Recent GSO events include:

The Radio City Christmas Show

Once again, the GSO sponsored a trip to see Radio City Music Hall's Christmas Spectacular. This year we went a bit early, on November 27, just after Thanksgiving. The seats were quite good, in the center rear of the orchestra section. We purchased fif ty tickets which sold in about twenty-four hours, so if you want to go next year, call as soon as you see announcements about the trip! There were no empty seats so it seems that everyone who bought tickets went to the show, although a couple of people al most missed the first part due to late arrivals. We were lucky in that Radio City did seat everyone, even the late arrivals as the curtain was going up. In fact, Radio City was especially nice to us when one of our students had her wallet stolen with her two tickets inside. They gave us replacement passes and those students were still able to see the show!

The Rockettes were, as usual, wonderful, as was the rest of the show. Lots of singing and dancing and even some ice skating on a very small rink which rose from the pit to stage level. Santa was there, along with his elves, some sugar-plum fairies, the ma rching soldiers, some dancing bears, and a special little girl who has a wonderful dream. We were all really impressed with the show and look forward to going again next year.

A.F.

Winterfest '95

It was six nights before Christmas, the second day of Hanukah, and not quite time to celebrate Kwanzaa or the New Year and graduate students came together to wish one another Happy... There was hustle and bustle as everyone was finishing with exams an d preparing to leave for the holidays, but Bard Hall lounge was the place to be on December 19th for the GSO Winterfest Party. Graduate students who had not yet left for vacation flocked together to eat, drink and be merry, and surprisingly there was quit e a large group. They were feasting on heroes, lasagna, cookies and a giant cannoli, and drinking their favorite beverages, all the while. Although the snow was falling hard outside, it was clear that everyone was enjoying the festivities indoors. The foo d was good and gone by six, and the usual group of students could be found paying homage to the great metal barrel. Old friends came together to catch up on old times and forget about lab work, for just a little while. It was a good time as usual, the Win terfest Party of 1995, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank eveyone who helped make this event possible, especially everyone who came to help out with set up and clean up, two dirty jobs that had to be done!!!

J.M.

Halloween Party

The day was Halloween (well, almost, a few days before). The place was Bard Lounge. The people were...well...sort of odd looking...And it was the CPMC Halloween Bash! This year the GSO repeated the successful one-year-old tradition of combining resour ces with other student groups from CPMC to throw a combined party. Food was wings and chips, there was lots of soda and b**r, the music was good, and some really excellent costumes won some cool prizes. Top three winners were "the basketball", the Flintst ones family, and the cross-dresser. Next year, hope to see you all there!

Boo!

A.F.

WTA Tennis Championships

Twenty-two graduate students attended the WTA Tennis Championships on November 14. The seats were pretty good. Many of the group moved down, closer to the courts because the arena was not sold out and there was plenty of room to do so. Others stayed i n our seats where we had a good aerial view at the net. Prior to the start of the match I got to see my name on the big screen (a first for me) as I was officially welcomed by Madison Square Garden. If I known that they were doing this I would have had th em welcome Columbia Graduate Students. I guess they welcome anyone who spends large sums of money. The first match, Brenda Shultz-McCarthy and Magdalena Meleeva was a really great match. The first set went to a tie-breaker but Shultz-McCarthy won the matc h in two straight sets.

The second match was a highlight for me, Amanda Coetzer and Steffi Graf. This match really inspired me athletically. These two women are in such superb physical shape that they really don't seem to tire. Graf won in straight sets but the match was well pl ayed by both. The last singles match was Mary Joe Fernandez and Chanda Rubin. Of the three matches this one was the most exciting because these two were so closely matched in ability. Rubin won the first set but Fernandez came back and won the last two, c laiming the match. I did not stay for the singles match, after five hours of tennis it was becoming hard to concentrate. I had a lot of fun as did others that I talked to. I think this is a must do for others in the future and the GSO should consider repe ating this as a sponsored event in the coming years.

J.M.

An Exchange of Officers

GSO elections were heldon January 29th. Congradulations to the new officers:

Chair:Annie Fortunato

Vice-Chair:Jayme Martys

Treasurer:Leora Hamberger

Secretary:Wei Liu

GSO meetings are held every Monday night at 6PM in HHSC 1609. All graduate students are welcome to attend any and all meetings. Dinner is provided at every meeting.