This new semester of scholarly activity about the varied campuses has filled the swelling barrel of my chest with hope. I have made great progress in assimilating within the culture of the students. I have done this by strutting about the campus wearing a Rutgers T-shirt that I have emblazoned with my own logo, a most efficacious mule. It in fact, looks nothing like the Democratic Mule and shall never be confused with it. This new symbol shall represent the student body as a whole. I have passed out many of the similar shirts in secretly-wrapped packages to students on the Knight Mover bus. Soon my movement will come to fruition. More to follow, I must get back to work on the rebellion, and my turkeys are requesting to be fed.
Indignation!
I return to my readers shamefaced at having neglected them for so long. You see, it may seem that during a seasonal break at a University a bus driver would come up short on work hours. But I am no common bus driver! All the others used their vacation time during this period, leaving their shifts in my capable arms. I have hardly had the time to sleep, passing out in my work clothes without even trying on my glamorous attire as I am accustomed to doing daily. Well, my colleagues have returned at last, parking their automobiles in flocks and then climbing into the larger automobiles, the buses.
I must sleep. I must reknit my tendons and my health before I can continue my work. I leave you with this shocking tale of injustice, which has been on my mind with constancy on this day!
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/us/10detain.html?pagewanted=1
A Rutgers Snowstorm and the closing of a Valued Bookstore – To Hell with Barnes & Noble!
I must say that it has been a busy few days of promoting my Cause to the New Brunswick community. I have spent nearly all of my daylight hours helping those in need of a strong back with the piles of pillow-like snow that has accumulated on their sidewalks and driveways. For I, Seamus Goldshark, never tire of shovelling snow. It is necessary for one who has lived on a mule farm for a number of years to be accustomed to physical labor; the groans and grunts, the strained tendons, the sweat that seeps through layers of clothing to touch the cold air. I have shovelled aproximately 356 pounds of snow so far, calculating the mass and volume as I work. I have placed coal eyes on the faces of the children’s snowmen, and given them gentle pushes to start their sleds’ movement down the hill near Landing Lane.
As a side note, my turkeys are becoming quite rowdy at having to be cooped up in my rather small Apartment.
The rest of this blog will not be quite as cheery, however. For I did make a visit today to the Cook/Douglass Co-Op Bookstore, which is on its last metaphorical leg. For you see, reader, this valued Bookstore, after having served the Rutgers community for fifteen or more years, and which students and others could own a share of, is forced to go out of business due to the presence of an unspeakable corporation. According to an email sent to the Rutgers community, the Co-Op is closing because it has failed to turn a profit– in the same yearly period as the introduction of Barnes and Noble to the Rutgers Community!
The independent Student Co-op bookstore, which has served the Cook and Douglass campuses for the past 70 years, has decided to cease operations. Members of the Co-op’s board voted December 15 to dissolve the organization, as it is no longer financially sustainable. The last day of operation will be December 24, 2009.
To ensure that students continue to have easy access to books and other materials at the start of the spring semester, Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC has agreed to assume operations at the Cook/Douglass bookstore location. The store will be closed from December 24 to January 15 to take final inventories, move equipment and merchandise, and set up displays. The bookstore will reopen under Barnes & Noble’s management on January 15, 2010.
Students who wish to purchase books before January 15 may do so at the Rutgers Bookstore locations on College Avenue and Livingston. You can also order books online at the Barnes & Noble Rutgers Bookstore site (http://rutgers.bncollege.com). Online orders can be picked up at the College Avenue, Livingston, or Busch Convenience stores or they can be delivered to your residence hall (shipping charges will apply).
An FAQ with detailed information about the transition can be found at http://bookstore.rutgers.edu/faq-students.shtml. While we realize this change will impact both students and faculty, we anticipate a seamless transition that will provide the Cook and Douglass campuses with a well-run, full-service bookstore.
If you have any questions that are not addressed on the Rutgers or Barnes & Noble websites, please contact bnquestions@aps.rutgers.edu.
Sincerely,
Jay Kohl
Vice President
Administration and Public Safety
As you can see, reader, Barnes and Noble is taking over the space once held by an independently-run bookstore. While I know that those who appreciate reading and the ability to easily find the books they want may welcome the introduction of Barnes and Noble, I insist that this change is for the worst! For you see, it is merely a representation of wealth accumulated by the wealthy. A nationwide, nay, worldwide, organization such as Barnes & Noble only inhibits the ability of site-specific, individually owned bookstores to flourish. Organizations such as this inhibit individual freedom and personal capital by their stranglehold on the market! I urge all members of the Rutgers Community to buy books from whatever independent booksellers they can. NJ Books, newly relocated on Easton Avenue in New Brunswick is an excellent textbook warehouse. Websites, such as indiebound.org, can help people find independent bookstores from which one can order books online. Labyrinth Books in Princeton, NJ is also a source that is close enough to visit, and students who present their plastic identification cards get 10% off the entire store. A multitude of ways to save the world is at your doorstep!
The ghouls of Dining Services.
One by one, my turkeys are dropping like flies. A new bird disappears with the sunset each night. I sigh to think of the hardships that they must endure. But alas, their work is necessary to fertilize these barren streets!
I have recently been made aware of a certain incident involving the distribution of food from the institutional dining halls to the needy of New Brunswick. I recall previous remarks I have made on this, the most hallowed of blogs, regarding the Rutgers Against Hunger program, which I now recall entirely! It appears that upon the donation of food from the underground takeout chambers of Brower Commons, Dining Services to cancel students’ ability to use two meal swipes at the same time, a blow of significant proportions! For such a decision does nothing but vilify those who would not have students use their otherwise defunct swipes for a noble cause. Accursed university, realizing the public relations disaster they had caused, reinstated the original freedom, but not after showing the monster beneath the facade.
Early morning Bus.
I pondered my mission early this morning as I drove the first bus of the day. I can see the snow-streaked lawns, snow-covered trash that has been on the ground for weeks. I admit that the snow worries me, because it means that my year in New Brunswick is halfway through. I feel that I cannot devote another year to this city when there are so many others in need of my services, but that only means that there is much work to be done in the onslaught of months ahead. Perhaps these citizens will better respond to my advances during the holiday season, when they too will yearn to spread love for human kind.
Though it is painful to admit it, I am aware that my despondency is caused in part by loneliness. Yes, readers, even heroes can succumb to the tumultuous emotions of mortals. Sometimes neither a sidekick nor turkeys are enough… I find myself wondering if I will ever have a true companion, a partner to keep me company while I save New Brunswick…
Building my turkey tractor!
I woke at 5 am today to assemble devices, commonly known as chicken tractors, to house my turkeys. They are simply pens with no bottom that will allow my turkeys to fertilize patches of land and then be moved to another patch of land. With the exception that I will allow my turkeys free range! Since I don’t have much of a lawn my turkeys can roam free to fertilize the streets of New Brunswick, while housed in their tractors with about 3 other turkeys. Each tractor is about the size of a small car. I will send my armada out daily to fight the good fight!
A Goldshark Thanksgiving.
This is a fine, feathered friend.
Thanksgiving is a time when others sit upon overstuffed sofas and engorge themselves with dead birds. But not I! Enjoying my freedom from the toils of driving the usual Bus, I decided to save as many turkeys as possible from meeting their slaughter. I now have thirty-seven of the illustrious birds occupying my apartment. They are quite a bit louder than you might imagine! The turkeys shall temporarily take the place of my Mules. I will build them a pen with my mighty hands.
Patrolling.
Tonight the Fisher and I patrolled the streets of New Brunswick as per usual. I have acquired a new bicycle, which I have outfitted with many a flashing light to alert the trafficking cars of my presence. The Fisher and I ride through the streets together. He blasts music from a type of stereo that he wears strapped to the rack on the back of his bike. My recent adventures with the Fisher have proved most satisfactory, for it is grand to have a friend. His pockets are perpetually full of napkins, which he collects from various restaurants, as they are courtesy items. Whenever one has a stuffy nose or a scrape they come in handy. Quite! And on this beautifully chilly evening, the napkins fulfilled the ultimate purpose.
We stumbled upon a bleeding man laying on the sidewalk and immediately sprung into action.
“What has happened to you, friend?” I queried.
“Some angry lady dressed in black attacked me with a bike lock,” he replied, oddly fluent despite the massive wounds that had been inflicted upon him.
“Quick, the napkins!” I yelled to the Fisher, and we used wads of his handy ‘kins to stop the bleeding orifices of the man. We eventually healed him enough for him to get up and declare that he was going to go home. I know not why this man was attacked in such a violent manner, but I have my suspicions. I suspect that someone is working against us!
An evening of the arts.
Last night I decided to support the local music scene of this degraded city. After a long night of patrolling the streets, protecting decent folk from the unwanted advances of muscular men (whether these advances were meant to procure kisses or fights), I found myself near the George Street Playhouse. Upon approaching, I heard the most horrible music evaporating from its walls, and went inside to investigate. I found therein a band called Mattress, a series of three young men wearing winter jumpsuits. They looked very warm as they played, and I gradually began to understand their music as if it was emerging from my own heart. I soon learned by questioning the crowd of attendees that this was one of the first shows this band had played in a “real” venue, and that they usually played in basements of their local homes in New Brunswick. This show was sponsored by a group called CoLab Arts.
I add to my mission of saving New Brunswick the duty of promoting its scene of arts and music, so that upstanding young citizens do not have to resort to playing their music in basements, which some say is treated unjustly as an illegal offense. It is very difficult to make it cost-feasible for these budding artists to play in legitimate spaces. We must work together now to develop a network that allows these events to permanently occur!
Something I should have mentioned…
…is the recent election, in particular the close battle for wards in New Brunswick that was ultimately defeated by a very slim margin. I supported this valiant call for change and can only hope that it will still be as loud come next election. Here’s an article about the loss of the campaign. I must say that I think that a ward-based system would benefit more than just the student body, and it could in fact impede the gentrification of certain areas of the city. I support anything that could stifle the branding of the university and its virile takeover of a city, such as is seen in the construction of large, ugly buildings.
