Texas Trivia (Austin, Amarillo, West: courses, demolition, Methodist)

[CptnRn]

I'm not going to argue with you jtur, there are plenty of other places you can do that. Please stop derailing this thread. Here again is the question at hand:

What Texas ranch husbands or harbors machines that have something in common with the Great Pyramid of Giza?

Hint: it is in the same part of the state as the preceding question.

Hint: It is very colorful and it has been there for 34 years.

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

Here again is the question at hand:

What Texas ranch husbands or harbors machines that have something in common with the Great Pyramid of Giza?

Hint: it is in the same part of the state as the preceding question.

Hint: It is very colorful and it has been there for 34 years.

Hint: This "Ranch" is a public art installation, and contrary to what is allowed with most public art, this one welcomes you to add spray paint grafiti, your name, initials or signatures to it.

[doctorjef]

Cadillac Ranch up in the Panhandle. I will now go find a link for it, but wanted to get my answer in before anyone else did.

OK, here's a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_Ranch

I hope this is the correct answer, as I'm not sure about the Great Pyramid of Giza comparison. If not, Cadillac Ranch is still a most interesting cultural artifact!

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by doctorjef

Cadillac Ranch up in the Panhandle. I will now go find a link for it, but wanted to get my answer in before anyone else did.

OK, here's a link: Cadillac Ranch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I hope this is the correct answer, as I'm not sure about the Great Pyramid of Giza comparison. If not, Cadillac Ranch is still a most interesting cultural artifact!

That is correct, your turn.

The great Pyramid connection is based on this description on that website.

Cadillac Ranch is a public art installation and sculpture in Amarillo, Texas, U.S. It was created in 1974 by Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michels, who were a part of the art group Ant Farm, and it consists of what were (when originally installed during 1974) either older running used or junk Cadillac automobiles, representing a number of evolutions of the car line (most notably the birth and death of the defining feature of early Cadillacs; the tail fin) from 1949 to 1963, half-buried nose-first in the ground, at an angle corresponding to that of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.[1]

Frankly I don't believe it, the angle of the cars appears to be much steeper then the Great Pyramid.

[doctorjef]

Heading to the gym now. I will be thinking up a question while there. Stay tuned.

[doctorjef]

OK, here's my next question. I hope it doesn't prove too obscure, but I've been thinking about it as a question for some weeks now.

In 1973 into 1974 a crisis of sorts developed between students at the University of Texas at Austin and the administration/Board of Regents. This crisis focused on changes to be made to a prominent part of the campus that subsequently very much changed the appearance of the area. The Board of Regents consented to only one compromise in regard to a fairly minor detail of the overall project, and a writer for the underground newspaper The Rag wrote that this detail was thus lying like a dog's buried bone, waiting to be dug up again at some point in the future. This prediction indeed proved prescient, as the figurative "bone" was in fact resurrected a decade or so later and the originally intended function of the feature put into service. What was a segment of the UT student body so upset about and what was the buried "bone" that represented the Board of Regent's one (temporary) concession to the students?

Hint: In the Summer of 1973 students held a rally over this matter on the West Mall of the campus.

[doctorjef]

OK, I see this thread is just about to fall off Page 1. Therefore I'm going to issue some hints.

The controversy to which I am referring involved the West Mall of the campus. It involved construction works. More broadly, the overall project actually involved a project that ran along the western boundary of the original 40 acres, and the "dog's buried bone" feature was/is at the intersection of the Drag (Guadalupe) and the West Mall.

What was all this about, and what got literally covered up, only to be brought back to light another day?

Note: there is indeed at least one detailed article on the internet (which I read this morning, although I had not read it when I wrote my question) that describes the controversy of 1973 and actually places it historically in the context of the politics of campus construction over a lengthy chunk of UT's history. The article contains just about all the facts you would need to fully answer my question.

[CptnRn]

Was the "bone" free speech?

In the 60's and 70's the West Mall on the U.T. Austin campus was often the site of huge demonstrations. It is amusing to me how this "official" time line of UT Austin leaves out almost all of the controversial events that occurred. Timeline - UT History Central But it does include one. 1970 - 20,000 people marched in protest of the US bombings in Cambodia.

The West Mall "landscaping" and limestone planters and walls were constructed in the mall and around the campus to make it less accommodating to large demonstrations, and to make the campus easier to defend against protesters during those events.

The "West Mall" is the name that designates the walkway between the west side of the Tower and Guadalupe Street. The West Mall was designated as a 24-hour free speech zone in the fall of 1986, and is a historic protest site on campus. The pavement and large planters on the West Mall were installed during the turbulent times surrounding the Vietnam War, in an effort to prevent protesters from storming campus in mass. The West Mall remains a common area for students to express their beliefs about political movements, University policy, and social reform. The Office of the Dean of Students also allows registered student organizations to reserve the Rally Space to hold protests or promote events. West Mall & Flawn Academic Center - Campus Tour - UT History

A snowball fight breaks out on the West Mall in January 1963.

[doctorjef]

No, sorry -- the "bone" is/was a far more concrete thng than free speech. Remember, the protests were occasioned by an ambitious construction project that included the West Mall. There is an article on the web which deals specifically with this controversy, within the context of the political history of architecture and construction on the UT campus. I'm sure you can find it and locate the answer. It is true that free speech rights and the University's alleged attempt to limit the availability of free speech spaces on campus was a major pretext for the protests that were occasioned by the planned construction project, but what was this construction exactly and what was the Board of Regent's one concession to the student protesters that constituted what The Rag compared to a dog's buried bone?

[CptnRn]

I have an inkling that the design of the FAC was built with a somewhat fortress like exterior, at least partially to thwart the student protest activities. I recall hearing that they originally considered eliminating the courtyard between it and the Student Union Building, which used to be a popular free speech area. A small courtyard remained there after the construction, but was not much more then a token to the students and was broken up in a way that made it not very useful for more then small gatherings.

Beyond that I don't have a clue. I've spend hours searching the web for this and have read through this lengthy but interesting: "Burr Thesis - History of student activism at UT Austin (1960-88): Burr Thesis | UT Watch on the Web

I missed the big protests at UT, arriving there in 1977, I recall some of the Iranian students protests, so I found this all interesting background.

I have found bits and pieces about "The Rag" but nothing about "The Rag compared it to a dog's buried bone".