April 1,1995 Penn State University, Delaware County Campus Page 3 April Fools: The Story Behind The Story By Jennifer Holland You're sitting at home by yourself. The phone rings. Itisa deep male executive voice. He tells you all of your classes at Delco have been canceled due to financial reasons. After you hang up, you feel a deep knot in your stomach. “What am I going to do?” You say to yourself over and over again. You think about how much this is going to affect your academic career. About a half hour later, a bunch of your friends come to your house, laughing hysterically. April Fool's! If something like that has ever happened to you, then you know the feeling of wanting to take each of your friends by the neck and strangle them. Jake Thomas, occupational therapy, felt that way when a group of his friends pulled a similar stunt. “One time my friends took my car and made me think it was stolen. When I came outside of my house, my car was not there. I got so upset and waited, thinking maybe my mom had borrowed the car, but when she came home, she had my dad’s car. My friends had me believing I left the car keys in the car. When I was about to report it stolen, my friends were outside in the car honking the horn. I wanted to kill them!” April Fool's Day takes place on the first day of April every year. Such jokes and pranks are believed to have come from the celebrations of the spring equinox, which usually falls around March 21. Folklorists believe that the day begun in France in the year 1954 with the new calendar. It involved a person who refused to changed New Year’s Day from April 1 to January 1. As a result, this person was harassed by pranksters and became known as poisson d’avril , which means April fish. Freshman Michelle Bruno faithfully observes April Fool's Day every year. Michelle stated, “For the last two years in a row, I have teased the person I am dating. When I was in eleventh grade, my boyfriend had an eighth period class, while I was working in the school office. So I told everyone in the class that I was going to play a ‘break-up’ joke on him. Everyone told him that I was planning on breaking up with him and he was really hurt. At the end of the class, I saw him and he looked like a lost puppy. I felt so bad! believe it was only a joke!” Fooling someone can be funny, but it may not be to everyone. Eden Teklegiorgis, GNS, recalls a time when her family played a joke on a close friend and he became very angry. “One time we fooled our friend by telling him that our older brother was going to get married,” Eden claimed. “We even sent him a real invitation and he believed everything. After three days, we finally told him and he was real mad!” The spreading of April Fool’s Day began in the 18th century in England. Itisknown as hunting the gowk (cuckoo) in Scotland. Jim Fogarty, business administration, “hunted the gowk” once with a friend, an experience that ended up not being quite so funny. Jim said, “I called my friend's parents, pretending to be from the Malvern Police Station and told them to bring their son (my friend) down because two pounds of marijuana had been found in his bookbag. His parents went ballistic! They made him come home from the beach and everything. He didn’t know until three years later that it was me!” Flasher Fiend On The Loose Around Delco Area By Kia Walker LOOK OUT ALERT! Watch out, Penn State Students. There is a flasher lurking around campus. I don’t know who he is, but I was able to catch up with some of his victims. It’s funny that not one of them remember seeing his face. : One female student, who doesn’t want her name revealed, said that the sight of him was very frightening to see. She said that she had to dye her hair back to its natural color, when she got home, because it had turned white from the sight of him. The next victim who came up to me was a male. He doesn’t want his name revealed because of embarrassing reasons. He said the sight of the flasher was very interesting to look at. He also said that he almost died of laughter. There was one victim though, who stood out from all the rest. Her name is Tee. She said the sight of his feet was very horrifying, and that because of the hair that was growing out of them, she ended up getting sick all over his feet. So you tell me why a man with hairy feet would be going around campus flashing people. I honestly do not have the answer to that. All I know is that you better be careful, because you may be next on his list to witness this terrifying sight. The 10M°S High He couldn’t Kim Fleischer, Dr. Ginsberg, Eva Lulias and Reid Caster discussing “The Meaning of Life’’ in Phil 100. Photo by: WES TOMLINSON Happy April Fool’s Day! Catastrophe By Bill Bailey On Thursday March 16, the organic chemistry lab began an experiment designed to synthesize methyl benzoate. Between 9:30 and 9:45 am a flask containing methylene chloride, benzoic acid, and a small amount of concentrated sulfuric acid, the reagents neccessary for the synthesis of methyl benzoate boiled over. This was the result of one student not following specific orders ‘of the lab text book. This student apparently overlooked the addition of porcelain boiling chips, which are used to regulate the rapid boiling of such reactions. When the mixture overflowed onto the flameless mantle used to heat mixtures containing combustable organic compounds, a cloud of noxious vapors filled the lab. The student whose lab went askew received minor chemical burns on his face, hands, and forearms. Three of the sixteen students, along with the professor, whose names are being witheld until further investigation, suffered from respiratory trauma. All those involved were rushed to Riddle Memorial Hospital where they were treated and released. The lab has been declared off- limits until the investigation is completed. Student taking the course will be given an automatic "B" for the semester for "Bad luck." Delco Security Seeking Slightly Deranged Madman By Greg Bengston and David Whiteman In the history of Penn State Delco, there was only one fatal incident and one victim. There were no witnesses, no evidence, and no investigation. The truth was hidden in a journal and lost for twenty years. Until recently, all security reports were confidential and placed under file. A Pennsylvania law effective January 1, 1995 requires disclosure of all Delco security reports and documents to the public. While gathering information for an article concerning the reason there is no full-time evening security person on duty, we came across conflicting evidence. Our previous sources revealed that the last evening security person to work here at Delco was “fired” in 1975. Commenting on the incident, Delco administration stated that a “lack of funds” forced the position to be vacant. The file for “incidents relating to security, 1975” contained different information. The file indicated a murder on campus during the spring. The victim was a thirty-one year old male: Mike Reynolds, head of Delco evening security. : The murder took place on the lower floor of the library, in the reference section, on April 1. Apparently, the local police, after finding no evidence at the scene of the crime, let the library carry on its normal business the following Monday. Students, staff, and faculty were never told of the incident so as not to cause a panic. The crime was dismissed. The victim lived alone and had no immediate family known to the authorities. The only record of the first floor library incident was that of the security report filed the very next day by Delco day security. There was, however, one possible suspect, but due to reasons unknown, he was never approached about the incident. His name was Peter Steele, otherwise known to Delco students as “Old Pete.” He lived in an old, run down bungalow in the woods behind Delco. He lived only in the company of his two dogs, Sarge and Joe. “He was about sixty-five years old, seven feet tall, skinny as a mule is dumb, (Continued on page 5)
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers