No Room for the Couple at Odds

Harmony in the dormitories is one of the educational aims of officials at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pa. And to that end, first-year students at the all-women’s college draw up contracts, listing the kinds of music they like, study-time preferences and what personal belongings can be borrowed--all in the name of creating peace and order among roommates. “The contracts force new students who have total freedom, many for the first time in their lives, to reach agreements on the issues of living with other people in college residence halls,” said Eva Stambaugh, associate dean of students. But before getting down to the contracts, students must fill out a questionnaire. One of the statements to be completed by students takes a cue from the television comedy “The Odd Couple.” It reads: “My parents would describe me as being more like Oscar Madison or Felix Unger because. . . .” Erin-Joi Collins, 17, of Transylvania County, N.C., said that the contracts help many of the 150 students learn to deal with their peculiarities. “I think it really helps when we look at some of the people who are together,” Collins said. “If they hadn’t made up the rules, they probably wouldn’t get along.”

--Collins, N.Y., becomes known as the Land of the Giants today, as the fourth annual World Pumpkin Weigh-Off gets under way. “The competition is looking real good,” said Ray Waterman, vice president of the World Pumpkin Confederation. “We’ve had some areas that have had an ideal growing season, and we expect some real monsters.” About 100 entries from six countries are expected to vie this year, with other weigh-offs occurring the same day in Ohio, Florida, Massachusetts, Italy, Wales, Australia and New Zealand, and in Canada in Nova Scotia, Ontario, and British Columbia. Scott Cully of Sharon, Conn., will try to duplicate his first-place victory last year when he weighed in with a 515.4-pound pumpkin. The winner will receive $1,000. A new twist this year is the addition of watermelons to the menu. “We decided to involve watermelons and strengthen our organization,” Waterman said. “The people in the South are into melons.”

--”I have come to realize that every one of you, whether brown, black, red or white, had forebears and they were all praying that there would be a better day,” author Alex Haley told a fund-raising gathering at the annual Black United Appeal Inc. in Kansas City. Haley, who wrote the best-selling book “Roots,” said that Americans “can find strength in looking backward.” As to whether he had any advice to today’s youth, Haley said: “Don’t follow me. Make your own footsteps. Leave your own legacy.”

--JAMES MARNELL