grass neighbors

the other day i walked past a couple sitting on the grass, enjoying the sunshine, and calling out to people they seemed to know. however, none of the people were answering back! the first girl was on her ipod, so i rationalized that she just had not heard them. but then they called to another guy, and i heard laughter, and i figured out what was going on.

they were calling out random names to see if people would turn and look at them/say hi to them!

i would have been more embarassed for them, but i am somewhat ashamed to admit that i have done the same thing (i did it at cross-country races all the time...).

this might be labelled as rare, but today i was walking past a group of people and one of the guys called out "hi!" i looked and gave him a slight smile, just in case i was supposed to know him, but as i walked away once again i heard laughter and realized what they were doing.

this oddity has perhaps been brought on by the stress of finals week and/or the crazy frigid weather that has kept people in the library for far too many weeks of the semester.

the DU: a daily oddity

the daily universe is byu's newspaper. while often the front page articles are lame and the macey's ads get thrown every which way on tuesdays, my favorite part of the du (and in my opinion, its justification for funding) are the letters to the editors. below are a few of my favorites:

"campus deer problem"
"i am a deer" (in response to the campus deer problem)
"flying saurkraut"
"where's the joy?" (one of my all time favorites)
which was preceeded (!) by another, "unhappy happy valley."
and which was responded to by about a hundred letters, including "stop the fake smiles"
an editor's justification for not smiling at everyone
and an editor's response to these incredibly funny letters in 2005.

and, of course, we have police beat.

2006 compilation of the best: i have do admit these are not all the "best," but there are some pretty funny ones (the bike rack is my favorite).
and quite possibly my favorite police beat entry about a roommate's butter knife being stolen (theft: march 26).

since the du is definitely not a rarity, i would have to call these parts of the du an oddity.

definitely.

duck crossing!

the other day, i had to slow my bike down as i was riding down the ramp south of campus.

for ducks.

now, ducks are neither a rarity nor an oddity on campus, but i have never seen them on the bike ramp south of campus.

until this week.

so i would definitely have to call this a rarity. i think the ducks are getting restless (they are just like students!) from the long winter and so are venturing off to see other areas of campus besides their half-frozen duck pond. i have seen ducks in odd places around campus almost every day this week.

good thing, too, because i was starting to miss the deer...

ladders

i have noticed a strange phenomenon around campus--a single ladder, never occupied, that has been travelling around the outside of several buildings on campus. i first noticed this by the library, where it was unassumedly leaning up against the outside of the atrium, right next to the entrance. i next spotted said ladder against the hfac, again unoccupied and again just nonchalantly leaning up against the side of the building. this, i believe, is more odd than rare.

the rarities and the oddities

the other day in my arabic class we were discussing different genres of arabic literature, and my teacher mentioned one called al-noadr wa al-graib, which, translated into english, means "the rarities and the oddities." i immediately realized that such a name was more than worthy of a blog, and created this that very day. so, prepare to be amazed and astounded by the rarities and the oddities in my life.