Fiddlee Fig origin found

Editor:

My, my, my. How time flies at this institution! Ben Rushlo ("What exactly is a 'Fiddlee Fig'?" Oct. 23) has no idea why the "Fiddlee Fig" is called the "Fiddlee Fig"? I suspect that the restaurant may be nearly as old as he is, judging from his identification as a computer science freshman.

I seem to recall that the Student Union remodeled a number of its food service facilities in the mid-1970s, and one of the results was the Fiddlee Fig, named for a certain variety of ficus that was prominent among the plants in the decor. The leaves of the fiddle-leaf fig have indentations on their edges not unlike the shape of a violin, hence the name. Since I rarely get to the main campus now, I don't know if these plants still exist inside the restaurant. I hope that Mr. Rushlo can rest easily, without his skin curling, now that the strange name of this restaurant has been explained.

On a related topic, there was an article on Oct. 11 ("Union Club: back in business") about the Union Club; this article said that the Union Club opened 18 years ago. That would make it 1977. I believe that the Union Club actually opened earlier than that; I recall it being open for business as early as 1971 or 1972, shortly after the last major remodeling and expansion of the Student Union.

David Wachter

Medicine Administration

Word Processing Operator, Senior

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