cactus i.v.

The cactus, for all intents and purposes, is my soap-box. It isn’t a way for me to push my morals and values of you, our reader, but it is a means for me to do that during the times I feel necessary.
This is one of those times.
I went to mail a letter today, and there […]

By CHRISTOPHER JOHN APPEL
chrisapps(at)gmail.com
That debate on Thursday, April 26 was so dull. For the most part it was all about getting eight men — excuse me, seven men and one woman — on stage campaigning against the current president.
They all spit the standard party-line attacks, some preformed better than others.
Here’s the official Appel rundown on […]

By LISA SOKOLOWSKI
cactusiv(at)gmail.com
Josie’s on a vacation far away… Come around and talk it over…
Call me pathetic. That wouldn’t be completely wrong.
I saw The Blue Man group last week, and Mike Relm opened. I haven’t been able to get “Your Love” by The Outfield out of my head since then.
Relm used it as a background sound […]

By DIZZ TATE
dizztate(at)hotmail.com
Ah, the many types of styles are like a huge closet full of hope and wonder. The tour begins with the flamboyants, the range of girls in tube tops and denim skirts, the air full of charming advice about plastic surgeons, and everyone bumping into each other with their inhumanly enlarged body parts. […]

By MICHELLE RICCARDI
mia8263(at)gmail.com
I was given a challenge a few weeks ago. A cute boy called and said, “Hey, I’ll be there in 15 minutes, and I’m starving…” Of course, it just happened to be a day I hadn’t cooked and there was barely any food in my kitchen. I brag about being such a good […]

Ok..so unfortunately sports was unable to take precedence in my life
this week…a great tragedy.  But I wanted to make sure you had
something fun to read this week.  So..with the 2007 NFL Draft beginning…here’s a possible mock draft from Peter Schrager at
MSN Fox Sports.  It will be interesting to see how the real draft
turns out tomorrow, so tune in […]

Dear Ms. Niki,
So, I have a friend that I’ve know for the past 30 years and we have done everything together (we meet in the third grade and been best friends ever since). We’ve been through so much in our lives from first kisses, dating, heartache, marriage, babies, loss of a parent, I couldn’t imagine […]

By BEN SZMANDA
The Cultural Revolution was supposed to tear the roots out of Chinese life and place it squarely in modern times. Anything seen as sourced in the “Four Olds” was dismantled, smashed and and scattered to the winds. Monestaries and convents were closed en masse, and the monks and nuns were pressed into […]

By ROXY RETAIL
cactusiv(at)gmail.com
I was about to run out the door jacketless until my boyfriend reminded me it’s not yet summer, and sleeves were probably needed.
Fine.
Boys know best.
I reached into my closet, and I grabbed a demin jacket. From the look on my boyfriend’s face, I’m probably the last (proud) owner of one of these.
“Hun,” he […]

By MICHELLE L.
satine81(at)gmail.com
I was never a big fan of martial arts movies… until I saw House of Flying Daggers (2004). It had everything you could ask for in a movie (no matter what genre you prefer); romance, bloodshed, martial arts, great cinematography, I could go on and on. So when I saw that […]

By CATHY S.
sokocathy(at)gmail.com
No one goes home this week, but two go home next week. What a great idea. I couldn’t imagine anyone leaving on such a special night. (I heard that Simon wasn’t happy about it saying that one person goes each week and this week should not have been an exception). […]

By CHRISTOPHER JOHN APPEL
chrisapps@gmail.com
Watching the video sent by the gunman at Virginia Tech, I was immediately struck by one thought: I’ve seen this tape before.
No, I’m not a seer of any sort, but I have watched death messages from Islamic suicide bombers. The two are identical in every way, shape and form.
The ranting against the […]

BY LANIE PIMENTEL
petunia5045(at)gmail.com
To temp or not to temp… is that the question? Temporary jobs may be all around us. There are some advantages and disadvantages for both the company and the employee. We’ll find out just how suitable this type of job can be.
When we say “a temp,” we mean a temporary employee, […]

By C.D. Allen
cdavidallen(at)gmail.com
I was kicked out of a thrift store the other day.
I’m driving in a town I’m visiting and happen upon a dirty little strip mall with a tiny grocery store, an everything’s a dollar store and, at the end, a thrift store that’s literally overthrowing junk unto the sidewalk. I’m on my […]

By JORDAN HATHAWAY
partygal23(at)aol.com
I hate dating. Why does it get harder as you get older? Think about it. In kindergarten, the opposite sex either had cooties or you threw something at them and they were your significant other. I knew in kindergarten that I had a boyfriend when he put his hands over my ears during […]

Hhey sports fans…with grad school makes is descent toward finals week, I am elbow deep in studying, so this week’s article didn’t get quite done yet, but this is some of what you have to look forward to reading:
NHL Playoff coverage
Sidney Crosby played on broken foot
NBA playoff coverage
MLB
A-Rod’s homerun spree
NFL
The Draft is this weekend!!!
NCAA Basketball
New […]

By JAMES “TATTOO” CHAPRACKI
geocities.com/tattoospinstriping
It’s a sword. Get it?

By LISA SOKOLOWSKI
cactusiv(at)gmail.com
I got a CD in the mail and, Chuck Klosterman’s right, a music writer’s job is to review their mail.
I got Scott Blasey’s “Travelin’ On” in my mailbox, and I did what I always do: I flipped the album over to see if there was anything I could figure out.
It’s my way of […]

I know a lot of people who are under the impression that you’ve either got beauty or brains. I’m sure my friends aren’t the only ones who have posed the question: Would you rather be with someone hott or someone smart?
I don’t cringe when I hear someone choose a looker over a thinker. There are […]

By DIZZ TATE
dizztate(at)hotmail.com
There are certain essences in the world, corked up in tiny bottles, drunk by only the few who know how to get them. Everyone has their own personal mix, like their own scent or sound, like when you were very young and could recognize your mother by just the sound of her heels […]

By MICHELLE RICCARDI
mia8263(at)gmail.com
Guess what readers? I am lactose intolerant. You might be remembering now all the times I noted that I love dairy. Well it dawned on me just this week that each time I have dairy (which was almost every meal) I would get sick. I tested it and told e-i-c Lisa about it. […]

Dear Niki -
Why do girls always over think things?
Love, A Thinker in New York
Dear A Thinker -
We had a saying back in high school that went: If you weren’t thinking, you wouldn’t have thought that.
A truer sentence has never been spoken — especially among high school kids. If your mind was always blank, you’d have […]

By BEN SZMANDA
It will be old news by the time this is published, and I doubt I have anything novel to say about it, but I can’t let Kurt Vonnegut’s death go unmentioned. Vonnegut’s passing has gotten a lot of coverage; ordinarily, when something gets that much exposure I would just roll my eyes, […]

By ROXY RETAIL
cactusiv(at)gmail.com
Ah, my darlings, how I’ve missed you.
The boyfriend and I just spent two weeks suntaining on a gorgeous tropical island and losing ourselves in large margaritas.
We’re lucky we even remembered to come back.
Two weeks away from work, stress and future-in-laws is something I highly recommend. Something I don’t recommend: Crocs.
I hate those shoes. […]

By MICHELLE L.
satine81(at)aol.com
I know what you’re thinking… with all the Oscar-nominated movies out on DVD now, why am I reviewing Step Up (2006)? Well, I have to say that this weekend, during that nasty nor’easter we had here in Jersey, I wasn’t in the mood to think too hard or […]

By Cathy S.
sokocathy(at)gmail.com
I have to admit that I was not expecting Sanjaya to be out this week. I really thought he was going to make it to the last four. Not because of his singing, but because I thought he had that much support. I personally didn’t know anyone who was […]

By LANIE PIMENTEL
petunia5045(at)gmail.com
Coffee. Tea. Water perhaps? There are many types of energy boosting options at the workplace… or are there? Do vending machines adorn the break room? Does your job have happy friendly bakers that enjoy bringing in the spoils of a weekend spent with a Kitchen Aid mixer? But […]

By C.D. Allen
cdavidallen(at)gmail.com
My little rant last week about Grindhouse got me thinking about zombies. While the movie features actual (in the movie sense) undead, or at least their diseased counterparts, I want to discuss something a little more mundane.
Whether or not a person actually has free will or any real control over themselves […]

By JENNIFER KARPIK
pshh_jenxownsx0@hotmail.com
I never ever ever ever put my trust in anyone. Not for any reason. You really have to prove yourself to me and make me believe you’re as trustworthy as you seem. So when I begin to trust you, don’t give me reasons to question that. So you can guess i’m doing some […]

By JAMES “TATTOO” CHAPRACKI
geocities.com/tattoospinstriping
There’s nothing else I’d want hanging by my bamboo.

By LAURA SIMON
laura.m.simon(at)gmail.com
Another week and gone by and here we are again talking about the wild world of sports!
In the NFL, Tennessee Titans cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones was suspended for the entire 2007-08 football season because Las Vegas police want to charge Jones for inciting a strip club fight back on Feb. 19, which led […]

By LISA SOKOLOWSKI
cactusiv(at)gmail.com
Let’s talk about how I know every word to every song.
Or so it seems.
I live for pop-punk. We’ve discussed this before, haven’t we? But that’s not all I listen to. And I proved that this weekend.
James and I were driving around, and we could flip to any station, and I could serenade him.
Paula […]

I know I write about the weather quite a bit. And if you ask anyone who knows about journalism, that’s a cop out. It seems, if you have nothing else to write about, you begin with the weather. Even in everyday conversation. When you bump into that random person in the supermarket — or worse, […]

By DIZZ TATE
dizztate(at)hotmail.com
There are certain things people are born with. For instance, being able to sing, draw, be very chatty, have brown hair, or, as I personally was, be born a Harry Potter “hardcore” fan. However, the nice thing about fashion is it can be grown into as you get older. I cringe when I […]

By MICHELLE RICCARDI
mia8263(at)gmail.com
One of my favorite couples is my boss Lindsay and her boyfriend Terrence. I love how different they are physically (Terrence is 6′2 and Lindsay is a whopping 5′2) and how their eating habits are completely opposite. Terrence will eat almost anything you put in front of him — but watch out for […]

Dear Niki -
I was crushing on this guy for a while, and I went out with him on a “group date” (those aren’t my words, they’re my friend’s). The date is so nicely forever from a few weeks back. Anyway, there haven’t been many developments. We exchange emails, we talk on the phone, but […]

By BEN SZMANDA
War and atrocity are such regular occurrences in history we tend to mark time periods by them, as if millions of extinguished lives existed for no other reason but to provide a sign post, or a figure for children to remember by rote, and then forget. We record the cold blooded […]

By MICHELLE L.
satine81(at)aol.com
Based on a memoir by Augusten Burroughs, Running with Scissors is a coming-of-age story for one young boy. Now usually, “coming-of-age” implies a very formulaic plot and your basic cast of characters. This movie is anything but formulaic, and the cast is definitely a bunch of characters.
Augusten Burroughs is played […]

By CATHY S.
sokocathy(at)gmail.com
Haley’s lack of clothes couldn’t save her this week. I thought she was pretty entertaining but none of the judges liked her. We knew it would be a toss up between either her or Phil going. I’m guessing Phil will go next week. Good-bye and good luck, Haley!
Jennifer Lopez […]

By LANIE PIMENTEL
petunia5045(at)gmail.com
From as far back as I can remember, we were taught to share and the importance of team work. I remember teachers would say “When you are grown up, you will have to work together in groups.” And its true, we do. Many people might have jobs that […]

By JENNIFER KARPIK
pshh_jenxownsx0@hotmail.com
What if your in love with an addict? An addict of anything, but, plainly, we’re talking about drugs. And someone so close to you, they can just be around you and hurt you so badly just by a look. You could remember so clearly how they were once. Clean and sober, of course. […]

By C.D. Allen
cdavidallen(at)gmail.com
I saw Grindhouse over the weekend. This isn’t what I normally write about but after reading what the “Internet” had to say about this movie I couldn’t resist leaving a message for all the fan-boys out there.
This is not an actual review, by the way.
So, here goes:
Quentin Tarantino is not a genius. […]

By LAURA SIMON
laura.m.simon(at)gmail.com
Well, baseball season is in full swing now, although I am wondering where Spring is exactly with all of this cold weather we’ve been having! I think the Indians are quite confused after having a snow cancellation! I sat through flurries to watch the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees play this weekend, too. […]

By JAMES “TATTOO” CHAPRACKI
geocities.com/tattoospinstriping
Don’t you wish your phone came with stripes?

A quick note from your lovely e-i-c to say the weekend was crazy, New York was great… and you’ll hear all about it next week. Hope everyone had an incredible Easter weekend. The cactus will get back to its regularly scheduled program starting Tuesday.
Love and cacti, Lisa

“Boy”
By Peter D. Oliver
i watch this boy topple from atop his bike
he enjoys this calamity
and others of it’s like
he scrapes his knees
chips his teeth
and laughs aloud with wayward glee
concerned and compelled i run to his aid
to attend and console a child most likely afraid
i arrive at the wreckage kneel and ask his name
he replied
” my […]

By MICHELLE RICCARDI
mia8263(at)gmail.com
How was everyone’s holiday? Mine was okay. I worked until 2 p.m. then went to pick up my dog and we went down to see Grandma (mine, not the dog’s). With most of my family there, it was hard to keep an eye on my dog, who I keep from eating people food […]

By BEN SZMANDA
Huruki Murakami’s “The Wind Up Bird Chronicles” may be considered a mystery or a detective novel in the loosest sense, but doing so really obscures more than it illuminates, because the meat of the book is not in the over-arching mystery, but in the winding narrative that leads through shifting genres and […]

By MICHELLE L.
satine81(at)aol.com
Okay, so I usually start out with some sort of description of the movie, followed by two paragraphs (sometimes three if I’m extra insightful) of what I got out of watching the film. Well, I’m going to do this review a bit differently. The description will not be the bulk of […]

By Cathy S.
sokocathy(at)gmail.com
I can’t believe that Gina is gone. I didn’t think she was going to win this year, but I thought that there were three people who could have gone before her, namely Phil, Haley and Sanjaya. She was someone who really had to pick the right song for herself each week. […]

By LANIE PIMENTEL
petunia5045(at)gmail.com
Another day, another dollar, another small company. That was my mentality when I walked into my new job on Tuesday. When you freelance, the only thing that seems to stay the same is whatever you keep in your head.
New towns. New offices. New faces.
The first day of work, it’s common to […]

By JENNIFER KARPIK
pshh_jenxownsx0@hotmail.com
Someone I know told me that he always hurts someone close to him because it makes him feel better. But he doesn’t know why. And he also doesn’t know why the other person sticks around and takes it from him.
He explained it like this… take a married man and his wife. He always […]

By C.D. Allen
cdavidallen(at)gmail.com
Today I want to talk about silence. I am aware of the irony in doing so.
Anyone that reads this column regularly might remember me talking about “noise” a few times. For those of you that don’t, when I refer to noise I don’t just mean sound. I mean the ever-present […]

By LAURA SIMON
laura.m.simon(at)gmail.com
So there is no new NCAA men’s basketball national champion…..
because Florida defeated Ohio State in the final game of the tournament, 84-75, to keep its title. This was the first time a team has won back-to-back NCAA men’s basketball championships since Duke did it in 1991 and 1992. They did it […]

By JAMES “TATTOO” CHAPRACKI
geocities.com/tattoospinstriping
James can even make brown eggs look good. Now where was this idea when he was making Charmagne?

I was looking out my window an hour ago, and it was raining. And the only thing I had left on my to do list today is go grocery shopping.
Saying I don’t have any food in my fridge is a huge understatement.
But I’m looking at the gray sky, and I know it could open up […]

By LISA SOKOLOWSKI
cactusiv(at)gmail.com
Sometimes you just need something new, a band you’ve never heard of to take you out of your music bubble.
I thank Allison for the venture out of my iPod.
I went to her MySpace page, and she was playing Rediscover.
I really have no idea what I’m rediscovering because all music is just a rehash […]

Update by LISA SOKOLOWSKI.
We’re down to the final game of the NCAA tournament: Florida vs. Ohio State. Laura’s gotta be rooting for Florida because, as she said last week, she hates Ohio State.
Cathy’s rooting for Florida, too, but for different reasons.
See, no one picked Ohio State to win the whole thing. Cathy and I are […]

By MICHELLE RICCARDI
mia8263(at)gmail.com
I am pretty sure everyone has a food they think is disgusting even if they haven’t tried it yet. Mine is anchovies. But my whole family loves them: Anchovies on pizza, anchovies in salad and anchovy pasta. Like I have said, when I was younger, I was very picky. Even switching from my […]

By DIZZ TATE
dizztate(at)hotmail.com
Sometimes street fashion is individual, but other, rare times, a whole place can contain too much street fashion to count. Aviator jackets, huge sunglasses, bright scarves, and slim-fitting coats jumped out at me on every corner of this street, lighting up the sidewalk with their energy, and, to be quite honest, total coolness!
The […]

“Cynthia”
By Peter D. Oliver
cynthia wears fake pearls
it’s like a beacon for the boys
to buy her a drink
and moisten their talons
in her ever aging loins
her mind goes to a place
a million fathoms deep
that place inside all of us
where we let our little child sleep
any given night
she’s reposed in some man’s bed
but only after they got theirs
and […]