Free Ice Cream!

That's what today was all about for me. Entirely 100% free ice cream sundaes. All ice cream, all free, all the time.

Or, not.

Okay, fine. Most of my day went thusly: iron out when I'm (finally!) starting work, struggle through a few more lines of Homer, try to figure out the Phaeaceans, consider Kepler, muse over music, and analyze the Aeneid. (I'm sorry, the alliteration took over my brain. Forgive me.) But, since Monday, there've been signs up all over campus advertising free ice cream sundaes on the placita Wednesday afternoon, because a bunch of townies want to show their support for us.

Um? O...kay....

I was hesitant, mostly because I'm from New Jersey and therefore anything even resembling human decency is somewhat foreign to me. But, really, I was confused. For one, I was under the belief that the majority of Santa Feans sort of acknowledge our existance as Johnnies. At best they tolerate us and view us with good-natured amusement: "Hee, silly kids and their books." At worst, they think we're a bunch of spoiled brats who sit up on a mountain and read. All of that should be taken with a grain of salt, as I also (still) believe that the amount of time an average Santa Fean spends thinking about St. John's is about 6/10ths of a second.

But: hey, free ice cream! I can be convinced to go most anywhere within a three-mile radius simply by the promise of free food, and there are major bonus points for unhealthy food. Therefore, I went. Also, when I walked out of my math class there was already a line stretching from the tables by the fish pond, up two flights of stairs, almost to the grassy knoll. So I literally walked into it.

Anyway, apparently, it was sponsored by the Philos Society, which at most other schools would most likely be known simply as "Friends of," as in, "Friends of St. John's". They're a bunch of townies who (I think) have all donated money. Furthermore, they're supporters of the program, attend community seminar days, and generally think we're all right. So, basically, they're the closest we have to cheerleaders, and people who go to community seminars are so much more appropriate to St. John's than little flippy skirts and pom-poms would be. They apparently are interested in seeing what all this money they've donated is going towards - or, as I was corrected, are generally interested in the college. Either way, they asked us to fill out a form with contact info and a space for interests, hobbies, and interesting facts about ourselves and give it to the nice man.

I did so for several reasons. For one, they gave me not only free ice cream, but true sundaes, with bananas, chocolate and caramel sauce, whipped cream, cherries, sprinkles, chocolate chips, and so forth, so I'm totally sold on tis Philos Society deal. Furthermore, there was a sign telling us that if we fill out the form we may very well get, say, a home-cooked meal out of it, or even some manner of Off Campus, into that mysterious but oft-mentioned Non-College Environment, the Land of Not Up On The Mountain. An added bonus of the whole thing was that it gave me an opportunity to tell a friend she'd been promoted to being a table, which was fun.

In conclusion: these people are definitely clever enough for me to fully approve of them in general. They were wearing St. John's aprons, which was kind of cool, if only because "orange aprons" is a fun phrase. Beyond the cosmetic pettiness: They're trying to get college students' attention, so what do they do? Free ice cream, with a sign promising "give us your phone number, and you may very well get treated to further non-cafeteria food!"

Smart cookies, indeed.