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I was reading about James Henry Breasted, the founder of the Oriental Institute and a fellow resident of my hometown of Downers Grove, Illinois, and I discovered that at one point his house on campus was what is now the Phi Gamma Delta (or "Fiji") frat house at my alma mater, the University of Chicago.

Searching around, I found this amazing undated photo of the exterior of Fiji from the Reg's Special Collections image archive:

Previously: God Loves Frats

During my tenure at the University of Chicago, I was virtually alone in my attempt at total avoidance of the Regenstein Library. Despite it being the social nexus of the entire school, I could not bring myself to study within its bleak, brutalist walls. On floors where there were people I knew, I was too distracted. In quieter parts, I was too creeped out to work. Sitting directly above where Enrico Fermi set off the first nuclear reaction, I was sure I heard the ghosts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki whispering in my ear each time I opened up my copy of the Critique of Judgment.

But if I had studied in the Reg, I would have seen plenty of cubicle graffiti. Quinn Dombrowski, a library staffer, has collected 703 examples of this in her lovely Flickr set. I think this one represents the healthiest approach to studying at the U of C:

[via gapers block via la times blog]

Whet Moser has revealed on the Reader blog one of my favorite secrets of the University of Chicago (introduced to me by MDM): the Playboy Playmates Database [uh, NSFW].

Maintained by an employee at the Reg on the library's servers, it's a database of thumbnails of every centerfold in Playboy's history, along with reviews for each one. It's the Playmates from the magazine's earlier days that I'm most drawn to. There's just something charming about them - somehow they appear almost...real. The models are placed in scenarios that give the impression that these may be actual moments in time captured on film, more so than any contemporary airbrushed and Photoshopped centerfold can. It makes them so much more suggestive and alluring, despite not even always baring all. Mark Tomlonson's review of Miss February 1958, Cheryl Kubert, articulates this excellently:

In Cheryl Kubert's centerfold (February 1958) we've just said something incredibly stupid and are about to ruin the whole deal.

So why rate this centerfold, one without any naughty bits, so highly? Because it does such a great job of capturing the moment. It's a very real moment. Everyone on this List can probably point to at least one time where they saw a similar look on their partner's face. Maybe you recovered and completed the task you originally set out to complete, maybe not.

The point is that the implied situation rings so true. It doesn't hurt, either, that Cheryl looks pretty good here. The make-up and hair are perfect. Overstyled for contemporary tastes, but still very good. Cheryl's eyes in particular are very well drawn. They're bright and open, and add a great deal of life to Cheryl's expression.

The artistic values are in line with the other elements. The colors are bold and true. The window on the right divides the frame into vertical stripes, and these stripes are echoed in Cheryl's sweater. The horizontal sill at the bottom keeps our eyes within the frame.

Photographer: Mario Casilli

Scoring:
Pin-up: 3.0
Erotic: 3.0
Artistic: 3.0

Overall: 3.0 out of 4.0

Wonderflu brings me the sad news today that the Booth Booth is no longer.

When David Booth gave an absurd and unprecedented $300 million to the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business, the entire school was rebranded as the Booth School. The best thing to come out of this was that the booth outside the school's parking garage was also stuck with a new Booth label. But alas, it seems someone caught wind of how funny this was, and as GSB BSB Chicago Booth people don't like humor, the sign is now gone.

Videogum is showing Alpha Delt some love today.

This video of a Chicago fraternity "welcoming" the evil Westboro Baptist "god hates fags" protesters to their college earlier this week with a song, dance, and "no tolerance for intolerance" banner is basically the most heartwarming fucking thing I've ever seen in my entire life:

Of course, I don't think the Videogum folks quite realize that U of C frats are not exactly representative of Greek life across the country, but it is pretty cool.

Hyde Park Urbanist and the Maroon also cover the very University of Chicago counter-protest.

[photo by avi schwab]