Pointless Questions...with Aaron Mucciolo

This week’s column is a bit short since the Perspectives section recieved a bunch of letters, and the Review was small because there’s no news. Clearly, the solution is to exile all letter writers, then write an article about it.
Okay, I’m not funny this week...
So, within this space, here now, once and for all, is the answer to that question which has held you all in such suspense for so long:

What’s written on those plaques on the rocks in Tappan square?

The two boulders on the south edge of Tappan are so covered by layers of paint advertising shows and birthdays it’s doubtful anyone has been able to read their plaques in the past 40 years. Fortunately, the College Archives were prepared for such an eventuality.
The boulder by the fire pit, across from the Conservatory, is the ‘boulder of the class of 1898.’ Its plaque reads: “Glacial boulder of granitoid gneiss from eastern Canada, excavated from 10 feet below the surface of the northwest corner of Professor and Morgan Streets and placed here by the class of ’98 during the night of Dec. 3 1897.” Where punctuation goes in that sentence, or how the alums dragged that boulder there in the first place, is anyone’s guess.
The other boulder, across from Gibson’s, is known as the Founder’s boulder and reads: “In memory of John J. Shipherd and Philo P. Stewart. Dedicated June 17, 1933.”
Want to know more about these spray-painted monoliths (yes, there is more to know)? The July 1933 Alumni Magazine has an article on the Founder’s boulder, and the 1899 Hi-O-Hi yearbook, and the December ’37 and March ’54 Alumni mags all cover the other.
Yay College Archives! Thanks especially to Melissa Gottwald who postponed going home to answer this pointless question.

More questions mean more answers. Email aaron.mucciolo @oberlin.edu or write to Mooch, c/o The Review, Wilder Box 90, Oberlin OH, 44074.