Category Archives: Lobby Book

Originally appeared in the Perkins Lobby Suggestion Book.

2007, Food, Lobby Book, Medicine, Study

Caffeine

Is caffeine bad for you? Should I be drinking Dr. Pepper and Coke to stay awake? [3342B]

There seems to be agreement that in large quantities caffeine can be bad for you. How much is too much is debated. You can search the MedLine Plus website from the National Library of Medicine for links to reliable websites, or look for journal articles in MedLine The amount of caffeine in Coke and Dr. Pepper is far less than in coffee. How much you need to stay awake depends on how much of a dependence on caffeine you’ve built up, but your complexion and oral hygiene and weight would all probably suffer from all that sugar if you depend on soda pop for your caffeine fix.

2007, Duke Libraries, Lobby Book

Typo

Not really a question, but FYI in the display outside the Gothic reading room Brodhead’s name is misspelled on the large banner… [3341C]

Yeah, this occurred in several places (captions, introductory statements, etc.), sometimes now identifiable by the crudely obvious corrections with a Marks-A-Lot. I think the poster or banner you mention has now been removed. Although the student work exhibited in the former Perk area and in the Technology Alcove in the library’s basement connector fall under the jurisdiction of the Union’s Visual Arts Committee, we do offer our apologies to President Brodhead.

2007, Duke Libraries, Lobby Book

Stapler issues

Why are there always 4 or 5 staplers sitting out on the counter in Perkins, but only one ever has staples in it? [3341B]

If there are always going to be 3 or 4 without any staples, if we had only 3 staplers total then none of them would ever have staples would they?  Actually, please don’t be shy about asking staff to refill them.  AP will pass on your comment in hopes of initiating more responsible refilling on our part.

2007, Lobby Book, Science

Politics of science

Is a progressive politcs of science possible? [3341A]

I suspect that it’s just as possible as a conservative or reactionary politics of science. Although some would say that everything involves politics, and AP won’t argue too much, I would hope that progressives would ostensibly try to keep politics out of science as much as possible (and that conservatives would try to do the same).

2007, Just silly, Lobby Book

Armchair philosophy

When I do armchair philosophy, I like to refer to my partners in conversation by the Hispanicized versions of their first names (e.g. Kant – Manolo; Hegel – Jorge; Nietzche – Frederico; Wittgenstein – Rodrigo) but recently, I found a new conversant: SPINOZA.  What name do I give him? [3340C]

Very cute. I hope that in your conversations with your pet dog he doesn’t command you to kill people. Spinoza apparently changed his name from the Hebrew Baruch to the Latin form, Benedictus. Both mean “blessed.”  Sometimes you see his name in the English form, Benedict. The Spanish form is Benedicto.

2007, Life\'s mysteries, Lobby Book

Can't find them

Where have all the flowers gone? And the good times? [3340B]

Young girls have picked them, every one. Except for the ones over in the Duke Gardens. There are all sorts of good times, though, and although some people say they’ve gone or can’t be found, I believe you can still find them if you just look in the right places.

2007, Just silly, Literature, Lobby Book

Heffalumps

Can you please describe the feeding + mating patterns of a heffalump? [3340A]

Heffalumps exist in the world of Winnie the Pooh, so there simply isn’t any mating.  They seem to eat honey. Just an aside: in Paul Theroux’s book Riding the Iron Rooster, he refers to Mao’s final senile period as his heffalump phase, either because Mao liked honey or more likely because the word conjures up images of a slow-moving, slow-thinking, pudgy, stooped-over elderly guy.

2007, Food, Lobby Book

Not a spork fan

Why are losers so fascinated by sporks? They’re not aesthetically pleasing, not do they work well at all. What is it that fascinates these people? [3339C]

The attraction certainly has nothing to do with functionality, but most college-educated people are fascinated by the absurd. Ironic humor and all that. Regarding functionality, proof that they must be inferior to forks or spoons is that at the website mentioned above they’re actually cheaper (even though you’d think that a device that substitutes for two other utensils would be pricier).