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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 31, 1995)
I A M I n Page 4 • The Battalion smim A&M gains a ghost i r . <1- |;g-«,,!»■«»«»*. Li!,-- - ;!; 'lIslIgpilliMiHiiiii U 2 CAN LIVE & WORK ABROAD Five weeks with a host family and an internship in a field related to your major! GERMANY! ENGLAND! DOMINICAN REPUBLIC! Let the MSC L.T. Jordan Institute help you make it happen! Applications available NOW in the L.T. Jordan Institute, Room 2231 MSC, 845-8770 Last Informational Meeting! Wednesday, Nov. 1, at 8:30 p.m. 402 Rudder .845-3770 Michael Landauer Aggielife Editor H alloween has lost some of its magic. These days, it’s only about parties and cool costumes. The loss of magic is a small price to pay for good parties, but that doesn’t do the day justice. Halloween should be scary and filled with spooky stories. Maybe we’re too old to get scared anymore, but a story fell in my lap recently that certainly spooked me. The odd thing is that this ghost story was sent to me as an inspirational story, not as a ghost story at all. K.G. lives in St. Croix and graduated from A&M this year. In his story, “How I Got Through College Using Someone Else’s Head,” he stands by the truth of his tale — literally. “You will notice that the photo isn’t some clever computer com posite, but... the real thing, as is the story — truth remains stranger than fiction,” he said. His story starts with his doubts about his future at A&M. One night, he was the last person to leave the library, but he could n’t go home. He sat on a bench amidst a very thick fog. As he sat there questioning if he had the stamina to press on with his degree program, “an el derly gentleman in a long formal overcoat approached silently from the mist and sat on the bench without speaking.” This gentleman had clothes “from a different era,” but our hero barely noticed him until he spoke. “I was startled when he said, ‘Young man, I have come to of fer you an unusual opportunity. I can guarantee that you will successfully complete your mas ter’s work if you will carry out one simple daily task in return for this favor. “The task is that each day, without fail until you have gradu ated, you must come to the center of the campus at sunrise and make an offering at the statue of Sullivan Ross. “That ol’ statue is real tired of those freshmen making dumb little offerings of pennies at its feet and rubbing all the polish off its boots, so put your head to work and come up with something a little more cre ative, or the deal is off.’” K.G. was a little more than cu rious, especially since he had nev er seen the statue or heard of the man it honored. After a few hours of stumbling around in the fog, he found what he was looking for. “There, frozen in bronze and glistening wet with evening dew, was the elderly gentleman who, only two hours before, had sat and spoken to me on the bench as a living, breathing, flesh-and-bone person. I could n’t believe it, but then I also couldn’t disbelieve it.” K.G. decided to spend the rest of the night thinking of a creative pilgrimage that would satisfy his end of the bargain. He contem plated countless ideas, including Tuesday Continue team ski APO class e\ new pie' cers. Th 130 pie Pledges service meeting ties duri Johns ment rei feel com service fi “It st about,” get invc how it w "UT ci largest less m to do 1 P n Photo Co* K.G., a 1995 graduate of A&M, demonstrates his daily t top of the statue of Lawrence Sullivan Ross. a daily chicken offering. But he wasn’t satisfied. “How would I dispose of all those dead chickens, and how would my housemates take to a chicken-holding pen on the back steps of our apartment? There would just be too much explaining to do.” He thumbed through a maga zine searching for ideas. Finally, he found inspiration in the maga zine’s pages — the hood ornament from a 1934 Rolls Royce coupe. “The ornament’s form was that of a graceful angel standing on one foot, wings and arms held back, leaning forward into the wind, and praying for speed.” Having found the proper metaphor for his dilemma, he perched on Sully’s head to pray for his academic deliverance. “As I mounted ol’ Ross’s head for the first time that morning, a prayer — divinely imp:: doubt — miraculously fe my lips, ‘Oh Great Spirit: stand here on of Ross’te stow deep sleep and sweet dreams upon our blessed: bers of the Corps of Cadet them at rest in their beds, seech thee, for should is; witness surely will I beds K.G. went back everydii around 4 a.m. to makebis|i grimage until he graduated: says he was never sp: his pilgrimage nor did heee and fall. Whether we find thisst- be a source of inspirationoii complete farce, our Hallow story came with one states can all agree with—’ mains stranger thanfictioi Michael Landauer u journalism John of pledg ficial to “It ju commui many p Walt twice a potentii “Aw come in pie to “Every showin Wal does 8 campi the Un "We munlt; pie t run ai time, they 1 We sh enjoy the coi til 1995 Fall Symposium MSC MBA/Law Committee Interested in business or law? Don’t miss this opportunity to interact with successful former students and find out information on current business and law topics November 3rd & 4th, 1995 Feature Keynote Speakers: -E. Lee Walker ( £ 64) Former President of Dell Computers B.S. in Physics, MBA from Harvard - Mary Elizabeth Kurz General Counsel for the Texas A&M System - Ken Stanton (‘64) Vice President for Sales, Subaru of America B.S. in Math, MBA from Oklahoma State - Honorable Samuel Kent Federal Circuit Court Judge - Michael Essmyer (‘72) Attorney at Law B.S. in Geology, J.D. from South Texas College of Law Other business and law topics include: -Intellectual Property Law -Public vs. Private Law -Litigation and the Role of Computers -Alternative Dispute Resolution -Media and Entertainment Law -Banking -Investments -Consulting For more information, please contact the MSC MBA/Law Committee at 845-1515 ix Persons with disabilities please call 845-1515 to inform us of your special needs. We request notification three (3) working days prior to the event too enable us to assist you to the best of our abilities. Name: Address: Phone: Interest: Business/Law Major:_ Classification: Ticket price is $5.00, which includes lunch on Saturday. Please turn in this registration form to the Rudder Box Office, or to any member of the MSC MBA/Law Committee, 845-1515, or Room 216 MSC. -Executive Discussion Sessions -Communications, Marketing, and PR