"Lurid" and "redolent" yellow barrier mysteriously appears on community college campus (w/ update)

....."I could smell it as I approached," said one student. "Smells almost like paint."
....."Yeah," plus it's kind of suggestive," offered another student.
.....Neither student wished to be identified. Both attend the college (Irvine Valley, in Irvine).
....."We're taking final exams," said one.



UPDATE:

.....I was just funnin'. Rebel Girl made me take the pics late yesterday. I never ask her why she tells me to do things. I just do 'em. It usually works out fine.
.....This morning, I figured, since it was a slow news day, well....
.....Hence the absurd post. I like absurd.

* * * * *

.....At school (IVC) today, I was told by several people that there had been an accident on campus this morning. Evidently, a maintenance worker ran into a pole with his golf cart, breaking the vehicle's axle. Paramedics were called to the scene, though I believe that the worker is OK. Not sure.
.....This afternoon, I asked around a bit. I figured the accident couldn't have involved my "absurd" barrier: I would have noticed evidence, residue. So I wandered over behind the Student Services Center, where I espied three new bright yellow posts across a concrete path. (See.) Two acquaintances who work in SSC happened to be nearby; they confirmed that I had found the scene of the accident.
.....Apparently, it had been decided by somebody to add these yellow post-barriers at certain points on campus, perhaps for reasons of "safety." My acquaintances speculated that the maintenance worker was accustomed to traveling along the path, unobstructed by safety barriers.
.....Hence, the accident.


.....I dunno about you, but if I were to paint a post, I'd paint it before I stuck it in a hole. But what do I know. I'm just a philosopher.

.....Since I had my camera, I decided to take a few pics. It's a beautiful campus, isn't it? Watch for the speeding golf carts, though. And the yellow safety posts.

If you force them, they will come

From this morning's Chronicle of Higher Ed: Should Furman U. Faculty Be Forced to Attend Bush's Commencement Speech?:

.....Furman University’s commencement speaker, President Bush, is drawing protests from faculty, student, and other critics who say he should not have been invited, and in response a group calling itself Conservative Students for a Better Tomorrow is urging the university to force faculty members to attend the ceremony, even if they would prefer to skip it.
.....More than 200 critics, including students and faculty and staff members, have signed a “we object” letter in response to the announcement that Mr. Bush would address the graduating class on May 31, according to The Greenville News.
.....On Monday the conservative-student group issued its own letter, signed by 500 people. The letter calls on Furman to “hold professors to their contractual agreement to attend commencement exercises” and to either remove the “we object” letter from its Web site or post the conservative response in an equally visible spot on the Web site.
.....The senior-class leadership unanimously approved the invitation to Mr. Bush, the News reported. Furman is one of two commencement speeches the president is delivering this spring. The other, at the U.S. Air Force Academy, is scheduled for May 28. —Beckie Supiano

Rebel Girl's Poetry Corner: "here on this bridge between/starshine and clay"

.
A poem by Lucille Clifton. A celebration.

won't you celebrate with me

won't you celebrate with me
what i have shaped into
a kind of life? i had no model.
born in babylon
both nonwhite and woman
what did i see to be except myself?
i made it up
here on this bridge between
starshine and clay,
my one hand holding tight
my other hand; come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed.