Monday, April 11, 2011

Oh, Those Wacky Kids!

Before we get to this day's cartoon, a brief PSA for any MIT alums living in the Washington, DC area. And for my friends at LTA or one of the other community theaters that I happen to haunt:

The MIT Concert Band (http://band.mit.edu/) is giving two outdoor performances this weekend in the DC area, the first on Saturday April 16 at 6:45 p.m. in Market Square in front of the City Hall in Alexandria, and the second on Sunday April 17 at 1:30 p.m. at the Sylvan National Theater, next to the Washington Monument.  Musical selections include works by Holst, Jager, Mennin, and others.   Both concerts are free and open to the general public.

We don't usually get the MIT Band in town, and what makes it even more special is that it's MIT's Sesquicentennial Anniversary. The other special event is Teens n' Theater, who are recreating HELLZAPOPPIN (and for any of you who remember the famous expression, "Tech is Hell", this is most appropriate) on Friday at 2pm and 7:30pm, Saturday at 2pm and Sunday, also at 2pm (April 15-17). Then on Monday, April 18, you get to pay your Federal Income Tax, which is its own special form of Hell.

Anyway, I don't recall how many showers I took when I was a student. It was certainly more than I had intended (and I'll get to that in a future post). There were certain hazards that awaited anybody who bathed - such as mischievous dorm mates...
There was actually one student on our floor whose towel was ripped off, so he came out of the men's room wearing nothing but a Time magazine. Professor Diamond would have been disappointed it wasn't Newsweek.

Finally, I cannot conclude without mentioning another particular hazard of the dormitory bathrooms - Springfield Oval. Things may have changed in the intervening 35 years, but in our day, the toilet paper used in the dormitories was the Oval, and it made Black Cat feel comfortable by comparison. Oval was reconstituted sandpaper - brown and scratchy. It was not for delicate skin, but it was cheap and it got the job done - sort of. I never drew a strip about Springfield Oval, which I realize was a gross misfeasance on my part - in hindsight.

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