From news.hampshire.edu!hamp!cpkF92 Wed Dec 6 21:14:28 1995 Newsgroups: hamp.meal-exchange Path: news.hampshire.edu!hamp!cpkF92 From: cpkF92@hamp.hampshire.edu (Radical D. Chris ckawecki Kawecki) Subject: purpose explained Message-ID: Date: Wed, 06 Dec 1995 18:19:17 GMT Organization: Hampshire College, Amherst MA X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Lines: 71 Well, Nat has done an impressive job of suspecting. Actually, the reason I proposed the newsgroup was because I was having a hard time getting myself invited to dinner at other mods. I proposed that folks get to know each other over dinner. They could make a post like "crazy dinner at mod xx on Friday at 6:00. I want somebody to invite me over on Tuesday, wed, or Thur, and they can come to my dinner saturday". In two years, I think there have been 800% more clarification messages than invites, however; perhaps this has to do with Hampshire student's predisposition towards running their mouth reightously rather than acting stupidly. I don't know. This whole outLANDish claim about acting stupidly rather than running mouths righteously reminds me of something that I did in my 2nd year. It was in the period whenI was getting over my fear of acting stupidly and realizing that I was stupid no matter what I acted like so I might as well admit it and just be myself. I was really lonely -- I'd just moved to mod 52 in Enfield and felt so young compared to everyone else (I was -- 17). I really wanted to reach out to people, but I didn't know how, and I felt like nobody was reaching out to me. It was evening, just before dinner time. I had a cabbage. A big, red cabbage. I like cabbage. This was freshly picked, and boy do I like freshly picked cabbage. I was working at the farm that fall and proud of my cabbage. I stood on the porch of mod 52. There is now a shrine in that location. I held out the cabbage. Someone walked by. They didn't look up. I held it up higher and further out. It was a nice fall day. Some women walked by. I was especially interested in and scared of women. They glanced briefly, and they probably giggled once they'd rounded the corner. "Hee haw, look at that boy! (wonder what school that div 1 is part of!)" I waited. Two boys walked by. They were older than me, but now I'm almost as old as they were, so I'm calling them boys. They didn't have to look at me to know. When they rounded the bend, they might have said: "Huh, huh, dude, hampshire students are so fucked up!" Two more women walked by. They looked up. I looked at them in the eye. I had seen them before but doubt they recognized me. They were confident. "say, why are you holding that cabbage?" said the first one. She had curly brownhair, 50s glasses, and a grin. She was tall and smiled. "It's an experiment." They looked at each other and giggled. "Well, are you going to tell us what the experiment is?" I was. "I will," I said. "Well..." "The experiment is to see whether folks who see a cabbage being held out in the evening think it is tasty when they eat said cabbage for dinner later." "How are you going to complete that experiment?" they asked. "I am seeking collaborators." "Have you found any?" "I have not." "Well, I think we have some extra food. Right next door in mod 54." "Shall I cook the cabbage at my place or yours?" "Come over when it's done." They liked the cabbage. I don't blame them. It was good. Inspired? I think cabbage is like 20 cents a pound at Atkins. Can you see the "cabbage collective" -- gives out cabbage quarters to every single person on campus, weekly, on a funding of $200 a semester. Strangely, everyone on campus is walking around with hanpds outstreched, bearing cabbage. Giggling and doing experiments. hamp.talk.organize-cabbage-collective-anyone-? -- Chris Kawecki ckawecki@hampshire.edu http://hampshire.edu/~cpkF92