh, professor of political science, believes that Question 3’s impact will be limited. “Even in Massachusetts, which is a very Democratic state, you still have a good chunk of people who are Republicans,” he said. “The top two vote-getters would often be the Democrat and Republican.” However, he added that in particularly progressive districts where both nominees would likely be Democrats, moderate candidates could see a minor advantage should the initiative pass. Both Hersh and Horowitz believe that Question 3 would result in a loss of party power. Under the current partisan
primary system, parties have wide control over the rules and administration of their primary. A top-two primary election, however, would be state-controlled. Parties would maintain some influence in the form of endorsements, but the extent of that influence is not always evident. “It’s not clear how big a deal that is,” Horowitz said about party endorsements. “How much do voters trust a party to tell them how to vote?” Question 4 could also affect the outcome of general elections. Currently, Massachusetts voters must register at least 10 days before an election. Question 4, which was petitioned for by Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin, alongside nine other citizens, would allow voters to register on election night. 24 states and Washington, D.C., already allow for sameday voter registration, which is thought by some to increase participation in elections. “There’s evidence that it increases voter turnout,” Hersh, who has testified in the Massachusetts State House in support of same-day registration, said. The impact of implementing same-day voter registration on turnout may be modest, though. Massachusetts has already implemented automatic voter registration, which has resulted in high voter registration rates.
“There might conceivably be some small increase in turnout in elections if we introduce election day voter registration, but I would expect it to be very small,” Horowitz said. Still, same-day voter registration has the potential to increase turnout among young people, who move frequently and thus often need to update their registration. “In certain districts where students make up a larger share of the population, that can make a difference,” Hersh said. Both Hersh and Horowitz felt confident that same-day registration would be straightforward to implement and had little concern about same-day registration causing more fraud. Question 4 seems likely to pass. 59% of respondents to a Sept. 24 University of New Hampshire poll said they would vote “yes,” compared to 38% voting “no” and 4% voting undecided. “I definitely think that a lot of students … are pretty big in favor of having same-day registration,” Handa said. Question 3, on the other hand, appears to be one of the most contested measures on the ballot. In the same poll, 41% responded “yes,” with 39% responding “no” and 19% voting undecided. Massachusetts voters will have the final say in the general election, which is slated for Nov. 3. Zahra Brady contributed reporting.
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Founded in 1980, The Tufts Daily is the entirely student-run newspaper of record at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. An editorially and financially independent organization, the Daily’s staff of more than 100 covers news, features, arts and sports on Tufts’ four campuses and in its host communities.
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The Tufts Cannon is pictured on Sept. 24, 2020. The cannon was painted with a message encouraging people to vote in the 2020 presidential election.
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Workers protest at Pachyderm Place PROTEST continued from the front project, does not represent any university employees, and the university is not a party to any collective bargaining agreements with this union,” Collins wrote. The other object of the NASRCC’s protests on campus,
Erland Construction, also claims limited responsibility for the NASRCC’s accusations. Erland Construction does not directly hire tradespeople, but instead provides both union and nonunion subcontractors an opportunity to bid on their projects. According to a statement to the Daily by Eric Greene,
vice president and residential group manager at Erland Construction, they use an established subcontractor evaluation process that evaluates potential subcontractors on “experience, financial stability, overall performance, and their ability to meet project requirements.”
They added that they expect all subcontractors to remain fully compliant with all federal, state and local laws. In their statement, Erland Construction explained that “Erland takes allegations of unlawful or unethical practices seriously and has established procedures to review and
address any concerns involving our company or our subcontractors. We remain committed to fair and responsible business practices, the safety and well-being of everyone working on our jobsites, and our responsibility to Capstone Development Partners, Tufts University, and the surrounding community.”
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Pachyderm Place Apartments are pictured on Sept. 29.
Medford City Council and mayor clash MEDFORD continued from the front “That was for expenses when I was told by the council that they had a pro bono attorney. I believe that pro bono attorney was Micah Kessleman [sic] from [Our Revolution],” LungoKoehn wrote in a statement to the Daily. “In my opinion they decided not to go with him as their pro bono attorney because he stated in a people power/ safe Medford meeting that he wanted to throw me off a cliff. (I filed a police report).” In a statement to the Daily, Kesselman disputed LungoKoehn’s characterization of his remarks. He said he recalled saying in a virtual meeting “something along the lines of I am happy to push-push-push the Mayor right towards a cliff,” in the context of discussing whether organizers should continue pressing her to support an
ACLU-backed executive order. He said the remark was “nothing like an indication that I wanted to ‘throw [her] off a cliff.’” “I have never advocated for or supported violence against any of our elected officials and would never condone such,” Kesselman wrote. A February Medford Police report obtained by Kesselman and shared with the Daily states that another individual said he wanted to push the mayor “off a cliff,” referring to lobbying her to support an initiative. The report also said there was “no evidence of any direct threats being made towards Mayor Lungo-Koehn” and that the case was closed. Bears, in a separate statement to the Daily, noted that Kesselman was not the pro bono attorney they had offered. “The City Council was never empowered by the Mayor to ‘pick’ anyone to serve as pro
bono counsel for the city, and to my knowledge, Micah Kesselman never offered to represent the city,” Bears wrote. “The Mayor and KP Law refused or ignored my repeated requests to connect them with a pro bono attorney who was not Mr. Kesselman.” Kesselman is jointly serving as counsel with a group of proposed intervenors in the lawsuit. Lungo-Koehn also wrote that when the council informed her that it had found an attorney for $300 per hour, she told Bears that the city would have to allocate about $500,000 more in legal fees to hire the attorney. Bears refuted this account. “The attorney who offered the discounted rate of $300/ hour never quoted a total cost anywhere near $500,000 when I spoke to him,” Bears wrote. “That number appears to be
another fantasy pulled out of thin air to justify the Mayor’s decision to refuse to enforce and defend Medford’s city ordinances.” The city council’s declaration states that, prior to the stipulation, the mayor had not given the council updates on litigation expenses. Had they been informed of the $35,000 in expenses, the declaration reads, they would have told Lungo-Koehn that such expenditures did not justify abandoning the lawsuit by supporting the preliminary injunction. Lungo-Koehn declined to comment on any other further matters relating to the ordinance lawsuit. The declaration also supports a motion from Medford residents to intervene as defendants in the lawsuit. The proposed intervenor residents are working with
the American-Arab AntiDiscrimination Committee, referred to as ADC. Jenin Younes, president and legal director of the ADC, said the ADC and the intervenors are looking to rebuff efforts from the pro-Israel lobby to shut down an enacted municipal ordinance. “We’re arguing it still needs to be litigated, and we should be able to intervene as defendants and defend the ordinance against the Zionist group,” Younes said. The ADC and the proposed intervenors believe that with the mayor’s stipulation, their argument for intervening is stronger. “I think it completely solidifies our claim that we need to intervene and defend the ordinance because the mayor’s not going to do it,” Younes said. An attorney from the Gevura Fund did not provide comment to the Daily by publication.
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Features
Somerville waited decades for the Green Line, then came the growing pains Sophie Penenberg
Executive Fun & Games Editor
When the first Green Line train pulled out of Union Square station just before dawn on March 21, 2022, the crowd on the platform consisted of Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, then-Governor Charlie Baker and then-Mayor of Somerville Katjana Ballantyne. It was a group that reflected just how long the community had been waiting for this moment. After over 30 years of planning, Somerville residents finally had a train directly into Boston. The Green Line Extension delivered on its core promise almost immediately. Roughly 80% of Somerville residents now live within walking distance of a T stop, up from 20% before the extension. But this celebrated accessibility also raised concerns over rising rents and displacement pressure, especially among immigrant populations and working-class communities. The question that we are left with now is whether the Green Line helped create Somerville’s housing crisis or simply arrived as the problem was already unfolding. The extension happened in two phases: first, the Union Square branch, which opened in March 2022, and second, the Medford branch, which opened later that year in December. Colleen Greer (AG ‘26), a graduate of the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, said that the project’s origins dated back much farther than many assume. “The impetus for the Green Line and the push to build it in the first place was really an environmental decision,” Greer said. In 1991, the Conservation Law Foundation sued the state
of Massachusetts for failing to reduce vehicle air pollution that resulted from the Big Dig highway megaproject. The resulting settlement included the initiative to expand public transportation via the GLX in Medford, Cambridge and Somerville. “It was a transit offset. … Part of the goal with the Green Line was to take cars off the street in Somerville,” Greer said. Somerville officials, however, saw this project as more than just an environmental win. It was one that would also financially benefit the city. Then-Somerville City Councilor-at-Large Willie Burnley Jr. told the Daily back in 2022 that the city would gain more commercial property tax revenue from the development that the extension would bring. This, according to Burnley Jr., would let Somerville shift its reliance away from residential taxes and free up more money for initiatives such as affordable housing. The idea was appealing to many: bring investment into Somerville and use some of the benefits to protect the people already living there. Somerville, however, had already seen what a major transit project can do to a city, and the benefits do not always outweigh the shortcomings. The Red Line came to Davis Square in 1985 and demonstrated the unintended consequences that come with large transit expansion projects. When the station opened, there was an immediate spike in housing demand, along with increased rent and property taxes in the surrounding area. In response to this, at the GLX 2022 opening, city councilors, including Burnley Jr, Ballantyne and members of the state’s
A train waits at the Medford/Tufts MBTA Station on Sept. 23.
congressional delegation, joined a community press conference specifically warning against letting “the Green Line become the Gentrification Line.” The goal of this was to ensure that the train expanded access, but did not push out the people it was intended to serve. The evidence shows that those fears had some basis. Greer’s graduate thesis examined real estate sales in relation to the GLX. “Overall, areas that were the closest around stations had an extra 15% in price growth,” Greer said. “That amount of price growth falls as you get further away from stations.” Greer also said that the price findings point to a larger problem. “There are genuine equity issues in our transit systems,” Greer said, referring to the lack of transit access in low-income communities in Boston. “But when you address it, you’re funneling investment into these communities, and then you facilitate gentrification.” Planners are left making a choice between leaving inequities in place and risking displacement. Not everyone believes that the GLX is the right thing to credit or blame for what has happened in the Somerville housing market since its establishment. Joshua Michel from Somerville Yes In My Backyard, an organization advocating for “abundant housing, available to people in cities that have suffered from gentrification and expensive market rate housing,” points to the regional job growth, more than the GLX itself, as the real driver of the city’s displacement. “The affordability crisis here in Somerville [is] born out of the fact that we fundamentally lack housing,” Michel said. “We’ve had a lot of jobs, a lot of people coming in, and
no one’s built enough housing.” According to Michel, Somerville is short roughly 10,000 homes relative to demand. While there are many current initiatives to bring more housing to the city, affordability is still the main issue. Somerville spent most of the 20th century as a working-class residential city with a small commercial tax base of its own, while neighboring Kendall Square and Seaport became major hubs for biotech, tech and finance jobs. This regional job growth pulled higher-income workers into the area, and many looked to Somerville as a cheaper alternative to Cambridge and Boston rents. However, these cheaper rents did not last long alongside this massive increase in demand. This dynamic predates the GLX by years. “It’s great to build, from a climate perspective, from an individual perspective … where the transit is,” Michel explained. “But it’s not the driver. It’s just one way to solve the issue that aligns with other values.” Regardless of what the main culprit is, there’s no question that Somerville has seen massive changes in neighborhood demographics and character in recent years. Laurie Goldman, a professor in the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, said the first step in understanding these changes is defining the terms. “Whenever you use the term ‘gentrification,’ you must define it because people use different definitions,” Goldman said. A clear definition matters because neighborhood change is not harmful in itself. Investment, new businesses and rising property values can benefit a community. What makes gentrification a
problem is displacement — when longtime residents are forced out of neighborhoods they would otherwise have stayed in. But displacement is not just one thing, and it’s hard to measure. “It is very difficult to find ready-made data, from census that is regularly collected, that proves displacement [are] not voluntary moves, but involuntary moves,” Goldman said. Goldman pointed to a larger challenge in tracking displacement in Somerville and why it is difficult to find one main driver: When looking at the data, someone who leaves Somerville for a bigger apartment in Medford looks identical to someone priced out entirely. “You can look at changes in education, income, languages spoken, place of birth or those kinds of things that are used as proxies that capture the kind of neighborhood change that is associated with gentrification that leads to displacement, but it’s an approximation,” Goldman said. None of this is to say the costs aren’t real. The rising rents, displaced tenants and disappearing community institutions are exactly the concerns people had when they warned against letting the Green Line become the ‘Gentrification Line.’ But the debate over the GLX also reveals the limits of asking whether transit itself causes gentrification. The more difficult question is who gets to benefit from the investment once it arrives. Greer and Michel’s findings both point to the same uncomfortable truth: Building transit in underserved neighborhoods is the right thing to do, and so is building enough affordable housing to go with it. Doing one without the other is where people and communities get hurt.
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Students can propose TCU resolutions: What happens next? Lucine Ciamician Contributing Writer
With a new school year beginning, opportunities for students to participate in writing resolutions for the Tufts Community Union Senate open up. While the initial steps of the process are clear, as a resolution moves through development and implementation, the procedure becomes less straightforward. Resolutions, which can be written not only by Senators but by any Tufts student, are a lobbying tool used to communicate the needs of the student body to the Tufts administration and an opportunity for students to advocate for change within the university. The process, which lasts approximately three weeks, begins when a student brings an idea to the Senate. It is then the Parliamentarian’s job to work with the student to develop an abstract for the resolution, incorporating feedback from relevant parties and data that can support the proposal. The abstract is then presented to the Senate at the next meeting. At the meeting, senators hear a draft of the resolution and participate in an open commenting session to deliberate and propose amendments. The completed resolution is brought back to the Senate floor the following week, where it can be postponed, passed or rejected. The TCU made several changes to the process this year, which included extending the unmoderated caucus time during the consideration of the draft resolution. “Spending more time on resolutions allows us to make even more informed decisions about wording and intent,” TCU Parliamentarian Gunnar Ivarsson and Allocations Board Member Anastasiya Korovska wrote in a combined statement to the Daily. Additionally, the Senate’s individual committees can play an integral role in developing and implementing resolutions. Committees can also
Munching with Max
Fenway Park
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Max Druckman
ome things were meant to happen. LeBron James was meant to return to Cleveland. Ross and Rachel were meant to be together (I think? I’ve never seen “Friends”). And this column was meant to feature Fenway Park. As I’ve discussed, baseball is possibly the only thing I enjoy more than munching. Typically, though, ballparks don’t embody fine dining. Peanuts and Cracker Jacks are delicious, but their tastes rarely vary. Furthermore, due to Fenway’s lax rules, I often bring my own food (meaning Super Sour Scandinavian Swimmers) to games. Nonetheless, instead
DYLAN FEE / THE TUFTS DAILY
The Joyce Cummings Center basks in the golden hour light on March 7. write and propose their own resolutions. Their connections to the administration and ongoing relationships with people who can help advance the proposed changes allow them to assist in the implementation process. “A committee could collaborate with the Parliamentarian on data collection, student insights, or other methods to ensure a comprehensive resolution is brought to the floor,” Ivarsson and Korovska added. According to the second TCU Senate bylaw, once a resolution passes, the responsibility of moving it forward shifts to the Parliamentarian, who is then expected to work alongside the resolution’s authors to communicate directly with the administration and work towards implementation. “There is no formal process for following up with
administrators after a resolution is sent to them,” Ivarsson and Korovska noted. “It has been a practice to continue communicating with them to the best of our ability, especially from year to year or semester to semester.” Ivarsson and Korovska added that the TCU’s internal resolution tracker has been made publicly available on their website, where students can view resolutions dating back to the 2021-22 academic year. All three resolutions heard during the Spring 2026 semester are either currently in progress or have already been implemented. One of the resolutions resulted in the creation of a Religious, Philosophical and Spiritual Senator seat. The 2026-27 academic year is the first year that this position will exist and elections will be held. Another resolution called for the creation of an academic
credit system for campus performance groups. However, Ivarsson highlighted that this resolution will require greater institutional coordination, therefore delaying implementation. Ivarsson and Korovska emphasized how resolutions are a mechanism through which students can advocate for institutional changes and make a memorable mark on the university. “A TCU Senate resolution is a tool that every Tufts student has to relay key institutional changes they want to see in their community,” Ivarsson and Korovska note. However, passing a resolution also does not necessarily mean that the requested change will occur immediately, as seen in past cases. “While some may requiremore substantial change that may not be
immediate, their intent and relevance to administrators and to TCU Senate remain strong, Ivarsson and Korovska stated. As a new academic year begins, students will once again have the opportunity to bring their concerns before the Senate, which will begin the process that can extend well beyond the Senate vote. For students who are looking to create an active change on campus, passing a resolution is the key beginning. While the Senate does provide a formal avenue for students to voice concerns and propose institutional changes, what happens after the vote depends on the ongoing dialogue between student authors, the TCU Senate and the administration.
of skipping covering a collision of my worlds, I chose to nosh at America’s Most Beloved Ballpark — home to my favorite team, the Boston Red Sox. So, lastWednesday, I set out on the Green Line for Kenmore along with 15 of my 2024 NECBA Champion Tufts Club Baseball teammates with clear eyes (somewhat), a full heart and an empty belly. After arriving, I went straight for my “appetizer,” a world-famous Fenway Frank. I found one wrapped in foil, amidst a pile of similar sausages, at a mildly dystopian grab-and-go self-checkout stand. The hot dog was as ordinary as it gets. The bun, a top-split lobsterroll-style offering, was too small for the meat. The Frank was apparently both boiled AND grilled (quite the innovation). However, after dousing it in ketchup (I apologize if that’s improper hot dog
etiquette), all flavor disappeared. Still, the Frank wasn’t overly mushy, the bun didn’t disintegrate and it was surprisingly filling, yielding a solid bite, even considering the slightly absurd $6.50 price tag. The quest for an entrée proved difficult, as the lines for loaded fries and burgers were seemingly interminable. After wandering for 10 minutes, a barbecue brisket sandwich caught my eye. Featuring heaps of sizzling brisket, a sweet barbecue sauce and, for some reason, white American cheese on a pretzel roll, the concoction was unlike anything I’ve ordered at a ballpark. The sandwich was surprisingly very good. The brisket melted in my mouth, the sauce was tangy without dominating and the portion was sizable. Conversely, the cheese felt out of place and the roll was cold. Overall, though, the brisket was so tasty that I thoroughly
enjoyed the dish, but I should’ve gotten more napkins. After Andruw Monasterio gave the Sox a 1–0 advantage, it was dessert time. What better sweet snack than an ice cream helmet? I split the helmet with one of my teammates, and we ordered a vanilla-chocolate soft serve swirl. I don’t normally eat chocolate ice cream, but there’s something about a ballgame that makes ice cream taste better. The treat was the perfect way to cap off the night, as Aroldis Chapman shut down the Guardians for a Sox victory. As always, my gut reactions: Fenway Frank: Fairly fine, frankly. Barbecue brisket sandwich: Soxfan (wants) more. Ice cream helmet: Can’t be beat. I’m writing this on Tuesday, Sept. 29. It’ll be submitted on Wednesday morning and
published on Thursday, Oct. 1. Thus, I have no idea what will happen in the Red Sox-Yankees American League Wild Card Series starting Sept. 30. I could read this article on Thursday eager for a third Wild Card game or a second playoff round or with the sinking feeling that follows a playoff exit. All I can do now is bask in hopeful ignorance. There’s still baseball to be played, and I’ll be there to watch. Whatever’s in store for the Red Sox, at least they provided me with a night of fantastic munching before falling apart/winning the World Series/doing something in the middle. Yankees suck. Go Sox. Max Druckman is a senior studying international relations and entrepreneurship. He can be reached at max.druckman@tufts.edu.
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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2026
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ARTS & POP CULTURE The crouch and the climb: Ji Eun Lim’s ‘Ascending Through Uncertainty’ Andrew-Lucien Bao Contributing Writer
Ji Eun Lim never sat down on the benches in the New York City subway. Her roommate warned her off them on her first day in the city. So when the trains ran late and the days ran long, she crouched on the platform instead, folded down over her knees, waiting. The crouching figure turns up repeatedly in “Ascending Through Uncertainty,” Lim’s solo exhibition, which opens Oct. 7 and runs through Oct. 29, with an opening reception on Oct. 9 at the Foundry in Cambridge. Lim, a graduate student at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, describes the pose as carrying two meanings at once. “Physically, I did that pose a lot, and my emotional state was like that: crouched,” Lim said. It was a “very strong, insecure pose.” Lim grew up and lived in Seoul until her undergraduate years, which she says fully formed her identity before she left. “I’m 100% Korea still,” she said. “So everything was new, different and nervous.” She landed in the United States on Jan. 1, 2017, flying into Portland, Ore. to study English. In her first two years in America, she struggled to have a peaceful night of rest, only able to sleep through the night when she returned to her parents’ house in Korea.
“For two years [in the U.S.], I couldn’t really sleep well,” Lim said. “Always woke up in the early morning, like 2 a.m., or 3 a.m., because of the [nerves].” Some of that sleeplessness was the ordinary vertigo of leaving home and beginning a life in a completely new country. Some of it was more specific. Her downtown Portland apartment was an old wood-frame building, and the doors felt thin to her. One night, she vividly recalled a shot being fired outside. “It was the first and last time to listen to the shooting sound as real, not from [a] movie,” Lim said. “Korea is not a gun country.” Yet, Portland still charmed her. The city ran at a slower pace that startled her out of old habits. She described standing at the bus stop in her first month, rushing to board first as is customary in Seoul, only to realize that everyone else was waving others ahead. “I was the only person who tried to go up the bus first, because I’m Korean, and that is a very normal attitude in Korea,” Lim said. “But at some point, I became a Portlander.” Nearly two years after arriving in the U.S., Lim moved east to New York for her Master of Arts in Teaching at the School of Visual Arts, and she unlearned her new lesson fast. After stepping back at a subway door to let people off first, the crowd surged past her, the doors closed and she missed her train.
Ji Eun Lim stands before her paintings in her SMFA studio.
She stayed in New York for around four years, teaching art at after-school programs and summer camps. Studio spaces were out of her reach, so she painted in her bedroom. During that time, she described a steady stream of harassment that became almost routine. “In New York I had a lot of sexual harassment and racism experience,” she said. “Almost like once every two days. It’s countless.” Lim recalled experiences such as a man following her off the train to her apartment, or a woman at CVS telling her to go back to China. The effects of these experiences were cumulative and lasting. “[Some people] might [still] be a little mean to me. … That’s just their emotional state at that moment,” Lim said. “But I got too defensive and overthinking, because of my past experience.” Through these moments, her art career was still being shaped, uncertain but exciting, and that unresolvedness showed in her paintings of a staircase. “As an artist, everything is foggy,” Lim said. “I’m just going up and up and up, and towards [something] very unspecific, very unclear. Even I don’t know the goal.” The show’s description calls the works “portraits of someone mid-translation,” a phrase Lim traces to a change she had originally resisted. But the longer she lived in the U.S., the more she watched her own values and habits shift and felt like she was losing the person she had been.
However, since moving to Boston, she has realized that she is still herself. It is why the figures in her paintings never settle into a singular body in particular, and why Lim refuses to explain them. When prompted to say what one painting depicts, she declined outright. “Interpreting is just your own job. I don’t want to make it more narrow,” Lim said. If a viewer didn’t see a crouching body and instead saw something else out of their own experiences, then she considers that a good outcome. The abstraction in her artwork and its openness is the focal point of the show, and it comes down to a belief that Lim holds. “I think all human beings have some darkness inside them [for] any reason,” Lim said. It may not be someone who lived between two countries as she has, but everyone has their own version that they harbor confusion and sadness around. “Everything is very invisible to all human beings,” Lim said. What she wants for any viewer of her work is to recognize something within themselves that they may have yet to acknowledge, and recognize that they are not alone in that. Lim’s own darkness has been lifting. She came to Boston because she got married. She chose SMFA for its interdisciplinary culture, where students can move between painting, ceramics, performance and photography without having to
declare a major, which is the boundary-pushing that she seeks in her art career. Currently, she works in the ceramics studio, has worked as a teaching assistant and wants to continue her career as an art educator. Through her time in Boston, her life has gotten lighter, brighter and happier, actively shaping the work that she is producing. Recently, she has been painting from photographs and videos of herself stretching into the pigeon pose, a yoga position she loves, in brighter colors than the ones she normally reached for. While these won’t be displayed at the Foundry, the paintings are more peaceful and Lim describes them to be the next version of the crouching figures: getting out from under the sadness. These works, as she calls them, are a starting point. In getting ready for her show, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done. “I’m so excited and nervous. I’m so tired, because I’ve been working [on the exhibit] almost every day,” Lim said. The show is about her experience in New York, where she felt like an animal surviving in a jungle. Boston has been different. “Here, I feel like I’m being a human being,” Lim said. “Ascending Through Uncertainty” opens Oct. 7 and runs through Oct. 29 at The Foundry, 101 Rogers St., Cambridge. An opening reception is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 9, from 6 to 8 p.m.
ANDREW-LUCIEN BAO / THE TUFTS DAILY
THE TUFTS DAILY
PHOTOS BY ARIANNA HELLMAN GRAPHIC BY JAMIE SONG
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2026
PHOTO
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Mini Crossword: XXX By Shayna Levy - Published by The Tufts
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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2026
FUN & GAMES
F&G Late Night Study
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Mini Crossword: XXX
FUN & GAMES
WORD SEARCH
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MINI CROSSWORD
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‘Bird is the Word’ by Shayna Levy Interested in submitting a puzzle? Reach out to fandg@tuftsdaily.com.
Originally published Sept. 14.
THE TUFTS DAILY
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2026
OPINION
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OPINION Examining the summer’s box office successes Henry Max
Deputy Opinion Editor
Originally published Sept. 28. Moviegoers, critics and even casual fans often think that the coronavirus pandemic’s disastrous box office effects, coupled with the rapid increase in movies available to stream at home — even new releases — fundamentally altered the storied practice of theatergoing. This summer, though, the 2026 box office grossed a record of $4.67 billion. Movie budgets are getting bigger and bigger, with 2026’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” costing $225 million to produce and making over $900 million domestically (almost $2.5 billion worldwide). Compared to the original “Spider-Man” film (2002), which cost $139 million and grossed just over $400 million domestically (almost $825 million worldwide), it has become clear that giant movie studios like Marvel and Sony
are increasingly looking for ‘home run movies’ — movies that require a large investment with exponentially higher profit potential. Naturally, inflation plays a role in ballooning budgets and grosses, but until summer 2026, the types of movies making money corroborate the fact that movie studios were looking for box office success. The 2010s in movies were unquestionably the decade of the Spider-Man franchise and Marvel at large. “Avengers: Endgame,” which capped off the superhero team’s decade in 2019, is still the second-highest-grossing film of all time, taking home more than $2.8 billion worldwide. Franchise films, as a general rule, are able to bring in these obscene numbers: nine of the top 10 highest-grossing films of all time are installments in franchises, including but not limited to other Marvel films, the “Avatar” series and the various “Star Wars” sagas. Franchise
The Hollywood Theatre (1935) entrance is pictured.
films are safe investments for high-budget producers: They create a captive audience of fans who become devoted to the characters and are more than willing to pay the price of admission. The remarkable thing about 2026’s strong performance is that the types of movies doing well differ greatly from franchise fare, which has dominated the box offices of the previous decade. Though the most recent installment in the “Spider-Man” series, “Brand New Day,” quickly placed itself third among the highest-grossing films of all time, adult dramas with smaller budgets such as Olivia Wilde’s excellent “The Invite” or more mature blockbusters by major Hollywood auteurs like Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” were given the budget and distribution to reach as wide an audience as they deserve. Smash horror hits from earlier in the year like “Backrooms”
and “Obsession” — directed by young filmmaking upstarts Kane Parsons and Curry Barker, respectively — round out some of 2026’s biggest and best films. There is nothing implicitly wrong with franchise mainstays, though. Seeing “Avengers: Endgame” and the resolution to a long arc alongside a packed crowd was one of my all-time favorite theatrical experiences. But if that kind of event is all movies have to offer, cinema’s full potential is simply not realized. 2026’s box office not only made a lot of money, but also allowed various kinds of movies on various budgets to profit. While “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” may have begun with an enormous budget, as most superhero films do, “The Invite” had a budget of under $15 million and grossed around $30 million worldwide. Although the net profit pales in comparison to “Spider-Man,” the success of Wilde’s film proves that the
audience for smaller films that deal with serious subject matter never went away; the studios just didn’t see enough surplus value potential. Great art often comes about during turbulent times, whether it be the explosion of European modernist art cinema in the wake of World War II or Bob Dylan writing protest songs amidst the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement. Art has and always will be a filter through which we understand our contemporary culture and ourselves. Cinema has been successful in 2026 across genres, budgets and story structures. As a fan of movies, I hope this means that we can expect a similarly varied cinematic diet in the coming years. It also gives me hope that we are not just accepting our historical moment as an inevitability or simply lamenting it, but actively thinking through our shared situation using the art available to us.
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SCIENCE
THE TUFTS DAILY
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2026
SCIENCE Dissertation Diaries
Gabriella Floro
T
Addison Dion
his installment of Dissertation Diaries highlights Gabriella Floro, a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Tufts University Department of Chemistry. Before coming to Tufts, Floro completed a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry at Centre College. As one of the first graduate students to work with Dr. Kevin Clark, a bioanalytical chemistry professor and researcher, Floro has pursued multiple projects throughout her degree, with an overarching theme of separating and better detecting RNA modifications at the nucleoside level. RNA modifications are reversible chemical modifications on RNA, and they play important roles in many biological processes. For instance, a certain RNA modification may promote mRNA stability, thereby enhancing protein translation. Understanding the role RNA modifications play in protein translation may provide insights into disease progression and inform treatment. RNA modifications aren’t just something created in a lab; they exist within us, and scientists can leverage them to advance
medicine. For example, Floro discussed how specific RNA modifications were imperative in increasing the efficacy of the COVID vaccine, saving millions of lives during the pandemic. Floro’s main research aim has been to enrich RNA modifications for detection via various methods. She mainly employs liquid chromatography mass spectrometry, which is a technique that is used to separate compounds from a sample before further analysis. One new technique she’s been exploring is trapped ion mobility spectrometry, which separates gas-phase ions depending on their size and charge. Once performed, she can use the data to analyze RNA modification profiles within a sample, giving insight into what’s occurring in the epitranscriptome. While still in the exploratory phase, Floro and other members of the Clark group have been trying to implement trapped ion mobility spectrometry as an alternative detection method for RNA modifications, believing it to be a better, more sensitive method of detection. All things considered, one of the main questions researchers in the Clark Lab are tackling is analyzing which biochemical changes occur during learning. Research by Eric Kandel, the 2000 Nobel Prize in Medicine awardee, has already shown that chemical changes occur within the brains of sea slugs
in response to physical conditioning. The Clark Lab has built upon this, investigating the RNA modifications that occur during learning that have yet to be characterized. “Other research groups are doing amazing work uncovering what changes are happening to the DNA or to the protein, and here we’re at the intersection between the two by looking at RNA,” Floro remarked. Coming out of undergrad, Floro had a broad chemistry background, having condvucted research at Tulane University on polymers. “I think that’s [what] made me interested in an interdisciplinary type of research program, like the one I’m in now, where we do neuroscience and biochemistry and analytical chemistry,” Floro reflected. Her decision to attend Tufts was two-fold. First, Floro knew Boston had a reputation as a biotech hub, hosting opportunities that might not have been available in her home state. Secondly, the mentorship of her peers and professors at Centre inspired her to pursue a Ph.D., saying that they had “laid out [a] roadmap” for her research journey in her uncertainty. Within the department, Floro has been part of the Chemistry Graduate Student Council, which is involved with planning both social and departmental events. Additionally, the council helps host open houses for potential admitted students.
GRAPHIC BY SHEA TOMAC The guidance Floro received as an undergrad influenced her own mentorship philosophy. Working as a recitation teacher’s assistant for Organic Chemistry I and Bioanalytical Chemistry, she stated that she’s “been excited to work with students in that form of mentorship that [she] received at [her] university.” Outside of the university, Floro enjoys crafting, in particular bead embroidery, knitting, crochet and designing posters. Ph.D. journeys are non-linear, and every candidate experiences a different set of challenges and growth along the way. “You’re learning how to be an adult, but you’re also learning how to be a scientific researcher,” Floro commented on the duality of pursuing a Ph.D. in your 20s.
Looking beyond Tufts, from working with instruments in industry to becoming a professor at a university, Floro’s open to all career possibilities post-grad. When asked if she had any advice for undergrads considering a Ph.D., Floro strongly recommended considering a gap year. She did not take a gap year herself, but she believes that it would be beneficial in helping one understand exactly what they value in a program, to help inform their decision on whether or not to dedicate five years of their lives. “There is so much time before that decision can be made,” Floro reflected. Addison Dion is a sophomore studying biochemistry. She can be reached at addison.dion@tufts.edu.
The annual influenza season: The history behind the infamous virus Deputy Science Editor
Every fall, right around the time Tufts students trade shorts for sweaters and DewickMacPhie Dining Center starts to push extra soup, an old and unwelcome guest shows up on campus: the flu. It happens so reliably that it’s easy to forget influenza’s strange, sometimes tragic history, one that stretches back centuries and has quietly shaped the way we think about disease and public health. “Influenza” is actually derived from the Italian word “influentia,” linking it to an old belief that outbreaks were caused by the ‘influence’ of the stars or the cold weather itself. Doctors in medieval Europe kept noticing that these illnesses came in waves, usually when it got cold, and had no better explanation than the heavens. That guess held up, more or less unchallenged, for centuries.
It wasn’t until 1933 that anyone actually proved influenza was a virus (and not a bacterium), when researchers at the National Institute for Medical Research in London identified the human flu virus, work that later made the site home to the World Health Organization’s Worldwide Influenza Centres. In 1940, American virologist Thomas Francis Jr. finally isolated influenza B. For a long stretch after 1918, flu science was mostly guesswork. That changed once the virus was finally identified in the early 1930s. Researchers figured out they could grow it in fertilized chicken eggs, a method still used to produce most flu vaccines today. What really unsettled doctors was who the virus killed. Mortality was unusually high among healthy adults aged 20 to 40, a pattern unique to this pandemic, with the average age of death being just 28. The virus spread quickest in places where people lived in close quarters, like military training camps. A lot of what we now think of as standard pandemic response, such as
closing schools, banning gatherings and requiring masks, was improvised for the first time during this outbreak, with mixed results. San Francisco was the case study: The city moved fast with a mask ordinance and business closures in October 1918, a n d c a s e s dropped. Officials lifted the restrictions on Nov. 21, but cases surged again within weeks, and by the time the pandemic passed, San Francisco had one of the highest per-capita death tolls of any major U.S. city. Francis Jr. and Jonas Salk led the effort at the University of Michigan to build the first inactivated flu vaccine, with support from the U.S. A r m y , which had its own reasons for caring given how many people it had lost to the flu in World War I. That vaccine was licensed in 1945.
By the 1947 flu season, researchers discovered the existing vaccine no longer worked against the strains circulating that year. That scare is largely what pushed WHO’s Global Influenza Programme to establish the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System in 1952, starting with implementing surveillance in 25 countries to report data back to the WHO. The program has since grown into a network of more than 150 laboratories in over 100 countries. Since 1998, the network has expanded even further, making separate recommendations for the northern and southern hemispheres each year to keep pace with the virus as it drifts and shifts. Scientists still don’t have one clean answer for why flu season is a season at all. Research out of Virginia Tech found the flu virus survives far better outside the body when humidity is below 50% or close to 100%, and typical winter air pushes humidity right into that low range. People also tend to spend more time indoors with the
windows shut in winter, breathing the same air as anyone who happens to be sick. Additionally, shorter days mean less sunlight, which can lower vitamin D levels in ways that may weaken the immune system. Interestingly, this pattern only holds in places that actually experience winter. In warmer climates, flu activity tends to track with humidity and rainfall instead, which is part of why flu forecasting is still more art than science. For Tufts students, all of this eventually boils down to a Health Service email, a vaccine clinic table on the quad and the annual debate over whether a sore throat is the flu or just IC allergies. But GRAPH t h a t small yearly ritual sits on top of a much bigg e rstory: a misunderstood disease, a pandemic that rewrote the public health rulebook and almost a century of scientists racing to keep up with a virus that refuses to still.
BY GRA CE C H O
Essey Tesfai
THE TUFTS DAILY
SPORTS
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2026
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SPORTS Men’s soccer staves off late comeback against Babson Anders Gustafson Contributing Writer
On Monday, the Tufts men’s soccer team proved their strength on a cold, rainy night in Somerville. After the Jumbos’ title defense took a tumble following a 2–0 loss to the Wesleyan Cardinals, they’ve come back stronger with a six-game undefeated streak. The team took on the Babson Beavers, who were ranked No. 6 on the United Coaches Poll, and won in a close, 2–1 nail-biter. Since starting his tenure in 2020, head coach Kyle Dezotell’s squad has not lost a game to Babson in six straight meetings. The win also makes it two in a row over the Beavers for the Jumbos. Initially scheduled for Sunday, the weekend’s fall storm delayed the match until the next day. Still, a steady drizzle accompanied the floodlights on Bello Field and set the stage for a
physical affair between the two ranked teams. After a 0–0 draw against the Worcester Polytechnic Institute Engineers on Friday, Monday’s game felt like a must-win. “We knew we weren’t proud of that result, and we had to just lock in and make sure that we were hungrier,” fifthyear goalkeeper Nikola Antic said in an interview with the Daily. Tufts showed that hunger from the start, generating pressure early in the first half. The Jumbos kept the ball in the Beavers’ half, but were unable to get past goalkeeper Will Devall. Babson thrived on counterattacks
that produced all three of their shots in the first period, and the match seemed even until a foul by Babson center back Huey Miller gave Tufts a penalty. Stepping up to the spot, junior midfielder William Cornog calmly slotted the ball to the bottom-left corner, making Devall guess the wrong way. The Jumbos had opened the gates. “I knew I was going to go to the left,” Cornog said. Both teams exchanged chances for the rest of the period, with the Jumbos having an edge, producing eight shots to the Bobcats’ three. Tufts also created three corners but were unable to convert as Babson reigned in the air, a pattern that continued throughout the game. In the 53rd minute, senior forward Xavier Canfin delivered a well-placed through pass to senior forward Henry Brown. Faced with a oneon-one with Devall on the right side of the box, Brown flawlessly chipped the ball into the left side of the net, extending the lead to two. The rest of his teammates joined Brown as he ran to the corner flag, basking in the glory of his fourth goal of the season. Despite facing a two-goal deficit, Babson refused to give up. T h e y kept
on attacking and eventually broke through after a low cross from forward Alexander Yablonovsky reached defender Blake Miller, who scored his first collegiate goal for the Beavers. The crowd and benches grew even louder following Babson’s goal. Attendance was sparse, save for a few parents and dedicated alumni, but the noise more than made up for the open space in the stands. Babson’s fans showed exceptional dedication and grew louder with each passing minute. Babson grew increasingly hungrier for the equalizer as time passed by. They earned three corners in the final 10 minutes and outshot Tufts eight to three in the second half, with the Jumbos lacking a single s h o t in the f i n a l half-hour. The atmosphere grew more tense as the game approached its close, nearly every kick e a r n i n g shouts from either bench. In the final minute, the Beavers earned one last corner. In dire straits, 21 players crammed
COURTESY TUFTS ATHLETICS
Junior William Cornog is pictured on Sept. 25.
The Full Court Press
In defense of hatred Noah Goldstein
B
y some grace of the baseball gods, the Red Sox and Yankees are facing off in the wild card for a second consecutive year. The Sox got blown out 9–0 by baseball’s most evil franchise on Tuesday night, and by the time you read this, they may already be done. Still, the hate-soaked pressure cooker of October baseball between two of the greatest adversaries may be crucial in maintaining the time-honored concept of a rivalry itself.
Perhaps there is no more important aspect in all of American sports than two teams that truly loathe each other facing off. Look through the most famous moments and tell me what you see: Bird and Magic, Ali and Frazier, the “Kick Six,” Pedro versus 72-year-old Don Zimmer. These are the moments where the intersection of manifest destiny and athletic competition comes together in the clearest light. Your best versus ours, to the victor go the spoils. But it seems like the rivalry is fading. In 2023, MLB introduced the “balanced schedule” in order to ensure that each club plays the 29 other teams every season, and the consequence was a loss of six matchups against intradivisional squads, the
into the box for a game-deciding moment. The ball reached Babson midfielder Adam Stetson, who gave one final shot that Antic stopped. Antic held onto the ball before punting it away, and the Jumbos held on to a huge out-of-conference win against one of the strongest opponents in their schedule. The Beavers are the highest-ranked opponent the Jumbos have faced based on the current polls, discounting the game against the previously No. 1-ranked Wesleyan, who dropped from the poll after beating the Jumbos on Sept. 9. The Jumbos currently sit fourth in the NESCAC standings and 18th in the Coaches Poll, looking to move up next week. “We kind of got a target on our back. So we got to just approach every single game, whether it’s a top-five team like Babson or an unranked team like WPI, with the same intensity,” said Cornog after the match. T h e Jumbos’ title defense continues next weekend with a match against Amherst in Amherst, Mass. on Saturday, followed by a trip to Clinton, N.Y. to play the Hamilton Continentals on Sunday.
equivalent of two weekend series per opponent. The idea was simple: if you’re a Mets fan living in, say, Toronto, you will now have at least three chances to watch your favorite team play every season. On the flip side, the shift allows for situations to happen, such as when the Red Sox and Yankees did not face off until the 65th game of a 162-game season in 2023. Even in college football, where fans are at their most territorial and the passion is still very much alive, many venerable matchups have been caught in the crossfire of realignment. Take Notre Dame versus USC, a heavyweight clash that has been played nearly every year since 1926 and made the names of legends such as Joe Montana and Reggie Bush
in the process. When USC joined the Big Ten, it inherited a nine-game conference schedule and cross-country travel, and it decided a late-season Notre Dame game would hurt its playoff chances. The two couldn’t agree on a date, leaving the series off the calendar until 2030, when it returns as a lower-stakes season opener. Again, the rivalry is lost because someone decided that it’s more important to play games against a wide range of nearly random opponents than the foes of years past. But this year’s edition of Yankees-Red Sox proves that the rivalry is alive and well, as long as we allow it to be. Willson Contreras kept it alive by inducing a benches-clearing brawl after some choice words to
pitcher Will Warren in late June; Walpole-native Yankees ace Cam Schlittler has posted a .56 ERA in 32.1 career innings against his hometown team en route to becoming Public Enemy No. 1 in Beantown. Fans have a role to play in all this. As rivalries move to X threads and Instagram comment sections, we can do our part by keeping the human hatred of it all going. So, if you see a Yankees fan on the street in the next couple of days, flip ‘em the bird, give ‘em a good ol’ “f– you,” do it for the good of us all. Noah Goldstein is a junior studying film and media studies and cognitive brain science. He can be reached at Ngolds04@tufts.edu.
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