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The Shield

McQuaid Jesuit's biweekly content heap.

The Shield

The Shield

It’s A Wonderful List: My Top 5 Christmas Movies

Linus Hansford, Has Himself A Movie Little Christmas | December 17, 2025

It’s that time! Christmas time is here! The season of frozen hands, awkward conversation, and two glorious weeks off from school. A staple of this wonderful season is the movies! Classic works of cinema, so good you can watch them year after year. I am a dedicated, yet opinionated, film viewer and I only watch a select few every year. Of those, I make sure to watch only the best. I have compiled...

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Read This Before Watching Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere

Linus Hansford, Highway Patrolman | November 20, 2025

During my most recent trip to the movie theater, I watched a biographical picture called Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, about Bruce Springsteen’s life and process while writing his 1982 album Nebraska. Often considered one of Springsteen’s best projects, Nebraska is renowned for its dark, lonely, almost haunting sound. It is so unique that, during its recording process, Columbia Records...

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Buffalo Bills: Gratitude and Growth So Far

Nicholas Thomas, Wagon-Circler-in-Chief | November 20, 2025

We made it. It is week eleven of the NFL season, and as much as I would like to say it has been a really successful last few weeks, I would only be kidding myself. The season started out electric, looking like this is the year that Buffalo might make it all the way. Like every diehard fan knows a little too well, the Bills get hit with a healthy dose of reality. The Bills started on fire with a...

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Is This The Bills’ Year?

Nicholas Thomas, Wagon-Circler-in-Chief | October 29, 2025

Since the dawn of sports, every die-hard fan has asked themselves "Is this the year?" while hoping that their team will go all the way and take home the big championship win. Fans from every sport ask this question, but the fans of one sport are especially susceptible to it. American football, the biggest sport in the country, has fans questioning every week whether or not their team will go "all the...

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Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: The Underdog Character

John Monile, Bob | March 19, 2025

Created by Masahiro Sakurai, Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. is a fighting game series known by many fans as fun and competitive. Throughout the years, there have been 5 main versions added to the series, each including some of fans’ favorite Nintendo or non-Nintendo characters. In this series, players, who have participated in tournaments, have made rankings ("tiers") based off how easy characters...

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Helldivers II

James Hay, Galactic Cartographer | May 1, 2024

Do you perchance like any of the following concepts: liberty, democracy, or Earth? Have you ever wanted to fight bugs that were harvested for their resources on government plants that broke o—I mean bugs that have no elections and must be liberated of their resources, robot sla—I mean protesting unionized automaton workers, or an alien race that at this time is not recognized by the government?...

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Be Less Normal

Mario Morales-Bermúdez, Sorbet-ing at the Moon | September 25, 2024

Like everyone else, sometimes I feel a powerful need to grab a pint of Häagen-Dazs dulce de leche and dig out shavings of soft, cold, sweet caramel until my brain decides that I am no longer at optimal body temperature. Before I get on my actual soapbox, let's be clear: this is the mature, adult, restrained version of this urge. When I was in college, I happily dug my way through entire pints of...

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Food Be the Food of Love, Actually

Mario G. Morales-Bermúdez, Chef d'Affection | February 13, 2024

The last time I showed up around these parts to talk about food, because I have a gift for staking out popular positions that will be shared by absolutely everyone in time, I chose to talk about how cooking during lockdown taught me the value of not wasting anything in your kitchen. I stand by that, to be clear, especially as every grocery store chain openly gouges us, gives us some sorry excuse we...

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Last Christmas

John Monile, Skinny Elf | December 17, 2025

Lampposts’ shine makes Christmas snow like sateen. Arcane empty roads intersect with red light’s sheen. Soft voices form wistful feelings of red and green. The silver screen wishes to show this lovely scene.   Clocks beg for their hands to stop moving, stars forbid, Hopes bleed out as fourteen purges them from each kid. Regret boils up, it cannot be stopped by a lid, Internally it’s...

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Summer “Vacation”

Liam Clark, Recovering Reprobate | September 29, 2022

As I roam and traverse this empty hall, I start wondering if it's the same at all As the raucous building that I used to hear Throughout all the days of yesteryear. Here I am, though I should really be free; This is basically an educational tyranny. Learning my lessons all over again? If this is for real, I might go insane. I'm at the room now, though I'd rather hide From the ultimate...

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The Ballad of Billy Joel: Part IV

Thomas Steele, Crewman on the Downeaster Alexa | October 29, 2025

When we left off, Billy Joel had just released the album An Innocent Man, which I felt was a slight step down from some of his previous work, but was still successful. Following this, he participated in “We Are the World” in 1985 and released the first two volumes of his greatest hits compilation, including two new singles: “You’re Only Human (Second Wind)” and “The Night Is Still Young.”...

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The Ballad of Billy Joel: Part III

Thomas Steele, Professional Petrohurlologist | April 30, 2025

Welcome back to the Billy Joel series! So far, in Part I, I went through Joel’s origins as a musician leading to his first couple of albums, which failed to bring commercial success. In Part II, he found his groove and released several excellent albums, launching him into fame and allowing him to experiment more with different genres. Now, in Part III, we will look into the next chapter of his...

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Christmas Gift Giving Guidelines

Thomas Steele, Christmas Cookie Connoisseur | December 17, 2025

Well, we have made it through another year to the Christmas season once again. Now, if you are like me, you have not completed your gift purchasing yet and are unsure what gifts to give to at least some people close to you, or even where you can start. Luckily, here I have compiled some guidance for everyone who is looking to give a gift with at least some meaning, whether it be for a loved one, friend,...

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Last Christmas

John Monile, Skinny Elf | December 17, 2025

Lampposts’ shine makes Christmas snow like sateen. Arcane empty roads intersect with red light’s sheen. Soft voices form wistful feelings of red and green. The silver screen wishes to show this lovely scene.   Clocks beg for their hands to stop moving, stars forbid, Hopes bleed out as fourteen purges them from each kid. Regret boils up, it cannot be stopped by a lid, Internally it’s...

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Christmas Gift Giving Guidelines

Thomas Steele, Christmas Cookie Connoisseur | December 17, 2025

Well, we have made it through another year to the Christmas season once again. Now, if you are like me, you have not completed your gift purchasing yet and are unsure what gifts to give to at least some people close to you, or even where you can start. Luckily, here I have compiled some guidance for everyone who is looking to give a gift with at least some meaning, whether it be for a loved one, friend,...

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Pliny the Younger

Muhammad Hamid, Bithynian Pontifex | April 30, 2025

Pliny the Younger was a Roman legislator, magistrate and author famous for his Epistulae, a collection of letters which serve as a comprehensive collection providing insight into life during the middle Roman Empire. Pliny witnessed the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE and documented the tragedy in his letters, which remain some of the most accurate and best described historical recordings of the...

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McQuaid Jesuit's biweekly content heap.