Newsflash: Braces Now In Style

Brace yourself (pun completely intended), for the worst trend in recent memory. Two respected orthodontists, Dr. Marc S. Lechman and Dr. Jennifer Salzer, have paired up with respected accessories designer, Lisa Salzer, to pass off orthodontic materials as children’s fashion. Remember those horrific colored bands that unfortunately caught ruminants of your middle school lunches? Well, now you can wear them on your wrists! Yes, Braced-lets are made out of orthodontic chains; yum.

Braced-lets are a cruel attempt to capitalize on the awkward braces stage. Wearing braces myself, I know how uncomfortable and, well, ugly you become once metal takes over your mouth. The last thing preteens need is for an orthodonist to capitalize on their fragile mental states, and convince them it is cool or okay to have braces. It is not; braces are awkward, and that is a fact of life.

Hostel Horrors

An advertisement in Amsterdam, with some obvious editing

I arrived in Amsterdam this weekend after a bitchingly early flight, eager to take a nap in my hostel. After what seemed like decades of wrong turns, we finally found the Marnix Hostel. The entire building was covered in white plastic and scaffolding. Not exactly the warm Dutch welcome I had hoped for.

Turns out, we weren’t in the 6-person room we booked after all. We slept in a glorified cubicle and shared a basement room with 50 other people. The “walls” were only 6 feet high, and the gap between that and the ceiling was merely covered with a thin layer of mesh. We could hear everything. If someone sneezed, or more often, farted down the hall, we were the first to hear it. Joy. Worse still, everybody’s room key could open any door.