a temporary setback................

     On November 10, 1954, a story appeared on the front page of the Cornell Daily Sun that began, "The spirit of Prometheus was reincarnated and the campus and the routing of the arts school upset when, yesterday morning, Ed Epstein, '57, made a dramatic horse and buggy appearance for his 10 AM class in Boardman Hall."

     As the story explained, the reason I elected this quaint form of transportation was that my driving privileges had been suspended for my sophomore year because I had transgressed the rules by having a car on campus my freshman year.  Oddly enough, it was not that difficult finding a buggy in 1954 in Upstate New York.  I went to several local farms, and, at the third one, the farmer offered to sell me both the buggy and a horse named Wisconsin for $200.  Driving it onto campus had consequences though.  I was put on probation and, when I refused to rein in my horse and buggy, double probation.  I then gave the buggy and horse to a local farmer, but my probation was not lifted.  It was the beginning of a downward spiral.  I stopped attending classes, my grades plunged, and the following year I was asked to leave Cornell.  I considered it a temporary setback. 

-Edward Jay Epstein, Assume Nothing: Encounters with Assassins, Spies, Presidents, and Would-Be Masters of the Universe