westportcupids

Welcome to the Westport Cupids website.

This website is a follow-up to the 36-page booklet entitled The Woodstock Tales, which describes a bit of missing Reed College history from around 1960. The orignal Westport Cupids consisted of a bronze-colored metal statue of three cherubs, which became an ill-fated Reed trophy. All that is left of them is one arm, which is now glued into an urn being watched over by the new Westport Cupids, a statue that was presented to Westport Dorm at Renn Fayre in April of 2007, and which now resides on campus in the Hauser Library archives. The replacement is very different from the original, but it was the best substitute that we, the Westport Culprits, could find.

You haven't seen The Woodstock Tales but would like to? Check with the Alumni Office to see if they still have copies available. I suggest trying Laura Miller: millerl@reed.edu; 503-777-7215. Failing that, contact me at kpterra@gmail.com and I'll send you a copy if I still have some, or I can email you an electronic version. There are also copies available in the Hauser Library archives.

If you have the booklet but would like to see the CupidsNotes, which include an update and an explanation of all the literary and other obscure references in the booklet, click on CupidsNotes for a 10-page printable Word document. Even if you've read the notes, you might want to check the beginning to see if there have been any further developments.

This site contains some other material that wasn't in the booklet. If you liked the largely irrelevant excerpts from the magazine New Scientist that appeared at the end of The Woodstock Tales, listing readers' suggestions for text messages sent home by aliens checking out Earth, you'll love the readers' more recent offerings of science-oriented pick-up lines.

If you have any additional information about the original Cupids, or - dare we hope! - a photo of them, please contact us. We would also love to hear your theory as to what the arm in the urn is holding. The crowned heart of Jesus? A strawberry? Hand grenade? Or maybe the Little King of New Yorker fame, after he became colorized and got his own comic strip. We hope you'll sign the guest book below, whether you have any ideas about this or not.

Send me your email address if you want to be informed of any new developments, or check back with this website from time to time.

One development I am very sad to report is the death on September 11, 2009 of "Culprit" Marjorie Ireland, nee Roston, from the ovarian cancer she had been battling for years. It makes me very glad that she and Carol and I made the trip to Reed in 2007 to tell our story and present the new cupids.

Kelly Pomeroy, Nov. 2009