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Articles

1993-1994

09/28/93 - Eggs and Hamsters - Who eats, and who gets eaten

Letter to the Editor: Ask not for whom the bell tolls...

02/08/94 - Strawberries and Whipped Cream - Why I get wet at WPI

02/15/94 - Pencils and Jello - What's Holding This Up?

02/22/94 - Oprah and Applesauce - And now a word from our fans

03/01/94 - Moats and Chicks - What's being served today?

03/29/94 - Lists and destiny - A smile without a cat

04/19/94 - Carbonless Paper and the Swiss Alps - The healthier alternative

04/26/94 - Toasted armadillos and the jon - How to balance the budget

1994-1995

08/30/94 - Coke Bottle Glasses and Chicken Little - Who's running the show?

09/07/94 - Blowup Dolls and Sharp Tacks - Closed for Remodeling

09/13/94 - Anchovies in the Petrolium Jelly - How did I get into this?

09/20/94 - Fog and the Dutch - Why am I muddy?

10/04/94 - Doughnuts and The Swamp Thing - What do you want on your Tombstone?

10/11/94 - Phone Calls and Blank Walls - Has Jack Frost been nipping at your... butt?

11/01/94 - Sabotage and Sodas - The Time has Come

11/08/94 - Ticket Stubs and Drinking - What's all the rush about?

11/15/94 - Flea Bites and Lounge Acts, Don't Touch That Dial

11/22/94 - Seagulls and Parking Lots - Do you really have to take this?

12/06/94 - Marching bands and pink balloons - You're getting verrrry sleepy...

12/13/94 - Merry Christmas or Seasons Greetings - Grab a PC and take off.

01/17/95 - Cartoons and Twinkies - Who's stuffing the ballot box?

01/24/95 - Feathers and Harbor Seals - What's that thing growing on your leg?!

01/31/95 - Four-wheelers and Telephone Poles - Who's been eating YOUR porridge?

02/07/95 - Fig Leaves and Pipe Cleaners - What are you doing in here?

02/21/95 - Cappuccino and Microchips - The Good Time Eating Place

02/28/95 - Dental Floss & Diaphragms - Trouble Brewing?

03/21/95 - Tangerines and Coffee Beans - Sleepless in New Jersey

03/28/95 - Top Hats and Hopscotch - Your one-stop bait and tackle store

04/04/95 - L. I. L. A. B. O. C. A. W. J. S. O. T. N. Y. F. I. T. W. B. T. Y. A. P. I. T. B. N. O. T. F. B. R. T. W. L. T. C. P. F. T. O. Y. W. F. T. S. Y. C. F. O. N. T. I. T. I. O. B. Y. F. T. O. Y. W. D. K. H. O. T. H. T. O. Y. V. C. R. W. I. H. U. A. A. S. . L. T. J. W. T. U. A. W. B. G. T. S. B. A. M. T. F. 1. I. O. M. S. A. O. T. L. T. W. A. W. T. D. T. H. O. W. R. W. L. Y. P. W. W. W. C. T. Y. A. O. T. D. A. A. V. E. R. O. Y. C. B. W. K. T. W. C. N. A. A. P. O. Y. H. Q. T. U. L. I. T. T. Y. G. S. O. Y. N. H. I. W. O. M. P. L. G. I. A. S. G. P. T. Y. N. T. Y. N. N. N. I. I. T. Y. U. L. G. B. T. T. A. T. R. A. L. B. O. A. W. H. A. A. N. W. W. H. A. R. A. A. R. C. A. C. N. W. C. A. P. P. C. A. N. P. P. C. M. A. W. E. I. L. N. R. C. C. H. H. A. W. W. A. T. T. S. I. T. W. R. R. R. W. Y. T. D. A. T. W. L. F. F. U. P. T. E. P. U. T. T. W. T. W. R. T. Y. N. R. P. T. W. Y. B. A. D. A. W. P. I. F. Y. B. F. M. S. D. E. O. Y. L. T. A. P. L. A. G. C. A. W. P. T. D. F. Y. F. C. O. S. D. D. F. C. S. A. F. N. J. D. S. K. T. E. A. S. W. O. S. S. D. A. E. W. T. P. C. W. U. W. G. A. F. T. O. R. A. B. Y. F. A. S. D. C. O. O. H. W. W. R. Y. T. Y. P. S. P. N. W. T. Y. - A new record

04/11/95 - Spandex and Harsh Abrasives - We don't do Windows

04/18/95 - Paper Bags and Sharp Sticks - What flavor would you like?

04/25/95 - Sponge Cake and Mrs. Butterworth - Some settling may occur during shipping

1995-1996

08/19/95 - Aardvarks and Toothpicks - Here's looking at you, kid.

08/29/95 - Pop Rocks and Oral Sex - Please watch your step

09/06/95 - Laserdisks and Fallen Angels - Who finished off the milk?!

09/12/95 - Cheez-Its and Deep Sea Fishing - Parrish the Thought

09/26/95 - Napkin Roses and Freckles - Nice guys read Dr. Seuss

10/03/95 - Laser Sights and Goats - Sorry, Worcester Joke...

10/10/95 - Cockroaches and Sack Fights - I'm sorry, my dentures must have slipped

10/31/95 - Paper Clips and Vegetarians - Do Whatever the Little Voices Tell You To Do

11/07/95 - Peanut Butter and Mel Tormei - Hey, Who Used All the Hot Water?!

11/14/95 - Hot Fudge and Cold Guns - Excuse me, there's a fly in my soup.

11/21/95 - Dairy Cows and a 6-Foot Threaded Rod - Kiss Me I'm Irish

12/05/95 - VCRs and Cannolies - Just point, click, and ship.

12/12/95 - Thick Socks and Bubble Baths - Sorry, Virginia...

01/16/96 - Shoehorns and a Pleasant Wedge - 'Nuff snow fer ya?

01/23/96 - Harsh Words and Sun Spots - The Gompei Chronicles

02/13/96 - Silly String and Lois Lane - Sounds Like a Title to Me

04/23/96 - Pickles and Pizza - No, no, no. He's just... pining...

1996-1997

04/22/97 - Natural Oils and Stolen Ideas - There's a Buddha on my Monitor

2000-2001

01/30/01 - Strained Peas and Intellectual Property - We Didn't Expect the Spanish Inquisition!

02/06/01 - Squirrels and Party Favors - Hey, babe, what's your sign?

02/13/01 - Charlie Sheen and Bean Paste - Anybody know what happened to the cat?

02/20/01 - Peaches and Spiny Chameleons - Did I leave the branding iron on?

2001-2002

Toasts and Shaving Cream - If you're the best man, why are you going stag?

09/04/01 - Boxers and Radishes - I want a standing ovation!

11/13/01 - Sardines and Diamondbacks - We agree to pause and rant

Marching bands and pink balloons - You're getting verrrry sleepy...


by Laurel and Guinevere

You know, last time we asked you guys to send us an "artists conception" of what you think we look like. Well...? We're waiting... No one has sent in anything yet, and we're starting to wonder if the rumors that we don't exist are true. Please send us something to prove that we really do exist. A crayon portrait would be wonderful. We're not picky... (Well, that's not entirely true, but that's not important right now...)

Question: Do you think that if anything else is put on the roof of Higgins the entire building will collapse?

Answer: Most definitely. There is a plethora 'o stuff up there, and most of it's for air conditioning and ventilation. Gee, if they had to do all that for cars, they'd need bigger engines to move all the weight...

Once again it's time to delve into the fan mail bag and see what we have for this week...

Dear Laurel & Guinevere,

As I already have (my pride and joy) a Philler Phan Club certificate, there is no need to print this letter. I thought that I'd tip you off to what could be a little more investigative reporting. While I was sitting in the laundry room in Daniels' basement doing my laundry, I noticed something rather odd... Why is it that there are 14 washers, and 16 dryers? Is this a thing like how hot dogs come in packages of 10 and hot dog buns in packages of 8? Shouldn't there be more washers than dryers, as there seems to always be a wait line on the washers, and not on the dryers. Anyways, many people put two washes into one dryer. So, what is up with the laundry room in Daniels' basement, having 16 dryers and only 14 washers? Just extremely curious. (Then again, curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought him back.)

Yours till the sugar bowls,

Michelle R. Vadeboncoeur

Just to tell you, the laundry room in Daniels basement has 14 washers and 16 dryers, while the laundry room in Founders basement has 10 washers and 12 dryers. I find this +2 arrangement interesting. What's up with it?

-Michelle

Gee, that's really scary Michelle. Imagine the cosmic significance of the +2 arrangement... They should really call NASA about this. There must be some connection with the Grand Unified Field Theory that physicists are working on... We are certain that, somehow, the +2 washer dryer ratio will have a profound impact upon our lives - and we don't just mean laundry wise... We could start an entire new system of mathematics called Laundermathics... The possibilities are boundless... - hopefully the profits will be too...

I got a great "welcome back to WPI" this morning from plant services when I stepped out the door of the dorm into a six inch puddle of water. However, I wasn't terribly fazed by this until I boarded the Consortium shuttle to go to a class at Clark. As the shuttle pulled into Assumption, I noticed a great discrepancy between these two schools. While the paths at Tech remained decidedly slush filled, the sidewalks and access roads at Assumption were at least as clear as a partly overcast day.

The travesty continued, however, as the shuttle entered Worcester State. The paths there were also remarkably clearer. Was the snow at WPI, I wondered, merely a figment of an overactive imagination, or a highly localized disturbance? If so, this snow must have been extremely well controlled, as the only areas at WSC and Assumption were the only areas free of the white stuff.

Anyway, by the time I arrived at Clark I was quite irked. Clark's walkways were, again clear. I noticed similar phenomena at Holy Cross and UMass Med Center. The final insult, though, was received when I returned to WPI. At 2:30, Freeman Plaza, most sidewalks around campus and the entire quad area were STILL filled with slimy, wet cold SLUSH!!

So, this brings me to my conclusion and required acronym. Did the physical plants of all the other area schools conspire to make WPI plant services look bad today, or would our overrated physical plant have screwed this up on their own? A professor of mine told me this behavior is not at all out of the ordinary during the transition period between one president and the next (N.A.A.O.O.T.O.D.T.T.P.B.O.P.A.T.N.). Do you know anything of this great tragedy?

Anyway, I think someone needs to hear about this, so I'll let you take the ball for now. Until a Philler goes by without an extra long winded acronym (ELWA) this has been a regular reader,

Jean Claude Van Dan.

Wow, a man after our own hearts with an ELWA... (*sigh*) Well Jean Claude, may we call you Jean Claude?, we thank you for your investigative reporting. For the many years that we have been here at WPI we have noticed much in the way of physical plant problems. There have been some improvements, but not as many or as quickly as we would like. While this is disappointing, it is good in the sense that we always have something else to fall back on, besides DAKA...

Anyway, we are sure that everyone noticed how bad the entire campus was the other week when all that slush was gooping - up - campus - like - a - bizarre - conglomeration - of - Seussean - oobleck - and - cafeteria - concoctions - transformed - into - an - atmospheric - disturbance - of - icky - proportions (G. U. C. L. A. B. C. O. S. O. A. C. C. T. I. A. A. D. O. I. P.). Here's some bad news: get used to it. Sorry to be cynical, but things just don't look much better than that sometimes... However, there was one time last winter that we wrote a witty and most timely request concerning the communal problem of crystallized precipitation removal, and its effect on our safety and aesthetic well being (read, complained our butts off about the snowy steps), and the next day they were perfectly clean... From what we heard, President Strauss read the article and ordered Plant Services to fix the problem because he feared a degradation of community morale. Hmm, maybe it'll work again... President Brown, are you reading this...?

If anyone can get this campus in tip-top shape, it would have to be our interim president, John Lott Brown. We have heard many rumors of his actions while in the capacity of our interim president. In fact, we have heard more good things about him in the short while that he has held the office, than we did about ex-President Strauss. This guy's just incredible. For a guy in a "temporary" position, which is designed to just hold the fort for a while, he has taken a very special interest in this institute. He insisted on going to DAKA, and he paid for his meal when the employees tried to get him to do otherwise. Not only was this brave, but it also showed an unprecedented interest in the concerns of WPI students. He has tried to do things for this community, not just perform his administrative duties. There was no real reason for him to be so involved in affairs not expressly in his domain, but he did anyway. Therefore we humbly request that his title be changed to President Brown. We feel that the best choice is right under our collective nose. (Sorry Cory, but you did not respond to our nomination in time...)

If you have anything to say about this article in support, disapproval, hatred, joy, etc., or if we just made you laugh, please write to us at newspeak@wpi.edu. President Brown, we would like to hear from you, too. We care about this community, and know that you do too. Besides, if you write to us, you get a wicked neat-o certificate...


Send your thoughts, observations, and questions to us at philler@philler.com...