The Echols Quarantimes: Issue 15

A weekly newsletter designed to keep you sane and connected

MAY 15, 2020 | ISSUE 15

In this Issue:

A Note From Parker

Social Distancing Network

Echols Call to Action

Riddle Me This

New Knowledge Nuggets

Your Pantry is Calling

Who Doesn't Love a Puzzle?

Really terrible jokes!

Solutions from the Last Issue

Raffle Winner!

A Farewell to Balz-Dobie

My Friends, Residents, and the Greater Echols Community,

Four years ago, I signed up for scholars housing because it had air conditioning. There were other reasons, of course: living among “a community of scholars” sounded appealing, even if I was not sure exactly what it might entail.

Now, after spending half of my four years at UVA in Balz-Dobie, air conditioning is the very least of what I have come to value within those walls that have been consecrated in my mind. If Balz-Dobie contained furnaces that were only active in the summers, I would still be thrilled to call it home and to spend another year living happily atop Observatory Hill. As anybody who has had the pleasure of calling Balz home can attest, the magic and unending appeal of the space comes not from any of its amenities, but from the people within.

While each year in Balz-Dobie is different, there are some things that simply never change, even with a total turnover of its residents. These are the things I will remember, and which collectively endeared me forever to the Balz-Dobie community:

Whiteboards crammed with information on everything from organic chemistry to Roman history to parody song lyrics. Spontaneous board game sessions. Smiles on the faces of a row of hallmates supporting their friend at their game or performance. The smell of a Crossroads burger being carried down the hallway at 2 in the morning. Tearstains on the shirt sleeve of a supportive friend. An openness to listening to the ideas of others, and then to debating those ideas for hours on end, in study rooms, bathrooms, lounges, and hallways. A tireless fascination with stacking furniture, inventing new sports in the hallways, putting the elevators to strange use, posting absurd and hilarious flyers and poems in the hallways, and generally engaging in imaginative shenanigans that cause a bemused old Senior Resident to shake their head, smiling as they remember doing the same thing only a few years before.

I am grateful to all of you, this year and in years past, who have made Balz-Dobie a spectacular home marked by a sense of warmth and discovery.

Fondly,

Parker Bach

Senior Resident of Balz-Dobie

As always send things our way via email

to EcholsProgram@virginia.edu

Social Distancing Network

(Recent Alumni Edition)

Social distancing is important, but community is important too. We can still get to know each other virtually. Each issue we will shine a spotlight on members of the Echols community. We hope this will make you feel more connected.

We encourage you to participate by sending a picture of yourself, basic introductory information, two truths and a lie, and a picture from your home/pets/life etc. to echolsprogram@virginia.edu. (Answers will be provided in the following issue)

Kenneth Darcy

Class of 2019

Majors: Spanish and Chemistry with a Specialization in Biochemistry

Hometown: Seattle, WA

Current Location: Attending the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine at Washington State University (working in both Spokane, WA and Portland, OR)

Two truths and a lie:

I lived on the same hall in Balz-Dobie three years in a row while I was a UVa student.
I am currently going to medical school to become a primary care physician in a rural community.
I spent the summer after I graduated from UVa working in a hostel in Europe.

“Something that has been a big part of my life recently is climbing/bouldering. Since leaving UVa, I have taken up this sport as a way to exercise and decompress after hours of studying. The best part is, even with COVID-19, I have been able to get outside and climb pretty frequently!”

-Kenny

Mary Garner McGehee

Class of 2019

Major : Political and Social Thought

Hometown: Fluvanna, VA

Current Location: I make podcasts at WTJU 91.1 FM here in Charlottesville (Check out Charlottesville Soundboard to keep up with local news while you're away!)

Two truths and a lie

I have one extra bone in each of my feet.
I'm trying to learn to play the banjo.
I have watched every episode of Derry Girls nine times.

“ My sister had to come home from her study abroad, which was really sad, but I can't wait to join her in reading on a large bed of moss when she's out of self-isolation. (Please note the yellow Clorox wipes in the bottom left of this photo.)”

-Mary

Echols Call to Action

Hi everyone!

My name is Jule Voss, and I am a rising-second year Echols scholar. I am also a member of the executive committee of the Student COVID Coalition. The idea for this group came from a fourth year who is currently working as an emergency operations coordinator at a homeless shelter, and our goal is to create a group of volunteers who would be willing to contribute their time to making UVa safer when we return to Grounds. We expect that it will take a lot of extra labor in order to reopen such a large university--for this reason, we are making our time available to trace contacts, check temperatures, construct temporary buildings, or anything else the University needs. In the end, we all hope to return in the fall, and we want to help the University reopen safely then, or whenever it is safe to do so.

If you would like to join our recruitment group and learn more, please fill out this form and join our GroupMe.

Recruitment form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfdm-6ZGrC_oIxrDjWIwPTah9wNtyidV3rwAKVpyq1pgQZhJQ/viewform

GroupMe: https://groupme.com/join_group/59519430/yH6EjFSG

Then the group will reach out to you to formally commit your time and become a member. This is a pivotal time in the decision-making process, and we are in contact with the student member of the University’s Fall 2020 reopening committee in order to make sure we can have the most impact.

If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to email me at jmv2nd@virginia.edu . We also have a website here: http://studentcovidcoalition.org

Riddle Me This

Send your answers to echolsprogram@virginia.edu, subject line "Riddle".

Respondents with correct answers will be entered into a raffle to win a random item from Kelsey's home! ...we're serious.

There is a barrel with no lid and some water in it. “This barrel of water is more than half full,” says the woman. “No, it’s not,” says the man. “It’s less than half full.”

Without any measuring implements and without removing any water from the barrel, how can they easily determine who is correct?

New Knowledge Nuggets

Help all of us keep learning cool new things!

Send all New Knowledge Nuggets to echolsprogram@virginia.edu

to be featured in future issues.

"The longest english word is 189,819 letters long and belongs to a protein nicknamed "Titin.

The full name of the protein would take three and a half hours to read out loud."

-Tommy Ferrier

Echols Graduate Intern

You can see this word in full here .

" I learned that the word ‘pants’ comes from ‘pantaloons’, which are named after a Christian martyr San Pantaleone! "

-Kelsey Johnson

Echols Program Director