...and really bad eggs...
Like most American colleges, Tufts has a fine tradition of chalking the campus sidewalks to advertise upcoming events, publicize clubs, etc. It happens more in summer than in winter, even a warm winter like this year's, but in any season one gets accustomed to seeing bright scrawls of chalk on the ground, ranging from quick scribbles to meticulously colored calligraphy.
Today, as I was walking across campus to work, I started seeing doodles. Pink double-wave designs, sinuous wiggles of blue and green like rivers or bridges on a child's board game, and some sort of abstract squiggle like a fishing hook with a blob at the base. Okay, said I to myself, somebody had some chalk and no message and got bored, apparently. That's an evening's occupation I can get behind.
And then I came to the secondary administrative building, which has a broad stretch of pavement in front of it. More squiggles there -- and the message A PIRATE'S LIFE FOR ME, YO HO!
That was when I started to grin.
A few feet on was a verse proclaiming the glory of the pirates who sail the Neverland Sea, who "drink our rum and kill for fun" on their quest for Peter Pan, who will (of course) walk the plank "TO AVENGE OUR CAPTAIN'S HAND!"
That was when I realized that those odd fishing-hook doodles were, in fact, Hook's hand doodles.
That was also when I started laughing under my breath.
There were more scattered across the rest of my walk, with lots of hook-hands and splashes of pink pastel "Peter Pan's blood" (helpfully labeled) and messages like LONG LIVE CAP'N HOOK! and ARRRRR!
This, my friends, is what I call starting a day off right. Anonymous chalk pirates, I salute you. With grog.
Today, as I was walking across campus to work, I started seeing doodles. Pink double-wave designs, sinuous wiggles of blue and green like rivers or bridges on a child's board game, and some sort of abstract squiggle like a fishing hook with a blob at the base. Okay, said I to myself, somebody had some chalk and no message and got bored, apparently. That's an evening's occupation I can get behind.
And then I came to the secondary administrative building, which has a broad stretch of pavement in front of it. More squiggles there -- and the message A PIRATE'S LIFE FOR ME, YO HO!
That was when I started to grin.
A few feet on was a verse proclaiming the glory of the pirates who sail the Neverland Sea, who "drink our rum and kill for fun" on their quest for Peter Pan, who will (of course) walk the plank "TO AVENGE OUR CAPTAIN'S HAND!"
That was when I realized that those odd fishing-hook doodles were, in fact, Hook's hand doodles.
That was also when I started laughing under my breath.
There were more scattered across the rest of my walk, with lots of hook-hands and splashes of pink pastel "Peter Pan's blood" (helpfully labeled) and messages like LONG LIVE CAP'N HOOK! and ARRRRR!
This, my friends, is what I call starting a day off right. Anonymous chalk pirates, I salute you. With grog.