Newspapers / The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.) / March 21, 2008, edition 1 / Page 5
Part of The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
F E ATU RE S Jkind-of With Max George Layout Editor The Last Supper (of Spring Break) This week a new character joins my crew, the one and only Maximil ian Kochinke. Ana and Dan gave in to the whims of responsibility and did school work all day. The Max's, however, would not participate in such diligence. This was the last day of spring break and we were deter mined to continue living as we had for the past week: in glorious aca demic stagnancy. It's Sunday, the last day of spring break. Friends are coming back from every direction on the compass, trav el weary and hungry for something more substantial then the bag of chips they grabbed at the last bath room stop. Everyone knows the feel ing. Hugs and stories are exchanged. Who drove the farthest? Who got the least amount of sleep? Who threw up the most? Who made the biggest mistake of their life? After the excitement of camarade rie wears off, the hunger still lingers. No one has money to spend on din ner, no one is ready to go to the caf. It's a dismal existence. I suggested we cook whatever we had. Ingredients were apprehended from various freezers and pantries. A can of black beans and some rice that had been "in there forever," Dan said. Ana conjured up a bag of frozen mixed veggies. Max had some frozen shrimp and about half a bag of fro zen chicken. It may not seem like much but we figured that combining said in gredients would produce a colorful, palatable meal. Or it would be really disgusting. I'm told cooking is about taking chances; plus, even if the food sucks, I can still write about it. I stir-fried the frozen veggies back to life and picked out all five pieces of celery, at Ana's request. Dan took a short break from his reading to help us with his confounding rice cooker. Trust me, pouring rice and water into the machine and setting it to "cook" is so much harder than it sounds. He also showed me how to use an alien can-opener apparently de signed for safety, but in reality de signed for keeping me from the con tents of a can of black beans. Meanwhile, Max got started on the chicken. After throwing in a cou ple spices (garlic powder and curry), he showed off by "bourbonizing" the chicken, which involved pour ing Early Times Whiskey into the pan and lighting it on fire (see photo, above). He pulled it off brilliantly and only later confessed that he had no idea what he was doing and could have blown up Dan's kitchen. Next we added the shrimp to the pan, not realizing that they had the shell on, providing us with the later joy of peeling hot shrimp. After add ing some more garlic powder and salt and pepper we eventually had an impressive pile of shrimp and chicken. The beans and veggies were ready and waiting. All that was left was the rice. If you haven't noticed yet, dear reader, rice is becoming the bane of my existence. And this week would be no exception. Sick of playing the waiting game with the rice-cooking unit, we deemed it edible and de cided to stir-fry in some soy sauce to hide its undercooked flaws. The only problem is, in order to fry the rice we had to strain the water out and then get it from the cooker to the pan, a task of monumental proportions. Max held the lid on tight while I carefully tipped the pot over the sink. Surpris ingly, very few grains were sacrificed in the pot-to-pan transfer. We fried the rice with soy sauce, a risky decision considering we were to mix in a can of black beans. Finally, we mixed in all of the pans of food; rice, beans, veggies, chicken and shrimp. It looked... interesting. We gathered around the table and ate the concoction, retelling spring break highlights and collectively dreading the next day's classes. It was good, each component had a distinctive taste of its own but also mixed well with the others. Plus, we had salt. And it was free (because all the ingredients were purchased so long ago no one remembered how much they cost). And spring break was over. WWW.GUILFORDIAN.COM HODGIN'S RETREAT New apartments directly off-campus cause controversy Continued from page I expects such behavior to in crease with the construction of Hodgin's Retreat. "I don't think there is any malice in it, it is just what hap pens when people drink too much and are irresponsible," Zopf said. "(When) they moved students in next door they didn't ask us our opinion or tell us. The college didn't even tell us the re zoning was taking place." George White Road currently sees little more than foot traffic. The construction of a cut-through to the Hodgin's Retreat parking lot will increase the number of cars using the road. The col lege also plans to widen George White Road, which is narrow and pockmarked with pot holes, to accommodate emergency ve hicles. The cut-through road to George White is partially the developer's attempt to ease the pressure on Foxwood Drive, a secluded neighborhood over shadowed by the Guilford woods whose residents strongly oppose the development. "These apartments will dra matically change the nature of the Foxwood Drive neighbor hood," Zerbe said. "We aren't talking about putting three or four houses in there. This is an apartment complex with up to 150 people living there. 150 peo ple with cars going up and down that street. This will seriously change, and I think, diminish the quality of life for those people." Few Guilford students even know that Foxwood Drive ex ists, and because of that the community is able to remain relatively insular. There is very little traffic, which allows this quiet and tight-knit community to exist apart from the suburban sprawl that dominates the city. "Foxwood Drive is this coun try lane in the middle of Greens boro covered by a canopy of oak trees," saidjunior GabrielaSpang resident of Foxwood Drive. "I know my neighbors, Tm friends with them. (Pamela Robertson, a resident of Foxwood Drive) walks her dog down the street in her nightgown, and she doesn't even have to think twice about it. That isn't something you can quantify, but it really angers me to see that taken away from them." Pamela Robertson is particu larly concerned with the threat development poses to previous ly established neighborhoods like Foxwood Drive. If property on the periphery of neighbor hoods is allowed to be devel oped, particularly with high- density housing, then property values plummet, damaging the livelihood of middle-class hom eowners. "Randall Dixon (the devel oper behind Hodgin's Retreat) acted with complete disregard for the community," said Rob ertson, who spoke against the development at both the re-zon ing commission and the city council meeting. "Which is what you expect from developers - it's a rapacious business. But we were exceedingly disappointed with the college. The college is looking at short-term gain over the long-term loss of the com munity. This development may serve the college's interest. But the next one may not." Dixon is currently negotiat ing for the area that contains Kaiser house. If negotiations conclude in his favor, he hopes to knock down the notorious party-house and build town- homes for faculty and staff. "This re-zoning decision isn't going to be the end of develop ment around here," Chabotar said. "The Northwest quadrant of Greensboro is booming, the pressure to develop is (strong). We are approached regularly because we own 350 acres but we actually only use 110 acres." The college has no plans to allow development on its prop erty. i ■ 1 PI PI PRIVfl[TEOR RSr REQUESTED FROM PI A C0430*H 3.4 ACRES (K Guilford College S S PI j«r. «■; LQ Ob f of LJ / ■■ . r IJL 1 1- ■■ 1 ; GB 0£ C r ■ - . ’•■■■-Jo il» ' p / : I r- , 1 SC 1’^ L Im ^ t ! I M LO W FR«Ntn.Y AV£ This map highlights the Dolley Madison property where Hodgins Retreat will be built.
The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
March 21, 2008, edition 1
5
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75