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July 1999

The yolk's on the mesa in 13th egg drop

As an attentive crowd looks on, "Nine Loves of Lucky Chance" (Erin Woodward, Scott Carpenter Middle School, daughter of FSS's Scott Woodward) makes a dicey descent. The outcome's black-and-white: Judges Ron Lull (HAO) and Julie Arblaster (CGD) give it a thumbs-down.

Premillennial jitters met up with more traditional fears in the annual mesa egg drop, held on the picture-perfect Friday afternoon of 28 May. This was the 13th year of the event, so superstitions joined Y2K as the egg-drop themes. Long-time egganizers Rene Munoz (Education and Tour Program) and Paulette Gerardy (now at the Bridge School) oversaw the festivities. Brian Bevirt (SCD) returned as emcee.

Egg Drop egganizer Rene Munoz.

The student entries from Bridge and other local schools fared eggceptionally well this year: 93 percent made it to the ground without cracking their cargo. On the other hand, many of the UCAR/NCAR/UOP entries went for sound and fury rather than success. "Spam, Spam, Spam, Eggs and Spam," by a RAP team disguised as Guido's Flying Circus, erupted with mystery meat and a hapless yolk.

Since it's not ova till it's ova, the drop closed with "Cr-egg I, A Tribute to NCAR's Comput-egg-tional Egg-cellence and the Power of the Great Seymour," a Cray-like Supercomputer "built at the Chip-an-egg Falls, Minneggsota facility by Bridge School engineers." The machine was constructed of recycled materials, with the latest in pizza-box architecture, totally virtual memory, and a maximum speed of 9.8 m/s2 (terminal velocity). The Cr-egg I sailed majestically off the ML roof before crashing for its first and last time. •Bob Henson


"Y2K Black Cat" makes a graceful descent, giving the spectators paws.

Some Bridge School students, in the tradition of SCD grand-finale entries of years past, provided a replica of NCAR's initial CRAY-1.

Doug Lindholm (RAP), joined here by son Nicholas, accepted the Most Eggsploded award on behalf of Guido's Flying Circus.

The envelope, please

Most Eggsploded

Molly Geller, sixth grade, Bridge School, "Grandma Egg"

Guido's Flying Circus, RAP, "Spam, Spam, Spam, Eggs, and Spam"

Most Eggsotic

Lyndsey Greene, eighth grade, Bridge School, "Comet Kohoutek"

Kevin and Laura Raeder (CGD) and daughter Maia, Meadowlark Preschool: "Egg Drop Soup"

Most Eggscellent

Joe Dean, seventh grade, Bridge School, "Newton's Revenge"

Anne-Marie Tarrant, RAP, and nephew Daniel Howard, fourth grade, Bixby School, "Y2K Black Cat"

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Edited by Bob Henson, bhenson@ucar.edu
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