A diamond to the Brown engineering department for changing the department's introductory class to require that all students attend a Friday "grand lecture," a policy intended to build community among engineering students. It could have been worse - their original ideas for community-building included solo backpacking ventures, forced cubicle-sitting and re-enacting scenes from the life of Emily Dickinson.
Coal to East Side Pockets manager Paul Boutros, who said of opening a restaurant on Thayer Street, "When you come to the street, you've got to do something unique." Just ask the now-defunct Toledo, purveyor of pizza cones, how well that worked out.
A diamond to Herbarium Collections Manager Kathleen McCauley, who said of the University's dried and pressed plant collection, "I think the scientific world is going to blush at so many treasures stowed away here that nobody knew about." That's exactly how we felt when ResLife inspected our dorm room freshman year.
Cubic zirconia to former Brown undergraduate and Thiel Fellowship winner Dylan Field, who said, "I think computer science is pretty much the closest thing we have to magic." The inventor of the Sharpe Refectory's magic bars might beg to differ.
A diamond to the orchestrators of the plea deal under which an Alpert Medical School professor must write an article to "raise needed awareness of unprovenanced coins" and "promote responsible collecting about numismatists" as part of his punishment for illegally possessing ancient Greek coins. But whose punishment will it be to read that article?
Coal to stoke the fires of Aaron Fitzsenry, Brown's culinary manager of retail operations, who said he has "gotten to play with fire in public, which is always a good time." We'll support your pyromania as long as we get s'mores out of it.
A diamond to Ted Widmer, former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton and director and librarian of the John Carter Brown Library, who said "academics ... have a lot of trouble expressing what they're meaning to say." We know. We've been to office hours.
Coal to Rose McDermott, the professor of political science who co-authored a study that found genetics to play a role in dictating political preferences, for saying, "It's hard to get people to admit they're animals." We think she underestimates Brown students - anyone who's been to rush hour at the Ratty knows it's a zoo.
A diamond to the student producer and writer of the Brown Television production "Two Hearts," who said the film required music that fell somewhere between dubstep and classical. We salute her specificity.
