As I walked home from a welcome reception to my dorm I passed approximately 30 people. I also passed approximately 300 squirrels. There are definately more squirrels living in the area than people. Its a good thing these animals posess a lower intellectual capacity than humans, otherwise they may begin organizing. One little known fact about the squirrel population here is that Princeton is home to the rare black squirrel.
Kudos to the university for promoting diversity in the animal population as well as the student body. This variation of squirrel is exactly the same as his grey brother with the only difference being the color of his fur. The black squirrel is so appreciated here that there is a local baseball team that uses it as their mascot.
Prior to my walk with the squirrels, all of the incoming graduate students attended an orientation meeting. The meeting was filled with a lot of campus administrators giving us advice and reciting policies that we immediately forgot. We know we all came for the free lunch and t-shirts that were distributed afterwards. During the meeting, however, there was a brief address by a more senior graduate student in the history department. I don't remember the majority of his remarks, but I do remember the title of his disertation, "Exploring the Significanct of Touch in 16th and 17th Century British Literature." As Tina Fey and Amy Poehler would say on SNL's Weekend Update, "REALLY!?!" I can't believe (actually I can, which makes this all the more ridiculous) that someone would want to devote 3+ years of intense research into answering this question. In fact what is the question? And what faculty member looked this young man in the face and said, "Yes Johnny! You're really on to something here. I've been meaning to wrap my head around this one but just haven't had the time. "
P.S. I came across what looks like a very interesting new take on Jane Austin's classic novel. Perhaps someone here is exploring the use of zombies in British literature.
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