Ah, the things you find in Shimer’s halls on any given day.
Of course you’ll find erudite discussion and inquiry of all kinds, in and out
of the class. But in all this, some of the smaller extra-curricular details get
missed. As Ken Kesey told Tom Wolfe on his arrival at the Merry Prankster’s
forest compound, “We’re operating on many levels here.” (Kids, don’t let your
parents know you’ve read books like this. Parents, don’t let your kids know
you’ve lived books like this.)
Foremost of course is the recent production of Samuel
Beckett’s Endgame. Now legions of high school teachers strive
to make Samuel Beckett understandable to students, and many more college
professors endeavor to make Beckett relevant. Our young thespians and crew
surpassed them all by making Endgame thoroughly entertaining. There’s nothing
funnier than unhappiness indeed. Bravo Shimer Theater!
On a more discreet level, our classmate Alex has recently
been spotted sporting a hoodie with the obscure bit of Latin slang: “Seni Ors.”
Dubious authority has the origin of this cryptic phrase in Seneca, who, after
returning from an ill-advised night of drunken debauchery (what Stoics
sometimes call “back-sliding”), scrawled this on the wall before passing out. Scholars
believe the intended graffiti was “Sine Ars,” but the execution was remiss. The
expression then seeped into the vulgate, and though the exact translation has
evaded the grammars and histories, the more esoteric scholars will suggest its
connotation as something like, "out on your ass."
Our own esoteric scholar, Pthalo, has been doing his best to
beatify our halls. Some speculation has been made on how the notion of
“Geometry without Axioms” will affect the Integrated Studies 2 syllabus in the
upcoming Core Curriculum Review; as of yet no change has been made in the
bookstore’s order of Euclid’s Elements. But the poster has inspired a couplet
of an in-progress lyrical epic, entitled “At Etemenanki”:
And now, young gods, stand yourselves tall and erect,
For all, anon, cause shall but follow effect.
And speaking of axioms… forget the parallel postulate,
forget “Cogito Ergo Sum”! Just in time for the holiday travel season, we devise
a new axiom: “All road trips, if extended indefinitely, meet with cannibalism.”
Gentle readers, as you embark upon your journeys this season, take note, take care…
take a lunch!
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