Among the Woo People : : A Survival Guide for Living in a College Town / / Russell Frank.

• VerfasserIn: Frank, Russell,
• Place / Publishing House: University Park, PA : : Penn State University Press, , [2021]; ©2017
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Series: Keystone Books
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (248 p.)

In the mid-nineties, Russell Frank left a peaceful life in rural California to raise three kids in a town saturated with fraternities, late-night undergrad fast food haunts, and rowdy football crowds. Among the Woo People recounts his two decades living—and surviving—in State College, Pennsylvania, the often-chaotic home of Penn State University.This humorous peek at life in a college town smack-dab in the middle of rural Pennsylvania chronicles a changing community over the course of two eventful decades. A professor of journalism, former columnist for the Centre Daily Times, and contributor to StateCollege.com, Frank has a unique perspective on living in the shadow of a university—especially on the tribe of nomadic young adults known as the “Woo people,” so named for their signature mode of celebratory communication. He invites readers into the routines of his hectic household as they embrace their new home, skewers the culture of intercollegiate sports, relates the challenges and peculiarities of teaching at one of the nation’s largest universities, and, most important, teaches us to be amused at college-kid antics and to appreciate their academic and real-world accomplishments, even as we anxiously tick off the days until semester’s end.From tales of missing porch furniture and red plastic cups in the bushes to a “Nude Year’s Eve” run by an octet of forty-somethings to the sweet relief of summer, Frank’s hilarious, insightful essays are indispensable for anyone who wants to survive, appreciate, and enjoy college-town life.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: “We’ll Take It” -- We Arrive. -- “We’re About Beer” -- The President Buys an Ice Cream -- Too Many Choices -- First Fall -- The Big Coat -- The Lecture Circuit -- Snow Bowl -- Hold the Foam -- Goodbye Newsroom, Hello Classroom -- The Case of the Disappearing Porch Furniture -- Freeze -- Go! Be! Do -- Cooties -- Images from Kosovo -- The Provost Was Not Amused -- Pyropetrics -- Year of the Ant -- Lies My Students Tell -- We Need to Remember -- Old Eyes -- Let There Be Laundry -- Lifeways of the Yard People -- Naked Run -- Toss It -- Mob Scene -- When It Rains, It Floods -- Don’t Expect to Be Bored -- Back to School and Out the Door -- Not Quite Business as Usual -- Nothing But a Pack of Cards -- The Solace of Routines -- Little Idiot Children -- Under a Dark Sky -- Let Us Commence -- No Magic Circles -- Ship of Fuels -- Questioning Authority -- Zen and the Art of Driver Training -- Keeping the Streak Alive -- Movie Dog’s Last Reel -- The Brats in the Frats -- RIP, Bop the Movie Dog -- Welcome to the Diploma Store -- Things Fall Apart -- Liberals on the Loose -- The Invisible Poor -- Meet the Woo People -- Leaf Ballet -- All the Classroom’s a Stage -- The Flower Within the Flower -- In Defense of Those Pesky Gen Eds -- The Pursuit of Liveliness -- Tow Story -- Straight from the Lion’s Mouth -- I’ve Sneezed and I Can’t Get Up -- Stand-Up Guy Seeks Position -- Return of the Woo People -- Must You Go -- Football’s Terrible Beauty -- How to Rein in the Woo People, Part 1 -- How to Rein in the Woo People, Part 2 -- Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Drunkenness -- Secrets of the Woo People Revealed -- Let the Joyous News Be Spread -- Noise Essential to Woo Life, Researcher Says -- We Are—Going to Be OK -- Seeing Something and Saying Something -- We’ve Got to Get Ourselves Back to the Garden -- So Many Opinions, So Few Facts -- THON (Jekyll) vs. State Patty’s (Hyde) -- The Fumbler and the Furnisher -- Farewell to the Woo People -- Things are Just Peachy Around Here -- As I Was Saying -- Greetings from Zombie Nation -- Welcome to Alt-State College -- Ten Things to Be Thankful For -- Who’s Naked Now -- Apples vs. Icebergs: Who’s Right -- Battle of the Bamboo -- To Weed, or Not to Weed -- In Search of the Cure for the Summertime Blues -- Don’t Be Rattled -- It’s Wonderful to Be Here, It’s Certainly a Thrill