Week in Review Part 3: JPFW Aptly Names its Core Demographic

After a week of discussing issues and topics that can strike chords with people, here's a recap of last weekend's big event: Junior Parents and Families Weekend.

Craig Karges, the "mentalist", was a hoot again this year, opting to select the 10 digits of a random Cincinnati phone number, give them, in order to 10 children and "children at heart", matching the same number a mother-daughter selected.  Karges also opted to perform his trademark "table levitation" and display his abilities of identifying the name and ID number of a UP student and each digit of a piece of paper currency, usually of unusual American value, like a $2 bill, even if someone tries to trick him by handing a 500 Forint note from Hungary.


After a brunch featuring breakfast quiche, introductory speeches for introductions, and Fr. Beauchamp delivering a general speech, Career Services, the Alumni Office and the Moreau Center were able to promote their services through the examples of several alumni and a current senior.  The varied post-grad experiences prove the sponsoring departments can find plenty of options that could work for the individual completely unsure of their future to the determined person who really wants a fellowship.

The end of the morning presented the "varsity sport of the mind," quiz bowl, pitting parents against students.
For those who have not played or seen a match, here are the basic guidelines.

Two teams of four compete to answer the most questions within 10 minutes.  The moderator, after saying "Welcome to College Bowl!" and getting the response "The Varsity Sport of the Mind!", will offer a tossup question.  The person that gets it right, earns their team 10 points.  If someone thinks they know it before the end of the question, they can buzz in early.  However,  an incorrect guess would subtract 5 points from their team's score.  If their team waits until the end of the question to offer a guess, no penalty exists for an incorrect answer.

The team that gets the tossup question correct gets about 30 seconds to answer a three-part question, having little to no relation to the previous topic like naming three different types of poetic lyrical forms after identifying which war the Lincoln Brigade fought (the Spanish Civil War.)

The moral of the exercise is the adults are more knowledgeable about the origins of Fictional Detectives and USC's transgressions, while the offspring were better at chemical compositions and identifying movies that Stephen Toblowsky, one of Hollywood's bit part royalty, has gotten paid to appear. (Groundhog Day as Ned Ryerson the Insurance Salesman and a part in the Garfield movie)  The parents showed their distance from general knowledge was closer than they were from their college days as they won close (75-65) and not so close matches (115-25).  The progeny did salvage some sense of pride with a 90-60 rout over the parents behind knowledge Mosul is a city in Iraq and Toblowsky films, despite a late threat by the parents.

The weekend works best for families that might not visit campus too often due to the distant nature of home from the university or to whom many stories of classmates are told.  Having had the family visit enough, the normal attractions of the university were no longer special, so I took the folks to the taqueria known as Tienda Santa Cruz #2, a restaurant hidden in the back of Panderia Santa Cruz Taqueria, a Mexican grocery store and bakery in St. John's. If one is not careful, they could drive right by the place along Lombard.  Park nearby and enjoy cheap Mexican cuisine that will fill you up for a limited amount of money.

Overall, the weekend featured plenty of time to have fun, point out the similarities between parent and child, and take your mind off tests and midterms.

To readers, what was your JPFW experience like? Is there anything you wanted to do, but just did not have the time to accomplish? If you are not yet a junior or your university did not offer the experience, what would you have liked to do with your family during college?