Muslim Students at Virginia
No Rotunda for Oil ?=? No Ports for Oil

Following the link above I learned that "University of Virginia Muslims reacted to a cartoon depicted the Prophet (pbuh) in the Cavalier Daily" which is the principle student paper at UVa.

In an earlier time (April 1, 1975 to be exact) I was a student at UVa. As usual, I brought home a copy of the day's issue of the Cavalier Daily to share with my wife. The top story that day was a report that The University and a parent of student from an oil-rich Arab country had just closed a deal transfering ownership of The Rotunda to the parent in return for a large donation to The University. At the time, gas prices had never been higher nor have they been since (in real terms of course). So that was a sore point. And, besides, we Cavaliers hold Thomas Jefferson in rather high esteem so the thought of selling his Rotunda to anyone was outrageous. His Rotunda is priceless and not for sale. /sarcasm alert/

Of course it was an April Fools spoof. Funny then and funny now. Especially when we can laugh about how anyone can be taken in by something that outrages us and a thread of the story links to a current event. It's a spoof my wife and I still chuckle about all these years later.

I guess the ports for oil deal is connected to this somehow. It all harkens back to the No-Rotunda-for-Oil days.

- I am, John B. Chilton (A&S, UVa Economics with highest distinction, '75)

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