As my campus visits have been infrequent - this weekend will be the first time since 2006 I've set foot on North Campus - I was totally unaware that Venable Hall had been demolished.

I owe my life to Venable's rat-warren halls. If the daily walk from Phillips to my organic chem class hadn't taken me my the tiny Applied Science offices, I never would have heard about my major, or the free barbecue information sessions they held twice a year. Without that, and the soul-crushing frustration of ketones and chirality, I never would have jumped into the world of materials science, never would have landed the job that eventuslly got me to grad school in Santa Barbara, and wouldn't be doing the science I love now. Hell, I'd probably be doing information science or something - there but for the maze of Venable goes I.

On the other hand, I had a ceiling tile fall on me in class there, and that was almost fifteen years ago. I think I can just be satisfied with a brick.