Molly Hightower, 22, was found dead in Haiti. She was volunteering with Friends of the Orphans. Photo from mollyinhaiti.blogspot.com

Molly Hightower had a big heart—that much is obvious.

Hightower, a University of Portland 2009 graduate and an alumnus of Jesuit high school Bellarmine Prepatory, was volunteering in Haiti when the Port-au-Prince earthquake struck. She worked with orphaned children, whom she referred to as “my babies” on her blog, with Friends of the Orphans, a nonprofit with hundreds of volunteers.

Hightower, 22, was on the fifth floor of the orphanage when the earthquake hit. Her family was told early this morning that her body was recovered in the wreckage, which Friends of the Orphans confirms on its Web site.

Hightower has friends at Seattle University who were told this morning of her death. Bellarmine Prep graduates are not hard to find on Seattle University’s campus, and her uncle is Fr. Craig Hightower, S.J. of Gonzaga University.

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A 2009 Seattle University graduate traveling in South America recently found himself on a Peruvian dating show.

The alumnus is Carey Smith, former lead designer for The Spectator and also a founder of ArtsideOut.

“I was fed lines, food and to a certain extent women,” Smith wrote on his blog of the experience.

The second part of the video is here.

It deeply saddens this reporter of the Spectator Blogging Staff inc. to post our most recent news pertaining to fellow SU undergraduate Adam Toth. Toth – after recently experiencing a quarter-life crisis, burning all possessions and moving to New Zealand – has now experienced his most difficult challenge since the Wellington sheep rampage of April 2009. I speak now of the ominous Swine Flu…

He might be missed...

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Some years ago – never mind how long precisely – I ventured into Seattle’s Book-It Repertory Theatre for the most recent stage adaptation of Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby-Dick. No doubt, the story’s leap from pages to real life is a treacherous one, which includes the difficulties of a shifting narrative, an increasingly romantic context, a primarily oceanic setting, and (of course) whales. You know, hellishly gigantic whales. Overall, it was a respectful and engaging production. Bravo.

Yet ultimately, I had to evaluate the production on my one personal requirement: proper portrayal of whales. Therefore, B-

(Warning: Whale spoilers ahead…) Read more…

I don’t know if you all remember, but Jake and I ran a Counterpoint-point post about Taquerias in San Francisco awhile back. Well, today I ate at a Taqueria in Auckland, so I felt it was fitting to run a post up about. Y’know, so that you can be well informed about Taquerias. I stick to important issues.

I ate at the Taqueria on Ponsonby Road. It has no name besides “Taqueria,” so be sure to look out for that as you hunt it down. I couldn’t help but notice its menu strangely resembles Chipotle. They have generally the same fixings, and the options are Taco, Burrito Bowl, and Burrito. I, having been on the bus and at campus all day, decided to go with the burrito bowl because my hands were filthy. Shredded beef was my meat choice.

I wouldn’t mind the mimicking of Chipotle, but the only problem is that it isn’t quite as good as Chipotle. No cilantro in the rice, and the price is a little bit more: NZ $13. I do give the guy props for being the first shopkeep to recognize me as American without any identification, though. I might be visiting it again to check out an ACTUAL burrito, but the bowl isn’t nearly enough bang for the buck — kind of dainty and unsatisfying after a tiring day.

Protestors in France (Credit: BBC)

The BBC quoted a parisian, Brigitte Cavanagh saying “striking is…a national sport.”

Today, Thursday Jan. 29 France went on strike.  Many unions and supporters from private and public sectors hit the streets in protest in what the people think was a poor action from the French government.  With a current economic depression taking place in Europe, French citizens were demanding higher wages and better compensation from their socialist government.  President Sarkozy responded by claiming the French government did not have the economic resources to raise wages and compensate for the depression.   All the while though, they had billions of euros to bail out failing French banks.     

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This talented man was playing in the historic downtown of Bratislava, Slovakia.  The city is only an hour by train, and is well worth taking a day trip to see.

This is St. George’s Fountain, more below the photo from the City of Bratislava’s website.

Renaissance fountain in the courtyard of the Primatial Palace shows the struggle of St. George with the dragon. His life is part of “Golden Legend”, which was extremely wide spread in early Christian Europe.

According to the legend George was an officer in the Roman army. One day he came to a town which was tyrannized by a dragon. In desperation people choose the dragon´s victims by tossing a coin. At the moment when the King´s daughter lost the toss George entered the town and killed the dragon with a spear. Whether he existed or not, George has became a symbol of the knight who vanquishes evil, and a symbol of the conquest of Christianity over heathens.