Cockroaches and Sack Fights - I'm sorry, my dentures must have slipped

When Philler started, it was written with one purpose in mind: to take up space. Filler similar to those cartoons we see every few weeks when the total amount of articles and ads doesn't happen to add up to multiples of four pages. The editors were looking at a few pages of cartoons that day... So on September 28, 1993, under the guise of the names of our computers, the first Philler was written. We still have more fun than a chicken in an Eggo factory thinking about how many people were looking for the two girls who wrote this column. All the work was done by our computers, so being the hopeless chivalrous type, we decided that they should get the credit rather than the two guys who just sat in front of them thinking up the silly stuff. Plus, it worked incredibly well to help keep the anonymity...

By the end of last year, however, most people who cared knew who we were. Public appearances and signing our names to the last article of the year kind of tips people off. But the pseudonyms are much more catchy than real names so we still use them this year.

Anonymity is a funny thing. On one hand, it keeps you safe, and with little consequence, you can basically say whatever you want. On the other hand, it keeps you safe, and with little consequence, you can basically say whatever you want. Over the years, we've tried to be careful to keep this fact in check. We try not to take cheap shots simply because we can. In our articles, we try to keep the mood light, even when we do have a serious point. (It's true, sometimes we do say something important. Check out the Philler (Ph)Archives on the web and see for yourself.) It's amazing what you can get away with if you add a little humour to it... Even with adding humour, some people will always over-react. Let's do a little experiment, shall we?

Even with the granite pillars and chains, some people just won't give up trying to use West Street. The other day, I was walking down the middle of the closed off section of West Street, and heard a car engine behind me. Plant Services and the Higgins Labs construction still need to use the street every once in a while, so no big deal, I simply moved over and walked on the sidewalk.

As I walked, the engine sound started getting louder. Not from the street side of me, as most normal people would expect, but directly behind me. You ever see those bumper stickers that read, "If you don't like the way I drive, stay off the sidewalk?" I used to think those were silly, until I finally broke down and turned around to see a WPI Police cruiser a couple feet behind me driving on the sidewalk! I thought they were the ones hired to make sure people didn't do that kind of thing! The urge to stop and throw myself off the hood of the car just to see what would happen was almost overwhelming. Free tuition, I thought. Unfortunately, I was already running late and my throwing - myself - off - the - hood - of - a - Police - car - just - to - get - free - tuition (T. M. O. T. H. O. A. P. C. J. T. G. F. T.) skills were a bit rusty. I decided instead to simply get out of the way as the car swerved in between the fire hydrant and one of those new-fangled WPI trash baskets. Makes ya wonder who, exactly, kept destroying those old baskets, huh? Rowdy frat guys? Maybe not...

As you read that last paragraph, Campus Police are busy calling up the Newspeak office to complain about us. They do that whenever we mention them in one of our articles. It's rather amusing, actually. The editors get complaints for things for which they aren't even responsible. DAKA's the same way. We have never gotten any letters from either of these groups. We just hear the complains second-hand.

This brings us to our second topic - Apathy. There has been a lot of talk as of late about apathy on campus. Face it, whenever you have a group this large, you'll have some people with apathy. You'll have people with incredible ambition. You'll have people who like to hang hedgehogs upside down and make them listen to Weird Al Yankovic non-stop at 1:00 in the morning! With this many people, you'll have a little bit of everything. Trust us, we've seen a lot of it. Actually, that could possibly explain much of our bizarre sense of humour...

Either way, yes, there's apathy; No, there isn't apathy; and the ever popular, I don't care if there's apathy. A few weeks ago, there was an article requesting pranks on campus. Something to bring the campus together. Something to reduce the amount of apathy. We whole-heartedly condone this.

Then we had the return of the Goat's head. In our going on fifth year around the WPI campus, we've never seen such enthusiasm about something around here. Strangers banding together with one common goal: to get a silly looking, impressively heavy, chunk of metal. People of all classes involved in a great deal of planning, strategy, intuition, loyalty, trickery, and back-stabbing. Ya gotta love it. It was all in fun, no one got hurt (to our knowledge), many friends were made, and the whole thing had more plot twists than Alfred Hitchcock could have ever dreamed.

As with any good thing that comes along, the next week, someone wrote an article in Newspeak suggesting that some of the people involved with the Goat's Head activities should be arrested. We waited for the punch line, but there was none. For whatever reason, the article was not signed. Anonymity is a funny thing... Especially when it's paired with apathy. (Notice how all the threads are pulling together now. Exciting, isn't it?) Basically, they wanted to participate in the festivities, but according to their article, they waited until everything had been planned before they volunteered to help. No one likes committees, but that's the way they work. Requests for help and ideas to represent the Class of 1996 had gone out way in advance.

The right to express an opinion is perfectly legitimate. We do that every week. That's also why we choose to print letters that we receive in our column all the time. This year, Newspeak has been printing editorials almost regularly (scary) and with the letters to the editors that they receive, in addition to the letters we get, it shows that people are truly interested in things going on around campus and are actually standing up for them, denouncing them, explaining them, and in general making their voices heard.

Not approving of an activity is one thing. Looking back to attack an activity only after apathy didn't allow you to participate, however, is another. The article would have taken on a far more sincere atmosphere if you had excluded that one paragraph. Everyone should learn to fight apathy, and never use it as a crutch.

Last week there were an impressive amount of articles written in the paper. Most of them were very well written, and Mike Caprio's was one of the best commentary we've seen to date. All of the participation is very encouraging and we're happy to see that lack of apathy is making a comeback. If you write for Newspeak, we thank you for keeping our articles company on those pages. To those of you who haven't written for Newspeak, write something. Find something that's important to you, something that bothers you, something you'd like to know more about and write. If you don't know what to write, send e-mail to newspeak@wpi.edu to find out about writer's meetings and get a topic.

You've got a whole fall break ahead of you. That's a lot of free time and we're sure you can think of something. If you do decide to write commentary, not everyone will agree with you. Remember that, and respect that. Be sure to see how you're words will sound to people who don't know you, know the facts, and be proud of your thoughts - sign your name.

Have a good break and don't eat too many pretzels.

Send your thoughts, observations, and questions to us at philler@philler.com...