ColumnsLC in History:Over the last century Hopwood Hall has undergone a number of changes. For instance, Room 14 was the library until after World War II when the book collection and the staff offices were moved to one of the Quonset huts vacated by the Air Force.Nerd Factor:To celebrate Lynchburg College's first full week off for Thanksgiving, here are The Nerd Factor's "Thanks/No Thanks".Hopwood and Carnegie turn 100This month the grand dames of our campus, Hopwood and Carnegie Halls, will turn one hundred. For their age, they are in remarkable shape. [That is what tender loving care will do for one.] Since I have a good part of the last fifty years in Hopwood Hall, I shall wish her happy birthday first.V and the human buffetAs I write this, it's only been minutes since I watched the pilot for the new ABC science fiction series V and I've got to say that I'm already worried. The special effects are good. I think the alien ship that travels to Earth has intriguing internal and external designs and that little ball robot thing that attacked the human resistance meeting late in the pilot episode was cool (my pet name for that ball is "Phantasm 2.L.C. in History: back from breakThis column has not been in print for two weeks because it took me that long to recover from fall break. In actual fact I was helping my wife, Dr. Dorothy Potter, print and pack her manuscript for shipment to Lehigh University Press. However fall break actually has a very interesting history. Dr. James Price was responsible for the development of "Discovery Weekend," an opportunity for students and faculty to explore sometime outside the classroom halfway through the first semester. Dean James Huston endorsed the concept and the faculty approved the idea. Unfortunately "Discovery Weekend" quickly became "Fall Break" when we all discover how late we are able to sleep each morning. It is also a chance to go home and discover that your mother's casseroles were not so bad after all, and that your siblings have improved ever so slightly since August.Holiday gifts for nerdsThe heck with Thanksgiving, now that Halloween is over, it's time to begin thinking about holiday shopping. Whatever Annual Gift Day you celebrate, nerds take advance planning. Here are some "Living With Nerds" tips: Halloween at the Naval AcademyTo paraphrase Charles Dickens: It was one of the best Halloweens, it was one of the worst Halloween costumes.L.C. in HistoryOne evening last week I had to do some research in the reference section of the library, and I was very pleased to see that both floors of my favorite building on campus were filled with students hard at work on various projects or just studying. That is what a library should be---a place to study or do research. In my day sometimes it was put to an entirely different use. Fifi and the FlowertotsMy children are always opening new doors into popular culture for me. My son is now a one-year-old so I've also been watching some of his favorite television shows with him. Some of these shows are cute, but there's also something a bit weird going on in one of them.LC homecoming, past and presentLast weekend the population of Lynchburg College ballooned as hundreds of "old grads" returned to campus for Homecoming, that annual sentimental journey that heralds the beginning of fall-or should I say, end of summer?20th season of The Simpsons debutsThe surest sign that something has changed about The Simpsons is that I almost forgot to set my DVR up to record the debut of its 20th season. In fact, embarrassingly, I kept forgetting about the anniversary at all. The Simpsons is about to match the legendarily long-lived Gunsmoke by being around for two straight decades, but somehow that slipped my mind. |
