Waldo Redux

I was watching Myth Busters on the discovery channel and was reminded of another Waldo story (The Myth Busters were trying to make quicksand). When we ran rivers we frequently played in the fine grained sediments on the banks of the river with the intent of making a sort of quicksand. We would find an area near the river that looked potentially muddy and would start walking around the area making a very thick, very sandy mud. Then we would goof around in it trying to see how far we could make ourselves sink into the mud. Actually one time when we were on the Delores River in Colorado we worked the mud so hard that it became a liquid. In this case we decided to hold mud swimming races.

Anyway, on the same trip that Waldo did the cliff stunt we had stopped at a nice beach for the night. And sure enough there was a suitable area for mudding. After preparing the campsite those who had no chores that night started to work the mud (though I don’t remember for sure I think I was on kitchen duty that night as I do not remember playing in the mud). Some of the guys were having a wonderful time goofing around in the mud. Then the dinner bell rang (ok dinner shout). Everybody came to get in line except Waldo; he was still trying to dig himself in. What nobody noticed was that the river level was dropping. As it dropped the water in the mud also lowered. As we were eating supper Waldo shouted that he couldn’t get out. We went over to see what was wrong and sure enough he was encased in hard dirt almost up to his chest. It took the guys about two hours to dig him out. His reward was to clean all the iron cooking pots.

Not quite three coins in a fountain

My girls are in Arizona looking at ASU today. ASU is where I got my bachelor's degree. They called to ask me if they were at "The Fountain". When I was a student there a friend of mine got some ramsden dye (a dye that stains bacteria red). We decided to put it in the fountain to see what would happen. As we approached the fountain he got very nervous and well, suspicious looking. So I told him to go away and I would put it in myself. I sauntered up and put the dye in and wandered off. The fountain turned blood red (at least that is what I was told; one never goes back to the scene of the crime). The administration was furious and the student paper had some pretty angry remarks from the president. The next day a letter to the editor from several biology professor said the problem was the administrations fault because if they kept the fountain clean the dye wouldn't have stained anything. Finally the school decided that that fountain should be chlorinated and cleaned three or four times a year.


I was a physics student at ASU and my friend was in Astronomy. Another trick we liked to play involved liquid nitrogen. On any given Friday night we would go to the basement of the physics building and get a liter of liquid nitrogen. Then we would go to the roof of the astronomy building. We would wait for a drunk to come staggering up the sidewalk. When he got close we would spill the LN off the roof and as it evaporated the water in the air would condense and envelopment the guy in a fog. They we would add to his "alien" experience by shining a red laser into the cloud and all around him. Usually the drunk would start swatting the air around him and in a couple seconds the cloud would dissipate and his alien encounter would be over.