They're selling turnips in the Co-op...

...which isn't particularly news, were it not for the fact that these turnips have been hollowed out, had eyes, nose and mouth cut into them, and a candle placed in their centre. They are all marked 'NOT FIT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION', in case anyone fancies a self-cooking turnip, though I don't think the candle would be particularly effective in that regard. Oddly, perhaps, they are in the vegetable section alongside the edible turnips. Let's see if any of them walk abroad in Woodstock this Hallowe'en.

(Self-)Promotion?

There was a certain inevitability about it, the longer I stayed in Oxford. I'd been trying to sort out DSoc's registration with the university for weeks and it was now about ten days overdue. I'd printed out a registration form myself and filled it in, and at tonight's meeting we'd even turned one of the freshers into a secretary. I then realised that getting someone to track down the senior member would take more time. I was a member of congregation, after all, and I was on hand - so I crossed out the existing senior member's name, wrote in my own and then signed the form myself. No-one objected - quite the opposite, in fact.

So, I am now the senior member of DSoc, as was predicted anciently by the society's second president.

EDIT: I've added a question mark to the title because I'm not sure that I should be celebrating! For the benefit of non-Oxford people I should explain what a senior member is. DSoc is a student society of the University of Oxford, and therefore needs to be registered with the university authorities in order to operate under their protection, which as SocT members know, can be useful. The senior member is the member of the teaching or in my case research side of the university who has to be a member of congregation - the tutors' parliament - and can assure the university authorities that the people concerned are behaving in a responsible fashion.