Princeton Diary - November 3, 1999
Off the Tap Room wall
Is Princeton "the northernmost of the southern schools"?
by Janice Harayda
The Princeton Women's Center reported in its weekly bulletin that over the past four decades the Barbie doll has taken the form of an African-American woman, Scarlett O'Hara, and a sports star. It added: "If life-sized, she would be 7'4" tall, and her body measurements would be 38-18-34. She would also have permanently damaged feet and walk, run, and play ball solely on her toes" . . . The Agape Christian Fellowship responded creatively to the water crisis that had more than a million New Jersey residents boiling tap water and avoiding showers in the wake of Hurricane Floyd. The student group promoted its activities by placing an ad in The Daily Princetonian that said: "The Sermon on the Mount-Thousands of People Who Hadn't Showered. Jesus loved them anyway. You Haven't Showered. That's OK. We'll love you anyway" . . . Einstein Bros. Bagels had its own response to the water crisis, which took a toll on restaurant cooling systems. The shop put up a sidewalk sign that said: "our air conditioner works" . . . Students from the Program in Latin American Studies and other disciplines served as volunteer translators for uprooted families in flood-devastated Bound Brook, the hardest-hit community in New Jersey and home to many residents from Costa Rica . . . Kyle Vanderlick, professor of chemical engineering, is preparing to teach a spring course called The Engineering of Ice Cream. The course will deal with topics such as thermodynamics and heat transfer in the context of the freezing process . . . Ralph W. Bastedo '75 found that The Original McGuffey's Restaurant in Asheville, North Carolina, has a drinks menu that offers five "classic martinis." The "classics" include a martini called the Princeton, made with "vodka or gin, straight up, with a lemon" . . . Canadian students planned a Canadian Thanksgiving Dinner for October 11 at the Third World Center . . . Instead of gold stars, children of scholars at the Institute for Advanced Study might get black-and-white Albert Einstein stickers sold at the gift shop of the Historical Society of Princeton (Bainbridge House, 158 Nassau St., Princeton, NJ 08542). The shop also sells Einstein bookmarks and magnets, all from Paper House Productions . . . Iver Peterson wrote in the September 26 New York Times that "the most reliable guide to successful Princeton graduates is probably whether they are hanging on the wall at the Tap Room," the bar at the Nassau Inn. And while Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley '65 has his photo on view, Republican Steve Forbes '70 does not. "But back on campus, Mr. Forbes probably has a stronger claim as a traditional Princetonian than Mr. Bradley, even if he is four years younger, for Princeton has historically been thought of as more conservative than the other Ivies," Peterson wrote. "In the last century it was considered a 'safe' place for prosperous, right-thinking southern families to send their sons, compared with the unbridled abolitionism at Harvard. Indeed, Princeton alone among the Ivies lost as many sons in the Confederate armies as on the Union side." As university spokesman Justin Harmon put it: "We've been called the northernmost of the southern schools" . . . Undergraduates still reach for immortality by carving their initials into Tap Room tables. But now many also leave their mark by scratching phrases beginning "Tray of" onto the surfaces of dining hall trays. Among the inscriptions spotted recently at the Princeton dining halls: Helen of Tray, Tray Bien, Tray of Trays, Tray of Eternal Suffering, Tray of Quantum Mechanics, and Tray of Emotional 12-Year-Olds. One student reported that the "Tray" legends have become so abundant-and witty-that they have become "a bright spot in the dining hall experience" . . . Students still looking for alternatives to the Nude Olympics can head for Polly Esther's at the Princeton Forrestal Marriott, the latest branch of the retro nightclub chain that keeps the Disco Decade alive through oversized posters of stars like John Travolta and the BeeGees . . . Daily Princetonian writer Richard Just came up with the best local quip about the genetically engineered "smart mice" created by Princeton neurobiologist Joe Z. Tsien and his collaborators at two other schools. "Mice-months ago, they were fleeing traps," he wrote. "Now, thanks to Prof. Tsien, they're almost smart enough to go to Penn."
Princeton Alumni Weekly welcomes contributions to Princeton Diary, a
compendium of offbeat, unusual, or newsworthy items from the campus and
beyond. Send items to Janice Harayda, Editor, 194 Nassau St., Princeton,
NJ 08542 or e-mail them to paw@princeton.edu.
.
GO TO the Table of Contents of the current issue
GO TO PAW's
home page