Birmingham-Southern Best Bits

Birdie and I wandered into a biology lab at Birmingham-Southern College, but I left without a fetal pig stashed in my purse. The pigs, encased in plastic and stuffed into an open cabinet, were tempting. Ever since Big Guy dumped a fetal pig into the high school cafeteria milk cooler (years ago, not recently) those rubbery yet organic, biology tools have special appeal. So yeah, I wanted one for the home frig. Birdie didn't. I also wanted a BS t-shirt. Birmingham Southern only offers BSC.  And I wanted to play with the campus stray cats. So did Birdie. We're suckers for felines even the feral ones. So should Birdie select her school based on easy access to fetal pigs, the potential to play with college initials and the stray cat population? Probably not. But there are other reasons BSC remains on the Birdie short-list. Its students are really nice, especially the four I inquisitioned Sunday evening in the dining hall and met again on campus the next morning. The BSC professors are equally nice. The biology professors didn't frisk us for purloined pigs and freely shared why they teach at BSC. Ditto for the choral music director. And we almost got to meet BSC's new president. Well, sort of. Our campus tour day coincided with his first day. Birdie's admissions counselor invited us to the "Welcome New Prez" festivities. We went, but never saw the guy. A solid mass of students stood between us and the podium. I think that says something about how much the students like their school--especially as the Prez was competing with a free ice cream giveaway in the school courtyard. And lest I forget, Birdie enjoyed her very own marked parking spot at the BSC visitor center. We lingered a long time on campus, enjoying our star treatment. I thought about fetal pigs and cats. Birdie thought about applying.