Matzo ball soup for the soul

Feb. 7, 2019, 1:00 a.m.

On a cold winter morning, many Full Moons on the Quad ago

There was a small village by the Valley of Silicon.

Three travellers arrived, they were hungry and tired,

And their segways had all been run down to the wire

“At last,” said their leader, a large Redwood tree,

“A place to camp, us wandering three.”

But when they started unpacking, much to their dismay

it seemed that the villagers had all gone away.

No lights in the windows, no signs for free boba

It looked like the villagers were all in a coma.

Then suddenly one of them stormed from his castle,

A CS major, and he was still in his bathrobe

“I’d move on,” he said, “if I were you”

“There’s midterms and P-sets and we all have the flu”

“We’re tired!” “We’re hungry!” other villagers chimed in

“We’re applying to Haas fellowships” – “and updating LinkedIn”

“Don’t worry,” said the Redwood, “we’re making a soup”

“It’s a soup made of stones, we’ll make some for you too”

“We just need a fire, we’d better not wait”

So the chem majors came back with mag sulfate.

“These stones will taste great, but something is missing”

“If only we had some freshly chopped celery”

“I’ll get it!” said a frosh, who ran off with glee

He returned with the celery, some carrots and parsley

“Oh for some dill! Straight from the soil!”

And a fencer returned with a sprig on her foil.

The villagers remarked that it smelled pretty good

Except the CSer, who kept his foul mood

The sharing kept coming, kosher salt, lemon zest

And more and more villagers crawled out of bed.

The last ingredient, of course, had to be love

So the tree brought everyone in for a hug.

And the CSer, normally a sadness buffet

They said that his love code got debugged that day.

And you’re right to be wondering, what about the stones?

Well, by the same magic they became matzo balls.

It’s being served again now by AEPi

This Sunday only – find them online.

 

Contact Nestor Walters at waltersx ‘at’ stanford.edu

Nestor was born in Bangladesh, raised in Greece, and served 10 years in the U.S. Navy. He studied math as an undergraduate, and now studies applied mathematics and oceans as a master's student at Stanford.

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