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@marlowe1: so darn poetic and we should crown you the UChicago forum laureate ^:)^
how did you do that bowing smiley face thingy @85bears46 ?? I want to use that in all my posts!
I went for a walk. The patrols normally stationed on corners are not there tonight. If they were they would probably get frostbite. The wind hurts.
@FStratford In every reply box on the upper right hand corner there is a small emoji sign. Click that and all the emoji will appear. Just click the one you want. <:-P
Classes continue to be cancelled through tomorrow morning.
My son is still alive - no frostbite! 
He sounds very comfy and happy. They’ve opened the verboten, always locked double doors between the BJ dining room in Cathey and BJ dorms so the students don’t even have to go outside to get to food. He and his friends have been having fun using the underground BJ tunnels to visit each other and spent the morning goofing off and exploring the tunnels. This afternoon most seem to be working on homework. He still doesn’t have his radiator turned on and says his room is toasty enough. He sounds content. Also noted how wonderful and caring the UChicago team is - from the maintenance people being present to head off and immediately fix any issues to the front desk and Cathey employees being kind and making it in to work even with the record cold. He’s impressed with how organized the college’s plan to handle issues like this has been and even more impressed with the people doing the work.
It’s good to hear UChicago must be a good employer to have a team that goes above and beyond with such great attitudes even under what must be very challenging.
It looks like classes are cancelled tomorrow until 12pm.
edit: oops it looks like @JBStillFlying has already mentioned it.
Those doors open right to the house tables! LOL. I remember thinking it was too bad we had to go out the front of BJ and around the corner during the very hot move-in weekend two years ago.
D has frost on the inside of her windows which is weirding her out.
@milee30 - BJ has all sorts of interesting tunnels. Used to be you could get over the law library via a passage of some type behind the building. You can see if from an aerial using Maps or equivalent. I’d love to explore that place sometime. If the kids are figuring out how to get around the courtyard via unknown or unused passages that’s beyond cool. Wonder if they are lit by torch
I’m not asking and I’m not mentioning any torches. Don’t want to spark ideas. One of my vivid memories of when my boys were little was having the younger one run in breathlessly shrieking “[older son] is making a flame thrower!” They’d been watching that old James Bond where he does a makeshift flame thrower out of a can of hairspray and a lighter…
He’s always been big on running his own experiments.
Sorry - O/T Does anybody know when Admitted Students days/weekends are? Thanks!
lol april
Yeah, they’re not dumb enough go begin Admitted Student events in Chicago during Jan/Feb.
@milee30 - sorry - asked my kid if they were lit by torch and she said “no”. Hopefully she won’t bring that up with anyone. Your son might really enjoy Scav - someone at BJ was able to fashion a crude nuclear reactor of some type one year. It’s a famous story.
In addition to the admitted student days in april, there may be receptions as well (held in various geographic locations.) Not much happens at the receptions, but it’s mostly a great chance to meet other admitted students and their families, and also current students, alumni and some of the school’s administrators. At the end of the mingling/reception (I think it’s about 2 hours) Nondorf or an admissions officer usually talks for like 15 minutes. We enjoyed meeting some of the alumni and families, and we saw a couple of them again at Admitted Student days, and also OWeek.
Look out for emails from the school.
"Your son might really enjoy Scav - someone at BJ was able to fashion a crude nuclear reactor of some type one year. It’s a famous story. "
He has told us that story many times, he’s sad he wasn’t there. And yeah, we had a lengthy debate over what types of fab equipment he could bring with him to college. Thankfully UChicago understands what type of students it’s dealing with and specifically prohibits soldering irons in dorms. Actually, that was part of how I knew this would be a good fit for him - unlike a lot of colleges the dorm rules were mercifully brief and reasonable, yet still had a specific mention of prohibiting soldering irons.
From Real Clear Science:
A Homemade Nuclear Reactor
Each year, University of Chicago students embark on a traditional scavenger hunt. The contest features comical, strange, and even impossible to attain items. 1999’s extensive list included:
-With your teammates’ powers combined, summon Captain Planet. [10 points]
-A French-Canadian. [30 points]
-Fisher-Price Baby’s First Flamethrower. [122 points]
-Two cups of chocolate chips with at least a half cup of ketchup–to be consumed ensemble. [25 points]
-5 MENSA membership cards. [40 points]
-A breeder reactor built in a shed, and the boy scout badge to prove credit was given where boy scout credit was due. [500 points]
You can see where this is going. Jenna Beck from Hypercube describes what happened after the contest got underway:
“Sure enough, physics majors Justin Kasper and Fred Niell built a plutonium-producing reactor in a single day using scrap aluminum and carbon sheets. To get the radioactive element, the pair collected Thorium powder from the inside of vacuum tubes, which the reactor turned into trace amounts of weapons-grade uranium. An alarmed nuclear physicist verified the device’s authenticity, and the team came in second place.”
And Justin Kasper is now Lecturer at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and he works on the Parker Solar Probe:
https://mag.uchicago.edu/science-medicine/something-new-under-sun
@HydeSnark @uocparent Thank you. Trying to get that info. from my S is like pulling teeth; he’s overseas until later Spring, and I don’t want to miss anything!
Strange that you are not on their mailing lists for their correspondences yet. I thought some receptions begins as early as January and February. Totally understand your excitement!
I still don’t want to miss anything!
@uocparent I’m going to call them: I’d be so upset if I missed anything!