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May 2004
Spring
fling goes primordial:
Cave dwellers emerge for party
You know it's Spring Fling when you see your co-workers
wandering around dressed in leopard-print tunics carrying
femur bones. On May 7, staffers shed their roles as scientists,
administrators, engineers, programmers, and more to show
their primitive sides show in response to this year's "Dinosaur" party
theme.
The event at Center Green drew hundreds of staffers and
family members for a lip sync contest, live comedy, food,
music, and a chalk-drawing contest for kids.
This marked the third year that Dan Ziskin of the Employee
Activities Committee (EAC) hosted the annual event. "This
year I wanted to do something nice and sassy for you," he
announced before the lip sync contest. "So I hired a
comedian."
Nancy Norton, a local comedian with Vox Feminista, indeed
made partygoers laugh between lip sync acts. "I've never
been around atmospheric researchers before, but I do like
the atmosphere here," she said. View
video clip.
Six groups entered the lip sync contest. The Past Judges,
who were exactly what they sounded like, opened with cavemen
and women dancing around a fire and throwing candy to the
crowd. The current judges gave their predecessors a participation
award. View video clip.
COMET then won an accuracy and technical merit award by
demonstrating the best way to teach basic arithmetic for
different learning styles. By holding up signs with numbers
at appropriate moments, they choreographed their performance
to "Figure 8" from the 1970s Schoolhouse Rock educational
series that used to air during Saturday morning cartoons. View
video clip.
Next came CGD, which decided to soothe anxiety about the
upcoming reorganization by affirming that NCAR divisions
won't go extinct like dinosaurs. To the music of "Consider
Yourself" from the Broadway musical Oliver!, the lip
syncers eagerly welcomed representatives of different divisions
into the new, all-encompassing Sun, Weather, and Climate
Lab, where everyone would up satisfied. Judges gave the group
a humor award. View video clip.
CGD was followed by Stealth COMET, which won an award for
artistic merit by performing "White Collar Holler," a
song by Stan Rogers that compares programming computers to
building a railroad. View video clip.
Next came F&A, live from Rock Vegas, performing to the
Flintstones theme song and winning the costumes and set category. View
video clip.
And finally, EO topped off the contest by bringing Stone
Age realities (floods, meteor showers, dancing green dinosaurs)
to life, choreographed to the playfully edited lyrics of
artists ranging from Bob Dylan to Wierd Al. EO took the cake-or
fish, that is-when the judges gave the group a singing "Billy
Bass" fish as grand prize for the contest. View
video clip.
During salad, lasagna, and chocolate brownies, the band
Chicago Skinny entertained the crowd on the lawn outside
Center Green while kids drew on the sidewalk and partygoers
perused NCAR Science Store items.
"I was thrilled by how smoothly the Spring Fling came
together," says Dan Ziskin. "Congratulations to
the organization for being such good party people." Led
by Dan, EAC organized the event with extra help from Gail
Rutledge. Eron Brennan managed sound and the Food Services
team served up an excellent buffet. • Nicole Gordon
Also in this issue...
Shielding the Pentagon
Streamlining
the NCAR Science Store
Wilmot “Bill” Hess
Cooling
us off
Short
Takes
Mentoring
Latina students
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