For those of you in the Newark / Wilmington area, here's the press release...

Barnes & Noble
Concord Mall
4801 Concord Pike
Wilmington, DE 19803
302-478-9677

Store contact:

Lenora Long / Community Relations Department
302-478-9688

Darren Kane contact info can be found on www.MugNight.com

This is sort of a quick follow-up to our previous "Death Pool" blog. I've been getting some inside info here and there, and hearing some other rumblings...put 'em together, annnnnd, here we go:

Dickinson and Rodney, most likely will be obliterated within a few years...and will NOT be replaced by new dorms! I'm hearing they want to park a science center on West Campus. Will this also mean Rodney Dining Hall, R.I.P.?! Oh, and what about the pool?!

Harrington and Gilbert, also on the chopping block? Well, there were interiror renovations to Russell not too long ago, and I heard they were starting to do the same to Harrington and Gilbert, but were recently told to STOP. Take that as you will. I'd speculate they'll bust them down, put up new dorms, and then flatten Russell and Lane to replace those as well.

The Beach...now covered with astroturf? Well, this is 100% true, it's happening right now, to be completed for the start of the Fall '08 semester. Hey, pick up the f'in awesome book Glory Days at Delaware, it's got a whole chapter dedicated to The Beach, including the history of past attempts to grow real grass there! (Come on, I have to plug the thing.)

Perkins Student Center, R.I.P.? Hmmmmmm. There is a lot of talk about a new student center, but maybe they mean an additional one, and not to replace Perkins. Maybe a new one up on Laid Campus, by all the new dorms up there?

...to what you think will be bulldozed in Newark, DE, and when.

Okay guys, haven’t posted a new blog in quite a while...but, come on dude, I’ve been focused on Glory Days at Delaware, as you know!  (And again, if any of you can help spread the word, it’s of course most appreciated...cuz, ya’ know, I’ve been banned from The UD Messenger!)

Anyway, I haven’t been down to Newark, DE since December, and understand that there’s been a lot of bulldozing on Elkton Road...there’s a push to redevelop it in the same way Main Street was in the late ’90s. I believe The Crab Trap, Grainery Shops, and Friendly’s are all already gone (I snapped pics of all of those back in 2006.)

As far as campus buildings go, well, there’s strong indications that some of the dorms are in UD’s crosshairs.

And thusly, feel free to post your odds of what you think will be gone and by when; either on or off campus. And you what? Feel free to post any predictions of changes that will occur in general at UD; policies, etc.

A few of mine:

1) Rodney, 3-1 in favor it’ll be gone by 2011, and will be replaced by Rodney V2.

2) Ditto on Dickinson, but by 2013. (I’ll be one sad old alumni if / when this happens, but will understand.)

3) 10,000-1 in favor that if I visit UD sometime this spring, I’ll walk into Kate’s, and tell every college girl in there that I’m only 23.

Hi guys,

Hope everyone had a fun close of '07, and thanks to everyone who has picked up the book thus far! It was a really fun project (yeah, and a ton of work), but really worth the time. And hey, thanks also for all your glowing emails, comments, and reviews!

Thought it'd be interesting to share some "behind-the-scenes" of Glory Days with you guys, and if you like this blog, maybe I'll do a couple more. (This one is marketing-centric, but if ya' wanna hear about the actual publishing and distribution process, let me know!)

Okay, this may be ridiculously obvious, but needs to be established: The first step in moving any product is creating awareness. I mean, how would you expect anyone to purchase / seek out your product, if they don't even know about it? For Glory Days at Delaware, it's all about somehow getting the word to anyone who graduated UD post mid-'80s, as well as current students.

Without a doubt, the best single ad buy I could do to reach all alumni eyes in one shot, would be for me to purchase an ad in The UD Messenger. Most of you know what it is, but for you current kids: it's the full-color quarterly alumni magazine, with a distribution of at least 85,000 and I understand it's going even wider in 2008.

Let's get right down to it: I would buy a quarter or even half page ad in The Messenger, but they've refused my advertising!

But the thing is, in no way was I shocked or suprised...I NEVER thought they'd go for it. And I pretty much understand the school's position; after all, they've put a lot of time, money, and resources in the past 5 or 10 years into fighting off UD's "party school" reputation...

...Glory Days at Delaware has a chapter entitled, "Drunk and Drunker." And that's just 1 of 70 chapters...again, you're welcome.

Going into this thing (compiling the book, that is), I took the position that Glory Days would in no way be "scrubbed down" and play it safe just to secure Messenger advertising down the road. I mean, really, what was I supposed to do? Continually check with UD's administration during the editing process? "Is this okay to leave in, and you'd still sell me advertising? What about this?" The administration then essentially becomes the editor of the book. (I will say, though, that I was careful with anything potentially libelous...legalities, you understand.)

Anyway, if I had watered down the book, it would've become something very different (i.e. lame) than what Glory Days is. I set out to adapt and expand from this MySpace page, and maintain the tone you guys have responded to: It's how we REALLY remember our college years...the book emulates Homecoming conversations over a pitcher of beer with your old college buddies. Yes, that means occasionally using the words "shit" and "fuck" and some stories (okay, a lot) about drinking, puking, and passing out. But all in good college fun. I wouldn't have it any other way.

SO, the challenge was -- and still is -- getting the word out. Fortunately, the second best UD alumni reach may in fact be this MySpace page, along with MugNight.com, the Facebook page and group. And, yeah, the great local Press has been clutch...

...but of course, the most powerful of all advertising: word-of-mouth. Thanks to everybody who has told friends about the book, bought it as a holiday gift, and all of that! I can use all the help I can get, to continually spread the word, from the willing.

If any of you have ideas of how I can (inexpensively) reach the UD alumni masses, please let me know! Talk Delaware and Go Dewey are two sites where you'll see ads for the book, but with so many alumni outside of DE (but mainly concentrated in the Mid-Atlantic), trying to get to everybody is a task-and-a-half...hey, maybe I should buy an ad in The UD Messenger. Oh, wait.

- Digger

Hi guys,

Just a quick note to thank all of you for supporting this page since it went up, in early 2006...

...and now its evolution into Glory Days at Delaware! Hey, if you head over to Mug Night and follow the links, the info is posted on where to find the book, and that info will def update as the availability goes wider...

...you'll see that there's a link there to view preview pages, which the publisher has posted. It's basically the entire intro to the book, setting everything up, and if you've been with the MySpace page for a while you'll REALLY "get it."

Yep, book is 463 pages. A lot of which is adapted from DelGrads, but there's also HUNDREDS of pages of new material, collected exclusively for the book. New interviews, anecdotes, and yeah, pics!

Really looking forward to this thing to be in your hands...

Best,

D

Open forum below to talk about Walt, who I believe is no longer with us (can anyone confirm?)

If you don't know who Walt was, he might be our all-time most reknowned UD Crazy Character -- and I'm sure the comments below will bring you up to speed. (There is also a shot of his fine establishment on our Main Street Timeline thread!)

...cuz I dug through and organized the blog archives for you!

We've covered a lot of great UD stuff, with a lot more to come...

...I know that digging through blog archives can be a bitch, so here you go! You can just eyeball down the list, there might be a lot of great stuff you missed (with new friends joining the page every day, many have missed something)!

The blue links will redirect you to the respective original blogs. IF you see a blog topic and are like, "Wow, do I have story for that one...," eyeball the other categories first. There might be an even more specific past blog where it fits in even better!

Please, I beg of you, do me a favor: here at the DelGrads command center, I keep a running list of past and future blogs (that I intend to post)...please do NOT post ideas for new topics here / start new threads...rather, please email me any ideas you want! I will say, it's fun to see how some threads spin in different directions, but hope you understand that to manage this stuff, I at least gotta start off the thread...it helps in keeping all the great info / comments organized...thanks to you guys!

If you want to comment at all on this board...hey, maybe you wanna post if you've reconnected with an old UD friend on DelGrads, or anything like that. Been getting some really nice fan mail from you guys, THANK YOU!

Here we go...IF YOU FIND ANY DEAD LINKS, PLEASE EMAIL ME...

General UD / Town of Newark








In the Beginning...


Start of the School Year!




Take shelter! Where we lived and community living...

Stuff your face! Where we ate...


Off-Campus

The UD Campus. Memories of...

Academics


DelaWeather. Seasons and notable storms...



The Bar Scene of Newark

...in Newark, DE!

Okay guys, here's the deal: As you'd imagine, I have received email requests to post a blog about Greek life at UD. The reason for my resistance, is NOT because I'm anti-Greek in any way, it's that I do think there might be some hostile comments made by others, targeting specific Fraternities and Sororities. Sure you understand, I'd like to keep this page free of personal attacks of other DelGrads...perhaps some comments (or I'll say accusations) would be unfair or simply not true.

Also, the thing about this page and the book, is that it's more about commonality and UD experiences we all can relate to in some way. So, Delaware is 12 to 15 percent Greek, and then when you break it down to the individual Fraternities and Sororities, we're getting simply TOO niche within niche.

As for stereotyping someone because of the letters on their chest, here's my Philosophy 101: In ALL walks of life, within ALL organizations, there are cool guys, and there are assholes. There are sweet girls and there are bitches. Hey, if you're Greek or not, try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, and treat people how you'd like to be treated yourself. That's it.

End of pre-empt.

SO, what I'm really looking for out of this blog, are memories and historical information on the Greek houses around UD. When something got built, torn down, changed hands, etc.

It's fine to say that, "So and so was the ___________ house, until they got thrown off campus," if that's actually what happened. Just please don't be a dick about the reason it happened. Most of you know that over the past decade or so, UD really went after the Greek organizations on campus, purging a lot of them out.

That being said, let me rattle off some houses:

...add to or edit the list!

Okay guys, this is a sequel to our original Delaware Bar Bands thread...

...and I was on the fence about posting this on the page, or keeping it exclusively for the book. Well, my decision is obviously below. But this should give you a hint that there's a ton of great stuff that I'm saving for Glory Days at Delaware!

Before you read and comment on the alphabetical band list below, here are the rules:

1) The list is of bands that are local to or originated in Newark, DE and / or were known to play (or still do) at places like The Deer Park, East End, Balloon, Skidfest, Wilburfest, even The Scrounge. SO...

2) Please don't be a douche, and be like, "You know, I saw Lenny Kravitz at The Bob, and..." If you're looking for that thread, it be right here.

3) Same goes for famous, nationally known bands that played at The Balloon -- that's not what the list below is about (with the exception of one notable band that is thoroughly good.) Please, stay on subject!

4) Yes, the list is both original and cover bands.

5) Band names might have a "The" before the name...so if you don't initally see a band you're looking for, scan down to the "The"s. Might find 'em there.

6) Years are roughly 1987 - Present.

7) If a band changed its name (and I knew about it), I listed BOTH names...best example I can think of is how Firetribe became Mother Nature's Blacklight Rainbow.

8) If you see any accidental repetition, typos, etc, please let me know!

9) Please be cool -- don't make up shit (meaning, fake bands) to see it land in the book. But any legitimate additions, by all means comment on the blog!

10) I put a good amount of time and energy into compiling this ridiculous list --  please don't rip it off and post it elsewhere, thanks in advance!

Here we go, The ULTIMATE UD BAND LIST!

5 Shot Limit

Adam Beck

Adam Kruger

Alms to Sots

Amanda Kaletsky

Ampere

Amy The Rat

Ant Farm

Apex Watson

Arms of Orion

Attic

Bad Cop No Donut

Bad Hair Day

Barabas

Bare Essentials

Beat Clinic

Bellefonte

Beru Revue

Big Idea

Big Meat

Black Market Flowers

Blackthroat

Blue Miracle

Bohemian Sunrise

Bombs Away

Boy Sets Fire

Breakerz

Brill

Brother / Sister

Bruce Anthony

Bullets

Bullette

Burnin' Thousands

Burning Bus

Burnt Sienna

Butternut

Caltrop

Caravan

Caterpillar

Cease The Day

Cecil's Water

Charming Arms

ChaseHer

Chatter Band

Chester River Runoff

Chorduroy

Chowderfoot

Chris D'Esposito

Chris Morrow

Chubby Buddha

Chucky

Clobbersaurus

Club Phred

Clubber Lang

Comet vs. Planet

Contraband

Cosmic Funk Orchestra

Crazy Saints

Crushing Day

Cubane

Cure for Pain

Dandelion

Dark Star Transit

Daze Alone

Delaware Rag

Delfumo

Diatribe

Dice Productions

Dickswinging Kids

Disco Biscuits

Donkey Punch

Don't Call Me Francis

Drake

Drunk on Sunday

E. Shawn Qaissaunee

Elk-Tones

EPH Tradition

Every Wednesday

Everything

Fat Apple

Fat Daddy Has Been

Fever Dog

Fighting Gravity

Final Chapter

Firetribe

Flash Grenade

Flip Like Wilson

Flying Plain

FM Kill

Forfeit

Four Souls On Fire

Foxy Moon Baby

Full Minute of Mercury

Funnel

Fuzzy Bunny Slippers

Gangster Pump

Gelner

General Electric

George Thorogood & The Delaware Destroyers

Gingham Shmuz

Girth

Good Girls Don't

Great Train Robbery

Green Eggs and Spam

Greenberry Woods

Grinch

Harsh Reaction

Headless Mantis

Healthy Doses

Hekyll & Jive

Herbie

Hidden Hand

Holy Fucking Spirit

Homegrown

Hot Rock & The Heatstrokes

Huffamoose

Hyperactive

IKE

Impulse

J. Arthur Band

Jaetna Hose Hook

Jah Roots

Jamie & The Hot Rocks

Jamnation

Jaundice

Jefe

Jeff Barbas

Jimmy Smooth

Joel Rakes

Johnny O and the Classic Dogs of Love

Juliet's Wishing Well

Jupiter Green

Kelly Bell Band

Kristen & The Noise

Labor Day Saints

Ladder Company

Lake Trout

Larry Roney

Laura Lea & Tripp Fabulous

Lead Boots

Lean

Lefty Groove

Leslie Cary Band

Lime

Liquid A

Lolita Nation

Los Hombres Mas Mucho Del Mundo Rock!

Lost Boys

Love Seed Mama Jump

Lower Class Citizens

Lowercase Blues

Lucky

Mad Sweet Pangs

Marchitect

Marcus Hook

Marmalade

Mass Movement of the Moth

Melissa Cox

Melodius Funk

Mia Johnson Band

Middle Earth Blues Band

Minos Conway

MojoHand

Montana Wildaxe

Monterey Popsicle

Mother Nature's Blacklight Rainbow

Mother's Garden

Mothers Magilicutty

Mr. Greengenes

Mustard Seed

Mutha Load

Mystery Machine

New Potato Caboose

Nice Trick Liar

Nick Everett

Nimbus

Nine

No We Are Not Food?

Omnisoul

One

One Too Many

Origami For Addicts

Overise

Paint It Black

Peters Cathedral

Phat Boddum

Pilot Round The Sun

Piper Down

Porch Chops

Portable Folk Band

R.O.G.

Radiowhore

Rai Nation

Railhead

Red Alert

Red Handed

Reflex Blue

Roark

Royal Palm Steel Band

Rubber Uglies

Ruder than You

Rup Dupa

S/he

Schleigho

Schroeder

Sevender

Shannon Penn

She Slash He

Shooting Ropes

Sin City Band

Skip Castro Band

Smashing Orange

Smiley Disaster

Sofa Kings

Soraia

Sorry About Your Daughter

SOULoh

Sound Asleep

Space Vipers

Spindrift

Spontaneous Underground

Stargazer Lily

Stealing December

Steamroller Picnic

Steph Hayes & the Good Problems

Steve Pepper Band

Stone City

Stranded on Third

Strange as Angels

Stucco Lobster Breadbox

Sugar Daddie

Sweet Briar

Sweet Shock

SYP

Tequila Mockingbird

The 49ers

The Absurd

The Armadillos

The Band

The Barnaby's

The Beat Clinic

The Bub

The Catalyst

The Caulfields

The Cocks

The Collingwood

The Dharma Bums

The Fabulous Greaseband

The Feel

The Fiction Department

The Funatix

The Houseplants

The Jam

The Jeff Barbas Project

The John Faye Power Trip

The Kaitlin Sweeney Band

The Lenny Pierro Group

The Look Machine

The Mental Custodians

The Nazarites

The Nerds

The Outriders

The Procretaors

The Red Oranges

The Relay

The Rising

The Sauce

The Scatologists

The Scenic Route

The Scott Harris Project

The Sky Drops

The Snap

The Spinto Band

The Venturas

The Verge

The Vibe

Theory

Third World

Three Legged Fox

Thunder Brew

Tin Pan Alley

Tisra Til

Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers

Tony Travalini Band

Tree of Life

Tribal Instinct

Tribes

Underground Cartoons

Virginia Coaltion

Walleye

Whitebread

WillaPark

Woolie Mammoth

YNot

Yolk

Zane Campbell & the Gravel Pit Ramblers

Zen Guerrilla

Whew. I need a nap...comment below!

...cuz I say what I mean, and I mean what I say. Well, most of the time.

Guys, sorry for the delay in updating the page, as I'm currently focusing on the book. (Hey, get your release forms in!)

But this blog is about those ever popular college staples, message boards and quote walls!

Breaking this down:

Message Boards - you know, those things you put on your dorm room's door...and people try to rip off (and often succeed at) your dry-erase markers. Which by the way, pack a nice buzz when you sniff them. I've got two message board "pranks" that I was semi-notorious for in '92 - '93 Sypherd:

Quote Walls - typically in dorms as well (we had one in our Dickinson lounge), but also common in houses. Hey, check out this fine example on Jeff Kuhn's WilburStreet.com!

...is that from "B for Beerdetta"?

Well, anyway:

"I remember a group of guys who started the '1000 Beer Semester.' Right
around the time of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant to curb binge
drinking on campus, this guy pledged to get straight A's while still
drinking 1000 beers in a semester. They had t-shirts and a big party at the
end."

- Danielle Cain, UD '00

Comment below! Talk about the above, and any other "Drinking Challenge" you heard about or engaged in...that took place over a year, or semester, or month, or week, or day, or hour..as always, work in as many UD details as you can!

...(insert celebrity name here).

Okay guys, I've had this blog on my "to do" list for almost a year now, and finally getting around to it; celeb lookalikes that roamed campus, during your years at UD!

Two come to mind, during my '91 - '95 era...I didn't know these guys personally, but saw them around quite a bit:

And as for me, well if I was a current student, I'd possibly be Zach Braff with Eddie Vedder's Hair Circa 1993 Guy!

Rattle off below! Lookalikes you saw around campus (or knew, or maybe you were one), what years you saw them at UD, and where! Two past threads that may tie-in: UD Nicknames and The Crazy Characters of Newark, DE.

...explain. We had two previous blogs about eating OFF campus at UD (meaning, places you can't use points); Think fast! which was about national fast-food chains like Taco Bell and BK, and then a "mid-tier" blog about all those places that are the life-blood of UD students...DP Dough, Margherita's, Jake's Burgers, etc. If you have comments on any of those kinds of places, please park 'em on those two respective blogs!

This thread is about, "Okay, we're gonna sit down and have a nice meal." Or quasi-nice meal.  The basic rule here is that there is a waitstaff bringing you your food, and at the end you say, "Check please." They be "date places" or places you go when the parents are in town. Get it?

Sure, you could include restaurants where we typically drank as well;  the Deer Park, Kate's, Iron Hill, etc.

Places I'm thinking of are pretty much concentrated on Main Street, but hey, if you want to talk about the Bennigan's you-know-where, go ahead!

Some that come to mind:


Comment below, and try to name years you went to these places, favorite meals, etc!

...and I don't mean stuff that you buy with your meal plans, or Ramen Noodles in the dorms. For that kind of stuff, please eye down the DelGrads Index for dorm life blogs, etc.

The intent of this blog, is to rattle off all those mid-tier places in Newark, DE, that we usually took-out from or ordered delivery. Maybe just ate it there. Signature to Newark, DE or a could be a small or regional chain. So, that means a step above the big fast food chains but below sit-down places with waitstaff.

Most of the places I'm thinking of would be (or were) on Main Street or Elkton Road.

Just a few of my favorites from '91 - '95: Ganello's on Elkton Road, Jake's Burgers on Ogletown Road (worth the drive down there), and of course, Margherita's on Main Street (after dumping out of the Stone Balloon -- it was there, waiting to save us).

So, all those places you got subs, cheesesteaks, calzones, wings, burgers, fries...

Comment below! Anything and everything you could think of that would fall into this category, 1987 - Present. Rattle off years you went there, favorite food or specials, and all of that. Two past tie-in threads: "The best thing I ever put in my mouth at UD was..." and 1994 Coupons!