I panicked for a moment because I didn't remember writing my Testimonial for you. Then I recalled what I was doing the night I wrote that.

Don't ever change.

At least you can get into it to check your network of close personal friends. Everytime I've tried for the last couple of weeks, all I get is "your network is currently unavailable."

Amy the Anonymous

Is this a bad time to mention that my network has now broken 500k?

Of course, that's with no actual work, and I suppose I still don't know a damn one of those people.

I finally got back onto Friendster, to discover that I now have more then 41,000 close personal friends. One of them is Case Western Reserve University. Since I've now been associated with Mr. (or is it Ms.?) University for 11 years, I suppose it is time that we acknowledged some type of relationship.

Amy

You know, I've always kinda wondered how CWRU got its name.

And also you know, we could probably get you an account somehow if you wanted to be denonymized.

But I like being anonymous.

The name thing is boring: the Case Institute of Technology merged with Western Reserve University in 1967, and the names were combined into Case Western Reserve University.

The more interesting story is why the two universities happened to be built right next to each other. Western Reserve University was founded in 1826. By the time the Civil War ended and the Industrial Revolution started into high gear, it was well-established and strongly supported by the high society, old money types in Cleveland. These were the kind of people who considered the newly rich manufacturing tycoons like Leonard Case to be uncultured boobs. After Case had been blocked from several positions by one fellow who happened to be a trustee of and big donor to Western Reserve University, he decided to get some revenge.

He bought a big chunk of land right next to the University and started his own college that would concentrate on engineering and science and all the other gritty subjects scorned by those high and mighty University types. In 1880, the Case School of Applied Science was founded.

Eventually it was renamed the Case Institute of Technology. Meanwhile, the two schools had started working together, sharing classes and trading expertise. There's still a certain amount of friction between them - you wouldn't believe the ruckus that was raised when the new university president decreed that henceforth the school would be officially referred to as "Case" rather then by the initials "CWRU." All the old WRU graduates went into a frenzy. "You are denying the existence of our alma mater! How dare you!" Big fun around the old ivy-covered halls.

Amy