FROM 1999 TO 2000!

August

Welcome to the Class of 2003! Welcome everyone else! Arrival! The Welcoming Committee! (Thank you, Mary and Kelly!) Fellows carrying bags. Taking facebook photos. A magnificent cookout. New friends all around! Gifts of books and magazines. Welcoming Tea! A beautiful signature page! (Thank you, Warren!) Delicious Polish candy! (Thank you, Anna!) The Blue Lemur opens. Star Trek resumes. The Lemurodeon is under way. Card games galore! (Thank you, Tom!) Letters from the Class of 1999 to the Class of 2003. Family history of Cornelia Strong. (Thank you, Sarah!) “O friend unseen, unborn, unknown, / Student of our sweet English tongue, / Read out my words at night, alone: / I was a poet, I was young.”

September

Senior Tutor’s Awards. The College Library opens! (Thank you, Cecilia Ruth and all Librarians!) SETI@Home. New Strong-L members. Coffee Bar. Our first Star Party! Dinners at Spencers. New magazine subscriptions and new games. Open house tours of Strong College. (Thank you, all tour guides!) Lemurodeon. The Fifth Annual Croquet Tournament! Sun, fun, friends, and green grass! Congratulations, Josh! Tea. The stock market competition begins. “It must be very beautiful, the sunset, / On Saturn, with the rings and all the moons.”

October

Borders Bookstore trips! (Thank you, Michelle!) Doom! A magnificent Senior Dinner! Another Star Party! Congratulations to the Fierce Creatures! Doom! Halloween planning. St. Crispin’s Day! Doom! A trip to Charleston, hurrah! Lemurodeon. An extraordinary stamp collection for the College! (Thank you, Jennifer!) Tea. More open house tours. Doom! Trick-or-treating children! (Thank you, Elizabeth!) Halloween! Doom! Spooky costumes! A grand time! Coffee Bar. A beautiful tee shirt design! (Thank you, Courtney!) Doom! “I should be over it now I know. / It doesn’t matter much / How old I grow: / I hate to see October go.”

November

A trip to the Observatory! (Thank you, Steve!) More open house tours, and beautiful sidewalk art. News from distant alumni. Flecker Day! The Peabody Park Rangers get underway! (Thank you, Krista!) Mice in backpacks! Prizes for Dax! (Congratulations, Susan!) Photo ops in the Park. Lemurodeon. The resurrection of The Carolinian! (Congratulations, Jon!) New tee shirts, hurrah! “Reserve within thy kingdom / A ‘Mansion’ for the Rat!”

December

Delightful holiday cards from Strong College! Family tree charts. Gift in abundance (lemur videos, playing cards, books, goldfish bowls, and more)! Thank you all! The Grand Holiday Tea! Fun, friends, and song! Tubas! Krista’s signature page! Gaudeamus igitur! (Thanks, Josh!) A Survivor’s Tea for the end of the 1900s. “May the Master of the Universe / Guide our lives and ever fill our purse! / Alma mater ever nourish, / Alma mater ever flourish!”

January

Welcome to new members! Farewell for a time to members going abroad! Literary Hour resumes! Our new music collection! (Thanks to all donors!) Snow, snow, and more snow! No school! The Strong College Snow Bunnies. Arranging furniture. Fish! Senior Tutor’s Awards! (Congratulations to all seventy-seven!) “Over the woodlands brown and bare, / Over the harvest-fields forsaken, / Silent, and soft, and slow, / Descends the snow.”

February

Little Valentine cards. (And cards for Tim the Lemur!) A lovely Valentine’s Party! Hearts everywhere! Signing up for rooms. Entries for the Cornelian Prize. Salvaging historic bricks. (You’re welcome!) Daffodils begin to sprout! Tea. Seven and the Rock! Visiting scholarship candidates! (Thank you, tour guides!) Coffee Bar. New coins for our collection, (Thank you Barron, Tammy, and Sherrill!) Lemurodeon. The Daffodil Liberation Front! Thanks to all the Garden Weasels! “The old snows melt from every mountain-side, / And last year’s leaves are smoke in every lane; / But last year’s bitter loving must remain / Heaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide.”

March

The Cornelian Prize! (Congratulations, Stephanie!) Robert Creeley’s works. (Thank you, Jessica!) A burial at sea. This Week in Peabody Park. Our first roses! (Thank you, Denise!) Night Herons and mayapples and azaleas, oh my! Visitors from South Carolina, and a sister college for us! More open house tours. A magnificent pajama jam! (Thank you, Jon!) A spades tournament! A trip to Myrtle Beach! A map of the month. “I wandered lonely as a cloud / That floats on high o’er vales and hills, / When all at once I saw a crowd, / A host, of golden daffodils.”

April

A fab concert in Peabody Park! (Thank you, Krista and the Spartones!) A Jackson Library display! Casino Night! (Thank you, Scott!) Outstanding seniors! Congratulations to President Bri! Slater’s Crimson China. The Sixth Annual Buffalo Creek Regatta! Sun, fun, water, and boats! Thanks to all helpers! Congratulations to all racers! Congratulations to Cecilia Ruth, Head of the Buffalo for 2000! Stars of Bethlehem. A daffodil entrance. Flower find! (Thanks, Tammy!) “Sometimes I wonder if I’m ever gonna make it home again, / It’s so far and out of sight.”

May

The Grand End-of-the-Year Tea! The Senior Serenade! Pennies! Congratulations, C.J.! The Luau! Commencement!

Poem-of-the-Year

The Poem-of-the-Year appears regularly in this space. This year’s poem is a 1635 lament by George Wither, which we read to know we are not alone:

When I behold the Havocke and the Spoyle,
Which (ev’n within the compasse of my Dayes)
Is made through every quarter of this Ile,
In Woods and Groves (which were this Kingdomes praise)
And, when I minde with how much greedinesse,
We seeke the present Gaine in every thing;
Not caring (so our Lust we may possesse)
What Dammage to Posterity we bring.…

For, if they thinke their Children shall succeed;
Or, can believe, that they begot their Heires;
They could not, surely, doe so foule a Deed,
As to deface the Land, that should be theirs.
What our Forefathers planted, we destroy:
Nay, all Mens labours, living heretofore,
And all our owne, we lavishly employ
To serve our present Lusts; and, for no more.

OFFICIAL DISCLAIMERS: Nothing here is official. Please don’t sue us. I want my CSC. Intended for ages 5 and up. No fungi, no future. I feel an interpretive lobster dance coming on. I’ve got way more minions than you. Trees are much better than children. When you live in the water it’s hard to keep your hair neat. Identity theft is the sincerest form of flattery. Worship shiny alien kitty girl now. Lemurs don’t wear pants. You’re the one waiting for a frog to get you a coke. I thrive on menial labor. There are people praying in my card parlor. Who needs to work hard when you have extortion? I have a ten-foot wingspan. Mother always told me I should research my Crumplers. I’ve only been living here three hours and already there’s a ghost in my underwear drawer. I didn’t know it was a lemur pick up line. If there are naked people to be seen, I want to see them. Crash outcomes may vary. I know my Mathers. This does not represent the official policy of the Flecker University Department of World Domination, the Future Prawn Farmers of America, the Daffodil Liberation Front, the Association of Professional Tattooists, Conan the Pansy, or Martin the Decapod Laureate. Don’t let that quiet fuzzy demeanor fool you. This is not a lifesaving device. Livin’ la vida lobster. Be quiet or I’ll make you a disclaimer. I am not fluffy. You’re just jealous of my thick glossy coat. I have one of those disorders or something. Stuffed with polyester fiber. I just sort of squatted and billowed. You hold the cape and I’ll position the octopus. Promptly refrigerate unused portion. I don’t even have the energy to burble. I put the “J” in INFJ. It’s a good thing he has an exoskeleton. If this works out, you may be able to live in a glass ball on Mars. I’m a decapod girl in a decapod world. It’s hard to be the girlfriend of the Master of the Universe. I’m her soft-spoken emanation. Perpetual motion pleases me. Get that frog tongue out of my nose! It’s so hard to dispose of people nowadays. Take the steroids and it would be better, they said. Color swirls are a natural occurrence. I’m ignorant and I’m greedy. Do the zombie snail. My “N” isn’t working. Do not overinflate. No matter what kind of day I’ve had, I know I can always come down to the Office and pat seeds. Do not leave children unattended. I’m sorry, you’re sadly misshapen. If you experience eye watering, headaches, or dizziness, increase fresh air or wear respiratory protection. I can’t help it if I don’t have self-esteem. It’s hard being secret agents. Everything’s better with a halo. 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. Without struggle, there is no progress. Why are we here if we’re not magic? I will not let thee go, except I bless thee. Abababa. Per aspera ad astra!