GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

It’s Not Too Soon to be Thinking About Next Year

Strong College is now in the early stages of the admission process for next year, and we would like you to help! Many of our new applicants each year first hear about Strong College from current members who tell them what a great place it is. All of you are our best recruiters! When you go home for the weekend, or for the holidays, tell your friends and neighbors about Strong College and encourage them to apply. And don’t forget your younger brothers and sisters, either. Strong College already has a tradition of family attendance, as the Lance sisters, the Minter sisters, the Bottoms sisters, the Thomason brothers, and several other pairs of siblings can attest. Maybe your family can continue that distinguished Strong College tradition! The College Office has flyers you can take home with you to spread the word and to encourage people you know to apply. Stop by and pick some up today!

And Speaking of Recruiting

Many thanks to a host of Strong College members who are touring prospective students around the College this weekend for the UNCG Focus program: Tim Owens, Stephanie Crews, Elliott Reid, Kim Fales, Chris Butler, Gwen Kovalak, Dan Treharne, Todd Hall, and Adam Cox. The personal contact that prospective students make with current Strong College members is one of the most important things they get from their campus visit. Thank you all!

The Sky is Falling!

There may or may not be a spectacular meteor shower the night of November 17th or 18th, but even the World’s Greatest Scientists cannot tell for sure. The annual Leonid meteor shower has a special peak every 33 years or so, and this year or next may be that peak. Stay tuned to Strong-L and bulletin boards near you for late breaking information, and perhaps a field trip in Peabody Park to watch if things look promising.

Puzzles and Games

A hearty Strong College thank you to our Associate Marilyn Lauritzen who recently donated a big box of puzzles and games to the Blue Lemur Coffee Bar. Stop by on some Tuesday or Thursday night and give them a try!

Beautiful Souvenirs

Three more signature pages have recently been framed and are now on display in the College Office. They are from the last two Senior Dinners (with artwork by Sara Pulley-Curtis and Dave Day) and from the Welcoming Tea at the beginning of this year (with a beautiful lemur by Jessica Rolland). Come by and look at them today!

Strong College Tee Shirts

Strong College tee shirts are for sale in the College Office! They are $10 each (or $20 Strong), and feature a lovely armed lemur on the front (artwork by our own Heather Lloyd). All the fashionable people on campus are wearing one, and you should be too! They make perfect holiday gifts, so come by and get one today!

Ad Astra

Dr. O’Hara’s Book-of-the-Week this week in the College Office this week is not a book but a periodical: the latest issue of The American Scholar, the journal of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. The journal takes its name from the famous address Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered in 1837. Stop by and browse it today!

Our own Anna Klopot borrowed our Polish flag last week for a local Polish Independence Day Celebration.

Dr. O’Hara led a crowd of people from all over campus on a walking tour of Peabody Park a few days ago. The weather was perfect, the trees were beautiful, and everyone had a splendid time.

Poem-of-the-Week

The Poem-of-the-Week is posted on the bulletin board outside the College Office and is usually reprinted here. This week’s poem is Robert Frost’s astrophysical “A Star in a Stone-Boat” which may be about a lost Leonid of many years agone:

Never tell me that not one star of all
That slip from heaven at night and softly fall
Has been picked up with stones to build a wall.

Some laborer found one faded and stone cold,
And saving that its weight suggested gold,
And tugged it from its first too certain hold,

He noticed nothing in it to remark.
He was not used to handling stars thrown dark
And lifeless from an interrupted arc.

He did not recognize in that smooth coal
The one thing palpable beside the soul
To penetrate the air in which we roll.…

He moved it roughly with an iron bar,
He loaded an old stone-boat with the star
And not, as you might think, a flying car,

Such as even poets would admit perforce
More practical then Pegasus the horse
If it could put a star back on its course.

He dragged it through the plowed ground at a pace
But faintly reminiscent of the race
Of jostling rock in interstellar space.

It went for building stone, and I, as though
Commanded in a dream, forever go
To right the wrong that this should have been so.

Yet ask where else it could have gone as well,
I do not know—I cannot stop to tell:
He might have left it lying where it fell.

From following walls I never lift my eye,
Except at night to places in the sky
Where showers of charted meteors let fly.…

STRONG COLLEGE CALENDAR

17 November (Tuesday), 4:30 p.m., Junior Common Room — College Tea! It’s the social event of the week.

17 November (Tuesday), 9:00 p.m., Committee Room — College Council Meeting. (Heather Lloyd)

17 November (Tuesday), 10:00 p.m.–12:00 midnight, Committee Room — Blue Lemur Coffee Bar!

18 November (Wednesday), 9:00 p.m., Star Chamber — Star Trek: Voyager! (Michelle Marcelais & Bob O’Hara)

19 November (Thursday), 4:30 p.m., Senior Common Room — Cornelian Literary Society. (James Elroy Flecker)

19 November (Thursday), 9:00 p.m.–12:00 midnight, Committee Room — Blue Lemur Coffee Bar!

20 November (Friday), 12:00 noon, Strong College section in the Caf — Fellows’ & Students’ Lunch.

OFFICIAL DISCLAIMERS: Nothing here is official. Please don’t sue us. Consult legal, accounting, veterinarian or other professionals before investing in the Ostrich Industry. She can also do a spider monkey. May be harmful if swallowed. No caffeine. For external use only. Do not eat. Refrigerate after opening. This does not represent the official policy of Maxwell’s Demon, Plato’s Cave, Kekule’s Dream, Pascal’s Wager, Schroedinger’s Cat, Zeno’s Paradox, or the Eater of Worlds™. Use only in a well-ventilated area. If rash develops, discontinue use. Action figures not included. Choking hazard. Tamper evident. Eye irritant. May contain historical inaccuracies. Crayons not included. Do not inhale. If swallowed or lodged in ear or nose, promptly see doctor. Hold handrail. Read cautions on back. 100% undetermined man-made fibers. Rules subject to change. I can’t wait to be a world leader. Contains beta carotene for color. Point away from people while opening. Not a significant source of calories. Easy to clean vinyl lining. Will not craze most plastics. Easily slips beneath outerwear. Contains no squid. Shown actual size. Do not shake. When dry, brush lightly. The most common things in the Universe are hydrogen and stupidity. Second star to the right, and straight on till morning. If we succeed there will be many songs sung in our honor. The better our fantasies are, the better our realities can become. Think continually of those who were truly great. A decent boldness ever meets with friends. Risk—risk is our business; that’s what this starship is all about; that’s why we’re aboard her. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do. Chance is irrelevant: we will succeed. Per aspera ad astra!