Thursday, November 10, 1988

Sack Edgar Page, Part 2

He did it! Bush won Pennsylvania! And California! Also, I was happy to see that Sen. John Heinz won re-election in Pennsylvania by a comfortable 2-1 margin. The final score: George Bush - 426 electoral votes (54.5% of the popular vote), Michael Dukakis - 112 electoral votes (45.5%).

Anyway, I woke up early for no apparent reason. (Viv woke me up and told me that she had missed her first class.) So I just took it easy until 10 a.m., when we took the bus into town to do some shopping. I only bought a newspaper. Then, instead of taking the bus back to The Grange, we walked back, hitting several shops along the way (record, book, music, etc.) I bought another James Bond paperback ("You Only Live Twice") for 20p, and some water balloons (gotta be prepared for the next water battle.) We then returned and rested.

There was another march by the Save Edgar Page lefties that we were tempted to water bomb... but we didn't. They canvassed Humberside College quite extensively to get marchers... but only two from our college went. Ha ha! There would've been more, however, the secretary of the Humberside College Labour Club (a guy named Martin, who seems to be intimidated by me for some reason), got his group lost and never made it to the march. I should laugh, and yet I do.

That evening a group of us (Viv, Kenny, Liz, Little Johnny, Andy, two of Viv and Liz's friends and I) went to see the movie "Buster" starring Phil Collins. Others (Big Jon, Sid and Neil) went to the other theater to see "A Fish Called Wanda." I thought "Buster was a pretty good movie, with an interesting plot (based on the true story of a guy who led the biggest train heist in British history, then went on the lam for years before getting caught.) I thought Phil Collins was impressive in his cinematic debut as a leading man.

Afterwards, most of us went to McDonald's for chocolate shakes, and then it was back to The Grange. Viv came over to my room for awhile, and stayed until I got too tired and fell asleep.

(Pictured is a close-up of my room door after the election. I had posted updated results as they rolled in. For fun I put a curly-wigged photo of myself as "Gern Blanston" on the ballot as well. A few people wondered what was up with that. I still wonder that myself)

Thursday, October 27, 1988

I Bought a Guitar!

I bought a guitar! I bought a guitar! Woke up at around 8:30 a.m., had some breakfast, then got ready for my excursion into town. I decided to go it alone, because I could then go in, look for what I wanted, then come back to my room.

So that’s what I did, and found a really nice new Hohner steel string guitar at Gough & Davy’s music store, for only 60 quid. I also bought Yes and Eric Clapton songbooks.

I made my way back home, guitar in hand, and then walked up to the Student Union to meet with Viv and Liz for lunch. After that I went to Lloyd’s Bank to pick up my cashpoint card, and then returned to my room to try out my new toy before class.

When I got to class a few minutes late, however, nobody was there. Appearently it had been moved, and I had no idea where it was being held. Rather than go back to my room, I decided to be constructive and head over to the library and read a bit from the book we were reading for class.

Well, as it turned out, the room where class was now being held was in the library, and they watched a film based upon the book we were reading. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize this until after the class had ended. Oh well.

Afterwards, I ate dinner, visited Viv, and practiced my guitar a bit. Spent the rest of the evening hanging out with Viv.

(Pictured: The chair in my room, with my new guitar leaning on it. Note the James Bond novel and the "Sack Edgar Page" poster.)

Monday, October 3, 1988

Sack Edgar Page

I'm getting a little worried about Doug. Today we went into town where he bought himself a stereo, but that seemed to only be a temporary remedy, as he soon receded back into melancholy. He read me some of the poetry he has written while here in Hull, and it's rather depressing, and often frightening. I'm sure Doug could overcome it, but I'm not sure he wants to.

Well, anyway, this day started like any other... by waking up. Since we still didn't have any lectures to attend, we spent the day in Hull, after getting Doug squared away at Lloyd's Bank.

We then experienced a most unusual event, as we watched teachers from Hull University who were on strike, as well as other supporters, march through town, carrying signs that read, "Save Edgar Page". They were marching in protest of the recent "sacking" of a tenured philosophy professor named Edgar Page. They, of course, are worried that if this firing is allowed, then their jobs could be in jeopardy as well.

From what I was told, he is the first tenured college professor to ever be sacked in Britain. Of course, I don't know what he did to get fired, but considering he's the first ever, I figure it must be pretty bad. Personally, I think this could set a good precedent, since it would force tenured teachers with cushy jobs to make themselves an asset to the university, or risk being fired. Later, I decided to hang a "Sack Edgar Page" sign in my room.

OK, well, after the march, the three of us went into Hull to do a little shopping, and to register with the police (required of all of us questionable American students.) And that's pretty much what we did.

We found an excellent record store called Sydney Scarborough, where I bought a Genesis EP ("Throwing It All Away," "Invisible Touch (Live)" and a previously unreleased track, "I'd Rather Be You."), and a Peter Gabriel EP ("Big Time" and an unreleased track, "Curtains.") Doug broke down and went wild buying here. J.P. didn't, but only because he didn't have any money with him.

We continued to walk around (I bought batteries for my stereo to make it functional... still haven't found an adapter that will work for an American stereo) and then returned home (Home, Home on The Grange) by bus, arriving just in time for dinner. While at dinner we saw Kofe Kari Kari and another student, both of whom had studied last year at Millersville University, so we chatted with them for awhile.

When I got to my room, there was a note on my door from Karin (from Germany), which made my day, and included a phone number where I could now reach her. I tried to call the number using the community pay phone on the second floor of our residence, but I had a bit of trouble and I was never able to get through. I'll go visit her tomorrow.

At around 7 p.m. I decided to just relax and write a few letters to friends and family back home. I didn't do much else this evening other than head over to visit Doug to try and cheer him up, and then take a walk with him to the same Chinese take away restaurant I went to yesterday, Double Happiness, for some more chips and gravy. If this doesn't put a smile on Doug's face, I don't know what will. Ironically, while we were there we saw Sara and Louise stop in... guess they had the same idea!) We talked to Sara and Louise for a bit, then returned to our rooms.

I made an unsuccessful attempt to call home, but when I called, my 10-year-old sister's friend Aiden answered the phone, if you can believe it, and my sister Angie was the only member of the family that was home at the time. Since this call costs a fair bit of money, I said hello and then said that I couldn't talk now, but that I'd call back again.

I returned to the room, and with little else to do and with visions of sleep in my mind, I felt compelled to oblige.

Humorous anecdote of the day: This morning, while visiting a slightly catatonic Doug in his room, we heard what we thought was J.P. fumbling at the door. It was at that moment that Doug uttered the now immortal words, "It's open, ya boob!" A moment later we realized it was the cleaning lady. Needless to say, Doug was quite embarrassed and apologetic.