Alphabet Soup and Aussie Day, NC Style

Never before has the word “moreover” received a more careful and practiced enunciation than it did last week during Section C’s Alphabet Day. Not just “moreover”, but also “jointly,” “furthermore,” and most bizarrely, “Xerox.” Unfortunately, the rigors of A-B-C were too much for some C-ers to take, the author included. Most alphabetically-challenged were Katherine Mossman, who forced the class to start from scratch not once, but twice, and Craig Collister, who somehow thought that “s” came after “t.”
Craig redeemed himself later in the week by heading up the new Sky Deck Awards crew that apparently spends ALL its time recording the gaffes of its section mates. And how we do comply. From Jonathan Liew’s stutter to Bernardo Lazo’s “fowl” explanations to more of Professor Stafford’s patented student smack-downs to Rod Norman’s on-the-nose stock valuations to Sarah Munson and Rick de los Reyes caught flagrante Hong Kong, Craig and crew left no misstatement or misstep untouched.
As if class wasn’t enough, Craig has even started planning social events to provide the Sky Deck with more material. For Australia Day, January 26th, Craig and his fellow Aussies (pronounced “Ozzies”) planned an Australian Wine Tasting Party, complete with shrimp (cocktail) on the barbie and Fanta. Most interesting was the fact that Martha Rhode met her Australian fianc‚ Colin when she invited him to play on her rugby team, where she was the “hooker.” We also learned that the old name for Australia was not “Penal Colony” (huh huh huh—she said “penal”), but rather the quaint and peaceful-sounding New Ireland. Our peace and quiet was shattered when Chris Brezski decided to fire off some bread rolls rather pointedly. We’re just glad he didn’t fire off any…okay, okay, no more of that. Thanks again to Quang Nguyen, Jonathan, Craig, Andrew Davis, Richard Tyrell, partners, and all others who helped out!
Alphabet Day had another victim in Tom Wieand, who rashly promised to perform any dare the Sky Deck could come up with if the class managed to get all the way through the letters. Hence, we found Tom, a week later, standing on a chair in the middle of Spangler’s dining hall leading the baffled crowd to a rousing rendition of “We are the World,” impersonations of Michael Jackson not included.
Luckily, Tom is better at basketball than at singing. A report from Michael Dal Bello, captain of Section C’s B-squad men’s basketball team…
Section C’s B-squad, also known as the Bomb Squad, is off to a roaring start with two back-to-back wins, 42-20 over OH and 39-19 over OB. Rick “We” Needham led the team from the center position, scoring 14 points in the “W” against OB. The team’s most prolific scorer has to be Tommy “I am not McHale” Wieand who scored a team-high 16 points against OB.

Amy “Superstar” Reinhard doused OH with a shower of three-pointers and some terrific ball-handling. Now we all know why she broke just about every record as an undergraduate here at Harvard College. But if there is one theme to the Bomb squad, it has to be the tenacious defense of Craig Collister, “Hot” Rod Norman, Ken Giuriceo, Arturo Alvarez Demalde, and Michael Dal Bello. The team will be even more of a force when Richard Tyrell recovers from his foot injury. Coaches Tony Sanchez, Jeremy Swinson, and Kevin Greene, assisted by official scorer Beth Howe, keep the Bomb squad well aligned towards its goal.
Talent is found not just on the courts, but on the stage as well. Hamming it up this spring in the HBS Show will be Gary “Wallflower” Binford and Emily “I Avoid Attention” Kranz. And finally, congrats to Martha and Gonzalo Chueca for winning the Section C “It takes skill to win” Super Bowl pool. (By pool, I mean completely legal small body of standing liquid.)