A name with a face
The strange male face chalked around Grounds has now been identified. His name is J.R. "Bob" Dobbs. He is the symbol of the "Church of the Subgenius," a less-than-serious national cult organization devoted to "slacking."
But the most recent emergence of the face was meant to advertise the appearance of the group "The Clay Motley Band," who appeared Feb. 18 at the Greenskeeper, according to second-year College student Ryan Crabtree.
"The band was pretty good, but maybe next time they should put advertisements up with their name and site of their performance," Crabtree said.
Regardless of the reason for Dobb's appearance, the face's identity is still somewhat mysterious. An Internet site called subgenius.com has been devoted to followers of Bob Dobbs, whose identity remains ambiguous. It's clear from the site that "Subgeniuses" parody the extreme religious cult organizations affiliated with the Religious Right.
According to the site, Bob Dobbs "has been divinely shoved down the behavio-electric Path of Least Resistance to become the living incarnation of Slack on Earth."
The site displays multiple images of the same strange figure head of Bob Dobbs. The content of the site borders on the bizarre, with pages of strange pseudo-cult nonsense bidding visitors to join other Subgeniuses. The site calls on visitors to "become an ordained minister" of the Church by filling out an online application.
Followers describe themselves as, "the PAN-RELIGION of the FUTURE, and REBELS against the namby-pamby, goody two-shoes 'NEW AGE' and 'AQUARIAN' ideals of most occult weirdos."
Tropical Hedonism Debate
Over 35 debate teams infiltrated the University Friday and Saturday for the University American Parliamentary Debate Association's (APDA) Tropical Hedonism 2000 Debate Tournament. After a heated final round debate with Stanford, Maryland triumphed.
The semifinal rounds were held Saturday afternoon and consisted of teams from the University of Maryland, Princeton, Stanford and Georgetown. The final round consisted of Maryland arguing to give aid to Fidel Castro in Cuba in 1959. Stanford argued the opposition.
Gwen Catley, tournament co-director and third-year College student, said the tournament was a huge success.
"We had teams who flew in from Stanford, and others came from as far away as New Orleans and Connecticut. It ran smoothly, fairly and on time. We made it well worth their trip," she said.
Compiled by Christa Dierksheide
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