GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

Welcome Everyone!

Welcome to the new year, everyone, and a special welcome to the Class of 2003! This Newsletter comes out every week during term time, and is distributed to all members of the College as well as to a variety of administrative offices in the University. Resident students will receive their copy under their room door (one copy per room); be sure to share with your roommate! And if you live in a suite be sure to put one copy under each door inside the suite when the Newsletters appear in the suite corridor (four copies per suite, one for each room).

For New Students

All new students should have received a Strong College information folder when they arrived, containing a membership list, a calendar for the year, and other assorted literary masterpieces. If you missed yours, we have a few extras in the College Office. The Strong College Facebook for this year will appear soon after room change is complete, so everyone will be listed correctly. New students should all have had their pictures taken when they arrived (returning students’ pictures from last year will be re-used).

The Wonderful Cookout and the Wonderful Tea

Many thanks to the College Council (Bri Payne, President) for organizing such an excellent cookout for our new members last weekend. A grand time was had by all! And speaking of grand times, the Grand Welcoming Tea was also a spectacular success! The beautiful signature page drawn by Warren McCain made the rounds and will soon be framed and will join the College’s permanent collection. We hope to see everyone each Tuesday, same time, same place, throughout the year! Tea is the social event of every Strong College week.

Room Change Information

If you are thinking of changing rooms for a better view, a more compatible roommate schedule, etc., etc., the date to keep in mind is Monday, August 30th, from 8:00–11:00 p.m. Anyone wishing to change rooms should come down to the JCR at that time to formally make the switch (signing in one set of keys and signing out another). The building is full, so you must make a one-for-one switch; that is, if you want to move out of room x, you must find someone in room y who wants to take your place in room x, and then you can move into room y. A sheet has been posted on the bulletin board outside the College Office for people contemplating room change, but who do not yet have someone to switch with.

Strong-L Keeps Going and Going and Going

Strong-L is our own Strong College e-mail chatting group, and it is full of busy conversation about everything from music to computers to the meaning of life. All Strong College members with e-mail addresses are encouraged to join. Just put your name and e-mail address on the Strong-L sign-up sheet outside the Office.

Ad Astra

Strong thanks to our own Antonio Stewart for a donation of several issues of US News for the College Library!

The delicious Polish candy at the cookout last week came from Anna Modzelewska, our exchange student from Poland. Thank you, Anna!

Strong College Fellow Ken Caneva is on leave this year, and will be working at the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology in Cambridge. He is studying the history of the principle of conservation of energy and how it became established within the scientific community. Have fun, Ken!

Gwen Kovalak is spending the year at the University of Oulu in Finland. You can follow in her footsteps next year!

Poem-of-the-Week

The Strong College Poem-of-the-Week appears on the bulletin board outside the College office and is usually reprinted here. This week’s poem is William Wordsworth’s “The World is Too Much with Us” (1807):

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.—Great God! I’d rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

STRONG COLLEGE CALENDAR

23 August (Monday), 9:00 p.m., Committee Room (230) — Monday Nights at the Lemurodeon! (Free movies!)

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

24 August (Tuesday), 5:45 p.m., Dinner at Spencers — After Tea, come join the Strong College crowd for dinner at Spencers. Freshmen who don’t have declining balance can get take-out at the Caf and bring it over to Spencers.

25 August (Wednesday), 8:00 p.m., Committee Room — Strong College Council meeting, and everyone is invited!

25 August (Wednesday), 9:00 p.m., Star Chamber (362) — Star Trek: Voyager! Join us in the Delta Quadrant.

26 August (Thursday), 4:30 p.m., Senior Common Room (162) — Cornelian Literary Hour resumes (we think).

26 August (Thursday), 4:30 p.m., Committee Room — First Blue Lemur Coffee Bar of the year! Yay!

27 August (Friday), 12:00 noon, Strong College section of the Caf — Fellows’ Lunch, and students are welcome!

OFFICIAL DISCLAIMERS: Nothing here is official. Please don’t sue us. Face up, chip first. Overexposure may result in nausea, headache, confusion, and instability. He used to call me Sgt. Pepper, and I never knew why. 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 for Enjoining Good and Prohibiting Evil, the Star Trek Ladies’ Sewing Circle™, the Eater of Worlds™, Miss Seafood Festival, the Anti-Lemur, the Lost Birdfeeder of Samarkand™, Kyle Goodman and the Elevator of Doom, the Pikachu of Fate, the Bluebird of Happiness, 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. Must stay with clothes after 8:30 p.m. Edibility not known. Keep out of reach of children. From contented cows. Promptly refrigerate unused portion. Color swirls are a natural occurrence. If you experience eye watering, headaches, or dizziness, increase fresh air or wear respiratory protection. 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!