Chili Cookoff

Last week at here at the library we hosted the First Annual Faculty/Staff Chili Cookoff and Tasting and it was a stunning success. We brought people together from all over campus including entries from 212 Battery down by the lake and Spinner in Winooski.

Our three skilled judges Bob Mayer, Sandi Earle, and Craig McKeon chose our winner Tee Mulhall. They also chose David Wolfe as winner of "Most Original Chili" with his strawberry rhubarb entry, which edged out Rob Williams' entry of Yak Chili no less.

The discerning chili crowds spoke loud and clear choosing Rich Long's entry as their favorite chili and giving him the title of "People's Chili Champion."

There were at least 73 people who voted and I am willing to bet that over 100 people came to taste chili a week ago. It was a good opportunity to bring different parts of the campus together who would not normally commingle.

Due to the popularity of this event there is already a Second Annual Cookoff in the works. We'll see you next year once the leaves start turning and a chill permeates the air!

TC Boyle at the Library

Every year, Champlain selects a Community Book for the campus to read and come together to discuss. This year we read T.C. Boyle's The Tortilla Curtain.

Boyle was here for two and 1/2 days. The big bang of those two days is his book talk. Andy Burkhardt, the Library's Emerging Technologies librarian, showed his emerging technologies stuff by live-twittering it. Thanks Andy! The talk was amazing: Boyle read a short story, talked about his writing process, read an excerpt from the Tortilla Curtain, and then answered questions. He was very funny but also gave a lot of insight into how he writes. My favorite part was when he wouldn't answer a question about the book's interpretation. Essentially, he believes that the writer must leave issues of interpretation up to the reader. That is our job. If he told us it was just one way, what fun would that be? YES!

One of the more quiet but wonderful parts to the Community Book author's visit is their seeing our GGD students' renditions of the bookjacket. Here's Professor David Lustgarten's announcement of the project:

Students in Graphic Design and Illustration classes have produced their own interpretation of T.C. Boyle's "The Tortilla Curtain" in the form of new book jackets. Their varied, imaginative, and highly professional work can be
viewed in the Miller Information Commons magazine area on the first floor, where new acquisitions are normally displayed. The show will be up for about three weeks.

TC Boyle seemed to really enjoy the bookjackets, as these picture show:


It’s always wonderful to have student art work at the Library, but even better to have authors and students mingling, discussing the importance of the students’ choices in their work, and students getting the real world perspective of book art in the eyes of an acclaimed author.

Yup, it was pretty awesome.