Dear Aquaphilic Grad,
As you say, all the creeks and waterfalls are low, but Six Mile Creek is especially shocking.  Though it's fun to be able to walk down the middle of the creek, more-or-less, there's a haunting feeling that it's not natural or right.
        I spoke with Andy Anderson in Cornell's Utilities Department (255-7437) and with Public Works Engineer Larry Fraboni (272-1717) about the problem.  They explain that Six Mile Creek is the City watershed area, which holds only about 25 percent of the amount of water held by the Fall Creek watershed serving Cornell.  Cornell consumes approximately two million gallons of water a day, whereas the City's customers consume four million gallons a day.  So there's a far greater demand on Six Mile Creek's water reserves than on Fall Creek's.
        There's no need to panic, though.  The City has a spring-fed watershed, which buffers us even when it hasn't rained for all practical purposes for four months.  And both Cornell and Ithaca have a mutual aid agreement with Bolton Point which provides us with a lake source as well.  We lent the folks at Bolton Point over ten million gallons of water, and now we're getting some back.
        Larry notes that these drought conditions aren't the best for regnerating creek life, but this isn't the first time we've had a serious drought.  The one in 1990-'91 was about as bad as this one, and the reservoir historically has been down twice as far as now.  The creek has always recovered, so the flowing waters and your sense of Ithacan aqueous equilibrium should return before long.
        Thanks, Andy and Larry!

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Curious,
It's not an old Italian song, but the wonderfully evocative piece "The Godfather Waltz" was written by a composer of Italian ancestry, Nino Rota, especially for the original Godfather movie.  Rota's score won a Golden Globe award.  He wrote dozens of movie scores before The Godfather's, including several Italian films, and quite a few scores afterwards.  You can find out more about the Godfather Trilogy on the Web at http://www.exit109.com/~jgeoff/godfathr.html.
        Sometimes, you can still hear the familiar music at Wok Village, the Chinese restaurant at the Small Mall, on the sound system left over from when Danny's Place was at the same location.  That's an intriguing cultural juxtaposition!

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Looking for Weekend Party Treats,
If I correctly understand what you're asking for, you'll need to wait until next semester for the party treats...a wait worth every minute!  Beth Duane, Director of Sales and Marketing at the Statler (254-2539), tells me that the Hotel School's "Dessert Merchandising" class -- offered every spring semester (but alas, not in the fall) -- sells delectable sweets every Friday morning starting at 9am in the Hotel School atrium.  The students charge just enough to help them buy ingredients for the following week.  Beth advises you to get there by 10am to get the best pick; she speaks from experience!  Thanks, Beth!

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Rich,
The next placement exam will be offered at the beginning of Spring semester, according to the folks at Modern Languages and Linguistics, and should be in time to allow you to take German next semester as you've planned.  The exact date and time hasn't been set yet; you can call the Modern Languages staff at 255-4087 (or stop by their 203 Morrill Hall office) later this year to make concrete plans.  Viele Gluck (please fill in your own umlaut; this keyboard doesn't speak German)!

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Chiming In,
Well, it almost IS coming from the building itself.  What you hear is "Sounding Piece", a sculpture by Harry Bertoia that permanently resides on the sculpture court (outdoor balcony) on the second floor of the Johnson Museum.  The chimes sway back and forth on tall rods and "ping" or "gong" into each other (depending on which chime and how hard they collide) when winds move them.  It's one of my all-time favorites, well worth a visit if you haven't seen it.  You can go out on to the sculpture court until at least the end of October.  Once winter sets in, the chimes are secured so that they won't snap in the windy, icy weather.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Disgusted,
That sure doesn't sound like the kind of fountain that sweaty, thirsty folks want to use after their workouts!  I called Andrea at Customer Service (255-5322), and she says she believes that the Teagle Building Coordinator is in the process of making sure the fountain gets fixed.  She will call to make sure.  If you don't see progress in a week or two, please let me or the Customer Service folks know.
        By the way, frustrating as it can be to see lots of money poured into some projects while other needs wait in limbo, sometimes construction is funded by a generous donor who earmarks money for refurbishing a particular building or area of campus.  That's the case with Central Avenue, which you can read about in the 8/1/95 "Dear

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Distressed,
For whatever reasons, this trip is obviously very important to you.  You can do your own research into ways to travel, leaving no stones unturned.  Call the bus companies yourself (they're listed under "Bus Lines" in the Yellow Pages) and see which one offers schedules most in synch with yours.  (You'll need to weigh the value of the visit against the value of consistently attending classes.)  If you have a friend who can drive you as far as Syracuse, you can also check the schedules for Amtrak trains (1-800-872-7245).
        Posting your needs on the ride boards at the Straight, Noyes, and Robert Purcell -- or putting a notice in the SUN (call 273-3606) -- can't hurt and may turn up a good alternative.  If you have friends here who come from your town or towns nearby, you can ask if they want to take the trip with you, a chance to go home with some help driving (if you drive).  Or, you can call Avis (257-0441), Hertz (257-8677), National (272-2575), and/or Thrifty (273-2886) to look into renting a car.
        If after all that you're still stuck, perhaps a caring conversation with your girlfriend over the phone -- in which you're honest about how much you wish you could come and how hard you've tried -- can at least partially take the place of a visit.  I truly hope things work out well for you.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Curious George,
I can see that the man with the yellow hat has been cracking down on your lately.  Otherwise, you'd be out testing the gas pumps and launching rockets instead of writing to your uncle!
        1)  According to the engineers at National Oilwell in Houston, Texas -- a company that provides products and services to the oil and gas industry worldwide (http://www.natoil.com/) -- a gas pump has a shut-off switch that senses the slowdown in the flow of gas.  As the air pressure builds in the neck of the tank (where you put the nozzle in), it slows that gas down.  There is a pressure switch in the head of the nozzle that senses this and kicks the pump off.
        This explains why, after the pump goes off, you can pull out the nozzle and top off your tank.  It also shows why, if the nozzle falls to the ground, it will continue to pump.
        2)  I asked Astronomy Professor Phil Nicholson (255-8543; nicholso@astrosun.tn.Cornell.edu) about your launching question; he replies:  "My sources inform me that there are no international treaties restricting the launching of rockets or satellites into space per se.  (There are agreements regarding landing of contaminated (e.g., living) material on other planets, however.)
        "As a practical matter, if anything is launched from U.S. territory to an altitude above 18,000 feet, prior approval must be obtained from the FAA.  This mostly applies to aircraft and balloons, but I suppose it applies to rockets also."
        3)  Concerning your final question, Captain Randy Hausner of the University Police (rhh5@Cornell.edu; 255-4623) says that typically, in squad configuration, you have nine real bullets and one blank.  Of course, no one knows who has the blank.  Squads are usually voluntary, yet all members are expert markspersons, so many times the one with the blank has enough experience to tell s/he has the blank.
        Thanks, National Oilwell staff, Professor Nicholson, and Captain Hausner!  By the way, Curious George, does answering this letter make me a monkey's uncle?

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Chi-Town,
Well, not to boast, but Cornell has so many distinguished alumni that it would be hard to come up with any list without leaving out someone who deserved to be included!  Many alumni who make important contributions aren't in the public eye, which makes "notable" hard to define.  And -- to protect alums' privacy -- the folks in the Alumni Affairs office (626 Thurston Avenue; 255-2390) don't release this kind of information.  Perhaps your curiousity can spur you to start compiling your own list, recording names of any famous alums you hear about or read about in the pages of THE CORNELL DAILY SUN, Bishop's A HISTORY OF CORNELL, and the like.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Pennsylvanian,
I like your theory, and there's some truth to it:  In the 1700s and 1800s, when many of the places around here were named, a knowledge of the Greek and Roman Classics was in vogue.  However, historians don't link the name Empire State to those empires, but rather to a remark George Washington made about New York possibly becoming the seat of a new empire.  You can read more about the name in the 8/92 "Dear Uncle Ezra" posting,
page 21.
        Your question aroused my curiousity about your own state's nickname.  So I looked in the World Book Encyclopedia and discovered that Pennyslvania's central location in the "arch" formed by the original 13 colonies made it the "Keystone".  Such a nice title is well suited to a state whose name lauds its forests!

Uncle Ezra