Traditions
- What is the Blacker Election process?
Blacker's elections have moved over time from May (third term) to
January (second term). The first Blacker election was held in the
Atheneum on 14 May 1931. In that election, the first President,
was elected. He presided over the election of the first Vice-president,
Secretary and Treasurer. Until 1953 nominations started at the
least powerful office and worked up to President. In 1953 elections
were split into two nigths with President, Secretary, Social Chair and
Pope first and the remainder later.
In the early 1990s,
it was Secretary, then President, then everything else. The latter
1990s swiched back to President first.
Throughout the 1930s elections were held
either in the beginning of May or the end of April. The officers
would then take office towards the end of May or June. In 1932, the
turnover was on 6 June. In all cases no records of actual vote
tallys were kept.
In the 1940s, before World War II, elections were held in early to
mid April with elections generally getting earlier each year. When
civilians returned to Caltech in 1946, Blacker immediately held an
election on 6 March. A normal election was held a few weeks later on
5 May. In 1947 the election was on 8 April, in 1948 on 1 April, and
in 1949 on 7 March. Before World War II, no records of actual vote
tallys were recorded. Starting with the election of 5 May 1946, the
number of votes per candidate in each ballot were recorded, excepting
the 7 March 1949 election.
On 2
March 1953 there was a House Meeting to discuss splitting up elections
into 2 nights. The reason was so that defeated candidates could run
for other offices. It was decided that the Presidential election
would be on one night and the remainder of the officers the next
night. Three days later on 5 March 1953 there was another
House meeting with a formal motion. The motion was to elect the
President, Social Chairman, Secretary and Pope on the first night and
the rest of the officers on the second. The motion passed 37 to 8.
[Sec'y Log, Vol II, p. 107]. Thus in 1953 and 1954 the elections were
on successive nights. From 1955 to the end of the decade the elections
were held a week apart. Elections changed slightly in 1956. The
first day of elections contained the ballots for President, Treasurer,
Secretary and Pope. The ballot for the remaining officers was held
on the second night. In 1958 the
position of Athletic Manager was added to the first night election.
The 1950s typically saw elections in the first week(s) of March, with
the exception of 1957 which had a first week election on 27 Feb.
No records of acutal votes were kept in 1950 and 1951, but the tallys
were kept for the rest of the decade.
By the 1950s, the turnover to the next officers was
in late March. Presumably this was for the beginning of 3rd term.
1960 through 1964 continued the election pattern of the
1950s, that of elections on two nights about a week apart, except for
1961. In 1965 the election logs are undated, but were held before
30 March. There is no indication if the previous tradition of
multiple day ballots was continued or not. Unfortunately, the
surviving Secretary logs end with that 30 March 1965 entry. The
subsequent volume has been lost. Surviving logs do not exist until
the 1990s.
The eary 1960s saw elections in the first two weeks of March, but in
1962 they were held on 1, 2 (Presidential runoff) & 8 February. In
1963 there were held in late March while 1964 was on 27 Februrary and
6 March. In 1965
elections were held before 30 March. For the remainder of the
1960s, the actual date of elections is unknown, however, it is
presumable they were held in February or March.
In 1960 the elections formate was President, Secretary, Atletic Manager,
Treasurer and HS the first night and the remainder the second. For
the elections from 1960 to 1965 a record of vote tallys has been
preserved.
Turnover of officers was a week or so after the elections.
Starting in 1971 the elections were definitely
February, excepting 1979 which held elections in January. Since
a lot of processes were simplifed and traditions dropped in the 1970s
It would not be surprising if elections were consolidated into one
night in this decade. No record of vote tallys exists nor of when the
actual turnover was.
The 1980s saw elections transition from February to January. I'm
fairly sure the 1987 election was in January, but I don't know if
the transition was earlier than that. No record of vote tallyes exist, but presumably they were specifically not reported. (In 1990
results were not announced and that was at that time a long standing).
In the 1990, the nominations & elecection for Secretary were
held the second week of 2nd term (the Secretary wanting to get rid of
their job as soon as possible). The third week of the term was the Presidential nominations and election. The forth week was election
of the remainder of the officers as well as "real" nominiations
(various traditional and random offices). In the early 1990s a
runoff ballot would
be held every day until someone won a
given election. In 1992, the Hovse decided to have one ballot that
was left out for a number of days and to let people rank the
candidates in preferential order. This way the secretary could do
all the run offs at once. The candidate "No" was a super candidate
and was not eliminated in a runoff. Thus "No" gathered
votes until someone won or "No" won. In 1994, Eric Dickson (fr:
1992, grad: 1996) made the addition of checking for a condercet winner
(the winner beats everyone else in a pairwise contest as well as NO).
In 1995 or 1996 it was decided to hold the election for President
first and Secretary second in case someone wanted run for both offices.
- What are the "Real" nominations and elections?
Over time Blacker has added unusual offices to the election process.
The first such officer to appear was that of Pope. In a House
meeting on 26 April 1939, "Mr [James] Fahs [fr: 1937, left summer 1940]
presented an elequent plea
for establishing a house pope to guard the morals of our degenerate
members." [Blacker Secretary Log, Vol I, p92] This office has been
elected every year since 1939. In 1956 the House voted to remove
picks from the offices of Pope and Keeper of the Cans, so presumably
these picks were granted sometime between 1939 and 1956.
Keeper of the Cans aka K of C: Added in the elections of
15 April 1940. This person was the assistant to the Pope. The last
known K. of C. was elected in January 1972.
House Prophet Elected 6 April 1942. The was only elected in
1942. Presumably the closing of the Hovse a few weeks later for
World War II put a premptive end to this office.
House's HA aka HHA aka House Horses Ass: This title first
appeared in the election of 27 Feb 1951 and was still in existance
in the 1990s.
House Swine aka HS: First nominated 25 Feb 1959 and appeared
every year until records end in 1965, but was not present in 1980.
House Choudry Appeared in 1965 election. The Secretary log
entry implies that this position is to be annually elected. It did
not exist by 1980.
Sometime after 1965 the tradition of spending one or more nights after
dinner nomininating people for anything that could can make up (House
Delta Function, House Unit of Depth, HintOr (Evil Master of Subtlety),
etc.) arose. In 1974 "many people won the absurd offices." In
1979 there was "...the usual flurry of random nominations." In 1980
27 extra offices were elected. Presumably this is the work of one
night of nominations.
By this time the Pope was mostly
ceremonial, just responsible for going to dinner one night to
challenge the frosh to the Lounge Run and making a Purity Test. But
since that office used to be somewhat offical, I'm not counting it
with "Real" elections.
In 1980 the random officers were:
House Amateur Chemist
House Amphibian
House Asymmetrical Mutant
House Barker
House Cat
House Cute Little Frosh
House Cute Little Frosh, Emiterus and Permanent
House Cutest Couple
House Delta
House Function
House Hardly Mortal Look-alike
House Honorary Kernel
HHA
House Light Switch
House "Little Old Lady from Pasadena Raper"
House Lost in Space
House Madame
House Master
House Most Disco Dancer
House Most Improved Taste in Music
House Most Obscure Frosh
House Narcoleptic
House Most Off Campus
House Permafrosh
House Propsition 1 Enforcer
House Propsition 1 Enforcer Assistant
House Teddy Bear
Robert Roe Blacker Memorial Cutthroat Chair
During 1983-1986 some of the additional re-occuring (ie non-random) nominations
were:
House Virgin
Most obscure frosh
House Troll
HHA
Bartender
House Delta Function
House Asymmetrical Mutant
FGCPDS (Filthy Greedy Capitalist Pig-Dog Swine, keeper of
the THC (Tunnel House Candy))
Between 1980 and 1988 this list expanded wildly.
In 1988 there were 307 random nominations (including writins)
In 1991 there were 407 random nominations (including writins)
In 1992 there were 344 random nominations (including writins)
In 1994 there were 501 random nominations (including writins)
In 1995 there were 311 random nominations (before writins)
In 1996 there were 373 random nominations (before writins)
I don't currently have data or ballots from 1997
In 1998 there were 206 random nominations and no writins were tablulated
Most of the nominations each year are based on whomever is a member
of the Hovse at that time. Various nominations repeat every year.
Here are a few annual ones:
- Hovse Virgin: at one point this was nominally the Pope's
nominal duty to deflower. However some years that is a little
impossable as it has been various infants, the Fleming Cannon, and No.
- Permafrosh: the person that the Hovse thinks will be most
froshlike for their duration at Caltech (and the rest of their
lives). In the mid-2000s the election of this office was converted from Condoret winner to Yes/No for each candidate. Hence many could win
in one year. The permafrosh:
1980: Steve Colwell (fr: 1979, grad 1983)
1983: Dave Hull (fr: 1982, grad 1986
1984: Dawn Meekhof (fr: 1983, grad 1987)
1985: Mike Serfas (fr: 1984, flamed 1986)
1986: Andrew Hsu (fr: 1985, grad 1989)
1987: Glenn Eycaner (fr: 1986, grad 1990)
1988: Rob Padula (fr: 1987, grad 1991)
1989: Nye Liu (fr: 1988, left 1992)
1990: Walker Aumann (fr: 1988, grad 1993)
1991: Bevan Bennett (fr: 1990, grad 1995)
1992: Andrew Grangaard (fr: 1991, still at Tech in 1998)
1993: Peter Manca (fr: 1992, grad 1997)
1994: Sam Foster (fr: 1993, grad 1998)
1995: Bill Penn (fr: 1993, grad 1998)
1996: Jon Allen (fr: 1994, grad 1998)
1997: Nathaniel Lefteris Anagnostou (fr. 1994, grad: 2002)
1998: Reuben Walter Ogburn IV (fr: 1995, grad: 1999)
1999: No
2000:
2001:
2002:
2003: Lucie Lee(?) (fr: 2001, grad: 2005)
2004: Jesse Lee Liptrap (fr: 2002, grad: 2006)
2005: Jesse Lee Liptrap (fr: 2002, grad: 2006), Anne Marie Rajala (Fr: 2002, Grad 2006), and Phillip Hao-chang Wong (Fr: 2001, Grad 2005)
2006: Jesse Lee Liptrap (fr: 2002, grad: 2006), Nathan Lau (fr: 2004)
- LHOOQ: Reportedly if said in a french accent this is close to
to the french word/phase that means: "She has a nice ass".
- Or: These nominations, (replace all "er" with "Or", such as
HintOr, Evil Master of Subtlty) started in the nominations of
1986. John Butman (fr: 1981, grad 1985) and others used to
watch the cartoon of He-Man and the
Masters of the Universe, in the library. All of the evil
villians were named by adding -Or to the end of a name. The
first nomination to use this was "StinkOr, evail master of odOrs"
for Pete Ashcroft's cat in 1986. These
nominations were popular throughout the late 1980s and into
the 1990s. By 2004 they were forgotten.
- Chili Czar: The person responsible for organizing 4am trips
to Tommmy's. This office started sometime in the late 1990s
and has continued into the 2000s.
During the early 1990s these nominations were held the 3rd week of
the term along with nominations for offices other than secretary and
president. Starting about in 1997 they were done the 4th week of the
term. In the 1980s and 1990s ballots for Real nominations would
be printed, people would vote and the results would be tallied.
Sometimes the nomination won and sometimes No won. By the mid 2000s,
the publishing of a ballot and voting on all but a regular few
(Pope, Permafrosh and Chili Czar) had waned.
- Presidential Turnover Ceremony?
The Blacker Presidential turnover Ceremony as practiced from at least
1990 to the 1996 has been fairly consistant. The old president
stands up and gets everyone's attention. Note: He/she does not ring
announcements. Usually they are wearing one jacket or the other.
The president has brought the presidential box to dinner and shows
many or all of the items to the people present. The president
tells the history behind each item, if known. In the years that
2 jackets existed, the president pointed out the features of the
old jacket including showing the listing of names of past presidents,
that it was gift of an RA, and who added which addition. If the
new jacket exists, the additions to that are commented on. The
purpose of all of this is to pass on the verbal history of all of
these items. At this point the president gives a final, farewell
speech. He/she ends with saying that only the jacket knows who the
next president is. The president consults with the jacket and reads
of the name of the next president. The jacket is taken off by the
old president and he/she helps the next president into it. This is
the actual moment of the transfer of power. If you look in many
Blacker sections of Big Ts, this moment is photographed. The
old president hands the new president 2 glasses and a knife to ring
announcements, which is immediately done. Hopefully at least one of
the glasses breaks. The new president usually gives a speach at
this point and then runs normal announcements. After annoucements
are over and the waiters have opened the curtains, the new president is
carried away to a pond of choice and dumped in (without the jacket of
course). Various ponds have been used from Milliken, to Baxter, and
most recently the Gene Pool.
In 1992 when Dave Kim (fr: 1987, grad 1992) handed off the jackets to
Andrea Mejia (fr: 1988, grad 1992), he started his portion of the
ceremony by repelling into the Dining Room from the hatch in the
ceiling in the North-East corner.
In 1995 when James Honnaker (fr: 1992, grad 1997) handed the jacket(s)
off to Alison Slemp (fr: 1992, grad 1996), there was a twist to the
events. He showed the remains of the old jacket to the Hovse and
said that a drunk Andrew Schoen (fr: 1992, grad 1996) had ripped it
up. He showed the Hovse that the jacket had been ripped into several
pieces. He then annouced that he did not like the new jacket and
that he had burned it. He produced a box of ashes that contained
the metal bits that had been attaced to the jacket. Instead of putting
the jacket on Alison, he sprinkled the ashes over Alison's head. These
events angered a number of the Hovse members. There was talk about
BoCing him. Several former BoC chairmen also expressed this opinion. About a week
later James admitted that the burning was
prank that he had pulled on the Hovse, and produced the undamaged new
jacket. He stuck by his story of the demise of the old jacket.
Alison and her mother repaired it as is detailed in the
Presidential Jacket section. All of this
could have been expected, I guess. The first words that he said to
the Hovse after having Benjamin Smith (fr: 1989, grad 1994) put the
jacket on him and ringing annoucements that first time was, "Suckers!"
To add more irony to the incident, about a week after his recantation
of the cremating the jacket, James was voted by the student body to
the position of Board of Control Chairman.
- What are the Presidential Jackets?
Blacker has two presidential jackets that contain the names of the
presidents and various heirlooms/additions. The original jacket, tan and
threadbare, was a gift of Dr. Edger Anderson, the RA, in 1967 or 1968. By
tradition, the named of each president was written in the jacket. A number of
presidents also made personal additions to the jacket. By 1991, all of space
for writing new names had been depleted, so Dave Kim (fr: 1987, grad 1992), the
last name in the original jacket, gave a new one with matching pants as a
gift to the Hovse. The new jacket was also tan, but with dark brawn lapels
and a stripes down the pants.
The pants to the new jacket were lost before December 1992.
The original jacket was severely damaged in January 1995. According to
his own account, James Honnaker (fr: 1992, grad 1997), the Hovse President at
the time, was wearing the jacket at a party. According to James, Andrew
"Nature Man" Schoen (fr: 1992, grad: 1996) was drunk, took it from James and
ripped it into several pieces. The jacket was later repaired by the next
president, Alison Slemp (fr: 1992, grad 1996), and her mother.
A description of items and notations on the original jacket:
Left shoulder:
Maroon cloth with black pattern edge. Added by Bibi Jentoft-Nielson
(fr: 1985, grad: 1985, president 1987). Bibi thought the jacket
needed some more color.
Left breast pocket:
Black patterned edge (as found on the left shoulder) at the top edge of
the pocket. Added by Bibi
Greek lower case letters, decending diagonally from wearer's right to
left, stiched in black. Gamma delta gamma beta. Added by Bibi. She
was tired and meant to stich gamma delta beta gamma, but screwed up.
Left Breast area:
Frilly, gold/off-white patterns (loops) in lines. 2 vertical and 1
horizontal. These were added by Alison Slemp (fr: 1992, grad 1996,
president 1995) and her mother to fill in the ripped area and rejoin
the fabric.
Left pocket:
Two cigaretta burns, date unknown, but previous to 1989. Filled in by
Alison Slemp or her mother.
Inside left side of jacket:
Writing in marker and sitching (* denotes stiching in black, (Bl) is
the color of a black marker, (Br) is brown marker, and (Pur) is purple
marker). The writing extents to the bottom of the fabric.
THE PRESIDENTS (Pur)
OF BLACKER HOUSE (Pur)
FROM DR. EDGAR (Pur)
ANDERSON (Pur)
67-68 (pur)
DAVID SHENTON (Bl) GAVIEN MIYATA (pur)
78-79 (Bl) 68-69 (Pur)
WILLIS DRAKE (Pur)
BILL SCHMIDKE (Bl) 69-70 (pur - 70 brown)
79-80 (Bl) ERIC SCHIFF (Br)
70-71 (Br)
GARY SPIVAK (Br)
TRICIA STODDARD (Bl) 71- (Br)
80-81 (Bl) JAMES BONOMO *
72-73 *
STEVE RYAN * DOUGLAS McELROY *
73-74 *
CHRIS THOMPSON (Bl) LON ROLLINSON (Bl)
82-83 (Bl) 74-75 *
RICHARD MURRY (Br) DEANNA HUNT *
83-84 (Br) 75-76 *
PETER ASHCROFT (Br) DAVID FORGERSON *
84-85 (Br) JACK KOHN 77-66 *
77-78 *
Inside right side of jacket:
(Names of presidents continue--the writing continues until it runs
out of space at the bottom)
TOM NOLAN (Bl)
85-86 (Bl)
NANCY DREHWING (Pur)
86-87 (Pur)
BIBI (Red)
JENTOFT-NIELSON (Red)
87-88 (Red)
Ken Andrews (Bl)
88-89 (Bl)
Clifton Kiser (Bl)
89-90 (Bl)
Dave Kim (Bl)
90-91 (Bl)
Right outer side of jacket.
Near bottom, 2 small cigarette burns and white paint spot. Origins
unknown.
Attached to bottom, section of telephone handset cord, black, springy.
Added by Ken Andrews (fr: 1986, grad 1990, president 1988). He was
also the BTE troll.
Cuffs of both sleaves
Cloth, red & gold strip. Added by Alison or her Mother to stabilize
the fraying ends.
Back:
Full back silk screen (in black) of part of Rhapsody in Blue by
George Gershwin. The first 15 measures are printed. Added by
Cliff Kisor (fr: 1986, grad 1990, president in 1989).
MISSING: Left lepal .
Nancy Drehwing (fr: 1983, grad: 1997, president 1986), had affixed a
diamond stud earing there.
New Presidential Jacket.
The jacket is beige with dark brown collar. The lapel and bottom pocket
edge have a 1 cm dark brown edge. The jacket liner is dark brown. The
pants had a dark brown leg stripe.
Left arm:
black silk screen, slightly smuged, "Blacker Hovse". Sideways, bottom
toward wearer's back, "B" toward cuff. Put on by David Kim (fr: 1987,
grad: 1992, president 1990)
Left lapel:
black silk screen, Blacker shield with "Blacker House" under it. Added
by David Kim.
Left breast pocket:
Austrialian flag. Inked in by Katy Quinn (fr: 1989, grad: 1993,
president 1992). Katy is an Australian citizen who came to the US a few
months before attending Caltech.
Two pins.
Smaller, round, "Outward Bound Pacific Crest" in brass in perimeter on
green field with compass in brass with white background in middle.
Larger, round, Green perimeter with "Lamont" at 12 o'clock in brass.
Inner field is blue with white, open, right hand above a twisted rope.
Lamont was the name of the House that Katy was president of in High
School.
Both added by Katy Quinn, president 1992.
By left bottom pocket:
Four holes in a rectangular pattern that look like they once held
something on. What it was is currently unknown.
Right collar:
US naval lieutenants bars. Added by Benjamin Smith (fr: 1989, grad:
1994, president 1993)
to symbolize the command that goes with the job. The bars were given
to Ben by his grandfather, Allan B. Heinsohn, who had worn them while
serving on the second U.S.S. Yorktown during World War II.
Right arm:
black silk screen, slightly smuged, "Blacker Hovse". Sideways, bottom
toward wearer's back, "B" toward shoulder. Put on by David Kim.
Back:
Center, between should blades:
Lowercase greek letters Gamma delta beta gamma. Black silk screen.
Put on by David Kim.
Right tail:
Sewed on circular picture of Disney's Beauty and the Beast dancing.
Original artwork by Andrea Mejia (fr: 1988, grad 1992, President 1991)
who added it to the jacket.
Inside:
Right side above pocket in black marker:
To the
men and
women of
Blacker
Hovse
15 Jan 1991
Dave Kim
Right side, below pocket in black marker:
1991-92
Andrea Mejia
Right side, on tan, outer part of jacket, left and below of the Andrea
entry, in black marker, except for "Alison Slemp" which was embroidered:
92-93
Kathleen
Quinn
93-94
Benjamin
A. Smith
94-95
James
Honnaker
Alison
Slemp
'95-'96
1996-1997
William
Penn
Left side on tan inner part staring just below the first button in black
marker:
'97-'98
Jon "Marty"
Allen
Eric Hale
'98-99
- What is in the Presidential Box?
Over time a series of trinkets have been gathered by the various presidents
of the Hovse and passed on to their successors. At some point all of these
items were placed in a box. In January 1994 the box was a plain shoebox.
Some time after that, but before April 1998, a lot of watercolor items were
drawn on it. "Nut Brown", etc.
Below is a list of the items found in the box listed by relative age, if
known, and who added the item, again if known. The box was surveyed on 19
April 1998. FAQ maintainer comments are in [ brackets ].
- The Art of War, by Sun-Tzu. Added by Nicholas Breen (fr: 1996, president 1999).
- The Prince, by Machiavelli. Added by Nicholas Breen (fr: 1996,
president 1999).
- Two paint grenades. Added by Eric Hale (Fr: 1996, president 1998).
- Baseball signed "Marty" with two 8s written on opposing sides. Added by
John "Marty" Allen (fr: 1994, grad: 1998, president 1997).
- Undated Letter from the Residence Life and Master of Student Houses Office
on their letterhead, presumably from spring 1996. Presumably added by
Bill Penn (fr: 1993, grad 1998, President 1996)
One Free Favor
The certificate allowes the Honnorable
President of Blacker House to one free
favor from the Residence Life Office at
the California Institute of Technology
for the year 1996-1997.
<s> Kim D. West
Authorized Signature
*This may _not_ be taken in conjunction with any activity
deemed illegal, immoral, or just plain stupid. Stupidity
will be determined by the Pasadena Police and/or Fire
Department.
_Offer Expires January 1997_
[ Presumably, this letter was viewed with suspicion and left unused. ]
- Document of Rotation Pick Rules, undated, but presumably for fall 1997
[ Starting in the late 1990s, the IHC ruled that since pucking rules changed
so often, only people going to picks were allowed to know them. ]
- Magic 8 Ball. Added by Bill Penn.
- Micky mouse Twirl Pop, added by Bill Penn.
- Letter in envelope from Bill Penn to the next president.
Blacker President,
When you open the box of presidential
trinkets and you come upon this lolly-pop
please remember these things:
You are a sucker: If things become difficult,
or people get restless, or any problem comes up that
you would rather hid under your pillow than
deal with, dont get upset with the people involved;
things will workout, and you are the sucker who
asked for the difficult job you have.
The whole house is full of suckers: When
the time comes that you must make a difficult
decision that could affect the whole house, be
strong, be determined, and be faithfull to your
decision. If anyone complains or you start to
feel bad about your decision, remember, those
who complain are the suckers who elected you, to
make the dicisions that you find best.
<s> William C. Penn
William C. Penn
Blacker President
1996-1997
- Small box with red granite figurine of Chinese origin. Box also has a chinese,
unused, envalope with "Blacker gdbg Hovse" on it. Source unknown, but
after Jan 1994 and before 1998. I think this is a gift from Alison
Slemp (fr: 1992, grad: 1996, president 1995) since I know she visited China.
- White round container labled "James A. Honnaker". A gift from James (fr:
1992, grad 1997, president 1994). He said it was a, "gift of himself".
I.E., his own sperm.
- Graduating Senior underload petition (printed on blue paper). Added between
Jan 1994 and April 1998 by James Honnaker, Alison Slemp, Bill Penn or
John Allen.
- Box with "Mack's Earplugs". Source unknown, but added after Jan 1994 and
before April 1998.
- Guatemalan trouble dolls. Source unknown. Added after Jan 1994, and before
April 1998.
- Robert's Rules of Order, Revised. 75th anniversary edition. Added by Benjamin
Smith (fr: 1989, grad 1994, President 1993). Has the written note inside
the cover:
Future Blacker Presidents,
This is to show you what Blacker could
be like if we had a Constitution. Beware,
lest we be like the north Houses or Fleming.
Hopefully, in the future, we can continue to be
reasonable & operate without a Consitution.
Good luck.
<s> Benjamin Allan Smith
President
Dec '92 - Jan '94
- "Scientific Progress goes 'boink'". A Calvin and Hobbes cartoon book by
Bill Watterson. Added by Andrea Mejia (fr: 1988, grad 1992, president 1991)
The inside cover has the inscription:
To the Presidents of Blacker Hovse,
This is for after that really
nasty house meeting, the day
where you have six meetings
with the dean, you finally
figure out housing, and then
have to get ready for five
midterms the next day. The
crises will pass, and somehow
you'll survive, but I hope this
will help you laugh a bit.
Best of luck, and believe in yourself.
<s> Andrea Mejia
1991-1992
The back cover is chewed up in the bottom corner. The inside has the
inscription:
"Asriel! Stop that!"
Katy Quinn '92-'92
And a drawn picture of a cat. Katy (fr: 1989, grad: 1993) was president
in 1992.
- Plastic key ring with oversize plastic kiddie keys. Added by Cliff
Kisor (fr: 1986, grad 1990, president 1989) because of lock trolling in
Blacker.
- A paperback copy of "The Mole" by Dan Sherman. c1977. John and Lynn
Salmon (RAs Fall 1984 to Fall 1989) found the book and gave it to Peter
Ashcroft (Fr: 1980) when he was president in 1985.
The following items have and unknown source and existed in the box before
January 1989:
- Breast Doorbell buzzer. Basically a wall mounted, life size, rubber,
female breast. If you pressed the nipple, a buzzer battery operated buzzer
rang. By 1993 it had lots of ink stains. Eric Hale, president in 1998,
cleaned it up.
- New Testament, Psalms Proverbs. (Small green book).
- Brown bow tie with dark red and white stripes.
- Tueroz metal cigar case. Empty. From Havana, Cuba.
- Cylidrical Bell. ~3 in tall, ~1 in diameter. Old in Jan 1990. Note that in
1957 there was a discussion on obtaining bells to annouce
dinner to ring announcements instead of using glass cups. This,
and the following two items, could be from that time.
- Brass bell, used to ring dress dinner. Normal bell shape, ~1 in dia, ~1 in
high with ~1.5in handle. Old in Jan 1990.
- Brass, ~1.5 in diameter cymbals. Marked "N 12". On a string. Old in 1990.
- Key Ring with chinese characters and a single old key. The key is
labled:
Art Steel CO
NY-NY
- Acorn. Source unknown. I think it existed before Jan 1990.
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