Have we identified a stolen pumpkin?

Guys:
Your PumpkinWitch is ever watchful. If anyone is missing an
approximately 600# pumpkin, I think we may have found what happened to
it. see below.


The Great Punkin

Yup, It's a Pumpkin Up There!  reported by Jim Mica

DATELINE:   Ithaca, New York   Nov. 26, 1997

Cornell University, the only Ivy League school with cows, is
located in this quaint little village on the shore of Cayuga
Lake.  Since early October Cornell students and staff have been
showing the world that collegiate humor and pranksterism are not
dead.  And those of us looking on say, "Bravo!"

One morning in mid-October a big pumpkin --estimated to weigh up
to 60lb (27kg)-- "mysteriously" appeared on top of McGraw Tower
in the heart of Cornell's campus.  As I write these lines, it is
still there and has become the focus of national interest!

McGraw Tower is some 173 feet (52.7 m) tall, loaded with bells
and attached to one of the school's main libraries.  The top 20
feet (6.1m) of the Tower is a steep cone and there's a lightning
rod on top of it.  The great pumpkin may have been skewered with
the lightning rod to keep it up there.

Nobody has come forth to take credit for the prank.  There's all
sorts of wild speculation going on about how it was done.  Folks
have gone so far as to suggest that somebody got hold of a
helicopter.  My sources (fully protected by the Bill of Rights)
tell me that skilled rock climbers, using ample safety equipment, got
the gourd up there under the cover of darkness.

However it reached the top, Cornell's administration has declared the
the pumpkin must get down on it's own because they don't want to risk
the lives of their maintenance crew in a retrieval effort.

The only suggestion at variance with this policy of pumpkin
neglect has been to get a sharpshooter to just put the gourd out
of its misery.

After the pumpkin had sat atop the tower for several weeks,
Cornell administrators had barricades and warning signs erected
around the base of the tower.  They don't want anybody to get
swacked with the big orange gourd when it takes its final swan
dive.

Not to be outdone by the Administration, students have placed
small carved pumpkins around the base of the tower.  These jack-
o-lantern observers look up in horror at the plight of their
sibling.  It should be noted,however,  that there is a touch of
contemporary cynicism in this pumpkin tableau because some of the
watching gourds have signs which say "Jump!".

By now you're probably eager to experience this wonderful prank
yourselves.  Well, through the magic of the World Wide Web, you
can!  Cornell has a Web site set up with a "live" image of the
pumpkin at the top of the tower.  You can find it at


http://pumpkin.library.cornell.edu/  Go and watch for the pumpkin to
plummet!

Finally, as if Cornell U needs more publicity, today's electronic
version of The Chronicle of Higher Education has a story on the
pumpkin website.

So, if you should sink your teeth into some pumpkin pie tomorrow, I
hope you'll remember to pause between bites and mull over the fate of
that silent orange sentinel, the Cornell pumpkin of '97, which sits
higher yet above Cayuga's waters.

-------------------------------------
Needless to say, I shall punish the perpetrators when identified.
Your PumpkinWitch

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