[1699] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: [Mit-talk] Re: [Sponge-talk] dollar bill mural
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Cathy Zhang)
Wed Dec 14 17:21:26 2005
Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2005 17:18:06 -0500
From: Cathy Zhang <zhangc@mit.edu>
To: Jeff Roberts <thejoker@alum.mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <b82503c90512140704v6712fac7oa9b69f4b3de13a52@mail.gmail.com>
cc: mit-talk@mit.edu
cc: "Sponge-Talk@mit.edu" <sponge-talk@mit.edu>
Errors-To: mit-talk-bounces@mit.edu
Pardon, but hasn't the smoot hack been around for a long while now? And
it's not like anyone's planning to get rid of the smoot marks...
-Cathy
Jeff Roberts wrote:
>As a member of the evil planning profession I'm probably personna non
>grata in this conversation, but I thought I'd throw out a couple
>pseudo-historical, pseudo-spiritual considerations ...
>
>1. Someone mentioned the dollar bill being part of "hacking history"
>and that's certainly true. I'm no expert on hacking but it seems that
>there are virtually no cases where hacks last forever. They are acts
>of spontaneity and humor that have a limited lifespan, and then are
>taken down in anticipation of the next hack that catches people's
>fancy. Old hacks continue to exist in stories, and in the permanent
>collection of the MIT Museum -- is that where the dollar bill belongs
>now?
>
>2. Sure the mural looks cool, but will it really have the same effect
>if the cashier's office is no longer behind it? MIT decided it was
>time for the cashier's office to move on to a new home -- and students
>generally did not object -- so is it time for the dollar bill to find
>a new home as well? Should this new lounge space start with a "blank
>slate" allowing students to excercise their creativity in new ways,
>giving it a character more appropriate to what the space is used for?
>
>Anyway, that's just something to think about, I'm not really
>advocating for getting rid of the mural and I'm certainly not saying
>you should stop trying to save it -- I love it when students rally to
>save an important part of "MIT history", especially when they don't
>really know what that history is (anyone who's spent any significant
>time at the MIT Archives, raise your hand) ...
>
>Jeff
>--
>Drink Moxie
>
>_______________________________________________
>Sponge-Talk@mit.edu - The reason Kevin might not graduate.
>
>
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>
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