Benches

From the unofficial Duke TIP Wiki

Benches are wooden benches made of wood which are placed in front of each dorm. Each year, they are painted by Duke students. The benches get burned during the school year by Duke students after basketball wins against UNC which is why the decoration and sometimes the entire bench is different from year to year. They normally have some picture and a witty slogan painted on them, such as "BP: Bassett pride, Its where we get our Busch" or "Wilson: Y'all Ain't Got Balls Like These," and, my favorite, "Aycock: Is it in you?" While sometimes infested with bees, mud daubers, ants, spiders, and other insects, they are really quite comfy. The most famous is the G-Spot, not only for its name but also because... well, it's called the G-Spot for god's sake. And it has a foot rest, which is nice. Be nice to the benches. They sometimes like to break, and then you cannot sit there anymore, even if it is funny.

The G-Spot disappeared mysteriously during term II 05, due to termites in the bench.

During Term I 2006, The staff decided to move The Brown bench in front of Giles in the middle of the middle of the night, and were caught by the police for it (After showing proof of being allow to do it, the police left them be.

Just as a general warning, it's not considered a smart idea to stick your scan card into the slots between the boards if you have your shoelace attached to any part of you or your clothing. An unfortunate, somewhat accident-prone TIPster did this during Term II 2003 and, after jumping up to attempt to retrieve a frisbee, forgetting the fact that her shoelace was attached at one end to her belt loop and at the other end to the bench, involuntarily bungee-jumped off of the Giles bench. Ripped pants and an enormous bruise on a forehead ensued. Just don't do it.

In 2007, Aycock's bench had silhouettes of people with the words "Aycock Hanging Out" on the footrest. The obvious innuendo of this made many a TIPster laugh. By 2008, Aycock had been painted over to just say Hanging Out, but not well enough, so one could still see the outline of the word Aycock.

During Term I in 2008, a TiPster named Scott Andrus was accused of breaking the Bassett bench, when really he had done no such thing, as it was actually the fault of a bunch of second-year girls.

[edit] Bench Design by Year

• 2004
  • Giles: G-Spot, involving the red 7-up dot man
  • Brown:
  • Pergam: Starry Starry Night
  • Alspaugh:
  • Basset: "GO TO HELL, CAROLINA"

• 2005
  • Giles: G-Spot (Version 2)
  • Brown: Charlie Brown ("Full of substance since 1927")
  • Pegram: solid wooden bench
  • Alspaugh: Alspaugh - King of Peers
  • Basset: BP - Basset Pride - It's Where We Get Our Busch

• 2006
  • Giles: Benchless, until the Brown Bench was moved in front of it
  • Brown: Charlie Brown
  • Pegram: Pirate Themed
  • Alspaugh: King of Peers (the word Alspaugh had been painted out)
  • Bassett: "We're with Sober"
  • Wilson: Weilson (pronounced wheel-son)

• 2007
  • Alspaugh: Red with Absolut Alspaugh written on it
  • Bassett: Bassett written separated with We Play Dirty In between
  • Pegram: Looks like it's on drugs
  • Giles: Just a brown bench
  • Brown: Painted by Allison's RAG during Term II as a prize from Carnivale. They decorated it with 2 OSCs, a tree, their handprints, the llama, and their names and inside jokes on the back. Prior to the arrival of TIPsters, the bench had been painted plainly by staff because it was not considered TIPropriate.

• 2008
  • Alspaugh: Same as 2007
  • Bassett: Black with "Bassett Beast" written in green
  • Pegram: Painted with Van Gogh's Starry Night
  • Giles: Multi-colored paint with GILES in large letters EDIT: Grafitie was applied to the bench, so it ACTUALLY reads "GILFS"
  • Brown: City skyline (inside the Construction Zone, so completely inaccessible to TiPsters)