The Cavalier daily Friday, February 9, 1973 | ||
Old Indian Proverb: 'No Basket, No Litter'
I am sending you the
enclosed with the hope that
you will be able to print it in
your paper next week. It may
call the attention of the
Administration to a present
problem on the Grounds. It
may even spur them to do
something about it.
First Gentleman: "What is that
monument planted on the
greensward in front of
Alderman Library?"
Second Gentleman: "It looks
neither educational nor
Jeffersonian. It has the
appearance of a small urinal."
First Gentleman: "What, in
front of Alderman Library?"
Second Gentlemen: "The
French do it." (Closer) "But,
no, you may put your fears to
rest. It is, in fact, a wastepaper
basket shaped to resemble a
small rotunda and protected by
a wooden fence, the whole
impaled on a lead pipe."
First Gentleman: "I am
relieved. I thought for a
moment it was something in
bad taste. What a magnificent
site for a wastepaper basket.
No one can pass by without
noticing it."
Second Gentleman: "Indeed!
Look, there under the
spreading chestnut tree is
another one, and to the left
another, and over there
another."
First Gentleman: "I imagine
that these are part of the plan
for the future of the
University. By 1984, in spite of
one hundred thousand
students, a person walking on
the grounds will never be more
than two feet from a
wastepaper basket."
Second Gentleman:
"Ingenious! By littering the
grounds with litter receptacles
the Administration will have
solved the litter problem."
It was reliably reported that
one night some weeks later a
band of men, dressed as Indians
and shouting, "no baskets, no
litter," seized all the little
rotundas and threw them into
Lake Albemarle.
Assoc. History Prof.
The Cavalier daily Friday, February 9, 1973 | ||