Chris Dabbs '15

If you have not already heard, it snowed here quite a lot a few days ago.  The surprising thing about this snow was that it came well into March.  It was as though Winter was trying to hold onto its season with a firm, icy grip.  As all of the students on Wabash college crossed their gloved fingers in hopes of cancelled classes, a few friends and I decidedly to patrol the campus in search of a snowball fight.  Unfortunately, after visiting a

You’re never to old to roll around in the snow.

majority of the living units on campus, we had no adversaries to pummel with snow balls.  We, instead, settled on playing in the snow that had accumulated in the mall.  A few guys wanted to build snowmen, but the snow just wasn’t sticky enough.  What began with my desire to build an igloo, turned into me being almost entirely buried in the mall.  As the night crept in, we decided that it would be a great idea to end with something warm to drink.  We headed to the brew and got some nice, warm drink.  Vanilla chai, for me.  It was a fun, cold night.

Last Friday was the National Act, and it was one that I was actually excited for.  Ralphie May was the runner-up for the first season of last comic standing, and I have been watching him for a long time.  Ralphie May is known (by those who watch comedy, at least) to be a very dirty comic.  There is no question about it.  

Me and Ralphie May.

While it seemed as though there were a few uncomfortable people (maybe they didn’t know who Ralphie May was), it seemed to have been received well.  My friends split my laughs into two categories: stage one and stage two.  Stage one laughing can be defined as a chuckle.  A “haha, that was pretty funny”.  Stage two laughing, on the other hand, is a cacophonous sputtering of monosyllabic words permeated by deep-drawn breaths to keep me from fainting.  During most of Ralphie May’s act, I was shifted directly into stage two laughter.  There was no revving time, no warming up of my vocal cords.  It was just a solid hour and a half of my brain getting less oxygen than it should have been.  I loved the act.  Also, knowing that he went over his allotted time (by about twice as much, for free) I have a lot more respect for him.

Interesting.

One of our very own, Dr. Flink ’72, gave a presentation entitled “Creationism vs. Evolution: A Worldview Conflict”.  I thought the presentation was interesting, and it gave me a few things that I hadn’t previously heard of and needed to research myself.  One of my largest problems with the presentation is the way that it is presented.  Rather than comparing an contrasting the two sides of the creation coin, Dr. Flink blatantly pushes his own agenda: Creationism.  He even goes as far as saying that evolution is physically impossible and that there is no real evidence for it.  Dr. Flink and I come from much different “worldviews” (although we used to share worldviews until left Catholic school and took a real science course), but I just can’t get over how completely biased the argument was.  I gave a presentation the evening following Dr. Flink’s entitled “Why Do We Believe?: Topics in Homeopathy and Religion” in which I talk about many of the empirical ways that we form beliefs.  A major theme in my presentation is the roll of human biases, which Dr. Flink’s presentation was riddled with.

Each year, the Wabash College Glee Club puts on a large campus concert.  It is our longest concert of the entire year, and it is what we practice towards for months on top of months.  This year, the Campus Concert is taking place on 3/23 (tomorrow) at 4:00pm in Salter Hall in the Fine Arts Center.

This year we have a huge spread of songs: various sea shanties, a plethora of love songs, pieces to make you cry, some to make you laugh.  We have a large repertoire this year, so there is bound to be a genre, or song, in the performance that you enjoy.  On top of the Glee Club, we have two other performances by other groups.  Our very own “piano mob” is playing a piece that requires eight (I believe) pianists crowded around one piano.  If you have never heard all 88 keys of a piano played at one, and you would like to, come out to the concert.  The other group is a smaller ensemble chosen from the larger Glee Club.  We are called the T-Tones (short for Testostertones) and we do pieces that are more attuned for smaller groups, including barbershop pieces (we’ll be doing one of these in the concert).

If you have a spare couple of hours tomorrow, I suggest coming out to the Campus Concert.  You won’t regret it.

One of the worst things about being away from home for college is the inability to be cared for when you’re sick.  Now, you may be saying to yourself, “Chris, you are 20 years old, you should be able to take care of yourself”.  To which I would answer: you’re completely right.  Being a young man, I should be able to take care of myself, and I do.  However, no amount of taking care of myself can match up to a mother’s TLC.  First semester of my freshman year, I got quite ill.  While the sickness was bad, the worst part of the ordeal was being away from home in a new place.  All I wanted was my own room and my own bed.  Now, since I have gotten more comfortable at Wabash, it isn’t missing home that is the worst part, it’s missing family.  I guess that’s a taste of adult life: taking care of yourself.

That’s all I can manage to type out for you through this illness.  I am going to go back into quarantine, now.  Have a nice day.

Recently, my life has been consumed by psychology studies.  In one of my psychology courses, I partook in around 3 hours worth of experimentation for the class.  It was long, monotonous process.  However, the fact that this experiment will further my understanding of the subject matter creates a bright light at the end of this dark tunnel.  I am also working on my own experiment for my Stats II class.  I have poured a huge amount of time into this experiment, but it will all be worth it.  Here is a bit of advice: unless you think that you’ll REALLY love experimentation do not become a psychology major here at Wabash.

Coming this weekend is the first National Act, during my time at Wabash, that I am extremely excited for.  Comedian Ralphie May will be performing at Wabash.  Ralphie May was a runner up on the first season of last-comic standing, beaten out by Dat Phan (Mr. May should not have lost, in my opinion).  I have never seen a Ralphie May stand-up program that has not left me in stitches.  Ralphie May’s uncensored racial commentary makes me cry from laughing.  If you would like a snippet of his stand-up, here’s one that is Rated-R.

That’s all for today! Have a nice week.

This St. Patrick’s Day blog is coming in a little late, but it is here nevertheless.  I spent my St. Paddy’s Eve in Chicago, the city with the third largest percentage of people with Irish ancestry in the US (according to Wikipedia).  I was in Chicago for a concert that was being put on my one of my favorite bands: Gaelic Storm.

Gaelic Storm!

This is the second year in a row that I’ve seen Gaelic Storm in Chicago on St. Paddy’s Eve.  In Wabash terms, it has now become a tradition.  If I were to compare the two concerts (last year and this year), I would have to give the gold medal to last year, which you can read about here: http://goo.gl/OmNlU.  This year, the opening act was cancelled, which put a considerable damper on the experience.  We did get a small taste of the Chicago Pipe Band, just like last year, and they were fantastic.  When the main act finally came out, they were wonderful.  Gaelic Storm is the only band that I have seen live that sounds exactly like they do on their studio albums.  I highly suggest checking them out/seeing them live if you enjoy them.  It is a fun experience!

Every St. Patrick’s Day, the Chicago River is turned green.

While I have no factual proof that I am of Irish decent (it’s just the word in my family), I enjoy St. Patrick’s Day.  I am not a fan of the original meaning behind the day, the bringing of Christianity to Ireland by St. Paddy, I enjoy the more secular connotation that it has come to hold in the US.  I just see it as a huge day of celebration, similar to Cinco de Mayo.  While the day holds a deeper meaning, for many it is just an excuse to hang out with friends and drink.  I am okay with this.

I hope that your St. Paddy’s Day was safe and enjoyable!

Last night, Patrick Stroud presented for the Society for the Furthering of the Liberal Arts, a group on campus in which the members teach each other things that, necessarily, aren’t readily available through a Wabash course.  For example, last year, I gave a presentation on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and exactly why they are neglected.  Patrick’s presenation was entitled: DePauw and “Deep Play”; what a college sports rivalry has to do with Balinese cock-fighting.

It may sound like an odd title, but it all comes to make sense.  Patrick began by mentioning something that we are all, at least a bit, familiar with: The Wabash/DePauw rivalry and the Monon Bell.  The namesake “Deep Play” comes from the idea that a sporting event holds no inherent value, and that value is given to it by the participants.  We then  talked about the men of Bali and how they use their “cocks” (fighting roosters) not only to win a bit of case on the side, but as a tangible manifestation of their masculinity (you can see the entendres that can be made here).  The fighting cocks aren’t just cocks.  They are more than that because the men of Bali have made them more than that.  In the same way, the Monon Bell has been made more than just a bell.  We have given the Bell more symbolic meaning than it’s inherent value (I mean, look at the way we make it a proper noun).  We learned about something called “thick description”; a term that means no symbol should be taken literally.  Just as the fighting roosters of Bali represent more than what they actually are, so does the Monon Bell.

It was a very interesting presentation, and it is a perfect example of what the Society of the Liberal Arts stands for: extracurricular learning.  If you find yourself curious about this group, I suggest waiting for an email about our next presentation. 

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Chris, the Wabash One Acts haven’t taken place recently”.  You would be right but, I’m not writing about the Wabash One Acts, I’m writing about the DePauw One Acts (*gasp*).

Last night, I accompanied my girlfriend, a Danny, into enemy territory to watch these plays that were written by Depauw students.  The three, one-act plays were entitled “Battle, Baby, Bird”, and they were quite good.  I found myself laughing out loud at the funnier plays, and being drenched in solemn emotion during the more serious bits.  Overall, they were very enjoyable.

Changing sets in between plays.

As a Wabash man, I know that I am supposed to have this “hate” for DePauw that is driven by centuries (okay, maybe not that long) of feuding.  I am meant to look down at the neanderthalic Danny-boys and smirk in the knowledge that I am a better man, but I am continuously gaining more and more respect for the the school to the south, and the students that attend it.

The reason that the word “best” is asterisked in the title of this blog is because there are two warring Philly cheese-steak stands in South Philadelphia: Pat’s and Geno’s.  Some people prefer Pat’s and some people prefer Geno’s, and that’s that.  Today, we ate at Pat’s and tomorrow we will eat at Geno’s.  We’re going to decide for ourselves which is better.

Me and Ben Franklin. He’s a chill dude.

Today we visited the National Constitution Center, an organization, and museum, that is dedicated to spreading the history behind the Constitution. The National Constitution Center was the building in which the Constitution was signed and ratified.  There is a very cool room in this building in which there are life size, bronze replicas of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.  The entire room holds this kind of eerie presence.  There is almost tangible static in the air between the signers, and the desenters, because of how absolutely realistic they look.  Also, as an aside, I never realized how tall George Washington was.  As a guy that’s approximately 5’10, Washington was pretty intimidating.  6’2, square-jawed, and broad shouldered, the statue of Washington was quite a sight.

Another cool thing about the National Constitution Center is their state display around the upper floor, where the Glee Club performed.  There is an open, circular, railed area that looks down onto the first floor.  Around this railed area there are engravings on the floor for each state/US territory and the date in which it became a state/US territory.  Above each of these engravings the flag for the respective state/US territory.  It was a very cool display.  Cool enough that I took a picture with it.

We are in good ol’ historic Philadelphia for a few more days.  I’ll be sure to keep you all up to date.

The last two days have consisted of approximately 18 hours of bus rides, one Methodist mass (which was very Catholic), and the impromptu serenading of a food court.  So it’s been, what the kids like to call, real.

Glee Club Spring Tour brings us to Pennsylvania this year and, so far, it’s been a real gas.  After staying an evening with host families (mine happened to be Dr. Bowen’s sister and borther-in-law, along with Dr. Bowen, Dr. Z, and my friend Scotty Cameron) and a wonderful tour of Pittsburgh given by Greg Glass, Dr. Bowen’s brother-in-law, we have found our way to Philadelphia.  While I haven’t gotten any cheese steak yet, the time is nigh.  I’ll include a couple of pictures from the festivities below:

A sign in the front window of a restaurant/lounge that we ate in.

A bucket of fries from the aforementioned restaurant. Yes, a bucket.

I’ll be regularly updated my blog with pictures/video of the festivities so stay tuned.