Traditions


  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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
                

  5. 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.

Page last modified 31 January 2007