Almanac

Ask Bucky

Do you have questions? We have answers! Ask Bucky is a service provided by the Campus Information and Visitor Center, your one-stop shop for information about the UW–Madison campus and community and your centralized source for off-campus housing listings. For more information, call 263-2400, visit the office in the Red Gym or the new satellite location in Bascom Hall, or visit us at http://www.civc.wisc.edu. Below is a question Ask Bucky recently received.

Q: Hello, I am a proud UW graduate and used to play football as an undergraduate. I was wondering if you could tell me if there is anywhere a person could download mp3s of the marching band playing “On, Wisconsin,” “Varsity,” “When You Say Wisconsin,” etc. I really appreciate the assistance.

A: You may download the fight songs commonly played on game days by visiting http://www.uwbadgers.com/traditions/ and then clicking on “school songs.” The downloadable songs include “On, Wisconsin,” “Varsity,” “The Bud Song” and “If You Want to be a Badger.” And if you want to sing along, the lyrics also are printed on the Web site.

Giant Pumpkin Regatta set for Oct. 9 at Memorial Union

October at the Union Terrace means crisp blue skies and crimson leaves scattered among the brightly colored tables and chairs. This year you’ll also see a flash of orange bobbing in Lake Mendota when UW–Madison’s first Giant Pumpkin Regatta takes place at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 9, at the Memorial Union Terrace.

In the race, organized by professors of horticulture Jim Nienhuis and Irwin Goldman, students — or “pumpkin pilots” — will paddle hollowed-out 3-foot-wide Atlantic Giant pumpkins, mounted to tractor tires for stability, between the piers at the Memorial Union Terrace. The Union’s Hoofer Sailing Club will set up the course with buoys and provide supervision and chase kayaks. In addition to life jackets, each pilot will be outfitted with what Nienhuis calls “an attractively carved” pumpkin helmet.

The pumpkin pilots will come from a class on world vegetable crops that Nienhuis and Goldman teach in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. The first race will feature Goldman, who also is a CALS associate dean for research, and a horticulture graduate student. Other challenges will follow.

Nienhuis notes that the massive pumpkins were grown by undergraduates Kris Stump Schmidt and Calvin Leitzow as part of a student project.

Friends to hold Wisconsin’s largest used book sale

The Friends of the UW–Madison Libraries will host its semiannual used book sale Wednesday-Saturday, Oct. 12-15, in 116 Memorial Library. The sale features a variety of donated books, journals and magazines in the sciences and humanities with special collections of literary studies and modern theology.

In 19 book sales during the past nine years, more than 284,000 books have been sold. Those statistics become all the more remarkable when tied to their outcome — more than $350,000 for library grants, scholarly research and special acquisitions and conservation projects.

The Friends have built this event into the single largest used book sale in Wisconsin, thanks largely to volunteers. This dedicated group has contributed more than 3,000 hours in the last nine years.

In addition, the Friends annually distribute several grants of up to $1,000 to researchers from around the world who visit Madison to pursue humanities-related research in Memorial Library.