mental_floss College Weekend

So, Jason and Mangesh turned mental_floss over to me for the weekend. Yikes. I'm not sure what they were thinking. Don't worry, guys, I'll have 'er back safe and sound Sunday night"¦ mostly. I mean, a few bumps and bruises isn't really a big deal, right?

"¢ You might be surprised to know that more than 60 percent of students participated in marching band during their high school days. OK, I totally made that statistic up. But if you were a band geek (I was), you're in good company. Steven Clontz from Auburn exposes four celebrities who were band geeks before they became famous for other reasons. What, there's no glory in being first chair clarinet?

"¢ As a student, Katie Kelly gets to gaze out at Princeton's scenic Lake Carnegie every day, donated by Andrew Carnegie in 1906. While Princeton apparently preferred donations of the monetary sort, a lake is by far not the strangest thing to be donated to a school. Katie fills us in on donations ranging from a second floor men's bathroom to circus animal corpses.

"¢ If you thought sitting through the Lord of the Rings trilogy or all of the Star Wars movies back-to-back (to back-to-back-to-back-to-back) makes for a long session on your couch, wait 'til you see what Andy Luttrell from Eastern Illinois University has found. These movies make 11 hours of Elijah Wood and Sean Astin look like child's play.

"¢ Unless you've been living in a hole since 1981, you undoubtedly are familiar with Mario. But where did Mario come from? For that matter, where did Donkey Kong come from? And why is a gorilla named "Donkey"? Nick Cannon from Elon University answers all of your burning questions.

"¢ Admittedly I am not a science buff by any means, but I had no idea that hypothermia can be a good thing in some instances. Colgate student Cassandra Galante explains why that is and makes sense out of three other scientific breakthroughs that are going on right under our noses.

"¢ There's something inherently creepy, intriguing and mysterious about entire populations of people that disappear without a trace"¦ it probably makes us wonder if that could ever happen to us. Nathan Johnson from the University of Wisconsin Parkside walks us through four civilizations that just completely disappeared "“ be prepared to get goosebumps.

"¢ In addition to being our resident art historian, Andréa Fernandes knows her architecture too. She takes us on a tour of colleges that have distinguishing buildings or other characteristics that make them stand out from the rest. She passed up Iowa State, but I'll forgive her for that one.

"¢ We also have a quiz or two up our sleeves. If you're interested in submitting a story for the next College Weekend, we'll be posting details tomorrow.

See you guys this weekend! Hey, Jason and Mangesh, is anything in the fridge off-limits? And do you guys get cable? Is it cool if I have a few friends over?