More Than Meets The…Uh, Eye: The Vulcan Statue

One can travel few places in Birmingham where its guardian, Vulcan, cannot see. Vulcan has become a Birmingham staple, like the city’s own Eiffel Tower, but there’s more to Vulcan than you know.

Vulcan is the Roman god of fire, which is particularly appropriate considering Birmingham’s roots in the steel industry. Birmingham gained much of its wealth and success via the steel industry, so Vulcan was fashioned to commemorate that.

Vulcan is the largest cast iron statue on the planet, which should come as no surprise. After all, mythology shows that gods were known for being larger than life. His head alone weighs in at approximately 11,000 pounds. His total weight is nearly 120,000 pounds. Italian sculptor Guiseppe Moretti forged Vulcan with a design he began in 1903. To create Vulcan, he had to make large pieces of Vulcan’s body out of clay, then send the pieces via railroad to Birmingham so the iron could be poured.  Vulcan is assembled internally with bolts. However there have been several times throughout Birmingham’s history when the big guy was disassembled and reassembled elsewhere. Vulcan made an appearance at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. Upon his return to Birmingham, Vulcan was left disassembled as the city faced financial turmoil.

When he was finally reassembled, this time at the Alabama State Fairgrounds, his spear was nowhere to be found. His empty hand became a marketing gimmick. At one time he held a Coca-Cola bottle, and ironically once held an ice cream cone. But none of these were quite as appropriate for the god of fire than his spear. Vulcan finally found his home on Red Mountain in 1936. For his move, he was refashioned with a spear for his right hand and a hammer for his left.

Birmingham celebrated its centennial with a birthday present of sorts to Vulcan. He received a million dollar facelift. However Vulcan wasn’t one to age gracefully, thus he received a more extensive facelift valued at $14 million from 1999 to 2004 to restore him to his original youthful glory. Today, Vulcan is looking as spiffy as ever. He resides at Vulcan Park, which has a museum and observation deck that allows a panoramic view of the city. Vulcan’s true home is in the sky, but you pay him homage by visiting him at 1701 Valley View Drive  Birmingham, Alabama 35209.

Mandy Shunnaruh

#ThatAwkwardMomentWhen

We all have those really awesome friends who always embarrass us in public. The next time you go out with them, just give them these tips! They will instantly learn how to avoid awkward moments at all costs. If you don’t have one of those friends, it’s you.

What to do when you see someone you don’t want to see, talk to or look at walking straight toward you:

Run the completely opposite direction. There is a slim-to-none chance that your archenemy will actually run after you.  You could even yell something like “NO!” while you’re at it.

Pull out your phone and text someone, anyone. Or just pretend to be texting someone. It has been statistically proven that text messages take longer than the three minutes it takes to pass your…friend.

While you have your phone out, go ahead and make a call while you’re at it! Call your bff who you just saw in your last class. Call your roommate who is going to be in your next class. Call your dad to see how his day is going, even though you call him on a regular basis asking for more money. Call your hairdresser to see how her new baby is doing. Call your grandmother to ask how her garden is thriving. Or, you know, just pretend to take a call.

Act like you don’t see them.

Start talking to the random person right beside you like you’ve known them your whole life. Laughing is good, too. Laugh at this stranger’s “joke.” That’s a definite winning situation right there. They won’t think you’re weird at all!

Hide in the bathroom.

Hide in the library.

Hide in the awkward counter area on the second floor of Norton.

Go check your mailbox. Once you see your want-to-avoid person, pretend it is a life or death situation that you find out what is in your mailbox. And unless you’re one of the 7% of BSC students who actually knows how to open his or her school mailbox, you will have to seek someone else’s help anyway. Ergo, you now have a reason to talk to the stranger next to you.

When that awkward person in your class is coming straight for you and yells your name, pretend like you don’t hear them. That always works. When they yell louder, plead deaf.

Now, what about when you are right in the middle of an awkward moment and can’t find a way out? Avoid the moment altogether so you don’t have to tweet #ThatAwkwardMoment right after. Seriously, sometimes I think the world is full of these people just so they can tweet about how awkward their lives are. You don’t have to be awkward. Embrace your awkwardness and make it into your personality. But please be conscious of what you are doing. Staring at someone across the room without ever saying a word to them, especially without looking away when they catch you staring, is not only awkward, but it’s kind of creepy.

If you’re in the middle of a conversation with someone you don’t want to talk to, and you want to get out immediately, just tell them you think you just started your period and walk away. This works for guys, too. Never underestimate this excuse.

If that doesn’t work, and you’re still stuck in an awkward conversation, answer their questions with something that does not even pertain to the conversation. For example: “Is our homework due on Tuesday or Thursday?” “Purple.” It’s simple. If he or she repeat the question, repeat the answer. Usually your counterpart is too dumbfounded to ask you another question, so you can just walk away.

If that still doesn’t work, you should answer the question and just stay completely silent unless he or she asks a question. You may answer the question honestly but concisely. Then once you answer don’t say another word until they leave or you’re asked another question. Surely your awkward acquaintance will get the hint eventually.

What about #ThatAwkwardMoment when you trip over a desk in front of your entire class? Or over a trashcan in the library? Or over concrete sidewalk in front of Norton? Well, you look back at what you tripped on (or didn’t trip on), look around to see how many people saw, and then laugh at yourself. Because you probably looked like a fool.

Don’t let any of your friends be one of those people who get on Twitter and hashtag awkward moments all the time. (Actually, don’t be one of those people who get on Twitter and tweet all the time, period. I doubt anybody cares about you eating a sandwich.) Instead, tell your awkward friend (or youself) to just avoid the awkward moments altogether. These tips are essential to the success of every college student.

Thanks for reading! Look for my next article in a couple weeks. Send in feedback to receive more advice on how to survive college and life.

Amanda Stanley

Remembering Adrienne Rich

April was declared as National Poetry Month, but this year the celebrations will continue without one of the most prolific writers of modern poetry. This past week, poet Adrienne Rich died of complications from rheumatoid arthritis.

Rich, author of often-anthologized poems such as “Diving Into the Wreck” and “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers,” was 82 when she passed away on March 28. She wrote 24 volumes of poetry and half as many of prose. She is one of the best-known female writers among the intelligentsia and literati canon of the 20th century.

Receiver of a multitude of awards, including a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant and a National Book Award, Rich used her writing to highlight the plight of women. Her poetry resonated particularly with marginalized women, which was easy for her to relate to since she was a female, Jewish lesbian. She was also known for being a feminist and essayist, which she further employed in her goal of emphasizing women’s struggles in society.

Rich’s influence crept past campus police and onto the Hilltop. She inspired a number of faculty and students.

Dr. Clifford reflected, “The poem of Rich’s which has taught me the most is ‘The Burning of Paper Instead of Children’—I go back to it over and over. The following quote from her speaks volumes about the poems she wrote: ‘A revolutionary poem will not tell you who or when to kill, what and when to burn, or even how to theorize. It reminds you...where and when and how you are living and might live, it is a wick of desire.’” (from What Is Found There, 1993)

Dr. Archer was inspired by the Adrienne Rich quote, “You must write, and read, as if your life depended on it.”

Recent alumna, MK Foster, was also greatly influenced by Rich. Foster said, “‘Diving Into the Wreck’ has always and will always move me, regardless of who I am in my life, no matter what I’ve survived—‘...I came to explore the wreck. The words are purposes. The words are maps. I came to see the damage that was done and the treasures that prevail...’ I have also been madly in love with ‘An Atlas of a Difficult World’ since I read it freshman year. In many ways, it has shaped my understanding of poetry’s piercing capacity for emotional exactitude and its phenomenal ability to reach beyond itself, on and off the page. I will always love ‘Part XIII (Dedications)’ of the astounding movement. Her use of litany form and anaphora is mind-blowing: ‘...I know you are reading this poem through your failing sight, the thick lens enlarging these letters beyond meaning yet you read on because even the alphabet is precious. I know you are reading this poem as you pace beside the stove warming milk, a crying child on your shoulder, a book in your hand because life is short and you too are thirsty. I know you are reading this poem which is not in your language guessing at some words while others keep you reading and I want to know which words they are...I know you are reading this poem because there is nothing else left to read there where you have landed, stripped as you are.’”

Dr. Nancy Whitt of Samford University also remembers Rich fondly. She stated, “RIP, Adrienne Rich. She saved my sanity, if not my life during my first years in Birmingham…She was always an inspiration—a woman who stood for justice. As someone who felt a personal connection to Adrienne Rich, even though I never met her (I heard her read twice in Tuscaloosa), I’m feeling for my women friends today [March 28, when Rich died] who felt as I did.

‘When I came to Samford 39 years ago and discovered myself a total misfit in my environment, it was Rich, through her poetry and essays and her amazing book Of Woman Born that let me know I was sane and that my values and thinking were appropriate; it was her work that helped me become even more focused in my understanding of the world and in my desire “to change the laws of history.” (I wept upon my first reading of those lines, they so exactly stated my heart’s core purpose.) I remember my Quaker elder, Elizabeth Watson, discussing how we would go about this years ago at a Friends gathering. For those of you who grieve with me, I hold you in the Light, as I hold Adrienne’s partner, the writer Michelle Cliff and her sons: “We need a place where we can weep and still be counted as warriors.” My women friends-sisters provide that for me.”

Mandy Shunnarah