Week Fourteen - Silver Surfer

The Tickle City O’-The Week Award Committee has had a lot of important business to attend to recently, resulting in such a long delay for the presentation of the award, and hereby apologizes. In the past week, the Committee has made an exploratory mission to Newton, Iowa to investigate the potential of the Cardinal Lanes bowling alley, and inconclusively ruled that it may be worth the trip any day other than amateur karaoke night. The Committee has also had to attend an Iowa Cubs game (where the home team vanquished the Brewers affiliate Nashville despite a strong performance by Tony Gwynn Jr.). Finally the Committee most recently traveled to Ames, Iowa to attend a Styx benefit concert at Ragbrai where many Grinnellians, including sports information director Ted Shultz, are riding.

Despite all of this, the Award is now back in full swing. This week marked another tough decision, as several interesting candidates slugged it out. Ticklish gatherings of Grinnell College students throughout the U.S. in cities like NYC and Chicago would have been recognized; however, the Tickle City O’-The Week Award Committee was not notified of any of the specifics. If you were present at any of these, and would like to comment on how ticklish the gathering(s) were, please contact ticklecity@gmail.com. Due to this unfortunate lack of information, the award logically goes to the next best candidate, Silver Surfer. The most ticklish of all Marvel heroes, Silver Surfer came to life when he, originally a young astronomer on the planet Zenn-La, struck a deal with the omnipotent space god to prevent the destruction of his home planet. The space god gave him a part of the power cosmic, transforming him into the ticklish hero we know today. He can enter hyperspace to exceed the speed of light on his board, and can travel through dimensional barriers. He does not need food, water, air or sleep, preferring to sustain himself by converting matter to energy.

In fact, Grinnell College Chemistry Summer MAP students, including Maya Lipert and Laura Simpson, would do wonders for their research if they decided to focus on the habits of Silver Surfer, as he can analyze and manipulate matter and energy, restructure and animate matter at will, and even transmute elements. Most of us feel a unique connection with our favorite personal items: our special baseball glove, our comfortable running shoes or our bicycles. Well Silver Surfer takes that to the next level: his surf board is mentally linked with him and moves in response to his thoughts even when he is not in contact with it. He can attack villains by directing the board against them, and can even temporarily imprison enemies inside it. Another big fan of Silver Surfer: the United States Postal Service, who in 2007 issued a $0.41 stamp of “SS” in its series honoring Marvel’s most ticklish superheroes. Silver Surfer, you are tickle city!