U Chicago Stories

marlowe1
Thu, 23 Mar 2017 10:08:50 +0000

The story of the feral parrots got a brief mention in Saul Bellow’s last novel, “Ravelstein”, which depicts an eccentric, to say the least, U. of C. professor (Hyde Park denizens and U. of C. profs appear in many other of Bellow’s novels, including “Herzog” and “The Dean’s December”). I am sorry to hear that the parrots are no longer thriving. Supposedly there were only a couple of other places in the world with such populations.

Perhaps, JBSFlying, you are thinking of the C bench in front of the oldest building on the quad (name of which escapes me for the moment, the one just south of the infamous Ad building). Perhaps that story has also morphed a bit. In the 60’s it was said that no 1st year could sit on it. That sounds a bit Big 10ish (as, of course, Chicago was once). I like the later version better.

And do note, OP, that at Chicago you are not a freshman, a sophomore, etc, but “first year”, “second year”, and so on. I don’t know the exact reason for that divergence from the collegiate norm except that Chicago is a place where a certain divergence is always to be expected.