And they say that IVC doesn’t have any culture!
For quite some time now, faculty have grumbled about the oppressive air in IVC’s A200, a building which houses numerous faculty offices and several classrooms. They grumble about other buildings, too, but today’s story is about A200.
Mr. S has been the noisiest—and the sickliest—wheel on the A200 wagon o' complaint. Last week, he was hackin’ and coughin’ and snivelin’ all over the place, and he sounded like shit. By Thursday, somebody found him drooling, apparently near death, by the water cooler. (Well, not really. But he did squawk a lot.)
Well, that tore it.
And so, on Friday, Ms. P, a scientist who knows her mold, told S to place one of her petri dishes on his office floor. It was the kind of dish used for growing bacteria and whatnot. I think it’s got some kinda slime or something in it, but what do I know?
As per directions, S removed the cover of the petri dish for maybe an hour and a half. He then replaced the cover and put the dish on P’s office desk, where it remained, undisturbed, for the prescribed period.
Peevish Mr. S didn’t think anything would happen. I mean, this “petri dish” is just a little thing of glass, and it was just exposed to the air. —And only for, like, an hour and a half.
Forgetaboutit.
But no. On Monday, Ms. P examined the dish and was amazed to find that over a dozen vibrant and hideous mold cultures had grown in the dish, nearly covering its entire bottom (see).
She studied the spores. She identified several of the cultures, including penicillin.
“Some people are allergic to penicillin,” she declared.
Rebel Girl raised her hand. “Yeah.”
After a while, Ms. P announced that there were one or two little Mold Monsters in the dish that she could not identify! She frowned.
People gathered around and marveled at the mold, careful not to breath. There sure was a lot of it.
“This furry dish was exposed to the air for only an hour and a half?” I asked.
“Yup,” said Mr. S. “Then I put the thing immediately in P’s office.”
I looked at Ms. P. I said: “This can’t be good, right?” Ms. P confirmed that, indeed, it is not good. Indeed, said she, it is very bad.
We all stared at the furry glass. If you squinted, it looked like a tiny spore pizza, with all the fixins.
This morning, P presented the dish to IVC President Glenn Roquemore, a fellow who knows about rocks, I guess, but not about spores. Ms. P communicated her alarm concerning the colonies of mold that had developed so quickly and happily in the A200 petri dish. Reportedly, Glenn didn’t take much convincing.
So it looks like the air conditioning is gonna get a bleach treatment as soon as Glenn can arrange that, cuz he’s on the case.
So expect to see the work done maybe next month.
THE DAY OF THE TEQUILA. Today, at IVC, I encountered a pleasant little “Day of the Dead” exhibit. Rebel Girl had told me about it. She said something about a blender, but I couldn’t find one. Somethin’ about margaritas. She said it was in the A-Quad, which is next to the Clock Tower.As far as I can tell, nobody at IVC knows that the “A-Quad” exists. Students sure don’t know about it. I once saw a student wander in there. He stopped, looked around, seemingly amazed by the inexplicable nothingness there. He then went off to his class. What was he thinking?
Well, they put this “Day of the Dead” thing right there in the A-Quad, the place least likely to see traffic. When I got
there, a pleasant lady was sitting next to the exhibit. She looked like she’d been sitting there, by herself, all morning. Check out the pics. It’s not a bad exhibit.
But what’s the deal with the Tequila bottle? And what happened to the blender? --CW
UPDATE: (Nov. 2)
I asked Ms. P if she could identify some of the mold in the petri dish. She wrote this down--and I mighta got it wrong, cuz I can't read her writing worth a toot: :
Penicillium - potential allergin
Aspergillus - allergy, resperatory infection
Stachybotrep - allergy, resperatory and skin irritant and some strains give off gases that are nerve toxins.I noticed some workers on the roof of A200 today, and so it could be that Rocky's on the case after all. (See.)
When I saw her today, Ms. P had a bag with her. Inside the bag was some kind of slime mold or something. She knows about such things. I took a picture.
I'm glad I didn't go into the sciences, what with the formaldehyde and the slime and all. I had to get the slime mold out of my mind, so I went out and found a flower. We've got flowers, you know. --CHUNK
13 comments:
Um, the tequili is for the dead guy. I guess the skulls are for him too. What a dead guy would do with skulls, I don't know, but these are gifts for him, the dead guy. You see this stuff at bone yards all the time. Check it out. Bring candy.
You can't make this stuff up.
If I didn't have so many papers to grade, I'd do some research about the college's legal responsibility and moral obligation to provide healthy working conditions for employees - and students (don't forget -- there are classrooms in this building).
Bleaching the vents isn't going to to a damn thing about the bacteria thriving in that spotty blue thing they call a carpet...
and wasn't Mr. S's longtime office mate (recently retired) chronically ill these last few years with a series of respiratory ailments that never healed?
Has anyone contacted her?
Why are faculty doing these tests?
Where's the adminstration's leadership?
If they can't maintain the buildings and resources they already have why for god's sake are they given money to build even more buildings?
Where is the oversight?
Wasn't there an secretary in A-200 some years back who was sick all the time and finally had to leave? she had the offcie by the mailboxes...
I think you guys want to contact Cal OSHA - they have an enforcement unit that would be very interested in the conditions you describe at a public school.
Everything is online these days - just google and click away.
Good luck -
I am glad that there is a rose for you-all to find and sniff, bein's how there is so little to cheer you. I'm also sort of amazed: one would think that all beautiful natural objects might just shrivel and die, given the malaise at the College. Fortunately, nature cares not a whit about morality.
Nice pic, Chunk.
To sound like a teenager: Dude...that mold is friggen gross.
Now that that's out of the way, I'm an Actor and Singer and I can't be breathing that stuff in! Isn't there a rule or something that protects student's health?
Why oh why does the singular thing the college does to recognize Mexican culture have to feature as its centerpiece a TEQUILA bottle?
What gabacho put this thing together?
What were they thinking? Or is this more of the same kind of thinking that bnrought us the surfer dude and hotties?
Now, I know, I know, us Latinos should simply be grateful that they let us stay here right?
But, this is a college, not some kind of cheap happy hour bar that sees all our holidays as times to get drunk. I'm surprised they weren't handing out sombreros...
(And what's with those BANANAS ont he altar ?!?)
Maybe next year, the district can hire some kind of cultural consultant (They do like to dish out the big bucks for those consultants, don't they? It makes them feel like they're doing something.) and can give the admin types some lessons in, uh, Cultural Sensitivity 101.
Ay yi yi.
Fuck the Chancellor. Fuck the President. Fuck Mr. White. Love the Students. Appreciate the Faculty. Complement the Staff. Carl Rove
PS Buy those coward fucks some backbone. Good Night!
NOW, CARL, don't be that way. And watch your language; this is a family blog. But do say hello to George for me. --Woof.
Now that the prez has sent people to pour Clorox through the ceiling vents, maybe we should run another petri dish test this week and see what's left...I figure more of the same.
What do you say to a weekly mold update?
A responsible and conscientious leader would inform his subjects that they are, indeed, being subjected to mold exposure and its possible health effects.
But, nooooooooooooooooooooo!
Not a word.
Nada, pues nada.
Strange Bacon:
I'll ask Ms. P if she's willing to do the tests. In any case, we'd love to do a weekly update. I do think we'll have to do our own tests or have some agency come in and do the tests. We can't depend on our administration.
--Tofurkey in the Mornin'
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