Charles Wu: the Previous Incarnation

My family and I showed our solidarity with the inhabitants of Palau by celebrating Thanksgiving on Friday (according to the "Celebrations Around the World" board, the Palauese(?) share the practice). Surprisingly, perhaps sacreligiously, a single plateful of food sated me completely. But Saturday was the church Thanksgiving dinner, so cumulatively, I did my share of overindulging. In related news, I now owe my homeroom teacher a pecan pie.

Freaky news of the week: My dad, as an economics TA at UC Berkeley in the mid-1980s, taught a freshman student named CHARLES WU. He was a genius, no less - Dad recounted tales of grading endless pages of breathy prose by earnest undergrads in the same class, only to come upon Charles' paper, which would contain perfect one-sentence answers spelled out in miniscule handwriting. On the final exam, the long essay question went something like this:

"While you are home for the holidays, [some economic issue] comes up at the dinner table. Your father says to you, 'You took an economics class at college - what does [some aspect of the economic issue] mean?' Answer your father's question."

Charles began his essay "Well, Dad . . . " going on to offer a flawless answer and pithily inserting the phrase "Dad, would you please pass the salt?" at a likely break in his prose. Apparently, the professor of the econ class personally petitioned Charles (an EE/CS major) to change his major to economics, all to no avail. I am still reeling with the impact of this revelation. Another Charles Wu? So like our own, yet 20 years older? What does this mean?

OK, college applicationicking (a process as long and ugly as its name). I sent off my first application yesterday (Stanford) - seven more to go. But I'm feeling OK . . . incidentally, are any of you applying to CalTech? The CalTech app contains a question as follows: "Fill the rectangle below with something you think is interesting." This is followed by (surprise) an empty rectangle that takes up most of the page. TASP poll: what would you put in there? I am thinking of putting in a copy of a Dutch Resistance poster from WWII with the slogan "Find the fifth swine" and a picture of four pigs that can be folded in a particular way to obtain an image of Hitler's face.

Groetjes,

Sam