Writing Center Staff Holds ‘Funeral for a Fish’

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010. Spring yawns awake, shaking off the oppressive chains of winter. A few tentative tweets from the birds fill the air, bugs lazily drone and awake, and life is renewed.

But not all was well on this tender Wednesday afternoon. While the world had its new beginning, one member of our campus sadly met his end.

Danny Hughes Jr., one of the newly bought fish at the writing center, was found gasping slowly on his side at the bottom of his tank. His thinning brethren swirled around him, while he slowly slipped into darkness.

Danny Hughes Jr. was only here for a few days’ time, but in his short stay here at McDaniel, he truly left his mark. All who saw his gaping, unerring stare were immediately changed. They were calmer, and somehow happier. This was just the kind of effect Danny Hughes Jr. had on all of those around him.

On April 7th, hours after his untimely departure from the living, Danny Hughes Jr. was ceremoniously memorialized by his surviving friends after his body was briefly used for a prank involving a pencil sharpener. On a traditional Roman pyre, made of computer paper, pencil shavings, index cards, and a staple box, Danny Hughes Jr. was burned.

Since then, all but two of the original 20 fish brought to the Writing Center for an April Fool’s Day prank have passed, but none were as influential as Danny Hughes Jr. Danny Hughes Jr. is survived by his father, Danny Hughes Sr., his friends at the Writing Center, and the two remaining goldfish, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. All who wish to pay their respects may do so any time at the McDaniel College Writing Center in Hill Hall.