Art? Prank? Scavenger Hunt?
Bizarre, Fun, Windy, work April 9th, 2010Every spring a honeydew melon shows up on the roof of the university building where I work. I do not understand what’s happening here, but I’m sure students are behind it.
Is it a prank, part of a scavenger hunt or some weird tradition they keep up for the sake of tradition?
Sometimes the melon disappears suddenly. Sometimes it rots until it’s black and stinks. Sometimes it’s placed off to the side. Sometimes, like this time, it’s right in the middle.
Always I ask “why?” but I will probably never learn the reason.
And that gives me a one way ticket to Crazytown. Why? Why is it there?
Incidentally, this is the roof from where I take Windy pictures. She turns two tomorrow (!!!!!) and there will be a cake on Monday. If you work with me, come on over to my office and we’ll celebrate!*
* Tours of the Melon-Windy roof run every hour. Admission is free.
Stumble it!
April 12th, 2010 at 3:06 pm
Wait. Does ANYONE know why that melon is there? *dawns on her to read the comments!*
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April 12th, 2010 at 3:08 pm
And now after reading the comments apparently NO ONE knows!
.-= meleah rebeccah´s last blog ..Doing Things Differently™ – My Week In Review [Part Ten] =-.
April 12th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
Lidian — And it’s really hard for them to get around, since all they can do is roll themselves from place to place. I wouldn’t put it past Windy to play a joke on us. She’s like that, you know.
Cashier — I suggested to some people that I would do that and they all said “No way. I doubt anyone would get back to you because they’re just going to leave it there to rot and never check back on it.”
Will — Thanks, Will. Thanks a lot.
Knucklehead — Yes, six more weeks of winter and a lawsuit against the university.
Jen — I know, I know. I shouldn’t be putting too much thought into these things. It only makes my brain hurt.
Mom to the Power of Three — I love the rock aspect. It’s both cool and a fine safety feature. That is, if some animal doesn’t come by and knock it over so that it conks someone on the head below. Pray it doesn’t because I’d feel real guilty knowing it was a concussion risk and let it there anyway.
Lisa at Boondock Ramblings — I do think it looks more like a dinosaur egg than anything else. It’s so smooth and perfect. For now, that is. Ask me how it looks and smells in a couple weeks.
Jodi — Agreed. And an egg from something a hundred times bigger than me who I would thank not to kill me if it saw me messing with its eggs.
Oyvind — It’d look cool that way, wouldn’t it. By the way, that’s my very favorite sculpture on our campus. Nice and colorful and not all weirdo art that I don’t get.
SuziCate — We suspect the same. A woman I work with who came over for Windy’s party today (see current post) said she saw a smashed melon in front of another building on the way over to mine. Clearly, it’s a trend.
Susan — At least we’re getting a little closer to knowing the “why.” I did get a response from one of the professors I wrote about this phenomenon. He’s been here for decades and I was sure he’d know what the deal was. Unfortunately, he doesn’t. I was so disappointed. Good to see you today at Windy’s party!
Buggys — Yes, it’s so pretty and colorful. One of my very favorite sculptures on campus. Believe me, most of them are not that attractive.
Auntie E — Not if you paid me. You don’t know what those crazy kids might have done to it before setting it out. I love pranks, but I do wish I knew its origin and purpose.
meleah rebeccah — No, not in the least. I even asked around my building. Professors who’ve been around for decades don’t even know. I need to interview more people, I think. If I ever find out, I’ll put up the explanation in a new post.
April 12th, 2010 at 8:51 pm
how strange, but at least Windy has a friend for awhile.
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April 13th, 2010 at 7:54 am
Maybe it’s a reference to the film Buckaroo Banzai. In that film, among the supposed high tech scientific equipment, the characters pass a melon stuck there.
One character says to the other, “Why’s that melon there?”
And as if it’s some long complex tale, the other character says, “I’ll tell you later.”
It’s a completely throwaway dialog, but given the film is sort of a cult movie for college students, I could see them doing this.
.-= Jenn of Many Cabbages´s last blog ..Jabberwookiee =-.
April 13th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
i don`t have any idea..
but based from the picture above, looks like that place is nice 🙂
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April 16th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
What an interesting tradition. I’m sure there is a great story behind the mystery. It almost looks like a prehistoric egg of some sort. The first image makes the melon look gigantic. That would be some prank.
April 17th, 2010 at 3:26 am
grannyann — But now it’s gone! I looked yesterday and it disappeared. It is not known whether someone took it or whether it fell off the roof. I’m going with the former.
Jenn of Many Cabbages — That sounds like the best explanation yet. How do you know these things???
Logitech Harmony Review — It is quite the nice perch, isn’t it?
Nutrition Degree — Yeah, like some freak lab experiment gone wrong!
April 17th, 2010 at 1:07 pm
Total random weirdness … I’m thinking there is some sort of scavenger hunt that occurs like you mentioned, that seems the most likely for it. Then again there could be some weird random worshipping of the honeydew that we just aren’t privy to!