The presidential debates were ridiculously popular last week here at politically-aware Carleton.  Their timing – 8 p.m. on a Friday night – meant they found their way onto a lot of students’ party schedules.  Campus Activities contributed to the party atmosphere by projecting them onto the big screen in Boliou 104 and providing chips, dips, and sodas.

Read more!

Last Friday, at 11:17 PM, a crowd of excited theatergoers filed into the Little Nourse Theater in the ground level of Nourse Hall. There they engaged in a mysterious ritual, to know the details of which you will have to click this link.

On the first Friday of fall term, the Bald Spot drew students from all over campus, who put off plotting their weekend festivities for a few hours and attended the Activities Fair. There, they trawled the huge number of campus organizations that set up tables and sign-up sheets, signing up for a few of them, or, in some cases, quite a lot more than a few.

Wacky clubs!

Last Saturday saw the kickoff of the Carleton Art Gallery’s first exhibition of the year, “World Ceramics: Transforming Women’s Traditions.”

Read More About the Ceramics.

Everybody else, welcome back!  It's the start of a brand new year here at Shout and we've got lots of exciting new stories up our sleeves for you, from features, to multimedia, to wacky Carleton student activities.  So stay tuned, and enjoy the last of the warm weather while it lasts!

Those dedicated SOPEers are at it again. After convincing the dining hall to use silverware made of corn, revitalizing the green roof, and founding the Sustainability Revolving Fund, SOPE has installed a new eco-friendly project on campus.

Click here to find out what it is.

The Noon News Bulletin, everyone’s favorite lunchtime eye candy, was wild and wacky as usual this term. Carls begged their peers to return lost jackets, advertised their haircutting services, and educated us with useless facts. Here is just one of the NNB's noteworthy gems:

USELESS OPINION: Telephones make terrible cookie cutters.

Click here to read more wacky classified ads.

The end of 8th week produced a flurry of comps talks from the English and SoAn majors. When perusing the NNB for talks of choice, it was hard to miss Amanda Smith's '08 presentation "Befriending Dragons" that was, in fact, entirely about the evolution in the portrayal of dragons in literature. Pretty snazzy idea, we think.

Click here to read more about Smith's comps talk on dragons.

Noticed the spotlights on the Mini Bald Spot and cameras on top of Myers and the dining hall? They’ve been giving off Big Brother vibes, but their purpose is way cooler (and far less creepy). The machines are actually webcams installed by Facilities and ITS to show students, parents, and curious onlookers the construction progress for the new dorms. That’s right, now you can spend finals week procrastinating with awesome live construction footage! Be sure to check back often; the webcams update every 15 seconds — Wow!

If you can spell any of the delightful words below, chances are you made it to the final rounds of Carleton's Spelling Bee.

quadrumanous adj. Having four hands.

phillumenist n. One who collects matchbooks or matchbox labels.

gongorism n. An excessively involved, ornate, and artificial style of writing.

anabibazon n. The ascending node of the moon’s orbit with the ecliptic.

quidnunc n. One that is avidly curious and given to speculating especially about ephemeral or petty things.

But in case you didn't, click here to read more about the event.

MPIRG held its annual Cardboard Box City last Friday, where Carleton students built cardboard box homes and slept out in them all night to raise awareness about homelessness in Minnesota. They got creative with their boxes, constructing them in a variety of shapes and sizes and painting them with wacky designs. After the box building, a representative from Homeless against Homelessness gave a talk. The builder of the most creative cardboard home also won a seventy-five dollar prize.

Click here to see more photos from the event.

We’ve finally found an off-season use for broomball brooms (and it’s not for keeping the Lyman Lake geese at bay). Over the midterm break, Carleton held its first-ever Quidditch tournament on the field behind the Rec Center. The broomball paddles were part of an adapted set of rules for us Muggles who, sadly, don’t have flying brooms.

Earth-bound Quidditch saw its debut at Middlebury College in 2005. The Intercollegiate Quidditch Association, founded in Middlebury, has 105 member schools and is continuing to expand. The airborne parts of the game have been replaced by real-world analogs. Instead of flying around on their broomsticks, Quidditch players must run around with the broomball broom between their legs like a hobby horse. As a consequence, they can only use one hand to deal with the ball, just like in wizard Quidditch. The goals are hula hoops. The bludgers don’t have a mind of their own, of course, so they have to be thrown by members of the opposing team.

Click here to read on and see photos of the spirited event.