Well, this is it — the semester has come, and it’s almost gone.
You have three days of class left.
And although we’re going to have one last edition of Darts & Laurels next Wednesday, we can’t help but get a little sentimental when we think about all the fun we’ve had with you.
And so we’d like to present you with this week’s here’s-to-the-memories edition of Darts & Laurels.
Because we know you love us.
We want to start off on a happy note today.
Kudos to the university administration for finally getting with the program and allowing graduate students Jon Bougher and Roman Safiullin to use the footage captured in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake in their thesis.
We’re going to throw a we’re-not-really-sure-why-you-wouldn’t-allow-it-in-the-first-place-but-thanks-for-eventually-doing-the-right-thing LAUREL to the UF administration.
This next person, we’re not too happy with. And he comes in the form of the resident Mad Hatter of the Gainesville Tea Party.
That’s right, Don Marsh, we’re talking to you.
For those of you who have no idea what’s going on outside our vine-clad halls, there was a runoff city election Tuesday between Marsh and City Commissioner Craig Lowe (We can’t hold it against you, though. A certain unnamed Alligator assistant sports editor didn’t know about it, either).
Well, the day before the election, one of our cute, little freelance writers tried contacting Marsh for an article, so, you know, it would be fair and unbiased.
However, old Donny boy didn’t want any part of that. He yelled at her, hung up on her and then proceeded to Tweet about it.
So that’s why we’re going to throw a you-should-have-left-your-phone-at-home-because-it-was-a-disaster DART to Mr. Gaga himself. Maybe if you didn’t leave your head and your heart on that Tea Party dance floor you could have won the election.
And while we’re on the subject of dancing, we’d like to congratulate everyone involved in Dance Marathon for raising a ton of money for a good cause.
So we’re going to print a bunch of LAURELs on T-shirts and stand — er, dance — around for 26.2 hours so the Dance Marathon organizers and participants can get a good look at them.
And speaking of dancing, Gov. Charlie Crist busted a smart political move today when he announced that he would veto the controversial Senate Bill 6, which has had Florida teachers’ panties in quite a twist. The bill, which would institute a system of merit pay for Florida teachers based on improvements in their students’ learning, has earned the governor’s office more than 120,000 angry messages demanding the eradication of the bill.
Overwhelming public opposition — and we suspect a few lit bags of crap on his front porch — inspired Crist to give the bill the boot. For that, we’re drop-kicking a LAUREL all the way up to the Florida Capitol and dropping it on Charlie Crist’s head.
We much prefer to see our teachers dancing for joy instead of sending us requests to join Facebook groups against the bill.
Well, we’ll see you next week. Unless we’re all dead, dead, dead from the pressure of exam week.
