This is wonderfully funny. I wish I could attend. I laughed like crazy just reading about it.
Veronica Caley Milford, MI----- Original Message ----- From: "David Ritchie" <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Sunday, March 20, 2011 4:47 PM Subject: [lit-ideas] Sunday StoryThe Golden Wienie is the burden of all who are elected president of the Columbia History of Science Society. The Columbia History of Science Society is a gathering of professional historians and grad students. It meets every year at the University of Washington's Marine Science Labs on Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands. This site is near two forts that were built for the prosecution of the Pig War, a dispute between the U.S. and Great Britain. In that war the American Camp was commanded first by Roberts, who later wrote Roberts' Rules of Order, and then by Pickett, who commanded the charge that is sometimes called the "high water mark of the Confederacy." During the Pig War the only casualty was one pig.
The Golden Wienie is an honor I hope to avoid. It commemorates Milo, the man who catered the group's first meeting, twenty nine years ago. Milo imagined that historians prefer their food to be old, so he served military surplus wienies, peas from a similar source, sponge cake with canned strawberries. To keep Milo's memory alive, the Columbia History of Science Group's founder rises each year at the end of the "black tie optional banquet"--in twenty or more years of going, I have seen but one black tie--to re-tell for the assembled academics the tale of Milo's dinner. Each year the tale is the same and yet different. Every year he manages to be funny. This is quite a feat.
Next, I stand up and read a poem or two. This is also a tradition. This year's choices were McGonagall's, Tay Whale, and "Praises," by Alan Jackson. The latter begins, "Let us praise the condition of the onion: the onion does not drive the motor car/the onion does not go to the place of work/the onion does not enter into union with unpredictable creatures". I wish I could find it for you.
David Ritchie, Portland, Oregon ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
