<p>The Sterling library thing at Yale is a myth. The thing is built like a super fortress. But there are cool carvings that you can find. You can look at the books and things the various worker characters in the halls are holding. We did used to joke that the steps down into what was then “machine city” on the way to Cross Campus Library should have a sign “Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here” - or since it was Yale “Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate”. For some reason that recalls my two favorite pieces of Yale graffiti. One was outside Morse College. It read “Criticise Eva” with an s not a z. That was Eva Balogh, their Master. The other was when they renovated the Old Campus and on the big, solid construction fence outside Connecticut Hall were scrawled in huge letters Molly Bloom’s last words from Ulysses: “and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes”. No one wrote over that. For context, Conn Hall is where the statue of Nathan Hale stands because he lived there. I loved the contrast.</p>
<p>(My favorite graffiti will always be from Toledo, Ohio. On the side of a bridge “Welcome to Zero City, Baby!”)</p>
<p>Frank Lloyd Wright supposedly said the only place he’d live in at Yale was Harkness Tower - which is a beautiful Gothic structure - because then he wouldn’t have to look at it. (He never said that.) There is a carillon up there, operated by the carilloners guild. One of my friends joined. On the floor below is a practice carillon. It’s hard to describe: it looks like a big loom with hand and foot pedals you whack to trigger the bells. (Carillons are now, on the whole, switching to digital triggering. Real bells, not the same carillon. A real carillon has more ease and space between the notes than a digital.) Practice times were hard to get so I’d walk her over at absurd hours in the very early morning.</p>