OPINION: Things to think about

By JOEY ERICKSON Variety Editor

Another week, another column, under the freshly equipped moniker of “Things to think about,” inspired by my quippy outro for each column. Enter five new items of varying obscurity, ready to be ranked by the only person alive actually qualified to rank things. You can’t outrank the ranker, but I encourage you to try!

Unfortunately, though, he was unavailable, so I’m filling in for him for this article. I hope you can understand.

The five items on the roster this week are a martini glass, leg warmers, a candy cane, a bottle of syrup, and a picture frame.

Andre 1000 embodied OutKast and Lil Nas X in his versions of “Hey Ya,” and “Industry Baby.”

Showstopper, Megan The Maneater Carter sprinkled herself in dollar bills while displaying a flexible performance that left the crowd anything but speechless.

“She was super fun to watch, had high energy, and anyone who can do flips and jumps into splits is automatically impressive to me, but doing it in heels took it to a different level,” said Madeline Casper, student at MSU.

DeCrème kept the audience on their feet with one Beyoncè themed performance and a Lizzo classic to end the evening.

Student performers Venom Valentine, Marvin McSparkles, and Wolf Wheels gave their first performances their all, with support from their friends and families in the audience.

Thomas’s drag persona, Princess Blue Rose has been taking over the stage for seven years, which was proven after debuting Nicki Minaj’s, “Anaconda.”

“I just love every time I perform. Going out there and just hearing those peoples’ screams and audience claps–it’s just so amazing. We can all share this one moment together, and it’s very precious to me,” Blue Rose said. “One thing I always say in regards to drag shows, you can always leave your worries at the door because once you enter and the music starts going, it’s a party from there until it ends.”

The LGBT Center hopes to keep the tradition alive for years to come. For now, the main event to look forward to is their lavender graduation ceremony April 28.

Color of Care : A positive step for minorities

By JADE JACKSON Staff Writer

COVID. A time everyone remembers. It was a very bittersweet time. More time spent with family and no going to school. However, people became sick and jobs got cut. One perspective that not a lot of people take into consideration is the healthcare system.

Here at MSU, there is a class on campus who put on a showing of a documentary titled, “The Color of Care.” I had the pleasure of speaking with two juniors from the Health and Advocacy class, Alysha Krueger and Tufah Dahir. When I asked them to tell me about the documentary, I received a very wellthought response.

“The documentary focuses heavily on the health disparities that are already present in healthcare relating to race, gender, or nationality. It’s a lot of anecdotes related to how people were impacted and the loved ones they lost. It also shines light on the lessons that healthcare workers learned along the way,” Dahir says.

Krueger adds, “Healthcare is constantly getting better, constantly evolving. However, there were a lot of mistakes made during the pandemic, and it brings light to a lot of events in the healthcare system that should never take place again. It’s definitely a tearjerker.”

The two said how the process of creating this documentary took a lot of time and hardwork.

“It has taken us this entire semester to develop. Dr. Kramer has been a wonderful mentor teaching us about what goes into screenings and how to FILM on page 11

In last place, leg warmers. As a kid, I adorned all of my pencils with little pencil grippers, the plastic, glittery multi-colored ones that everyone secretly wanted to eat. Most people denied that they ever chewed on them, but I was out and proud about it. I have no shame.

Leg warmers remind me of those little pencil grippers, although it’s probably less socially acceptable to chew on leg warmers. Especially if they’re connected to a leg.

In fourth place is a martini glass. Similar to a child-sized cup at a restaurant, a martini glass offers a whopping one and a half sips of drink for the now-thirsty customer, all for the savvy price of too much money. On top of that, bartenders will put ice cubes, plural, into your drink, giving you even less beverage to savor. Rude.

Of course, the bartender anticipates this anger, counteracting it with a tiny little umbrella to solve all your problems. What am I going to do with an umbrella this small? Shield the fragile remains of my hope and dignity from the rain? Sit underneath it at a very, very small beach?

In third place is the candy cane. I imagine that in the Candyland cinematic universe, old people use these to get around, rather than a normal cane. On that note, I feel like we should replace normal walking canes with ginormous, sized-up candy canes! It would be very campy. You could even suck on the bottom of the cane to sharpen it, and use it to shoo away enemies! Murder isn’t illegal if you do it with a candy cane, that’s just the plot of Candyland 2: Electric Boogaloo.

In second place is the pic-