Exotic and Otherwise Events Related to the QQs
The Marshmallow
Pranks were played from time to time by members of the QQ on one another as well as other deserving individuals and groups. Among the more memorable of these was the incident which came to be known as "The Marshmallow.' The fourth floor of "Old South Hall" was also called "The Rookery". John [Johann] and Larry lived in the northwest corner room. Their's was a room officially known as the "monitor's room" but little monitoring ever occurred. Next to this room was the bath and toilet facility [that also had other names attached]. David and Ed lived in the room adjacent and to the east but with the only north facing windows of any room in the dorm. Dalrie and Mitch lived directly across from Dave and Ed in a room on the south side. This prank was always a covert operation in which no names were bared, although all evidence pointed to Johann or Larry as the culprits. On one occasion, cold weather - naturally - when windows weren't prone to being opened, the janitor for the floor placed a new deodorant pellet into the urinal. This pellet was removed from the urinal and hung on a small piece of a wire coat hanger behind the drapes in Dalrie's and Mitch's room. Needless to say, in a day or so the room had quite a distinctive smell. This continued for several days and became more pronounced as time went by. One evening when several of the QQs were assembled, the drapes were opened somewhat and by some strange fate or fortune the "marshmallow' appeared. The name came about by reason of the fact that Dalrie saw it and asked the question, "What is that, a marshmallow?" The odor quickly dissipated following the discovery of the offending item.
The Kilogoley
Three of the QQ members, Bob, Mitch, and Ed were physics majors and Dave was a physics participant though not particularly by choice. John was noted for having rather distinctive feet. Not necessarily characterized by size, shape, or toenail color, but primarily by odor. In the study of physics the matter of sound and loudness came up for consideration. It was noted that sound is primarily a logarithmic function to the ears. Thus, the familiar method of measuring the loudness is through the system of "bels" contracted from Alexander Graham Bell the pioneer in most of this work. Thus we have the standard measure of sound as a bel, with subdivisions of decibels, and sounds louder than a bel measured in decabels, centabels and kilobels. Realizing there was no standard for odor, the physicists of the group decided to standardize on a "Goley" as the measurement. This was the amount of odor put out by one of John's shoes. Now, most persons would find a decigoley offensive. John of course lived with a goley of odor, and the kilogoley was declared to be the absolute maximum anyone could tolerate before succumbing. This was, to the best of our knowledge, the first standard proposed for a measurment of odor. It has not been universally accepted since John changed the amount of odor from his feet after this was made public.
The Schick
John had what he considered, with some pride, to be a most tough beard. Indeed it did show up on his young face with a degree of darkness in late afternoon and approached "4:00 o'clock shadow". He maintained with some degree of pride that only a Gillette Blue Blade was sufficient to cut his "tough" beard off. We, of course tried to persuade him this was not the case and built up a very sound and logical case for "Schick disposable" blades as being superior. Finally John agreed to give them a trial and when he ran out of Gillette Blue Blades, he bought a Shick injector with it's accompanying packet of injector blades. This type razor was the choice for both Dave and Ed so they, too, had a supply of these handy. John was allowed to shave for several days admitting that he was indeed getting a pretty good shave. Then it happened! Dave and Ed took about three of their used blades they'd been saving, rubbed them very dull on the strike plate of the door, and inserted them into John's injector mechanism. The next morning a loud expletive came from the bathroom as John shaved(?) He tried another blade to no avail, finally after the third attempt the entire razor and injector was disposed of with the vow he'd never use one of those lousy things again as long as time lasted. He was never convinced it was all a joke.
The Loving Cup
The annual contest for raising subscriptions for the "CLOCK TOWER" was underway. And as was usual for Union College in those days, the contest pitted the men's dorm against the women's dorm with all others lumped in a "Village Group". The winners were the ones reporting the most subscriptions. The prize was a "Loving Cup" to be proudly displayed in the appropriate dormatory or public place for visitor's viewing. During the height of the campaign, early on, a special promotional program was put on during chapel in the old Ad building. The loving cup was on a table for display purposes to goad the participants to greater heights of endeavor. When the program finished, the loving cup disappeared. This turn of events was not received kindly by the faculty, namely by the Dean, Dr. Ogden. Threats of retribution were proclaimed and dire conse- quences were promised if the cup was not forthcoming and returned immedi- ately. It wasn't. This only heightened the anticipation of where it might be and who had purloined the said object. Near the end of the campaign the cup strangely reappeared. It was found as the schoolday commenced, hanging from a clock located in the hallway of the Ad Building. It was strapped there by a log chain and a Master Padlock. This required the maintenance crew to bring a stepladder, bolt cutters, and hacksaw for it's removal. Fortunately. Dr. Ogden did not suffer the anticipated stroke all had feared. It is hard to remember whether the men or women won, but the QQ certainly did! (Although they were the only ones to realize this.)
Copyright, Graphicraft, December 23, 2004.