Pirates and Pi and Rats and Pie and Rats (except there are no rats) by Kayode D. '27
3.1415926535897932384626433832795… idk the rest.
I [started] writing this blog on 3/17, and it’s the warmest day that there has been in a while. I was outside writing this blog in Killian Court, but the sun was causing too much glare so i’m in the library right now. This last week has been a doozy.
Pirates
This semester I’m taking 4 classes: 8.0201 Physics 2 , 18.0202 Calculus 2 , 2.S0203 Tool Design, a replacement MechE class for 2.00B, Toy Design, which didn't runt his semester. , and 21M.299. The last one is a world music studies class about “Pirate Songs and Whaling Chanteys.” and it’s AWESOME.
How the class works is we read a book by some salty New-England sea dog from the 60s, then we talk about it, and then we sing Sea Chanties04 The spelling of this word is a complex thing. There's a chicken-or-the-egg thing with whether the word chanty or chantyman (person who leads the chanties) came first, but the original spelling was chanty, and was later changed to be shanty by pop culture. When I say CHantey, I mean a historical chantey from the historical era, and when I say SHanty, I mean the broader definition of any sea song for the last third of class. It’s great. I’m learning so much about sea songs, and sailors and pirates and–
It’s all fake. Pirates Shanties aren’t real. You’ve been lied to.
The Golden Age of Piracy was from 1650-1739, and the Chanties as we know them didn’t really flourish until the 19th century aboard large shipping vessels. So if pirates sang, it wasn’t the sea chanties we know of, and it wasn’t like Captain Hook and Mr. Smee. Also, most of the shanties people typically know of aren’t even real shanties. A “Historical Chantey” was a work song sung to coordinate a heaving task (like spinning the capstan to raise an anchor) or hauling task (like raising the sails). Modern day shanties, like Wellerman or Hoist the Colors are not work songs, but instead just “maritime music” that often gets associated with shanties because the definition is very loose. But I digress, I will write a pirate blog at some point.
Our class has been planning for weeks to do a Chantey sing at MIT, and on 3/13 we did just that. We made posters and hung them up around campus, and from 2-3:30, we sang in Lobby 7.
It’s like a DLC to the MIT Pirate Certificate. My favorite Chanteys [although they are technically maritime songs, not sea chanties] so far have been The Mary Ellen Carter, Crossing the Bar, and Too Funk For the Folkies .
Pi
MIT goes HARD for Pi day. The Alumni Association has been sending emails (that i don’t think i ever read…) for weeks about an event in lobby 10. Thursday I saw what they meant.
They were doing a contest to see who could recite the most digits of pi, and the highest score was my friend Nina O., ‘27 with 43505 I just want to say that every single time I have seen Nina for the last month, she has mentioned that I put the wrong number on my blog. So apologies Nina, you had 435, not 345 digits (!!!) Good job Nina!
They also had a claw machine, with pi day merch inside. I wanted to play, but unfortunately the line stretched the entire length of the lobby. Then I did something I’m not proud of.
A man from the alumni group announced that if you donated 5 dollars you could skip the line. The actual thought that went through my head was “Free Will Friday,” and I blurted out that I would do it. I wanted a t shirt! So I donated 5 dollars, and that meant I could skip the line.
Then I realized I would actually have to skip the line. Of like, 80 people. I felt awful. The guy told me to just go up there and play, but I didn’t even want to do it anymore. These people had waited so long and I just paid 5 dollars to skip all of them. I apologized profusely for taking advantage of this blatant scam for donations, before I lost 3 tries in a row and high tailed it out of there.
I am deeply ashamed of this.
Rats
There are no rats in this story.
Pie
Every dining hall and their grandma’s house was serving pie on pi day. Whether it be pizza pie or real pie, everyone was getting a piece. Even Alan Z., who got pied in the face at Next House.
When I made it back to Simmons, I got late night food and (surprise surprise), there was pizza pie. Let me say, though, that this was the single greatest pizza I had eaten this semester. Most Boston Pizza is floppy, and I’ve yet to find a place with good pizza structure and firmness. Idk, New England Pizza just isn’t hitting as hard as what you could get from say a …Midwest Pizzeria. But that’s a story for another time.
Rats
Well, I guess there are some rats in the story.
I didn’t realize until recently that the phrase “Aw, Rats!” wasn’t a common one. I’ve been saying it for years, and recently that people seemed to think it was odd. One of my friends said it was a very Kentucky thing to say.
I thought about it and I think that I got the phrase from my mom. I don’t have any distinct memories of her saying it, but I feel like it’s something she would say. Or maybe I just got it from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Maybe the Real Rats Were the Friends We Made Along the Way
I guess another big thing that happened this week was on Wednesday. I was coming back from a blogger meeting where we talked about blogs and things and i made a shameless plug for *ahem* Midwest Pizzeria, and I realized that it had been a full year since last Pi Day. I had grown so much, and learned more about pirates than I ever thought I would. But the icing on the cake was after I had left.
I was walking in the outfinite06 it's like the infinite hallway...but outside. because it was finally warm, when I saw my fellow Kentucky friend, Kaleb T. ‘27, down the ways a little bit. He was longboarding with a can of soda in each hand. When he saw me he shouted,
“Which one do you want?”
I laughed and told him that I was ok.
“No, you’re taking one,” he said and he thrusted them towards me as he got closer. I reached out and grabbed the Canada Dry in his left hand as he skated away. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
Kaleb had grown. I remember meeting him at the KY student meetup and he seemed almost hesitant about coming to MIT and leaving KY behind, but look at him now! Giving soda to people in the street! If he could grow then so can I, and so had I. It was the first time since getting here that I didn’t just think that I belong here, but that a part of MIT belongs to me, too.
- Physics 2 back to text ↑
- Calculus 2 back to text ↑
- Tool Design, a replacement MechE class for 2.00B, Toy Design, which didn't runt his semester. back to text ↑
- The spelling of this word is a complex thing. There's a chicken-or-the-egg thing with whether the word chanty or chantyman (person who leads the chanties) came first, but the original spelling was chanty, and was later changed to be shanty by pop culture. When I say CHantey, I mean a historical chantey from the historical era, and when I say SHanty, I mean the broader definition of any sea song back to text ↑
- I just want to say that every single time I have seen Nina for the last month, she has mentioned that I put the wrong number on my blog. So apologies Nina, you had 435, not 345 back to text ↑
- it's like the infinite hallway...but outside. back to text ↑