Answered! – Irrelevant information that you need to know

Say wha?

“Here at Food for Thought, we are dedicated to a ‘smile if you’re feeling like it, don’t if you’re not,’ policy.”

–Food for Thought responding to a Jan. 13 Vanguard review of the student-run café.

In case you were wondering…

You will be about $1,200 in debt to Portland State after three years of school, even if you choose to not eat for three days of the week, do nothing but study and work a full-time job at $8 an hour.

By our own generalized (and shallow!) estimates, it will cost the average person $17,055.50 to:

1. Be a full-time PSU student who takes three classes during each of the four school terms ($6,483.5 a year).

2. Eat two $5 meals a day, for only four days a week–plus you get to buy one $2 energy drink a day! ($2,304 a year).

3. Buy a full time on-campus parking permit every term ($1,068 a year).

4. Pay about $600 a month for rent and utilities ($7,200 a year).

This $17,055.50 does not include spending money on anything from food for the other three days of the week, to entertainment, to food for three days of the week. In case you haven’t been listening, you will not be eating for three out of seven days of the week, under our sweeping assumptions.

Why will you be in debt? Because a student who works 40 hours a week for each of the 52 weeks of the year will earn $16,640, and that is before taxes. This means that the average PSU student who doesn’t qualify for anything but student loans will be $415.50 in debt at the end of each school year.

What the hell is that?

Many of the sculptures in the South Park Blocks speak for themselves (What could the statue of Theodore Roosevelt symbolize other than, well, Theodore Roosevelt?).

One sculpture, however, might be a little more puzzling. Those three pillars across from the Portland Art Museum–two knocked over and one standing–might have you scratching your head over their meaning. You may be surprised to find out they stand (or lay in some of the pillars’ case) for peace.

How exactly does toppled granite represent peace? The dedication plaque for the pillars, called “Peace Chant,” and the Portland Parks Web site don’t give a deeper meaning for the sculpture, created by Steve Gillman in 1985. A poem dedicated to “Peace Chant” and its sister sculpture across the street, “From Within Shalom,” does little to clear up the confusion: “Cry out you stones, cry out! Let the whole world hear your message.”

But what message? Art sure can be confusing.

The deepest explanation about the statue comes courtesy of www.pdxartwork.blogspot.com/2006/08/peace-plaza.html, and it reads, “It’s large, and kids from the daycare like to jump off it.” Enough said.