It’s time to stop gossiping with your high school friends and feigning interest in your relatives. Instead, take this opportunity to prepare some graceful, yet canned answers in preparation for tomorrow’s onslaught of “how was your break?” themed questions (we suggest lying to make your home life sound more interesting).

To help you get back in the Thoroughbred spirit we’ve done a little research and rustled up some Monday night events to keep your mind off that new Thanksgiving pudge.

6pm Pre-Med Club Presents: Dr. Joyce Peabody “Health Care Today” @ Dana 240
6pm Teach for America Info Session @ Starbuck
8pm The Exonerated directed by Ali Schultz ‘09 @ JKB Studio A
8pm SEC Weekly Meeting @ Ladd 307
9pm EAC Weekly Meeting @ Ladd 207

something missing? Let us know in the comments.

Remember the earth between your toes? The sweet smell of vegetables? The lushness of freshly picked strawberries? No, I’m not talking about your Junior Year resume padding volunteer trip to South America, I’m talking about gardening, no nonsense organic gardening.  The EAC seems to be gauging student interest in a student-run organic garden, something I stand behind fully. Not only is this a great opportunity to start another much needed student-run campus project, but vegetables are yummy. That is enough preaching from me, but make sure to take this survey (previously buried in the Student Announcements Digest) and let them know what you think.

Survey
EAC Meetings: 9pm Mondays @ Ladd 207

So, this little project of ours seems to have taken off and we’re pretty proud of our little baby. However, we know there are a few things that could be better/need fixing. We figure with finals week coming up you Guys and Gals will be making your way over here a bit more, and we’re looking for some help in making the site better. If you have any ideas for improvement we would love to hear them in the comments. This is kind of like democracy so you guys should get all excited about it and “exercise your rights” and stuff.

Post Away Thoroughbreds…

Although Skidmore is a dry campus, there are a few events each year that allow you to get your drink on in a beer garden. But doing so is not that easy. Under the watchful eye of federal law, Skidmore is making all students above the age of 21 provide both a state ID, as well as a campus event card—separate from your student ID card—in order to get that stylish beer bracelet.

Cards are available in the Card Office on the first floor of Starbuck.

<–turkey

Show off your Skidmore education and properly carve a turkey. Or have an Emily’s Garden holiday and do the vegetarian thing.

Dorms reopen Sunday (11/30) @ 2pm.

Yesterday’s post about the break in and vandalism at The Center for Sex and Gender Relations seems to have attracted some off campus attention. Today a small story ran in Albany’s Times Union and 4 television stations were on campus today looking to report. Courtney Franko, the Head Peer Advisor for the Center, emailed us these photos of the vandalism, which she personally believes is unrelated to the break in. In these photos from around The Center you can see the perp’s creativity as they scrawled something incomprehensible about “bitches,” accompanied by “for dykes only” and what looks like “dykes cunts.”

Click to continue »

The Center for Sex & Gender Relations has had a ‘Sexpert’ column featured in SkidNews for quite sometime. The Sexperts, as they refer to themselves, are students who answer sex-related questions asked to them by other curious students. No longer hosted by SkidNews, Skidmore Unofficial is proud to feature some of these columns. We encourage anyone wondering where babies come from and other complicated questions to drop by the office and ask.

The CSGR writes…

How often is it normal to masturbate?

Masturbation is a very common and normal sexual practice; however, it remains a taboo subject for most people. Your question is a very common one for that reason because there is still a certain amount of shame and embarrassment associated with masturbation: people want to know if they do it too much. This is especially true of women. This is perhaps due to a belief that masturbation is only for people who, for one reason or another, do not have access to real sex. This is evident in certain slang terms such as “jerk” or the British “wanker,” both of which are derogatory terms that come from words for masturbation.

But everybody masturbates — couples do it too! Masturbation is a very healthy practice. It is a great way to get in touch with ones body, and it relieves sexual tension in the healthiest way possible: there is absolutely no risk of pregnancy or STIs! As to the question of too much masturbation, it is only a problem if it interferes with your daily routine. For example, if you are avoiding contact with other people in favor of masturbation, it is a problem. Ultimately, there are as many different kinds of masturbatory habits as there are people.

We’re aren’t sure why we haven’t received a barrage of campus wide emails announcing the winner yet, but Skidmore Unplugged ended 2 days ago and Howe-Rounds is the clear victor. Maybe the tight lips have something to do but with accusations of sabotage we’ve heard rumor of?

Any-hoo, after 3 weeks of studying with the lights off and waking up at 5am panicking over whether or not we turned off our power strips it seems our attention to detail finally paid off. The reward for this environmental responsibility you ask? Why each member of Howe-Rounds will receive a gift certificate to some downtown money hole.  Depending on your luck you could end up with a bagel from Bruegger’s or a romantic dinner for two one at the Olde Bryan Inn. We still aren’t sure how the prizes will be distributed but we have our eyes on some Putnam Market gift cards—if only they knew how much I loved their pesto mayonnaise OMG!

Looks like the rebels in Wait and Jonsson weren’t swayed by the pretty decorations. Both dorms increased their energy usage over these past three weeks and seemed to have had some trouble grasping the whole “reduce” concept. Hopefully who ever is in charge of this little dealio will have the sense to keep it going so dorms can continue to measure up to one another.

Skidmore Unofficial would like to extend a congratulations to last years SGA president Jonathan Brestoff who has been awarded a Mitchell scholarship for a year’s study in Ireland. The Mitchell program each year rewards 12 Americans with scholarships to study at Irish and Northern Ireland universities for one year. Brestoff, who graduated last year with a degree in Chemistry went on to bigger and better things (graduate school) in a joint M.D./PhD program in genetics and gene regulation at the UPenn.

Joe Yanks from the Center For Sex and Gender Relations tipped us off to some bad news: some time this weekend the Center’s offices on the third floor of Case were robbed and vandalized. From what we know the perps broke into the office, stole all of the cash, and then proceeded to vandalize the door of the office as well as the “domestic violence and rape board.” Scrawled across the offices were epithets such as “you bitches deserved it” and the ever-creative derogative “dykes.” While it is surprising that an act of such magnitude would happen on such a tolerant campus, hate crimes and acts of discriminatory violence have, as SkidNews recently reported, become more common. Campus safety was seen today collecting evidence from the scene and it appears that all of the graffiti has been removed before we were able to snap any pictures.

Joe Yanks explained “While it is definitely unexpected and unthinkable that this would happen at Skidmore, the Center will, in no way, be deterred from providing students with resources and assistance, while still maintaining privacy.” This despicable example is only one of what we are sure will be a surge in crime as the semester winds down.

Keep your eyes on your emails for the inevitable Campus Safety Report with more details to follow.