So, when you arrive to Oregon State, in the spirit of, well, school spirit, you’re told of all the things that OSU is known for.  The marionberry, a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry and delicious, was cultivated here and the modern maraschino cherry developed here, too. Two-time nobelist, Linus Pauling graduated from OSU.  It is a land-, sea-, space- and sun-grant institution.  The first graduating class of OSU in 1870 – then the Corvallis State Agricultural College – was comprised of two men and one woman. And so on, and so forth.

But it took a chance encounter at my local food coop to learn that the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster was founded by an OSU physics graduate student! Given the worldwide reach of Pastafarianism, you’d think they’d bring that up in the orientation.