Hi there,
My name is Charlene Chotalal and I am currently a senior at RPI. I am on co-op in CT and staying with an RPI grad. He showed me a copy of the most recent Alumni Magazine and pointed to this article that you wrote(hopefully im getting the right person). Of course when I saw the picture, I recognized the football field in the back and then saw this interesting structure. My first thought was "that's not there...." I went on to read the article and learned of your discovery of the location of the structure and thought it was very neat. I read one line in there that I'd like to comment one: "But for the rest of us, it left a huge gap in the middle of campus that remained empty, the threaded bolts protruding ...."
As I was reading that I thought to myself "but theres something there now...." I am not entirely sure when the last time you visited RPI was, but in 1996, there was a new Rickey installation that was put in and that is still there. As a freshman, I used to stand there and looked at the impending spikes of "Six Random Lines Eccentric" sway with the wind and thought it was magic. If you haven't seen it, I think you should :) http://www.rpi.edu/dept/NewsComm/Magazine/Dec00/atRensselaer.html That's all for now.....good article though!


-Charlene C.

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Hi Tom,

I'm a Rensselaer '83 alumnus and meant to contact you immediately this past Friday after reading your simply GREAT Chrinitoid article in the alumni magazine. Other stuff intervened however, and I only remembered to contact you now, 3 1/2 days later.

I was on campus in November, for the first time in 17 years, and right away, I noticed that the Chrinitoid was missing. Googling it and finding it was on my "to do when I have a chance" list, and I just plain forgot, until seeing your article.

The way you described your obsession, your googling, your digging and digging, etc., was me exactly. I'm afraid to show your article to my wife, lest she freak. Right now, she thinks I'm the only one in the world like that. Must be that little school in Troy that does it?

When I saw your web site, I noticed you were in Sig Ep. My freshman roommate, Bill Cohen, was in Sig Ep as well. I was in Pi Kappa Alpha and never really knew our '86 brothers that well, so I'm not sure if you knew him. Bill was an usher in my wedding in 1986, and he and I still keep in touch by email a few times a year.

I probably could have spent my time getting a reasonably good education at a school where I'd have had a lot more fun than I did at RPI, but every time I talk with a friend from college, the memories and laughs come pouring back.

Anyway, thanks for a great article. I hope the people around you in your life were as thrilled as you when you reunited with the Chrinitoid.

Dave George
BSCS, 1983

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Tom,



Enjoyed your essay in the recent alumni magazine. I guess there are two kinds of people – those who were intrigued by the thing and those who… weren’t. I am, like you, intrigued by it, and enjoyed sitting and watching it for longer than is probably healthy. On the other hand, my wife would probably get along quite well with yours.



As a mechanical engineer, I always wanted to create a piece of similar nature, twisting slowly, silently, randomly in the wind. Haven’t done it yet – guess it’ll have to wait a few more years until I retire.



Regards,



Jeff Gorss ‘66

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hey tom, i am patrick ormond, remember me from sig ep? i was one of those childish sophmores that u had to deal with in the house when u were president back in 85-86, sorry about all that :-)

well i wanted to drop u a note to tell u i thoroughly enjoyed ur article on the chrinitoid in the rensselaer magazine... it really brought me back... that sculpture, if u can call it that, really was interesting ... even when i was a high schooler touring the campus, it stood out to me... it kind of perplexed everyone because it wasnt particularly artistic, and it didn't seem to have any function or value, yet there it was, on prominent display flapping away, as if to be some sort of engineering marvel ! well like it or hate it, no one can deny that it was memorable...

one question i have is about the date of removal, i could have sworn it was still there when i was in my freshman year of 84-85, i seem to be able to remember walking through there on the way to class on a cold grey windy morning hearing the whooshing sound of it flapping in the wind... but perhaps i only remember it from my high school tour and summer orientation (june 84) ... are u sure it was removed in the summer of 84?

well i am glad to hear it's still out there perplexing people... if i am ever in zurich i will be sure to seek it out for the fun of it... btw, i vaguely remember someone saying that the interesting thing about it is that they were very heavy slabs of stainless steel, yet they appeared light to the wind... somehow i got the impression they were solid... is that true?

well thanks for the article tom, i am sure it will evoke a lot of memories to whoever went to rpi during that time period...

pat

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Thanks for the article in the Rennselaer Magazine. I miss the Chrin too. I was a '86 RPI graduate in ChemE.

My roomate and I used to try and play 'spin the chrin' on trips back from downtown. We were bummed when they took it away.

Dan Evans

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