It’s not part of her official job description, but P.E. Coordinator Lisa Beckett still puts plenty of gusto into her once-a-year hunt for the “weirdest-looking hen I can find at the cheapest possible price.” Scouring the clearance racks at places like Marshalls and Tuesday Morning, the former women’s tennis coach always comes up with perfectly kitschy cluckers—ceramic bobble chicken, anyone?—to serve as prizes for the competitions at the annual tennis event held during Alumni Weekend. Taking home the tacky treasures this year were Brenda Peirce Barnett ’92, Robb Muhm ’91 and Constance Wu ’14, who, we are sure, now have their poultry prizes on proud and prominent display.

Cold cereal is a hot topic for Sagehens who rely on General Mills for a fast fill-up before class. Some 664 students responded to an online cereal survey conducted in the spring by the ASPC Food Committee. These favorite cereals, along with three others, will be served in Frank and Frary dining halls this semester.

And if wolfing down a bowl of cereal is often an auto-pilot routine, some students are mixing things up and thinking outside of the cereal box. “Cereal mixing is truly an art,” says Ellen McCormack ’12. “One of my staple breakfasts [while studying abroad] in Ireland was generic Cheerios, plain yogurt, one glob each of peanut butter and Nutella and a ripe banana cut into slices with a knife … As a bonus, I grossed out my Irish flat mates.”

Pomona’s Top 5 favorite cereals:

1. Honey Nut Cheerios
2. Cinnamon Toast Crunch
3. Special K Red Berries
4. Frosted Flakes
5. Golean Crunch

Each fall semester brings a new batch of critical inquiry courses, the intensive writing seminars that all first-year-students take.  As a side benefit, the titles and descriptions for these creatively-conceived classes always enliven the course catalog. Read these blurbs and you’ll wish you could enroll:

Fragrant Ecstasies: A Cultural History of the Sense of Smell. Mr. Rindisbacher. “The reek of a Kansas feed lot, the aroma of fresh-baked bread, the scent of jasmine on a breezy spring day… Smells connect to perfumery and luxury, to chemistry and neuroscience, to aromatherapy and advertisement, to stench and death—but always also to the erotic and sex. It is an interdisciplinary field par excellence …”

Can Zombies Do Math? Ms. Karaali. “We have all heard of the objective and universal nature of mathematics. Bertrand Russell talked about a beauty cold and austere. Are these perceptions of mathematics related? Accurate? “Can anyone but the warm-blooded humans that we are do math? Does a zombie have what it takes to comprehend and appreciate the aesthetics of mathematics? …”

Nanotechnology in Science and Fiction.  Mr. Tanenbaum. “Nanotechnology … is currently one of the most heavily funded and fastest growing areas of science. Depending upon what you read, nanotechnology may consume our world or enable unlimited new materials, destroy life as we know it or enable immortality, lead us to squalor or utopia, or simply make better electronic gadgets. … ”

Soaring dome, gleaming marble, statues galore—you’ve seen one state capitol building, you’ve seen them all, right? Oh, no, no, no, says Sociology Professor Jill Grigsby, who has made it her decade-long hobby to visit these symbols of democracy, “they are very different.”

Grigsby has set foot in 32 state capitols so far, most recently hitting Dover, Del., Harrisburg, Pa., Providence, R.I. and Salem, Ore. over summer break. She hopes to visit all 50. The quest began a decade ago when Grigsby and her husband, Computer Science Professor Everett Bull, were on sabbatical taking a cross-country drive. After their  first capitol stop in Salt Lake City, it was on to Helena, Mont., and then once you’ve done both of the Dakotas, you’re pretty well committed to the quest.

Bismarck, by the way, has one of the most unique state capitol buildings: a 19-story, art deco-ish tower—no dome—dubbed “the skyscraper on the prairie.” To the east, the attractive capitol buildings in Minnesota (pictured) and Wisconsin should be visited one after another, says Grigsby, who suspects the neighboring states were trying to outdo each other. “Madison’s is imposing and impressive,” says Grigsby, who blogs as Capitol Diva. “But St. Paul has this gorgeous, gorgeous sculpture on top of the dome.”

After so many capitol trips, Grigsby can offer a few tips. Tagging along on a tour with school kids is great fun because “fourth-graders have wonderful questions.” And while you’re soaking up history, do make a detour to the loo, as the lavish lavatories are usually “amazing.”