The Beaver: The Newspaper of The London School of Economics

I picked up my first copy of The Beaver last week expecting something on par with Texas A&M's Battalion. They are both student-run, but that's where the similarities end.

On page 05, an article titled "Students turn to prostitution" discusses the surprisingly-common practice of female students working routinely as call girls to pay the bills while at university. One Cambridge student 'visited' 40-50 men in one two-month period; she once 'visited' seven men in one night. As an LSE student, I have to say that this sounds typical of the Cambridge student population.

On the next page is a brief discussion of the recent invasion of the Government Department..by mice.

The 'B' section, which seems to be some kind of editorial pull-out, breaks down style trends seen on campus. One stereotype noted is The General Course Student. In sum, the General Course student is (1) freshly arrived from the US of A, and (2) can be spotted by the name of their American University blazed across every item of clothing. The author suggests, as a way to recreate this effect for non-Americans, adorning a shirt (which must be described as an Oxford) or something Polo, teamed with a pair of straight jeans and either flip-flops or some kind of boat shoe. And I'm not even on the General Course; I'm a Masters student. A Masters student!

Directly below this article is another called "Who the f*&% are you?" I censored the title; The Beaver does not. This article implores students to 'find themselves.'

Finally, the back page carries an advice column discussing blush-inducing topics; an LSE in Love feature, in which students anonymously send love notes to other students (again, blush-inducing); and a literary Kama Sutra, which I'll discuss no further than to say that this week's feature is based on The Scarlet Letter.

And there you have it: The Beaver.