The dauntless and betimes addled QB is hot on the cold trail of the Cornell pumpkin story of 1997. Some say it is a tale better left open ended without the identities of the pumpkin stunt’s perpetrators revealed. Agreed. However, QB is not necessarily interested in ruining a good story with facts. The QB Research [...]
Entries from October 31, 2007
Fundraisers Anonymous?
October 30, 2007 · 1 Comment · Campus life
Separated at birth? Well, maybe not. But Conor O’Clery, whose book “The Billionaire Who Wasn’t; How Chuck Feeney Secretly Made and Gave Away a Fortune” chronicles the business and philanthropy of Cornell’s biggest and most secretive benefactor, did have QB wondering how he’d react were a census taker to knock on his door. (Fava beans [...]
Remembering that Great Pumpkin Prank of ’97
October 30, 2007 · 1 Comment · Campus life
QB was in the employ of a modest micropolitan daily in October 1997 when an editor called him to his desk to offer an assignment: Some extreme prankster had placed a pumpkin atop McGraw Tower at Cornell. Was QB interested? At the time QB was known for handling the oddball, quirky stuff that, dressed up [...]
Redbud redux
October 29, 2007 · No Comments · Campus life
Irony gets tiring fast these days. So it was more sad than anything else to note how passing traffic drowned out much of what was said at the Oct. 4 dedication to a small but significant monument in memory of the Redbud Woods debacle of 2005. A town-gown mix of about 30 community members gathered [...]
In lieu of Jack Frost, professor takes charge
October 26, 2007 · No Comments · Campus life
Frost declared: Bob Williams (red shirt) and Martha Gioumousis of the horticulture department do Jack Frost’s work by digging up the experimental flower garden on Maple Ave. on Oct. 15. EAST HILL – Time was up. Professor of Horticulture Hans Christian Wien wasn’t waiting around for Mother Nature. On Oct. 15, he declared frost even [...]
Spiders are people, too
October 25, 2007 · No Comments · Campus life
The spiders in the arthropod zoo were putting up a good front. The tarantulas, especially, appeared to be unfazed by the fact that 2,300 humanoids were staring directly into their eight eyes and manifold mouthparts for most of nine hours. QB says, “appeared to be.” For the experience must be nothing short of torture for [...]
Cornell girls gone wild?
October 25, 2007 · No Comments · Campus life
Around the late-afternoon hour yesterday when QB was about to close up shop for the day, a colleague pointed out an unusual sight parked prominently in Collegetown. “Why is there a ‘Girls Gone Wild’ bus outside?” she queried. Good question. Shortly after visual confirmation, it was discovered that the nationally branded camera crew, whose founder, [...]
A final note on Greece — THE CATS (and dogs)
October 23, 2007 · 1 Comment · Greece, International relations
The IES Cephalonia Greece trip is now history, but one final note sticks in QB’s mind as we lay this blog category to rest. The cats. They were everywhere. Dogs, too, but the cats seemed to outnumber them. Athens, Cephalonia, Ithaca alike — the presumably ownerless cats roamed the streets in impossible numbers, begging for [...]
Not in Greece anymore
October 16, 2007 · 1 Comment · Greece, International relations
QB and the IES Cephalonia group made it home safe and sound Thursday night/Friday morning after a somewhat harrowing journey (lost luggage, found luggage, canceled flight, long bus ride, lost luggage, found luggage), but the important thing is, we’re home. We send heartfelt thanks to Hettie and Makis for helping us recover our things in [...]
Older, wiser and Greeker
October 11, 2007 · No Comments · Greece, International relations
Like all good things tend to do, the IES Cephalonia delegation’s long-anticipated foray into Greek culture, government, life and landscape are coming to a close. This morning, from the dear Acropolis View Hotel near downtown Athens, QB writes some closing thoughts before climbing aboard the plane later this morning for home sweet Ithaca, N.Y.