GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

Blue Lemur Opening a Wild Success

The re-opening of the Blue Lemur Coffee Bar on Monday was a great success. The Lemur will be open this semester every Monday night from 9:00 p.m. until about midnight (or when people get tired). The coffee is always free as is the conversation, and an assortment of board games and other entertainments are available (and we will be glad to accept donations of additional games). Tim Owens and Sherrill Hayes are the despotic pair in charge—stop by next Monday night and say hello!

Poker Night!

Under the direction of Scott “Kingfish” Thomason and Chris “Mississippi Mud” Beaver of the Strong College Department of Probability Research, the first Strong College Poker Night got off to a spectacular start this past Wednesday. The cards were dealt, the root beer flowed, and a grand time was had by all. And a number of people went away several Strong dollars richer! The atmosphere and the fellowship are both delightful, so be sure to pay a visit every Wednesday night starting at 9:00 p.m. in the Committee Room. Don’t know how to play? No worries: the whole gang will be glad to teach you, and who knows, you might even win!

Help us Recruit New Strong College Members for Next Year!

Do you know any current UNCG students who would like to join us in Strong College next year? If so, be sure to encourage them to apply! Current UNCG students who live elsewhere on campus (or off-campus) can pick up Strong College applications in 100 Foust Building; the deadline for turning them in is 10 February. We have a great exhibit about Strong College in the front window of the Jackson Library this week—be sure to check it out yourself and point interested friends to it as well. All Strong College members are always welcome to bring friends and prospective students to Tea or to other College events. Spread the good word about Strong College, and help to build our community for years to come.

Come to the ER Social Hour

Don’t miss your weekly dose of medical drama! Join Eric Harrington and his surgical team in the Star Chamber every Thursday evening from 10:00–11:00 p.m. to watch ER. (Lab coat optional.)

Ad Astra

The name of Melissa Johnson was inadvertently omitted from the list of recipients of the Senior Tutor’s Award in last week’s Newsletter. Congratulations to Melissa!

Poem-of-the-Week

The Strong College Poem-of-the-Week is posted on the bulletin board outside the College Office and is usually reprinted here. This week’s poem is William Butler Yeats’s “The Second Coming” (1920) with its “brazen winged beast” of “laughing, ecstatic destruction”:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with a lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?

STRONG COLLEGE CALENDAR

18 January (Saturday), 7:00–8:00 p.m., Star Chamber — All intelligent life forms are invited to join us for Star Trek: Voyager! (Bob O’Hara)

20 January (Monday), 8:00–10:00 p.m., Star Chamber — WCW Monday Nitro now appearing at this time in the Star Chamber every Monday night. Come witness the future of television. (Scott Thomason)

20 January (Monday), 9:00 p.m.–late, Committee Room — The spectacular Blue Lemur Coffee Bar opens for the semester. Join Tim Owens for free coffee, music, and conversation. It’s the place to be on Monday nights!

21 January (Tuesday), 4:30–5:30 p.m., Junior Common Room — the College Tea! Join all your friends for cookies. (Laurie White)

22 January (Wednesday), 9:00 p.m.–late, Committee Room — Poker Night! (Scott Thomason and Chris Beaver)

23 January (Thursday), 4:00–5:00 p.m., Senior Common Room — Strong College Literary Hour! We sit around and read favorite pieces of prose and verse. Everyone is welcome, so please join us! (Laurie White)

23 January (Thursday), 10:00–11:00 p.m., Star Chamber — Medical excitement with ER! (Eric Harrington)

24 January (Friday), 12:00 noon, Strong College dining area in the Caf — Lunch for Strong College Fellows. Students are always welcome to join us; just pull up a chair.

OFFICIAL DISCLAIMERS: Nothing here is official. Please don’t sue us. Elvis has left the building. Major funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Do not eat. Machine washable and dryer safe. Choking hazard. Product and colors may vary. This does not represent the official policy of Gerald Finzi, the King Biscuit Poetry Hour, Rollo the Lemur©, Barbie of Borg™, the Varmint Masters Association, or the city of Las Vegas, Nevada. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Eye irritant. Crayons not included. Endorsed by writers and professional hunters everywhere. Figures sold separately. Hold handrail. Easy to clean vinyl lining. This programme can be read in the dark. Will not craze most plastics. Easily slips beneath outerwear. Contains no squid. Do not shake. When dry, brush lightly. The most common things in the Universe are hydrogen and stupidity. Card subject to change. Do not leave in sunlight. Vapors may cause flash fire. Use with good ventilation. If swallowed, do not induce vomiting. Don’t feed them. Shown actual size. May cause burns. Read cautions on back. If we succeed there will be many songs sung in our honor. You dumb horse. The better our fantasies are, the better our realities can become. A decent boldness ever meets with friends. Division I draw poker by 2001. Per aspera ad astra!