University of Virginia Library

Future Trips Faced
With Trepidation

By Corbin Esler
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Joyful news for every University
student who has ever tensely sat
through that curious ritual known
as the blind date. Charlottesville has
come up with perhaps not a new,
but at least a newly commercialized
answer to computer dating, the
first-year face book.

This face book is not to be
confused with the one presented to
entering students, but is a self
proclaimed "composite of over
1,000 girls" from Hollins, Randolph-Macon,
Sweet Briar and Mary
Baldwin. Perhaps to avoid the
hounding cri of those many
people on the Grounds who love
the words male chauvinist, the
originator of this book does not
include his name in the copy. It is
incidentally W. Marks.

Mr. Marks is difficult to contact,
perhaps wishing to avoid intense
fame, but it seems fairly clear he
has a good thing going. What
respecting student would not
hazard this paltry sum to aviate
the horrible tension of a blind date.
It seems this type of commodity is
much in demand, because although
it has half the pages of a recent
literary magazine, the face book
costs more. But who will deny that
art is in the eyes of the beholder.

But the main question to ask is
what impact will this publication
have on the time honored tradition
of blind dates? With the excitement
gone, how long can the institution
stand? As photographs cannot lie, a
well known and undisputed fact,
and in line with this University's
tradition, must yet another tradition
be forced to go by the board?

Scenes will evolve such as "you
have a date with who? Let's check
her reference."

"Oh, no."

And a sudden attack of flu puts
an end to another potentially
amusing evening.

Gone will be the student, seeking
solace for his despair in the time
honored Jeffersonian tradition of
the wine of the land. Gone, the
beautiful dreams of anticipation in
the car and the traumatic return
home.

Perhaps the saddest loss is that
of the great tales, recounted to
grand-children by the fire, of the
long lost time when grandfather
risked his life and sanity on the
quest for beauty in far off Staunton.
And what is love's labors
without loss.

No, it is a dark day when the
student has nothing more to discuss
with his room mate than the level
of his grades or the philosophical
implications of ROTC.

So a call is issued to Mr. Marks
to consider the implications of his
act. Must the last vestige of
adventure be lost in an already
dimming world? Where is the joy of
risk in a sport where the outcome is
already known? Perhaps the University
man will be forced to turn to
cards and other forms of gambling
to recreate the excitement in his
jaded life. A whole generation
seeking the psychiatrist's couch for
want of challenge.

But, alas, it seems the face book
is here to stay. One way to stave off
the inevitable, disastrous consequences
might be to include a dart
with each book. The book might
then be opened to a random page,
and the excitement of the chase
replaced by the excitement of the
throw. This would also avoid
massive calls to the poor girl who is
photogenic.

Or at least, to make the whole
thing fair and above board, provide
the girls with our face book.