The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, October 31, 1995, Image 4

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Page 4 • The Battalion
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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
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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
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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