Sunday, October 16, 1988

Just “Viz”-iting, Starting Fires, Etc.

It’s Sunday! That means rest today, because absolutely nothing in town is open. I didn’t really do that much of any substance today. I started to read “Heart of Darkness” again, but soon got frustrated with it (again), and took it over to J.P.’s room in St. Hilda’s. I pretty much spent a good bit of the day in St. Hilda’s, talking to various people and eating.

I went to visit Viv Schofield and Liz Ortega (“Viz”, for short, like the popular British comic book) to see how they were getting on with their work. They said they had woken up at about 7 a.m., just three hours after they left my room last night!) They had stopped by my room at 11:45 a.m. this morning, unintentionally waking me up to return the jacket they had borrowed from me.

Anyway, they were both slightly brain-fried from the lack of sleep and the academic work that lay before them, so they were not really jumping into their assignments.

There was a bit of excitement during our visit to J.P.’s room at St. Hilda’s. First, the official story:

Cigarette causes fire in J.P.’s Room

American student J.P. Cardoso (pictured above, left) was lighting a cigarette in his room at St. Hilda’s residence in the Grange Halls on Sunday afternoon, when he accidentally threw a still hot match into his paper-filled trash bin, located in the center of the room.

The match ignited the paper in the bin and remained on fire until it burned itself out. No one was injured, but the inferno in the bin burned so hot that, once the bin cooled and was moved, it melted the carpet, searing a black circle into the carpet.

That was what the campus security were told happened in the room. Now for the actual story:

Aspiring Pyromaniac Causes Fire in His Own Room

In a fit of boredom, American student J.P. Cardoso pulled out his lighter and began burning small things of no importance in his his room at St. Hilda’s residence in the Grange Halls on Sunday afternoon, joined by several of his friends. However, this innocent game took a turn for the worst when his friend, fellow American Rick Reitz, picked up a copy of the Sunday Sport and began to read it.

While perusing the purile publication, J.P. quietly took his lighter and set fire to the newspaper while it was in Rick’s hands. In moments the flames quickly licked up the newspaper, leaving Rick no choice but to throw the burning newspaper into a trash bin located in the middle of J.P.’s room.

The fire soon became a small inferno and took a few moments to burn itself out. No one was injured, but the inferno in the bin burned so hot that, once the bin cooled and was moved, it melted the carpet, searing a black circle into the carpet.

We felt the real story did not reflect well upon J.P., or us. In order to cover the damaged carpet, J.P. rearranged his room so that his bed now covered the burn mark (although it looked a bit odd jutting out into the middle of the room.)

After dinner, it was back to socializing. At half-eight we watched “Bread,” a bizarre sitcom set in Liverpool that I would most closely compare to “Soap.” After the show ended I returned to my room, where a short time later Liz and Viv stopped in, announcing that they were finished with their class work. We sat and talked awhile, during which time I attempted to get through on the phone to call Camp Hill. I was able to talk to Angie, but no one else.

Liz, Viv and I then headed over to St. Hilda’s to do a little visiting, and after chatting it up with others, Viv decided to go back to her room, while Liz came back to mine for about 5 minutes, and then she decided that she was too tired, so I walked her back to her room. I came back, and being tired myself, nodded off shortly thereafter.


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• Number One Song in Britain This Week: "One Moment in Time" - Whitney Houston
  
• Number One Song in America This Week: "Groovy Kind of Love" - Phil Collins