I’m being haunted by the hookup from hell. At the beginning of last year I hooked up with a guy I thought I liked. Turns out he totally “New York’d” me. Now there’s a rumor going around that I got an STI from him. The truth is I never slept with him and I don’t have an STI, although he did give me a lesson in how guys can’t think with both heads at the same time. How do I stop this rumor?

Pattie Cake,

Sometimes rumors are blessings in disguise. Take, for example, Harvey Mudd students. Most had a bad rumor made up about them in middle school that completely debilitated their social life and propelled them to eat Fritos and root beer for lunch in the science lab. That sounds pretty lame until ten years from now when they perfect nuclear fusion on earth and are forever known as those Frito-eating geniuses. If I were you I would grab that STI and run like the wind. You’re getting into Harvard Grad.

If you really can’t stand having guys avoid you like the Home section at Collins, there are a couple of things you can do. If you want it to be easy, just scan your STI test results and make copies for the gossip hounds. Hand it to them and say, “I actually don’t have [insert slandered STI].” Granted, they’ll have your blood counts and hormone levels to Photoshop, possibly turning you into an AIDS-infected hermaphrodite on paper.

You don’t like either of these suggestions, do you? Me neither. So maybe just talk to him. You’re furious right? No doubt, but I don’t think screaming insults will help. Find him alone and calmly tell him how much his lies hurt you. I know I sound like your mom in grade school when she was like, “Well tell Sarah it hurts your feelings when she calls you stupid.” And you said, “I know,” but in your head you were like there is no fucking way I am saying that. Well, you’re older now, and often genuinely informing someone how damaging their words are is far more powerful than yelling, cussing, and creating rumors about how their penis competes with your index finger in length. You don’t want to turn this into a game of tennis against a brick wall, or, rather relevantly, refuting anything Charles Johnson has to say.

Realistically, there is something to be said for the strength of a person who has the self-esteem to let a rumor run its course. You know the truth and hopefully your friends do too – why let him cut you even deeper by dwelling on this falsity?

A Mitch

Dear A Mitch,

Why are the guys at CMC douchebags?

Miss Descriptive,

In the same way Pomona boys are all pretentious, Mudders all hopelessly nerdy, and Scrippsies all scissoring humanitarians, CMC guys are just dicks. Please clump us together as a huge whale douche (the ocean?). Look, there are plenty of d bags at the 5C’s, and if we did a 5C statistical survey, I wouldn’t be surprised if CMC guys ranked first in douchebaggery. I do sometimes wonder as well – you aren’t the first person to have reoccurring issues with CMCers. If I am going to hypothesize as to why so many people think Stag=douchebag, I would need to organize my thoughts. Numbers will help. And then transition sentences are not necessary. Timesavas!

1. About thirty percent of CMC  students are athletes.  This means there’s a bevy of bros who not only have a stunning physique, but have likely been popular studs for most of their lives; they are the yeast in baking success with women (in high school at least). Athletes are not inherently douches by any means – they are simply more susceptible to the status. It is easier to disregard the feelings of another when there’s always going to be someone giving a shit about how damn good you look in crimson and gold.

2. Claremont McKenna teeters on the title of liberal arts college. This is a school popular for economics, business, and finance. We have more econ majors than Jay-Z has problems, okay, actually way more. Now this might be a leap, but I imagine the kid who wants to go to school for four years and have a $60,000± investment firm salary when they graduate is the type that prefers immediate gratification. Which translates to: Gettin’ mine tonight. Or, my deeper thoughts concerning how my actions might affect people are subordinate to my drive to be successful. But then you meet Moose Halpern and everything I just said sounds outlandish.

3. Where you are meeting these guys? TNC right? T – Thursday N – Night C – CLUB. Rasmussen’s latest poll shows that clubs are for womanizers. And menizers. Especially party clubs, where a large proportion of individuals are willing to play smoochikins at the end of the night. Are you getting my drift? If you are looking for someone who you can really connect with, maybe try developing friendships outside of the party scene. If you were to walk by the basketball suite on a Saturday night, you would probably hate all of us. But have a midday chat with Seth Winterroth and you might fall in love. Drunken debauchery is misrepresentative of who people are, and while it does define a small facet of a person, the larger fraction is more visible during Sunday’s coffee conversations, Tuesday night’s psych seminar, and green beach bathing in November.

So don’t stereotype us like I have in this response. You only know what you experience –alter the environment in which your judgments occur.

A Mitch

Got a question of your own for A Mitch?  Submit it anonymously and maybe you’ll be lucky enough to be on the receiving end of A Mitch’s wise words.

But here’s the math just in case…

On the meal plan, you can choose from the 16, 12, or 8 meals per week options. The prices have risen ~4-5% per year in recent years, and in 2009-2010 the pricing schedule is as follows:

16 meal plan = $6055
12 meal plan = $5560
8 meal plan = $5185

Each plan comes with a little “flex money” that you can use at the school store on candy, snacks, soda, toothpaste, etc.  Let’s count that as cash back because many students use it on stuff they would have otherwise spent cash on.

So we’ll subtract flex money:

16 = $6055 – 160 = 5895
12 = $5560 – 120 = 5440
8 = $5185 – 80 = 5105

Based on these amounts and a 16 week semester, if you use all your meals (that’s a big “if”), each meal would cost:

16 meal plan = $5895 / 16 meals / 32 weeks = $11.51 per meal
12 meal plan = $5440 / 12 meals / 32 weeks = $14.17 per meal
8 meal plan = $5105 / 8 meals / 32 weeks = $19.94 per meal

Keep in mind that nobody actually uses 16 meals a week except Sean Wasserman, the CMS Water Polo starting goalie, because he is “The Body.” In fact, rumor has it that the dining hall discovered that almost nobody uses all 16 meals (those under that plan use 14 on average), which is why the price difference between the 16 and 12 plans is so low.

Alternatively, there’s the option to pay per meal as an outsider every time you go to the dining hall.  Those prices are:

Breakfast: $7.50
Lunch: $10.50
Dinner: $13.50

Bottom Line: It’s cheaper to just pay in cash (a la carte) every time you go to the dining halls than to get the 8 meal plan, 12 meal plan, or in some cases, any meal plan.

With that out of the way, tuck in your napkins, it’s on to the food!

Monday

According to the comments from last week, some people do, in fact, love Mondays. Here is one reason you could too: Monday is Make Your Own Pizza night at Frary. Unfortunately, it does draw a crowd so try to get there early or late. Frary stays open until 8pm so you can eat great, even late… just like at Wendy’s.

If Pizza doesn’t do it for you, mosey on over to Collins where there will be Gyros, a Roasted Vegetable Salad and “Deli Night- Corn Beef on a Baggette” (Misspelling is in the menu) While the Cornish bastard child of the French Dip Sandwich might not appeal to you (or it might, who knows), Collins Gyros are generally decent.

Tuesday

Frary is blowing away the competition this week by following up Make Your Own Pizza with Burrito Night! Once again, make sure that you’re not in a rush. Burrito and Quesadilla orders can take time, but that guacamole goodness is usually worth it.

Collins is playing backup once again, offering Philly Cheese Steaks, a Southwest Chicken Wrap and “Crepe Expectations – Pumpkin and Apple”. The crepes get listed last because the apple ones were decidedly mediocre last week.

Wednesday

Wednesday is sushi night at Collins! Be there or miss the most delicious sushi on the 5-Cs.

Thursday

Live dangerously tonight. Tromp up to Scripps and see if there menu bears any relationship to what they are serving. Supposedly, they will offer Chicken, Chipotle & Cheese Quesadillas at the Grille, a Baked Potato Bar at the Exhibition (a great place to get toppings for your homemade Cheese Fries), and last, but not least, Beef Lasagna and Garlic Breadsticks in the regular line.

If Scripps doesn’t appeal to you, try eating a late dinner at the Hub. Wyatt Mackenzie recently extolled its virtues here on the forum. It opens at 7:00pm.

Friday

Hike up to Mudd this Friday for Individual Pizzas Made to Order. Mudd will also have Carne Asada Tacos, which I recommended last week, and “Wings & Things”, which sounds ambiguous, yet appetizing.

Saturday

Elton John says Saturday night’s alright for fighting, but, if you ask me, it’s even better for steak. Beat the crowd up to Scripps to avoid lines that can extend all the way back to the tray return area. Saturday night is Steak Night but there will also be a Baked Potato Bar at the Exhibition.

Sunday

Sunday is the day to choose the dining hall based on the pizza, grilled chicken and salad bar. Few dining halls make any extraordinary effort at all on Sundays, so go to Scripps and make yourself a good sandwich/salad.

Featured Interview:

Instead of a Recipe of the Week this week, we are going to feature the 5-C Cookbook! Here is an interview with Ratna Kanath from Health Education Outreach. Please send any recipe ideas you have to rk002007@mymail.pomona.edu. They could be included in the cookbook.

1. Who is putting the 5-C cookbook together?

Health Education Outreach, a 5-College Resource Center, is working to get a healthy and variety-laden cookbook out to the students so that they can make their own meals in the dining halls when they find the pre-prepared options aren’t to their liking.

2. What inspired the idea? Why make a 5-C cookbook?

In thinking about how difficult it is to navigate the dining halls when dealing with allergies or dietary restrictions (gluten-intolerant, vegan, vegetarian, lactose-intolerant, peanut allergies), and how little is open to these students, we started to talk about how limiting and monotonous dining hall food can get for many students. This drives them to eat greasy, unhealthy things, munch on desserts that are unappetizing, and experience mounting frustration. We decided to create a cookbook so that students can reference what their friends and classmates have done to liven up their meals and bring flavor and healthfulness back to their diets. We’re hoping to get emails and have recipe suggestion boxes at the dining halls in order to get people thinking about what they create at the dining halls when World Wok isn’t available or they can’t eat custom-made pizzas.

3. What will the cookbook look like? How will people access it? Will it be printed, online, or both?

We’re still unclear on this–it’s entirely dependent on the interest this generates. We’re hoping to make the cookbook available at all of the 5-C dining halls, however, and in Health Education Outreach. If there are calls for an online version, we might make that available, too. It’s a little too early to tell at the moment.

4. Can you give an example recipe that might be in the cookbook?

Crunch and Snap Fruit Salad
1 apple
1 orange
1 handful of raisins/cranberries (adjust according to preference)
1 handful of walnuts/pecans
1 lemon wedge

Cut the apple and orange into chunky pieces and roughly chop the walnuts/pecans. Squeeze lemon juice over the mixture and add the raisins/cranberries; then mix it all together and enjoy as a healthy breakfast, snack, or dessert.

A New York native, Callahan worked as an Assistant Beverage Manager at the renowned Treasure Island Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas before coming to CMC last fall. Callahan decided to work for Bon Appétit following his brother’s positive experiences as both a chef and manager with the company.

Bon Appétit Management Company is a nationwide catering company providing services and socially responsible and sustainable foods to universities and other organizations. CMC’s and Pitzer’s dining halls are operated by Bon Appétit. Bon Appétit prides itself on using as many local sources as possible to supply the food. The dining halls at Scripps, Harvey Mudd and Pomona are operated by Sodexho. Callahan describes the relationship with this rival food company as a “friendly competition.” He notes that Bon Appétit takes the surveys and input from students very seriously as they are always looking for ways to improve.

Callahan works about ten hours a day for five days a week. He says his favorite meal is brunch on either Saturday or Sunday, where Collins opens for made-to-order smoothies and omelets as well as the usual fare. His daily responsibilities include inputting menus online and preparing for the next meal, but his main job is overseeing his employees and ensuring that everything runs smoothly. Callahan is actively involved in the planning for Collins’ special dinners, such as the recent Mardi Gras dinner or the Winter Wonderland dinner in December. He says other employees work together to brainstorm for these events, which are often popular among CMC students.

When not working, Callahan enjoys spending time with his puppy and hiking mountains such as Arrowhead and Mount Baldy. Always happy to talk to students, Callahan takes pleasure in hearing about our achievements and upcoming activities– he was recently spotted at the CMS vs. PP Men’s Basketball game!