Friday, February 06, 2004
Why I Love Grinnellians
I love Grinnellians. I shudder to think what my life would be like had I not gone to Grinnell. Sure, Beloit may have a Science Fiction Association, but after last summer's Great Plans Outage, we know that Grinnell is/was one of only two colleges in the country with an online community such as our beloved Plans. I keep in far better touch with people I only sort of knew at Grinnell than people I knew really well in high school, because of Plans. And I maintain that only on Plans, with a bunch of Grinnellians on the receiving end, could I post the following message and get back the correct response within 2 hours.
"PLANS PLEA
"Did anyone else ever read a short story about a group of people who moved to another planet/the moon, and each family was only allowed to bring two books, and they ended up with like 9 copies of Robinson Crusoe, and there was one little girl who brought a blank notebook, and they were really mad at her until they realized that she was right, that things would be much more interesting once someone actually wrote something in it, because then they would have new things to read? What is the name of this story? Who is it by? I read it in either middle or high school. Help!!"
In case you were wondering, the answer, provided by the lovely Ellie Sayre, is The Green Book by Jill Paton Walsh. Thank goodness for a huge community of like-minded, helpful geeks. I was having nightmares about going to the library and trying to get some poor librarian to help based on that totally unhelpful description.
I love Grinnellians. I shudder to think what my life would be like had I not gone to Grinnell. Sure, Beloit may have a Science Fiction Association, but after last summer's Great Plans Outage, we know that Grinnell is/was one of only two colleges in the country with an online community such as our beloved Plans. I keep in far better touch with people I only sort of knew at Grinnell than people I knew really well in high school, because of Plans. And I maintain that only on Plans, with a bunch of Grinnellians on the receiving end, could I post the following message and get back the correct response within 2 hours.
"PLANS PLEA
"Did anyone else ever read a short story about a group of people who moved to another planet/the moon, and each family was only allowed to bring two books, and they ended up with like 9 copies of Robinson Crusoe, and there was one little girl who brought a blank notebook, and they were really mad at her until they realized that she was right, that things would be much more interesting once someone actually wrote something in it, because then they would have new things to read? What is the name of this story? Who is it by? I read it in either middle or high school. Help!!"
In case you were wondering, the answer, provided by the lovely Ellie Sayre, is The Green Book by Jill Paton Walsh. Thank goodness for a huge community of like-minded, helpful geeks. I was having nightmares about going to the library and trying to get some poor librarian to help based on that totally unhelpful description.
