Merry Pranksters

Something someone else said in a comment on another blog I was just reading made me think of one of the best college pranks I can recollect. To add that it was pulled on a Dean of Men who was instrumental in ending my college career a year before made it all the better.

Here it is:

A new lawn was being sodded in front of "Old Main" . . . which doubled as office space for the higher-ups and classroom space for the lower-downs. One dark and stormy night (well, I guess it wasn't stormy at all) but it was early in the witching hours after midnight, after the one security guard for the campus had made his rounds, decided all was well and gone home to his bed. Someone climbed the outer wall to the second floor office of the Dean of Men, opened a window and crawled in. Opening the office door and the building door from the inside . . . who knows, maybe some pilfered keys were involved . . . this miscreant allowed his collaborators to enter. They carefully removed all of the furniture from the Dean's office to a hallway outside and then, using the rolled up sod outside, like wall to wall carpeting . . made a pretty green lawn in his office. Then they moved all the furniture back inside to it's precise previous location and, before locking the doors and leaving for the night, posted a "Keep Off the Grass" sign prominently just inside.

I can hear the suppressed giggles now as they crept down the hallways and out of the building, leaving no trace of their nocturnal work . . . except in the Dean's office!

From hundreds of miles away, I read about the stunt on the AP wire and applauded.

p.s. The Dean's unfortunate name was Perry Gallas. If anyone knows of his whereabouts and tells him of this story, please inform him that I had absolutely nothing to do with it. But I certainly would have!

1929 . . . and today

Back in the 1929 Financial Crash it was said that some Wall Street Stockbrokers and Bankers JUMPED from their office windows and committed suicide when confronted with the news of their firms and clients financial ruin . . . Many people were said to almost feel a little sorry for them . . . . . .

In 2008 the attitude has changed somewhat.

(I altered the sign for you more sensitive readers.)

Ponderisms

I know. This is the easy way out. When you don't want to talk about politics and you can't think of anything else to blog about you rely on your friends and e-mails and the "Internets". The sweet lady who sent me these by e-mail has a great sense of humor . . . or as she might write, "humour". So, with thanks to Meggie, here are some thoughts to ponder.


I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes.

Gardening Rule: When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.

The easiest way to find something lost around the house is to buy a replacement.

Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.

There are two kinds of pedestrians: the quick and the dead.

Life is sexually transmitted.

Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.

The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.

Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.

Have you noticed since everyone has a camcorder these days no one talks about seeing UFOs like they used to?

Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.

All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.

In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.

How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?

Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, 'I think I'll squeeze these dangly things here, and drink whatever comes out?'

Who was the first person to say, 'See that chicken there? I'm gonna eat the next thing that comes outta its butt.'

Why is there a light in the fridge and not in the freezer?

If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a song about him?

If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests?

Do illiterate people get the full effect of Alphabet Soup?

Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog's face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him on a car ride, he sticks his head out the window?

Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?

Do you ever wonder why you gave me your email address?

Veterans' Day 2008

Well, he's not technically a veteran . . . but he's ours! That's our grandson, taking a break in Iraq. Don't ask why an Army sergeant is playing with a toy dinosaur. Some wise guy sent him that in a Christmas box, I think.

As for his veteran status. See he served a couple of hitches in the army, visiting such beautiful spots as Bosnia, Kuwait and Iraq before getting out. So, then he was a veteran.

But he later decided to go back into Uncle Sam's boys and girls club and he's back in Baghdad. But the latest we've heard is he is about to get rotated back to the states for awhile. He also says he's decided to re-up for another hitch in the Army. So it may be awhile before he's a full-time veteran and can play with his dinosaur whenever he wants to.

In the meantime, let's honor all of the veterans today . . . from all over the world.

More growth

This funky little convenience store is doomed.

Yes, the long-familiar Robert's Marketplace will soon be gone.

Some time in early 2009, the little red and white building will be torn down.

But wait! It will soon be replaced. By this:

The new, bigger Robert's Marketplace is being built just to the rear of the present structure. Along with much more space and a quite stylish look, it reportedly will house a pizza restaurant and a branch of the post office.

Meantime, just across the street, another nearly identical building is nearing completion. It will be an office complex housing medical and dental offices, according to owner Robert Hamill.

Hamill appears to have done well as he moves into becoming a real estate baron!

And it's nice to see some new buildings and some commerce finally coming to the "back side" of my town.

Takin' it back with Barack, Jack!

Yes. We. Can. - Yes. He. Did!

There's a new family heading to the White House in America.
Welcome!