Smashing pumpkins and other halloween treats by Melis A. '08

Today is one of my favorite days of the year: the end of daylight savings time. There’s nothing like enjoying the only 25 hour day of the year by catching up on all of the work that you were supposed to have already completed. Procrastination can definitely be justified by that bonus hour. But, not everyone is as enthusiastic as I am… apparently “disruption in sleep patterns associated with setting clocks either forward or backward correlates with a small increase in the number of fatal auto accidents” (source) and lost productivity.

Regardless of the time, MIT was bustling with Halloween-related activities this weekend. SaveTFP, a group “committed to reducing stress and facilitating student social activities while increasing health awareness at MIT,” put on a “Spooky Skate” event at our ice skating rink. Students got to ice skate for free in their creative Halloween costumes. In my freshman year, the “best costume” award was given to a guy who dressed up as a test-tube baby. Basically, he dressed in a diaper, hat, and bib and used a hula hoop and plastic bags to make a giant test-tube around him. This year, someone went as Sonic the Hedgehog, complete with skin-tight blue Under Armor and a real blue mohawk.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t go skating this year because my sorority was putting on a Halloween event of its own. Thanks for all of the great costume suggestions, you are all so creative! I think Shahed wins with his suggestion of dressing up as an electron orbital (e-mail me if you want to claim your “prize”). Adam’s problem set monster suggestion was also inspirational. I’m sorry to say that I took a more conventional route, as I stayed in lab much longer than I anticipated on Friday night and didn’t really have time to go shopping for supplies. I settled on dressing up as Trinity from The Matrix. For the record, I was a Matrix fanatic in 8th grade. I’ve seen the movie around seventeen times, and though my passion for the film isn’t as strong anymore, it’s about time I’ve relived my teenage obsession. Some other great costumes included Mobius Strippers (based on the famous Mobius strips) and Outer Space.

Finally, no celebration at MIT is complete without dropping objects from a tall building. Saturday night was the famous Pumpkin Drop, put together by East Campus. A huge crowd formed to watch people drop a bunch of frozen pumpkins from the roof of the tallest building in Cambridge. It was very reminiscent of a fireworks show, since it was all choreographed to Boston Pop’s style orchestral music. I took some video footage for your viewing pleasure. The original MVI file is 5 MB (click here for original file), and if you have Windows Media Player you can watch the edited version (click here). Enjoy!