Sleigh Ride to Great Room

Great Room Hell

August 23rd is the start of orientation for the class of 2016 which means 500 freshies and their various parental units are currently on campus moving in etc. What this roughly translates to is great room hell via you guys have NO idea what you're doing. As much as we will grow to love you, we maybe hate you the first few times we encounter you in the great room because we are hungry college students and you, yes you, are standing in the way of food. Below please find a list of great room etiquette aka how to not be hated

• Yes, you do use your student ID to swipe in. Just hand it to them. Say thank you. It's that easy.
• Yes, you can use it to swipe in parents/sibs/friends/so's or slutever.
• Don't make the aforementioned people pay for their own food via money. It is so much easier to just swipe them in and you are a freshman with a freshman meal plan. You will never use all of your blocks anyway.
• Please don't stand at the front of the line and have a big conversation with the whole family. Do that before. Oh my god.
• Have your ID out and know how many swipes you need
• If you are waiting for someone either wait outside of the great room area entirely or by the cubbies because if you stand in the middle of the food area I hate you.
• Boxes exist. You can take food out of the great room with them. They are nice. Ask for one when you swipe in.
• You can go back as many times as you want. 
• Big T makes the best crepes 
• Yeah that means you can get more than one huge chocolately crepe
• You're welcome
• Spiced chai is the bomb
• Just be a big kid and put your dirty dishes where they're supposed to go. If you leave them at the table i hate you AND you're an asshole.
• ALWAYS go to midnight breakfast
• At the end of the semester upperclassmen WILL try to mug you for blocks. If you are smart you can receive payment in form of beer which is super nice.

I think that is all you need to know for now. Feel free to add things I forgot in the comments for the education of first years.

-Natty Ho (da intern~)

J. Frank Raley Jr. Passes Away

J. passed away recently.  Yall may best know him as the dude whose portrait is hanging in the Great Room (added in...2010???).  Also according to The Bay Net the Great Room is named after him (did u kno this???)

But more importantly without this 'bro' St. Mary's would be a much different place.  He was really instrumental in transforming SMCM into a 4-year institution. 

So thx Raley for helping to establish the St. Mary's we all <3 br="br">

Fun Lunch Celebration? Or Horror Ice Cream Frenzy of Hell?

Any event that refers to a presence of fried food as a "deep fried frenzy" is an event that any person would find necessary to be at. Nothing attracts a gr8r00m crowd like a frenzy.

Honorable mention goes out to ice cream novelties. I hope they get the Spiderman or the Spongebob ice cream bars with the candy eyes. Those were always a personal favorite via summertime @ the ~public pool~ except the ice cream man was always way overpriced. Chances are there will be no Spongebob bars but maybe a personal request would work.

Now that I think about it these are some pretty terrifying ice creams. But what do y'all think? Should it be "Mac & Cheese" or "Mac -n- Cheese"? Scary ice cream? Feeding frenzy? Good things? Y/N?

Natty Boh Hunt

Hope yall had a great Natty Boh Hunt!  Here is a picture of cake that was in the Great Room for Easter, and some interesting looking Boh cans made for the hunt.

PANIC: Great Room Planning to Serve Blood

PANIC:  It would appear that the Great Room is going to be serving blood today.  I am not sure what else they could mean by food that is inspired by the series Twilight.

Yes, the Great Room is literally serving Twilight inspired food today.  Not sure how I feel about this.  Mostly feel that this is dumb, but also it is sort of a cute idea.  If they had done Star War Saturday then I would have thought this was awesome.  I just don't understand what they could serve other than blood via vampires eat blood.

Also, does anyone else love the Blade movies?  Best vampire movies.

Also, thanks to Hannah B for finding this GEM.

Ride Board

Ride Board has a long history here at St. Mary's.  Last decade (circa 07') there was a physical board outside the Great Room where people could post where they were going or where they wanted to go etc.  It was cool but not often used.

Then someone made a facebook group http://www.facebook.com/groups/smcmrideboard/ because the physical board disappeared and she wanted rides to visit her boyfriend (who was pretty cute).

Anyway, yall should check out the group and help people get rides to their homes, especially with Reading Days coming up.  Most people are willing to throw in gas money!

Shoeless in the Great Room

So, as yall may know the Great Room does not allow bros to come in and eat some delicious chicken patties (which will be available on Friday for lunch yall, someone please swipe me in, will make it worth your while *wink* via bloggin about u) without some "shoes".  A lot of dudes around these parts don't like to wear shoes for a variety of reasons such as

• Masochism
• Like to get glass in their feetsies
• Want to look cool
• Are hippies
• Barefoot running fad
• Poor
• Had sex on campus and threw their only pair in the shoe tree

So anyway, the Great Room as I recall does not allow bros to come in barefoot because it violates Health Code.  I decided to do some INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM and to figure out the validity of this claim and found this wee little site called barefooters.org which had the following letter from the MD health department http://www.barefooters.org/health-dept/MD2009.pdf (click the link for the full letter, see excerpt below).

So according to this letter there is no Health Department requirement that people wear shoes when in a food place.  THE PLOT THICKENS.

So I emailed David Sansotta about this, still waiting for a reply though.  Just tryna stir up trouble and not wear shoes in the Great Room yall.   Gonna ride this barefoot train till it crashes
.

Hallowgreens nostalgia

Two banditos and a Great Room lady (Rose I think???)

Soft Serve Machine

Back in 1986 SMCM had a soft serve machine for ice cream stuff.  I have heard of this before but now I see a photo of it.

What BULLSHIT.  Why don't we get a soft serve machine.  We are clearly degrading as an institution if we no longer have soft serve machine.  It looks so delicious, I wish I was eating it right now because it is kinda hot out (via humidity).  I also went for a bike ride and raced some twelve year olds from the pool so I am kinda sweaty (I won btw).

I'm not actually upset regarding this I just thought it would be funny to freak out about it.  Also this girl has cool hair.

The Return of Kohler's!

Do yall remember Kohler's?  Kohler was some dude who sold pizza out of the Great Room on the weekend nights (also may have been a bit of a creep via unconfirmed rumors)!  He hired a bunch of kids to ferry the pizzas across campus and it was the greatest thing ever.  Especially the buffalo chicken pizza.  It was the best way to end a wonderful Saturday night.

Anyways, Kohler's graduated/died in '09 and so did the business.  Some clubs tried to revitalize it, but ultimately it never made much money and it was a hassle for Bon Appetit.  But this weekend Habitat for Humanity is going to be selling St. James Pizza (which I can confirm is completely delicious) for $10.50!  Only from 7-9 though which is kinda lame, but overall still cool.

Pretty coooooooool stuff (but seriously 75cent wings is absurd).

SGA Meeting 2/1/2011 + Some Encounters!

Was at the SGA Meeting last night obviously, here are some highlights:

• Stephon Dingle ate a banana
• Kelly Smolinsky talked about changes to Room Draw (how you pick your housing for next year) and implied that Advising Day is not just for Mati Tais and Bon-Bons.  Not sure if I agree with her sentiment
• At one point people kept saying mandate, so I started thinking about 'Man Dates' and I giggled a lot.
• Other stuff happened blah blah blah

Also some encounters I recently had:

• Last night at Dinner Marlena and I were hungry after a Mold Ad-Hoc Committee meeting so we went up to the great room to look for someone to swipe us in, since we both do not have meal plans. I asked a random girl to swipe us in and she did!  I do not know who she is, but thank you!  I should have asked her name maybe.
• I was walking into Schaefer Hall today and a girl on crutches was coming out, and then she held the door open for me!  Holding the door open for people is pretty common here I think, but I have never someone who was injured hold a door open for me.  It was very kind of her!  But I think if I was in crutches I would have maybe not done this.  Not sure!
• Roommate came home last night and said 'water' at least one hundred times.

Dining, Past and Present!

People hav been eating food for decades, both at St. Mary's and in the real world!  Food is an essential part of the college experience, from food fights to the freshman 15 to what you puke up after drinking too much (bonus points if the food is still recognizable!)

Anyways, thanks to the sweet photo archive that the school hosts, we have a glimpse into past dining experiences at SMCM.  Let's take a look!

Above we have a dinner from 1950.  While this may look fancy (via tables are not in long rows) I am guessing this is how these biddies from the Seminary Junior College always ate (note:  dudes started attending by 1949/50, but I'm guessing not many went in the fist year).  Those are some sweet chairs.  Kinda cool how everyone is in a group of exactly eight friends, since every table is filled up.  I guess times were different in the 50s.  Also, they were eating on the ground floor of Calvert Hall, how absurd! I think this might have been before the Calvert Hall fire, but I'm not really sure (via I can't remember).

Moving on, we have this photo from the year 1970!  That kid on the right with the stache looks like Joe Clemens!!!  Woah that is really creepy.  But he also kinda looks like Kyle Prinkey.  And the kid that is closest to the camera kinda looks like Paul Sauchelli.  Regardless, as you can see these dudes like orange juice, even though it isn't breakfast!  They also have trays (which we got rid of a year or two ago) and fancy looking plates and silverware.  It looks very much like a high school sort of lunch.  Note that they were eating in Charles Hall, the precursor to the Campus Center.  You can see a model of it in the Library if you are curious, it's kinda weird looking.

Lastly we have this cool photo from 1973.  It looks like the have stuff set out on plates for people to grab, instead of self-serve like we have today.  Not much else to say I guess, looks pretty standard.

Gonna miss u Great Room.  I didn't get a meal plan this semester, so if you see me starving please swipe me in, and I shall regale you with stories of my past.

Great Room Hatin'

Hatin' may be the wrong term, but there's an interesting event on The Facebook (lol, Katy Arnett ironically calls it this and I giggle a lot when she does, I think my Mom unironically says it thought) regarding the quality of the Great Room http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=166205076746283&index=1

Interesting comments, didn't know there was so much anger.  Feel like I kinda failed as Chair of the Food Services Committee last year (but not really, we tried several times to meet with them but it was difficult due to changing management etc., but new dude seems real receptive to feedback!) by not realizing this stuff.

Goddamit I just miss chicken patties.  I understand that they are not locally made, but that is some of the most delicious 600 calorie (yes, srsly 600 calories, you could look it up on their website.  This explains why it was sooooooo good) piece of meat in existence.

So, dear readers, what do you think about the great room?  Kinda feel like maybe quality has gone down a bit, or at least selection, but the school has also been cash-strapped (via economy) so I don't really blame them.  Just glad people are upset at the Great Room as an institution, and not the people (although that weekday omelet guy always seemed upset at me for some reason).

Regardless, I think I'm gonna opt out of a meal plan next semester.  So much cheaper just cooking for myself.

Crabs in the Great Room

After some intense investigative journalism (via going to the Bon Appetit Menu page and searching for 'crab') it would appear that tomorrow the Great Room will be serving crabs!  Probably at lunch, maybe also at dinner.  Personally I'm all crabbed out (via there are still a dozen sitting in my fridge and all my fingers have small cuts on them) but this should be exciting news for many of you.

Great Room generally does this once a semester, and the day that they do it is often mysterious (I think).

When I was a young child I wanted to have a pet crab.  I remember once we bought some live crabs to steam later that evening, and I spent the afternoon following one of the crabs around my yard (via using a stick to get him out of the crab pot).  It was a grand affair, and I miss Chadwick to this day (Chadwick is the obvious name for any crab, but some prefer Charles [these people are incorrect]).

SGA Erections

SGA erections for Senators are going on right now until Friday. Go vote for people!

For the Townhouses I voted for

• Tom Seahawk
• Julie Franck
• Chicken Patties from the Great Room  <3>

I would recommend that everyone vote similarly

p.s. lol look at those typos I made tehehe

Fancy Dining Utensils

On Tuesday the Grab and Go was closed due to advising day, so I had to go to the Great Room for lunch. I decided to get a box since my advising meeting was soon and the Great Room was about to close but I wasn't hungry yet. So on the way out I went to grab some plastic utensils and found the item pictured above. It came with all three utensils, a really really nice napkin (like, the highest quality disposable napkin you can imagine) and a thing to hold it all together. I don't know why it was so fancy, but it was pretty sweet/a total waste.