Harvest Festival As Percursor To Future Black-Outs

Tuesday was the annual Harvest Festival and Turkey Trot -- the alliteration belies the rigor -- as we eased into the break with good vibes all around. The Harvest Festival itself tends to do little to celebrate the gathering of mature food, and is instead a series of games and booths run by individual teachers.

Last year I made sure kids stayed behind the line while they threw pies at the POY.

This year I ran an event entitled: "Sprite-Pong: The Only Game That Prepares You For College."

::cut to::

MISCELLANEOUS U.C. SCHOOL -- FIRST NIGHT OF FRESHMAN ORIENTATION 2013

Y.B., 18, a third generation invite to a dorm party, enters cautiously and rounds a corner where larger males stand, holding ping-pong balls, at opposite ends of a closet door where solo cups have been arranged in ascending triangles at each end.

He watches as one male throws a ping-pong toward a pyramidal cup arrangement. He is immobilized with the force of remembrance, the connections freshly minted on a memory that has long remained dormant.

Y.B.

Oh. My. God. Mr. [TMAO]!!!

The party whirls and swirls, oblivious.