WE’RE FIVE, ALIVE, AND KICKING!

August 1998

Welcome to the Class of 2002! Welcome back everyone else! Arrival! Fellows carrying bags. Facebook photos. Delightful confusion. Best use of a Strong College pin. The Welcoming Committee! (Thank you, Ryan.) The new students’ cookout. Fun and new friends. The daisy chain. The Grand Welcoming Tea. (Thank you Jessica for the beautiful lemur!) New Strong-L subscribers (including Captain Krista and her army). Charlie’s Yard. A Crispus Attucks coin. Literary Society begins. (And Flecker lives!) Tea. The Blue Lemur opens! Clean Shower prizes. Council begins! Star Trek begins! “Dearest, it was a night / That in its darkness racked Orion’s stars.”

September 1998

The College Library opens! (Thank you, Cecilia Ruth and all librarians!) Tea. The Strong College Spice Girls. Strong College Around the World pictures. Titanic! The Lemurettes appear. Peabody Park tours. Book-of-the-Week begins. Freshman delegates to SGA. Tea. X-Philes. The birth of the Sea Monkeys (Archie, Freddy, Mo, Will, Hester, Peter, Jill, Chester, Polly, Tim Jr., Flecker Jr., Amy, Dale, Tom, Spam, Larry, Clarinda, and Mary). The vicious murder of the Sea Monkeys! New officers for Teaching Fellows and new University Ambassadors. Tea. Focus tours. (Thank you, tour guides!) “Let Phanuel rejoice with the Shrimp, which is the children’s fishery.”

October 1998

The Fourth Annual Croquet Tournament! Green grass (mostly) and fun! Congratulations, Todd! Congratulations, Sherrill, for the race! Congratulations all entrants! Congratulations hat-wearers! Tea. Strong College TV stars. (Congratulations, Liesl and Jennifer!) Welcome to Susan Buck and Bill Magee (and Mary, too!). Tea. Famous Reynolds Scholars. St. Crispin’s Day! A Greek Literary Hour. (Thank you, Susan.) The fabulous Senior Dinner! Senior pins for all! A Finnish Tea. Trips to Borders. Tattoos! (Yay!) Notarial seals. The Halloween dance. (Boo!) New Irish citizens among us! More Strong College tours. “For Fergus rules the brazen cars, / And rules the shadows of the wood, / And the white breast of the dim sea / And all dishevelled wandering stars.”

November 1998

Photo-ops in the Library. Pulling ivy! Flecker Day! (And Week, and Month!) The Third Avatar. Tea. Leonids! A cold and damp night in the Invisible University. New tee shirts! (Thank you, Heather!) Senior Tutor’s Awards! (Congratulations to all!) Tea. Fall break. “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.”

December 1998

Decorating the beautiful tree at Tea! A Child’s Christmas in Wales. (You’re welcome.) Family trees. The Grand Holiday Tree and Penny Drive! Fun, song, presents, good cheer, and a beautiful angel! (Thank you, Emily.) “So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and slip / Into my bosom and be lost in me.”

January 1999

Welcome to new members! Tea. Senior Tutor’s Awards! Computer helpers. Strong College in England and Florida. Tea. Coffee Bar. Competition for the Cornelian Prize. Movie Night begins! (Thank you, Dan!) New coins from all over the world. (Thank you, Andy!) Council meetings. Many more magazines. (Thank you, Alice!) Web visitors from around the world. The Shadow University. (Wow!) The flu epidemic. “Great Caesar’s bust is on the shelf / And I don’t feel so well myself!”

February 1999

Valentines cards and a dance! Recruiting new members. Tea. Bible study begins. (Thank you, Jon!) More University Marshals. Borders trips continue. (Thank you, Pam.) Hosting visitors overnight. (Thanks to all hosts!) Tea and Coffee Bar. A beautiful embroidered box! (Thank you, Amanda!) Movie nights. A page of encomia. Flecker. A new quarter collection. “Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold, / Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.”

March 1999

New Phi Beta Kappans for Strong College! Tea. Hay-ek. Dinners in Spencers. A rained-out battle, alas. The Cornelian Prize! (Congratulations, Laura!) New CAs for next year. (Congratulations Tammy, Michelle, and C.J.) The new Delaware quarter. Tea. The Strong College Art Show! (Thank you, Heather, and congratulations, Emily and all participants!) Coffee Bar. A make-over party! (Thank you, Kathleen and Cecilia Ruth!) A pajama jam! (Thank you, Jon!) A special autographed volume. Cedar Waxwings. Tea. Park photos in the UNCG Magazine. “We made a promise we swore we’d always remember: no retreat, baby, no surrender.”

April 1999

College Council Elections! A record turnout! Thank you, Kelly and Bri! Tea. A Tupperware party! (Thank you, Durenda!) Hearing tests at Tea. (Thank you, Denise.) Vicious and brutal murder! Poor Tim! A mystery. A murderer! (Who else but the evil S___ T___?) Graduate School photo-ops. Coffee Bar and Movie Night. More magazine donations. The Regatta is here! The Corps of Engineers and their insignia. Shopping! Styrofoam! Sun and fun! Boats and water (well, a little water). Congratulations to all participants! Pam Bulgin, Head of the Buffalo! Prizes galore! “Much Madness is divinest Sense – / To a discerning Eye – ”

May 1999

A new Welcoming Committee for next year! (Thank you, Mary and Kelly!) A delicious luau! (Thank you, College Council!) A history of the College! (Thank you, Scott!) A final Tea. “O Danny boy, O Danny boy, we love you so.”

Poem-of-the-Year

The Poem-of-the-Year is the alma mater of a school to the northward, offered to all our departing members who are going on to bigger, though maybe not better, things. (Ask Dr. Lyons or Dr. O’Hara to hum the tune for you.)

Farewell! be thy destinies onward and bright!
  To thy children the lesson still give,
With freedom to think, and with patience to bear,
  And for right ever bravely to live.

Let not mosscover’d error moor thee at its side,
  As the world on truth’s current glides by,
Be the herald of light, and the bearer of love,
  Till the stock of the Puritans dies.

STRONG COLLEGE CALENDAR

11 May (Tuesday), 4:30 p.m., Junior Common Room — Survivors’ Tea for anyone remaining.

16 May (Sunday) — Commencement! (And then Dr. O’Hara goes to sleep for the summer.)

OFFICIAL DISCLAIMERS: Nothing here is official. Please don’t sue us. 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, Avogadro’s Number, Occam’s Razor, Newton’s Laws, Spinoza’s Seventh Axiom, James Elroy Flecker University, Blue Lemur Industries, Inc., the Massachusetts State Home for the Bewildered, the Office of the Independent Counsel, the International Parking Institute, The Star Trek Ladies’ Sewing Circle™, the Eater of Worlds™, Miss Seafood Festival, Art History Boy, the Anti-Lemur, the Lost Birdfeeder of Samarkand™, Kyle Goodman and the Elevator of Doom, Tim the Literary Lemur, Tim the Wizard Lemur, Tim the Presidential Lemur, Tim the Artist Lemur, the late and much lamented Tim the Murdered Lemur, or Flecker Spice. The better our fantasies are, the better our realities can become. Second star to the right, and straight on till morning. If we succeed there will be many songs sung in our honor. A decent boldness ever meets with friends. Think continually of those who were truly great. Risk—risk is our business; that’s what this starship is all about; that’s why we’re aboard her. Per aspera ad astra!