You can take the man out of Medill, but...

Howdy, everybody. I think, in this crowd, none of us need any introduction; but I thought I should say hello first. Long time, no see. A little bit of an update: I live in Orlando now, and I am a news designer for the Sentinel. And if any of you want to come to the Happiest City on Earth, mi sofa es su casa.

Now, to brass tacks.

For my first post, I wanted to share with you all a great, and Evanston-related, story that has been making its rounds here in Orlando. Anybody remember the temple across the street from Harris? That'd be Sigma Alpha Epsilon's national headquarters. But lately, they've had to focus their attention on their University of Central Florida chapter, here in Orlando:

Police called to a University of Central Florida fraternity house last week found young men crawling on hands and knees, screaming profanely and wearing women's underwear, fairy wings and a diaper.

University police released this account of the incident Thursday, the same day the national headquarters of Sigma Alpha Epsilon suspended the UCF chapter pending its own investigation of how three men at the house ended up being taken to a hospital.

[...]

UCF police responded early Oct. 26 to the on-campus fraternity house, which sports a large gold lion statue out front and purple doors. Officers heard weeping, moaning and "aggressive screaming," according to their report.

At first, investigators were told they could not go inside because a "ritual" was being performed, police said. When officers entered, they saw seven or eight crawling men wearing bras and women's underpants and one man sobbing on the floor and wearing a rainbow-colored wig and a diaper.

One man wearing a pink tank top, women's underwear and a blond wig lay on the floor vomiting while another participant held his head up, the report states.

It seems that the Sentinel story actually left out some of the most horrifying parts. From the UCF Central Florida Future story:

Police contacted Orange County Rescue when some of the men were deemed in need of medical attention, citing that one man "appeared to have trouble breathing." Another man received assistance in order to "keep him from lying in his own vomit," and one "could not walk under his own power."

Orange County Rescue transported three men, whose names have not been disclosed, to Florida Hospital East. They were released the same night.

Police found "numerous" beer cans and bottles, one mostly consumed bottle of rum and "numerous mangled hotdogs" scattered on the floor of the SAE house.

I've been fielding questions from the copy desk about a variety of Evanston- and Northwestern-related conventions, for the last couple of weeks, every time they need to write about this. So it was the first thing I thought of when I decided to make my first post. As Scott might say: Hey presto!

P.S.: I would like to propose that we name the "meta-media" category "Seriously I Mean" in honor of a certain classmate with roman numerals. (Unfortunately, using commas will throw the whole system off, I suspect.) And the job category "La Cosa Nostra." Just my two bits.