Having obtained a huge piece of white paper from the shop, we knew we had to make a spectacular art piece with it. Wildcat's interest in origami prompted us to make a giant crane, with a 4 foot wingspan. Our intent was to hang it on lines over the second floor railing, in lobby of the residence hall. Our dreams would take flight!

Unfortunately, it was a Friday night, and the place was crawling with inquisitive cops and crabby RAs. No sooner had we readied the rigging system to it over the rail than... the RAs made us take it down, saying it was a "fire hazard." Ha ha ha. Watch it spontaneously combust and fall down on innocent students walking beneath.

We were upset, because we had spent 2 or 3 hours on the Crane by this time. We placated our angry spirits by sitting on the couch in the lobby, making small newspaper cranes and setting them out on the floor. We also put a tape player in the newspaper recycling bin and played "Sounds of the Barbary Coast," a hideously funny and annoying tape of a honky-tonk movie-house piano.

All went well, until the RAs got angry again. We had our first clash with our arch-nemesis, the RA who Shall Not be Named. He took our ID cards, wrote us up, and dropped our cards down over the railing to us. Oh the bitter, bitter irony! All the cops were in attendence as well.

After this, needless to say, we were extremely upset. Before the anger exploded into something that really would be a fire hazard, we took a walk. For 6 miles. At midnight. Somewhere between stalking vengefully out of the hall, and sitting on the bench down at the end of the neigboring town and watching the fog, we simmered down enough to express our feelings in a drawing which details all the things that would be fire hazards in an RA's mind. We posted it on Wildcat's door. This was, in the true spirit of misunderstanding, later interpreted as a threat of arson, which caused preppie girls to go home and whine to their parents and the worried parents to call the school. And yes, this really did happen.

So, at this point, the saga of the crane seemed finished. All that remained were disciplinary meetings with our respective Area Coordinators, the guys in charge of each hall. Gryphon's meeting was boring, unproductive, and she got a Warning because she was found to have violated Rule 24.b from the Residential Living Code: "Storage of personal items of any kind in public areas." Wildcat met with The One With the Plastic Rat In His Office, and they got to discuss Video Games. Video games!

The One With the Plastic Rat In His Office graciously allowed us to put the Crane up for half an hour for pictures. The best part was when the RAs all came out from a meeting and The One With the Plastic Rat In His Office prevented them from ripping us to shreds with their teeth.

These pictures allowed us hours of fun in photo editing programs. See a few on the Altered Pictures page.