I had read previously in The Tech that there was going to be a Town Hall Meeting on campus today with some Admins to discuss some of the undergrad concerns with them (and likely to give them bs, but that wouldn't be new). This morning, I received an e-mail (that was sent to the entire Caltech community, although I actually know the sender from my ping pong class---one of the few undergrads I know) asking that other members of the Caltech community show up to support the undergrads.
While I'll admit I'm tempted to show up, I also don't think it's my place to show up---I think that showing up would go perilously close to attempts to recapture my Caltech childhood which I promised myself I wouldn't try to recapture. (This was part of the reason I felt it was better that I go somewhere else for grad school, and my decision between Cornell and Caltech back then came down to the very last day.)
What I what like to do here is to offer my support to the current generation of undergrads in their attempts to fight The Man (aka, The Administration). While I don't agree with everything they wrote and feel that some components of this morning's message lacked perspective (among other things, the message is written as if such things haven't happened before), I do support them on general principles. (There is also one thing that comes to mind where I don't agree that they're getting screwed over, but there are some where I definitely agree with them---the very expensive board program going to 7 days is the one that particularly comes to mind.) So while I don't feel comfortable going to today's Town Hall Meeting, I am offering this message in support of the current undergrads' fight to prevent the inevitable (I'm ever the optimist, huh?).
I don't have the e-mail anymore that apparently has a url where the undergrads have listed their grievances. I couldn't find the url, so if anybody still has that e-mail and can give me the URL, I would like to link to it here.
1 day ago
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Okay so this comment has a certain amount of relevance to this post but much more to one a few posts back- I asked the Gazebo tonight why exactly it is that you're a legendary Lloydie- to the point of being referenced in a Wikipedia entry by your anagram- and after a short burst of laughter he allowed as how he didn't really know for sure.
Care to shed some light on this for your faithful readers?
(Btw your legend may grow once THE CORNER OF THIRD AND INSANE hits the bookshelves. We'll just have to wait and see.)
Well, I actually suspect that the Gazebo played some part in the fact that the legend hasn't died.
So, there are actually a couple things here.
First, there is some "legendary" status I achieved simply because I tend to be a fairly memorable person. (I've been called "10 standard deviations from the norm".) I was especially amused when someone who overlapped with Gazebo but not me had more to say about me than about him. [Maybe this says more about Gazebo than it does about me? :) ] This really only explains a couple years, and lots of Techers are going to talk about people with whom they overlapped who have since graduated. The whole Tarzan Boy thing was well-known for a while, as were some of the escapades when I was a Tech Editor. (I'll get into some of this stuff another time, but let's just say that one particular series of incidents led to a really nasty letter from the Pasadena Humane Society.)
Second (far more important than the first, really), I visited when I first graduated because I wanted to spend time with my friends who were still there. This lasted essentially until Lemming and Zifnab graduated. For the first three years, I would visit for the first week of second term and for the last week of third term (to see my friends graduate) each year. During the 4th year, I only did the first of these (I had to deal with my own graduation and by the time I did with one day to spare, I needed to visit Atlanta to find an apartment rather than visit Pasadena to see graduation). This caused a few people up through the class of 2004 to meet me (and a smaller number from the class of 2005). We're now very close to the present.
This next part is where people like Gazebo come in. There was this certain proof that I presented when I was a math 1a TA that I thought it was not fair to assign to the students. (I can go into more detail on this at some point.) The Gazebo took this over for me after I left and, in fact, presented the proof for more years than I did. This helped spread the legend, and I think some people like Jolene from the class of 04 would also occasionally bring me up. In Spring 03, I was one of the airband judges, and when a random person is on campus, I think that's one excuse to tell stories about them. (It should be noted as well that the Lloyd RAs for several years were contemporaries of mine, so they probably told some stories as well, and they were around for the stuff from The Tech.)
The final thing to mention is related to the comment that everybody listed works on campus (to me, this is not a coincidence). I think some of the stories get brought back when people are on campus. I have been advising SURF projects (and have also been in contact with some current Lloydies for the book on which I'm working; I wanted to get info about a prank of theirs), so there is an impetus for random Techers to see my name and wonder who I am. Then some of the older Lloydies have heard stories about me, so presumably enough of them remember some of those stories (and pass those along when somebody asks about me) that people like Gazebo had a role in propagating.
Anyway, it's some combination of the above stuff, and I would think that some of them can help propel the others. One thing I wonder is what form the current stories take. I'm glad to have been part of that so-called "thriving civilization" (they lumped three decades worth of stuff into one sentence), but I'm sure the stories are greatly exaggerated. Also, in Lloyd itself, if you asked somebody about a famous ancient Lloydie, I would think that "Slayer" (who overlapped with me briefly; his real name is Eric Slayback; he used to be Lloyd president and was around for one term when I was a frosh before he flamed for the final time) would be the one that gets mentioned.
The wikipedia thing is presumably the result of a single person deciding to mention it.
Anyway, it's nice to be remembered. :) (I don't know the writers of the article, so I am curious precisely how the word got to them.)
That is what is known as a comprehensive response. Many thanks.
Btw, the character in the yet to be published novel who bears your name? He is in fact based on/inspired (in large measure) by a an old law school classmate of mine. The guy was a Techer- indeed a lapsed mathematician.
And, yes, a Lloydie, once upon a time.
Comprehensive, yes, but it flagrantly violates the 'simple but elegant' response that is a bit more ideal.
Are you willing to reveal the name of this mysterious Lloydie?
Of course, but only obliquely.
His first name was neither black nor white. It was somewhere in between.
And his last name I actually used in the manuscript until the Jeopardy dude made it unusable. (that's a euphemism for "fucked it up by being named that.")
Those might be clues enough but if not? Let me know.
I'll send ya an email.
I'll need the e-mail. I don't remember the Jeopardy guy's name. (I occasionally watch Jeopardy to play along and try to answer the questions, but do my best to ignore the 'human interest' aspect of it that lots of people seem to like. Simply put, I'm not very interested in humans.)
Mostly, I'm curious if I had any communication with this guy in the process of working on the Legends book.
Thanks.
It's on its way.
The Simpson's rule proof occurred to me but I figured it probably wasn't responsible for much of your notoriety. On the other hand it does make sense that people know you because you visited a lot (and are now back on campus).
I'm not sure I ever heard any real stories about Slayer, but he was definitely known from people randomly shouting "SLAYER!". At some point I did find out what his real name was, but that was about the extent of my knowledge.
Not a story per se, but Slayer is the one who came up with the idea for the gong. There is a story related to that (also from before I was a Techer). This stuff will actually be part of Legends IV, which will be including stories about several of the House icons. (The reason I'm not saying all is that that book may still be way too early to have something about the Ricketts firepot. Autumn and I will deal with this once Legends III comes out.)
Slayer was apparently a great president (I heard this from everybody who was around for his leadership, not just a small group), but I only met him after he became bitter. He was reasonable enough to talk to at lunch, but then he'd be drunk at night and he really pissed me off once when I was living in Throat (before the room became cool) and he was armed with a megaphone that night. (I had to call campus security to get him to stop and be able to sleep. I was shouted down every time I would ask him to quiet down.)
It's true he's mostly know for the Slayer thing at dinner, whose origin I believe goes back to Steve Bennett '97. Then, of course, there were the years upon years of write-in votes for just about everything. There were rumors that he briefly had a job as a truck driver or something, but nobody ever substantiated it. Drew Silberfarb roomed with him during second term of my frosh year, the only term Slayer and I overlapped.
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