Memories:CAR

1995.2

Gary's Hair

In CAR.2 '95, Gary—long-time staff member, former CTYer, one of the founders of Passionfruit, and SRA for several years until his retirement in '97—had VERY long hair, we're talking past shoulder length here. Well, for before the talent show he shaved his head and guess what appeared on the talent show program cover? You guessed it, Gary's hair. Any CTYer who was there that year remembers that incident.

1997.2

The Deaf Mexicans

On the first day of second session, an article appeared on the front page of the New York Times detailing the discovery of a evil scheme in which Deaf Mexicans were forced into slavery in the US. This in itself wouldn't have gained the attention of CTYers if the New York Times hadn't displayed such a strange obsession with the story. For the rest of the week, front page headlines blared things like, "DEAF MEXICANS WRITE POSTCARDS!!" while on page 8, small countries were being overthrown. When they caught Versace's killer on page two, the Deaf Mexicans were eating waffles on page 1. This bizarre media event captured the minds of CTYers and inspired several wonderful discussion about the Deaf Mexicans and a song that was almost sung at the Talent Show.

Read about the bizarre Deaf Mexicans at www.nytimes.com. Simply search for "deaf mexicans" and their stories will pop up.

2005.1

Jeffy Ate Some Beans

At Carlisle 05.1 the girls of Sami's Hall were mercilessly tortured with the playing of "Beans" by Kurt Cobain over and over and over. Beans is a high-pitched ramble authored by Kurt Cobain while on various recreational drugs. This was played in Sami's hall's lounge for most of the session, as many as 10 times in one sitting. Jocelyn (a girl in the hall) spread the love by making all her non-CTYer friends download it on iTunes. Thus, the legacy of "Beans" lives on forever.

Infamous Chocolating

At Carlisle 05.1, students from Malcolm 3rd floor and Malcolm basement made Big Saturday truly a "Big" Saturday. The students formed alliances and banded together to exact revenge upon the most hated RA at the camp. Lynn, also known as "The Lanyard Nazi", was known for harassing students about the finest of details and enforcing made-up rules. On Big Saturday, Malcolm attacked, relentlessly winning as many tickets as possible. The Jell-o toss was dominated by two Malcolm 3rd floor guys, Shwin and Yashi, who went back-to-back-to-back with the same cube of Jell-o. The Skittles race was dominated by Shady from Malcolm basement and Dave from Malcolm 3rd floor. Other Malcolm students went around gathering tickets and forming strong alliances. In the end, Malcolm thrashed all competition and collected the most tickets. The verdict was unanimous. Lynn was chosen to get chocolated. During this time however, Lynn, conveniently, was nowhere to be found. She had gone to escort students attending religious services. As Lynn was not there, Malcolm reluctantly chose 3rd floor's RA, Mike G. Just as Mike stepped into the kiddie pool to take his undeserved chocolating, cries of "We want Lynn!" began to arise from the group of Malcolm students. These cries became louder and louder, and soon enough, the entire campus began to partake in the deafening chant. At that very moment, Lynn showed up and was given her campus-approved chocolating. With a new-found respect (most likely out of fear) for Malcolm, Lynn eased up on her Nazi-like ways.

However, after Lynn's dousing, it was found that the RAs had enough chocolate products left over to drench another victim. A quick voice poll (mostly between Ian, Reuben and Mike G.) wound up with Reuben in the kiddie pool. During the chocolating, he stood with his head bowed and fist raised, apparently imitating the infamous photo of the 1968 Olympics.

Edit: Lynn was my RA, Quad 8 forever, during that very same session. I just have to say it took two days to completely remove the chocolate from her clothing.

Edit: This even actually took place during First Friday instead of Big Saturday. I was out of CTY during Big Saturday to watch a performance with my parents and remember this happening during First Friday.

Edit: I love Lynn.

Edit: I had Lynn that year and this all went down on my thirteenth birthday.

Kings of Campus

At the end of Carlisle, session 1, 2005, an expedition of kids from Pete's hall (including Schuyler, Josh, Marshal, Ted, and Marshal's girl friend) went out to upper quad at 3:00 AM in anticipation of Passionfruit. There they sat, with blankets, books, and a 40 oz bottle of soda (in a glass bottle that appeared to be alcoholic). After a few RAs passed, Res. Dean Pete came out, looked at the CTYers, asked Josh, "What's in that 40?", then proceeded to tell them that we were going to get "raped" due to Carlislians' propensity to commit violent crimes against each other. They returned to the hall, where they proceeded to hold a fully clothed morgy with the rest of the hall, who had been to wimpy to go out. For the rest of the day, they were known as "kings of campus". The action even resulted in an interruption and stern warning at the end of the last dance session two, where Pete told the students that "anyone who goes out before 6 AM will *never* return to CTY again, in any form".

In 2006, the RAs enforced a strict policy of not being able to leave your dorm before 7 a.m. or 6 on the last Passionfruit, only if you were going to Passionfruit (which is actually against the honor code, as it is discriminatory based on group affiliation)

Edit: Students are never allowed out of dorms before 7 a.m., the rare exceptions being for religious services, the morning runs (if they exist) or medical emergencies. Passionfruit is not a group, nor is it an affiliation. Everybody should experience Passionfruit.

2006.1

The Squirrel Theory

At Carlisle '06 session 1, there was a completely different theory by the exact same name as the squirrel theory made at Hamilton (Siena) nearly a decade before. In this theory, the abundant squirrels were actually RAs, spying on CTYers as to catch them doing anything against the rules. Squirrels would often catch kids making out or cussing. They could not fool certain enlightened CTYers, who would shoo the squirrels before doing anything illegal. The theory came into being after Lauren, more commonly known as Jesus, witnessed her friend Dina being hit with falling acorns during break one morning. After noticing a squirrel in the trees that they had been standing under, she assumed that it was her evil RA trying to keep Dina in line. Thus the squirrel theory was born.

Jesus would frequently scream at passing RAs "SQUIRREL!" then proceed to explain that if everyone didn't run away, they would pelt us with acorns. Particularly amusing during Big Saturday.

Blue Js vs. Phoenixes

At Carlisle '06 session 1, a legendary rivalry arose between neighboring halls in Super Quad. One side, calling themselves the Blue Js because of a name coincidence, started a gang-like group popular for its hand signal. Once their neighbors learned of this, they decided to make their own group, the Phoenixes. Viewing this as an attack, the Blue Js became quite defensive, commonly making raids on the Phoenix hall. One Phoenix described an instance where he was in the hall bathroom and a hallmate came in yelling, "Blue J invasion! Everybody out! ATTACK!" A popular phrase amongst the Js and their friends was, "You're either with the Blue Js, or against the Blue Js. And I hope to hell you're not against us." They even went so far as to call the girlfriends of the Blue Js "half-wings".

The adjoining nature of the halls made it easy to carry out "Bluejay/Phoenix runs," where the attacking hall would run up and down the defending hall shouting the name of their gang and making their hand symbol. By 2008.1, the violence had died down, however a rivalry between quads 4 and 5 remained on the second floor, having been started after a conflict involving the stealing of furniture from the shared lounge area. This conflict carried on throughout 08.1 and was characterized by each sides use of duct tape on the doors of the other. On the third floor, there was a giant glow-stick fight on the last night. Quad 4 managed to grab all the glow sticks, throwing them at Quad 5. Clay, an evil SRA who had been patrolling that night, came in and yelled at Quad 5 immediately after Quad 4 threw the glow sticks.

2006.2

Sesame Chicken

During CAR-2-06 , Zach's hall and Ryan had an ongoing joke about sesame chicken. It all started when Jerald L. saw an advertisement for a Chinese restaurant that had a low price on sesame chicken on one of the first few days. He then said "sesame chicken" in a Chinese accent. This was considered hilarious, and for the rest of the session, knowledge of this inside joke spread. Two students in particular, John I. and Ryan, often spent the entire Meet Market talking of sesame chicken.

Edit: Jerald was at session one though...?

2007.1

The Splenda Fetish

During session one of 2007, a tightly knit group of friends (Mainly Ethics students, with a sprinkling of female Dissenters and one Existentialist) began to become obsessed with Splenda from the HUB. Dani would carry huge piles of Splenda packets back to the table and pour them all into her tea, prompting several card-swipers to voice concerns for her health. Morris, a friendly RA, liked to try to catch these students doing something CTY-I. He never really did, but his frequent trips over to the table made him a favorite of the Splenda eaters.

Splenda related activities began to include not only smuggling Splenda, but pouring it into beverages to make "liquid candy", eating it straight from the package, (once) snorting it, and hoarding it jealously, using it within the group as a bartering material similar to crack cocaine.

Several weekend afternoons were spent giggling in the grass while "high" on Splenda. The individuals involved now admit that this was probably some kind of placebo effect. Still, they were examined quite closely by passing RAs as possible druggies.

Hey Juliet

The basic story is that the 90's boy band pop song, Hey Juliet, by LMNT, which everyone loves, was finally given its fifteen minutes of fame. Ram, Steven, and Smiley dressed up as a 90's boy band, complete with rolled-up sleeves and a headband or two, and performed this song with the lyrics mostly memorized, dance and all, on the wall at the last Poetry Night as one of the acts. The idea came up when Ram and Erica were on the phone on the last Monday night, being stupid, and singing. The boys practiced daily in Kline and just outside. Videos of the performance will soon be on Youtube and Facebook. (This story has been edited by an eyewitness.)

Edit: According to Rachel, Hey Juliet has become canon at CTY Carlisle, beginning with CAR.07.2.

Edit: Apparently, Hey Juliet had been a minor trend at other sites before this year, but thanks to Erica S., it caught on strong at Carlisle. The obsession with the song continued on into second session because of some of the double-sessioners (Rachel H., Amanda K., Remy A.) and the entire staff. The "Canon Crew" RAs were spoken to and agreed that the song was going to be placed on the Canon list as soon as possible.

2007.2

Musical Morning

It is well known at Carlisle that Sunday mornings are pretty relaxed. Students generally take time to sleep in, lounge around, do laundry, or in this case, play volleyball. The second Sunday of the second session, students Wendy Gu and Rachel Hull woke up early for Passionfruit. Afterward, rather than going back to sleep, they decided to have a laundry party. So the girls, accompanied by a dance mix CD, boom box, and plenty of dirty clothes, made their way to the bottom floor of Uber Quad. Since there aren't any campers who live on the bottom floor of Uber Quad, Wendy and Rachel had no bad feelings about facing the stereo out the open laundry room window, turning "Hey Juliet" on repeat as loud as it would go and going outside the window to play volleyball for an hour or so. Yes, it was loud. It was only later, after the game and laundry was finished, that the two spotted a grumpy looking Bret Kramer exiting the bottom floor of the quad. Apparently the site director lives there and was awoken by the loud renditions of the pop song.

The incident not only resulted in numerous and widespread recounts of the story, but it exposed the fact that Bret lives in the basement of an all-girls dorm (although every year at Carlisle there is an activity entitled "Oh the Places You Can't Go" that takes you, among other places, inside Bret's apartment).

2008.2

RickRolled!

This could belong in either the Hall of Fame or the Hall of Shame, depending. During the third dance of the session, it was nearing 10:00, and Stairway to Heaven started playing. Yet it only played for a few seconds before...the entire camp was Rickrolled! After the Rickroll, the DJs did play Stairway to Heaven in its entirety.

Hope for the Flowers

Hope for the Flowers is a book about caterpillars, with lots of nice pictures. But it is more than that. It's a sort of inspirational warm-fuzzy type thing too. Sarah T. started the tradition of reading Hope For the Flowers aloud. The second Saturday of each session, CTYers gather under a tree at the upper quad in Carlisle and enjoy the peace and togetherness. Though many CTYers don't know about Hope for the Flowers, it is a wonderful tradition that deserves to grow into a Passionfruit-like event.

2012.1

Raf's Shoe

At Casino night 12.1, EXIT's TA Max (who was unfairly attractive and overly flirtatious with most of the nevermore girls in his class) offered money to anyone who could bring him Ethics A TA Raf's shoes. This quickly turned into Raf cowering on the floor, gripping his feet, and rocking back and forth while students surrounded him and harassed him in a fruitless effort to steal his shoes.

2013.2

SCHEME

During 13.2, Justin T. spread around the use of the word "scheme". "Scheme" was said when something was deemed notable enough to be called a scheme, or when there was a shady plan. This term was soon spread around campus and caused people to scream "scheme" for events not even deserving of the title of a scheme. The term "scheme team" was coined for people especially involved in scheme culture (i.e. screaming or saying scheme excessively). The CTYers of the original scheme team continued the legacy of scheme during 14.2.

Manny Quinn

During the beginning of the second week, the members of Adrian's hall banded together to order a mannequin from Amazon. This information was not spread around extensively before the mannequin arrived. On the third Monday, everything was normal when students left for study hall, but when they returned for Meet Market, there was a mannequin in the end window of Uber Second. The mannequin was dubbed Manny Quinn (or Mann E. Quinn), and served to frighten and intimidate many an unwary pedestrian. At the end of the session, Manny was taken by Adrian back to his Maryland home. However, Adrian returned with Manny during 14.2.

2014.1

The Persecution of Shrek

Throughout the first session of CTY Carlisle, Brogres, or "The Church Of Shrek" followers were mercilessly persecuted. The issue was brought to light by a massive gathering, which was more than a dozen people strong, near a Mod Sat soccer activity. The gathering labeled themselves "The Church Of Shrek" and appointed a priest to chant "Shrek is love, Shrek is life," a quote from the popular 2014 YouTube video "Shrek is Love, Shrek is Life". The followers would respond with the same quote.

RAs and instructional staff to some varying degrees quickly were educated about the video and began giving out sanctions, usually five minutes off of Meet Market, life to anyone who made references to the Shrek video (e.g. "It's all ogre" or "Shrek is love, Shrek is life".) While certain staff members did persecute any remote references to Shrek, others simply persecuted references specifically pertaining to the "Shrek is Love, Shrek is Life" video, not to the movie.

The new policies against Shrek were deemed silly and oppressive by students and actually led more students to the "Shrek is Love, Shrek is Life" fandom. Other students challenged RAs by directly saying banned Shrek references and were persecuted sometimes. (Notably on the several occasions wherever the entirety of RA Robel's hall attempted to enrage RA Alex DeLuca by making multiple Shrek references during Robel's day off. Although Alex did not sanction anyone, the following day, Robel sanctioned six out of the eight members of his hall, including 2015.1 emperor, Anshuman Sinha, for saying rather minor cursing such as "hell" or "damn" and also one camper for asking, "Can I be sanctioned for Shrek?")

One nevermore even slipped Shrek into his final Passionfruit speech, saying "For me, CTY is ogre..." However, the RAs (and many campers) didn't pick up on it.

The Hannah Dance/The Michael

The Hannah Dance/The Michael was a dance move (indeed, a whole dance) that became popular in CAR 14.1 at the second dance. It was originally introduced to a group of girls in the HUB by RA Hannah. First noticed by others at the first dance, it was obscure and done occasionally by those in Hannah's hall and their close friends. However, at the second dance, it was done by Michael Kaufmann and immortalized. RA Jared allowed his hall to go into the dance first, giving them 3 minutes of dancing alone. Michael began dancing this dance and never stopped. He stood on a staircase near the revolving chairs on the right and danced the Michael for the whole dance, including Stairway to Heaven and American Pie. The dance spread and soon multiple people joined him over the next two dances. It became widely known and was performed all over campus. There were even activities run by Hannah like Get Groovy, and taught more students how to do the dance. Many people know the dance as The Michael, but don't give credit to Hannah, enraging the girls of Hannah's hall and many RAs.

The dance move itself is simple: your arms swing to the left, around your body, and are pulled in on the right; this is then repeated backwards. As you do this, your hips thrust side to side.

The Prank

On Modsat, around 2:00, this kid from Game Theory A got a brilliant idea: whenever people are trying to put their keys in to open the uber doors, let's press the handicapped button in the little alcove. They did this for about a half hour. Subsequently, someone got the bright idea to tell everyone "clap twice and uber will open!" They had done this for a bit until yours truly saw this, was convinced, and thought to himself, "Why don't I just unlock my door, give my keys back, and just wear a lanyard around my belt?". Yours truly walked up to where the Holy Trinity (Adrian, Denno, and Diana) were sitting and proposed this brilliant idea. Diana questioned the truth of the statement, but it was maintained to be true. Adrian walked over, tried it, and then got it to work. He then said that it was a huge security risk because anyone could go in. He called Lesa and she came over. Within 30 seconds, she detected the prank. Adrian walked over to the child, said, "I WILL EXTERMINATE YOUR FAMILY" and then walked outside and shook his hand.

2014.2

The Cult of Alexander DeLuca

The cult of RA Alex DeLuca was started when Alex ran an activity reading HalfLife FullLife Consequences, a fanfiction about the video game HalfLife. After reading, Alex jokingly said, "We should start a cult now," but he was taken seriously by the campers attending the activity. During the next few days, whenever he walked by, campers began to say, "All hail!" every time they saw Alex. The following week, Alex ran an activity called "The Cult of John Freeman," during which he discussed sacrifices and other procedures for the cult to ensure that his cult wouldn't turn to the dark side. Allison Hsu was given the position of Cult Leader, and Diana Zlotea became the High Priestess. As High Priestess, Diana took the job of performing potato sacrifices in the HUB. During these sacrifices, a small portion of potatoes was used with a drop of Malt Vinegar. Diana gave an incantation, followed by stabbing the potato (to represent John and Gordon Freeman in the fanfiction). Each sacrifice was followed by a loud chanting of "All hail!" from the surrounding campers.

The personal bible of the cult was the trilogy of HALF LIFE: FULL LIFE CONSEQUENCES, the beautiful vault of wisdom and deeper meaning that it was. Every meal, the leader of the cult would take the potato-based dish of the day, take a small portion, and drop a single drop of Balsamic Vinegar upon it. After reciting a short chant, a knife was slowly pushed through the portion, which would be thrown out at the end of the meal.

In the last few days, Alex's cult began to gain a large following, including most of the royalty and nevermores. During the last Passionfruit, the words "all hail!" were heard in many speeches, followed by a deafening reply of the same chant from the other campers. Although Alex may not be returning to CTY next year, the cult will live forever in our hearts.

EDIT (18-7-15): Alex has indeed returned to CAR and the cult lives on. Grant Central (a past member of the cult) had the fortune to be in Alex's hall, and he took over the duties of both Cult Leader and High Priest. All Hail.

Hamburger Pls/Dark Lord Chin Chin

The influence of youtuber Filthy Frank had infected the minds of a few immature teenage boys with the crazy antics of Pink Guy, Salamander Man, and the Dark Lord Chin Chin. This caused many of them to go around quoting Filthy Frank, crawling on all fours and screaming "HAMBURGER PLEAAAASE", or the ever popular "GIMME DA PUUSSY BAWS" and many other weird behaviors. The progenitors of the Filthy Frank Movement during 14.2 are most notably Aidan Y., Aidan L., and Grant Kim

My Immortal/Raving Revival

There is a tradition of reading "My Immortal", a fanfic of the Harry Potter series, in the downstairs couches of the HUB. The tradition was first started in 11.2, and has continued on ever since. It consists of really inappropriate and shabby writing, which makes it funny and beautiful. The rules are you have to read a paragraph of My Immortal, and if it has curse words in it you substitute them with the word "fruit". If you start laughing, you must stop reading and pass the binder off to the next person.

Recently, the raving community in Carlisle has experienced a resurgence in membership. There have been a number of people who have been activists in bringing back string-raving to Carlisle. In past years, Carlislians were only allowed to freehand, but now people are allowed to rave on Upper Quad during Meet Market. In 13.2 and 14.2, groups of ravers performed in the talent show by the names of Volxemort and the Death Deelers and Volxemort and the Death Deelers 2.0, respectively. These names were inspired by none other than the fanfic "My Immortal".

2015.2

Rameñata 2.0

In memory of the legendary 13.2 Rameñata, several campers coordinated a hoax involving piñatas and letters in said piñatas marked 1, 3, 7, and 'the last one'. These piñatas filled with flavor packets their misleading letters were placed around ATS before the second saturday dance in order to trick RAs into thinking that another incident with a ramen-filled piñata might occur. Furthermore, a camper placed a package of shrimp ramen on the drinks table during the dance. Thankfully, none of the students involved were penalized, and most of the RAs found it in good humor (although some threatened to destroy the piñatas brutally).

The Beautiful Grace of Mustafa

Some called him a madman. Some called him a prophet. Others quite simply referred to him as "that one kid who was kinda everywhere". Nonetheless, this site hopper that blessed CTY CAR with 2 years became a tradition within himself. Loved by many, despised by equally as many, everyone could agree however he became a part of CTY Carslile. I myself and many others agree that the session would not have been the same without him. With his ukulele ringing throughout the campus, or his freestyles at poetry night, he literally gave birth to a slew of traditions. From verbal accounts, his goal was to be a CTY "rebel" and create his own traditions. Oddly enough he became a main staple in a lot of them, and made the session one of the most enjoyable. It was hard to believe when describing to friends that someone so eccentric existed. It was really a "see to believe" with his crazy break dancing and raving at dances. From various sources I've heard he's either attending the Princeton campus, Saratoga, or not returning at all. Despite this, he will always have left a mark on Carslile.

Even though being mentioned in quite a few passion fruit speeches, he did not attend, claiming that "The easiest goodbye is one left unsaid", and promptly left camp without a trace.

2016.1

Joe's Bros

Also known as Joe Kelly's Air Band, Joe's Bros is a talented air band group from Joe Kelly's hall that first came together at Carlisle 16.1. The band formed during Hall Meeting the night before Talent Show Auditions to try and win Halls War points. Five members of Joe's Hall refused to do it, most notably Ethan. The nine who agreed met up in The Kline the next day for Activity Period 1 to work out the stage rehearsal. After at first choosing to do "Goofy Goober Rock" from Spongebob Squarepants the Movie, they instead chose Sweet Victory from the Spongebob episode Band Geeks. They made the auditions even Brandon was quoted saying "How did other acts with real talent not get in?".

At Talent Show all members agreed to dress as some form of rock. It ended as Ray dressing as Journey frontman Steve Perry, John George dressing as Glam Rock, Brandon as old rock, and Michael Medough as punk rock. The others did not dress up a certain rock genre. The group is best known for the big hit "Sweet Victory," which they performed at the Car 16.1 Talent Show, which ended with Triangle Player Richard coming out the last second when it was done, and asking "Are we done yet?"

Vocals: Ray Alvarez-Adorno

Air Keyboard: Eugene Choi

Triangle: Richard Shin

Recorder: John George

Air Guitar: Michael Medough, Nabi Muratbek, Elliott "Eugene" Strahan, Greg Harrison,

Air Drums: Brandon Brooks

2017.1

Gaynor’s Contraband List

RA Gaynor of Malcolm 2nd had a contraband list of ten things that annoyed them, and no member of their hall could reference any of these things. The catch was that the only way to find out what this list contained was to say or do the things on the list, which was then written down on the paper in the hall outside Gaynor’s room. The ten things are not listed here in case Gaynor is still doing this (no spoilers).

2018.2

The Petition for Waluigi

One activity period, on the first Wednesday, RA Gaynor was playing dead canon songs during their activity. When the song 'Hallelujah' came up, onemore Isaac Uy began to sing along but replaced every occurance of the word "Hallelujah" with "Waluigi." This prompted Gaynor to become rather annoyed. Gaynor replied that they had been planning on playing the song at the dance, but said that they were no longer going to play it. Gaynor then jokingly said that they would play it if Isaac managed to get 100 people to sign a petition saying that they would sing "Waluigi" to Hallelujah. Unfortunately for Gaynor, Isaac took this as a challenge, and two days later during breakfast on Friday, he presented the 100 signatures to Gaynor, forcing them to play the song at the dance. This caused the song to be played at three out of four dances that session and revived it as canon once again.

Word Assassin

Unlike many other sites, Carlisle does not participate in Blammo, due to Carlisle's stricter culture. However, Emperor Kat Kobetitsch was inspired to bring a similar game to Dickinson in the form of Word Assassin. Although the mechanics of the game are essentially the same (get your target out and take on their target), the foundations of the two differ in that Blammo is built on fear whereas Word Assassin is on community and communication (a palatable proposal for admin!). With the help of 19.2 Empress Bailey Coghlan, the two began collecting participants and drafting rules the first Tuesday night. After receiving DRL Jack's blessing, the pair and their friends set off on recruiting as many students as possible, reaching 84 total participants by the weekend. That Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, Kat and Bailey wrote out the notecards in Super 3 and underneath Squarch and distributed the cards at dinner. The game officially started following the end of the meal.

There were several clever take-downs during the session, including clarifications on dress code, the location of the recycling bins, an intense conversation about Malcolm's couches, and seemingly innocent offers for gum.

However, the game did have a few difficulties. During the handing out of the cards, many campers asked to join the game, which was unfortunately impossible at that point in time. Additionally, several campers could not be located until much later, and one never received their card (I'm so sorry!!). Also, much to the chagrin of Bailey, several players accidentally outed themselves to their targets by acting suspicious and couldn't proceed, which, for some reason, became her problem. As any Blammo God could relate, many people lost their cards as well. One player even changed his name for the rest of the session to avoid detection. In the end, there was no clear winner.

Currently, the fate of Word Assassin is up in the air. 19.2 Monarchy is considering continuing the game next year, with Bailey again running it. In that case, she most likely will be helped by the Poetry Goddess and the duty will then be passed to the next year's Poetry Goddess, along with a set of rules and advice for future organizers. There will definitely be rule changes to clarify communication via text, methods of reporting, and being a good sport, along with a section on tips and strategy to minimize issues with targets' finding out who's after them. Tune in for an announcement at the first night of Meet Market in 19.2!

2019.2

Thermite

In Chemistry B, Instructor Kris made thermite to demonstrate exothermic reactions. He did this by banging two iron cannonballs (not contraband) with aluminum foil in between. This created a shower of sparks and a loud snap, from the heated air expanding.

For those unfamiliar, the thermite reaction goes as follows: Fe2O3 + 2 Al → 2 Fe + Al2O3

A student, Ian Day, promptly took interest to the reaction. Kris set the canonballs aside, warned the class not to make thermite indoors as to not disturb the researchers, and said the class may try it during break. Ian practices the thermite at break. He then gets good. After a week he was making the snap and sparks every time he hit the cannonballs together. A small crowd from other classes would come and watch Ian perform his thermite demonstration. All was well, with Ian keeping the cannonballs moist, and ensuring there was a large amount of rust, which was needed. Unfortunately, cast iron cannonballs generally do not take impact well. With over 100 shots per break, and 3 breaks a day, thje cannonballs were subject to several thousand small impacts. In turn the cannonball broke in two. Ian had managed to break a solid iron cannonball in two. Stress fractures and sheer willpower can and will break anything. Kris stated that Ian could take the cannonballs home, as he gave away many small lab demo pieces.

Ian then took the cannonballs back to his hall and performed it inside the tiny "lounge" of Mackintyre's hall (basically an empty room), as a closing to the last hall meeting. The next morning, at passionfruit, Ian made a toast to "vigorous exothermic reactions" and promptly set off the thermite. How he pulled this off without getting sanctioned or acknowledged is honestly not known.

Ian still has these cannonballs, and plans to weld the two halves together. In fact, Ian may even return to CTY with the cannonballs and a roll of aluninum foil. The cannonballs may be contraband seeing as they are several pounds apiece, and Ian claims he got "slightly more swole" afterwards, making them weights. They also make sparks at 2000 degrees celsius, spraying molten iron and hot aluminum oxide fragments, which Ian brushes off as perfectly safe.

Sometimes, if you listen hard enough in the field outside of Rector Science complex, you might even hear a faint thermite snap in the breeze.