Welcome new Vernizens!  It has been a long, boring summer without students around here and we are so happy to have you on campus!

Once you get all moved in, meet the roommate and decide where to put the micro-fridge, why don’t you come in to Eckles for a little visit?  We’ll be open Saturday and Sunday from 10a-6p this weekend (our special move-in hours).  Bring in that brand new, shiny mug for some delicious coffee, cappuccino or hot chocolate.  It is FREE today only!

I’ll admit it.  I’m sentimentally attached to a tree.

Those of you returning to campus will notice something noticeably absent from the quad.   A really big tree.  It used to grace the corner of the quad.  It would lovingly brush your head as you walked along the path to Eckles and offered low branches for easy climbing.  Sadly, the tree passed away and so that it didn’t come crashing down onto a Vern Express someday it is being cut down and carried away.

 Goodbye happy tree!

It has come to my attention that the National Zoo is getting rid of their only Nile hippopotamus, Happy. According to the Washington Post, he is quite a charmer:

Happy is not much to look at. He has stained teeth, tiny ears and he drools. He’s very large — like, slow-getting-out of-the-pool large. And he’ll sneeze on you if you’re not paying attention to him.

But still…the hippo is the unofficial mascot of GW and we just can’t let this happen! And so I officially throw my support behind GW alumni, Lindsay Fincher and her brilliant suggestion that GW adopt Happy!

Now Lindsay believes we should put Happy on the Foggy Bottom campus, but I just don’t think he’d be comfortable down there. Being from the zoo, he is used to a little quieter setting with a little more greenery. Thus the only rational solution is for Happy to come live on the Vern! Now, you may think I’m crazy, but we could expand the fountain a bit for him to swim in and when it gets too cold outside he can just hang out in Eckles. Who wouldn’t be thrilled to live inside Eckles????

It seems only fair! Foggy Bottom already has “a hippo for hope” and so should we!