Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Maybe THIS will bring more state funding?

From a regular reader of this blog, a note from Newsweek:
Hottest Big State School
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wis.

Growing up in Wisconsin, Laura Sullivan was raised on Badger mania. But she was initially afraid that she would get lost in Madison amid 41,000 students, 140 undergraduate majors and nearly 700 student organizations. So when her high-school German class visited, Sullivan says she was shocked to find that she immediately felt at home. The tree-filled campus of nearly 1,000 acres looked to her exactly like a college should. It occurred to her that its enormity actually meant "endless opportunities," she says. It is the old traditions graduates remember most, including Picnic Point, declared by one newspaper to be "the kissing-est spot in North America."
Our success in football, basketball and ice hockey hasn't brought state support. Being at the top of the heap in getting federal grants doesn't seem to matter. Maybe this will do the trick?

But really: Isn't there a crucial conflict between 'hottest' in contemporary usage and 'kissing-est'? The latter calls forth some fond memory of undergraduate romance; the former sounds like something I'd be embarrassed to be associated with. Maybe Campus Gone Wild isn't the strategy we need? If you read the whole Newsweek article, it becomes clear that this is hot as in 'hot stock', but it's pretty awkward here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

One potential nugget in this brief blurb about UW is the fact that the student arrived with her German class. Perhaps part of World Languages Day? Wish that would jump off the page and slap the admin folk awake. (doubt they'll catch that)

Mr. Verb said...

Good point. World Languages Day or maybe the long-established and very well known German Day, where high school German classes (masses of them, I gather) flock to Madison for various language competitions.

When you're asleep, a slap might wake you up. I think comas are different.