Did You Know? WFU Style
As I look around campus today, I see a lot of the same stuff that’s been going on all week. Students heading to their finals (with pinched, purposeful faces) or the library (with big backpacks). Students moving out with bags and boxes and their worldly possessions. The Quad getting spiffed up for Commencement (newly painted light poles and trim on buildings, grass looking green and lush).
Since it isn’t a newsy kind of day, I thought today we’d play a little bit of Do You Know? Wake Forest style.
I hope that everyone out in Deacland reads and enjoys the wonderful Wake Forest Magazine that comes to your homes a few times a year. I know well the creative team behind it and they are terrific people who have vision and style and certainly a way with words. They also can uncover stories that are unique and fun. Yesterday was one such day.
Our very talented Maria Henson (’82), who heads up the magazine, writes the Deacon Blog. Yesterday she had a feature on a connection between designer Lilly Pulitzer and Wake Forest. Who knew? And if you doubt Lilly P’s enduring impact on Wake Forest, you should walk around on a sunny day (when finals are not in session of course) and you will see Lilly skirts or shifts or bags.
In more magazine news, they have a feature called Remember When? Did you know Wake had fallout shelters so we could hide in case of a nuclear war? Or that Archie Bunker was a Deac? Remember When has the scoop on the inside story.
With Commencement just around the corner, there are some fun Did You Knows about our ceremony and its history. This one strikes me: “8,500 bottles of water were distributed in 1993, when temperatures soared to the high 90s during the ceremony.” (It strikes me because I graduated in 1992 and I would swear that the heat of my graduation prompted the addition of water bottles a year later.)
Even the Physics department has gotten in on the Did You Know trend. If you visit their page and scroll down, they have a few factoids there. My favorite: “The concept of momentum, taught in physics courses, shows that a karate strike aimed slightly behind the target achieves the most force.” (Duly noted).
Jenny Puckett (’71), who taught Spanish for many years, did a wonderful lecture a few years ago about Seven Things You Probably Didn’t Know About You Mother (So Dear). Jenny is a gifted alumni who has picked up the mantle of our go-to Wake Forest historian and keeper of the flame.
As your Deacs continue to finish up with finals and head out (or head to the beach!), we wish them well.