Breakfast at William & Mary’s Sadler center was for me an affair of meat and potatoes; they were almost staples at home (I was raised on rice, not potatoes, but I like them nonetheless). One day, however, I tried the waffle machine on a whim. After finishing cooking the pastry, I plopped it on a plate and was about to slather it in syrup.
It was then and there I realized that the waffle irons that the cafeteria uses mold the waffle such that in the center of the waffle there is a great big “W&M” logo, much like you see on the College’s promotional material. The ampersand in particular is something that the College prizes; it just feels wrong to anyone who has lived here for long enough to write it without said ampersand.
I was somewhat taken aback. This is more than a little dystopian, Orwellian almost. What sort of soulless bureaucracy would go to the lengths to put its own logo on waffles? It is a permeation that defies most logic; it is a level of effort that I would not expect them to go to given the sheer mundanity of it.
But that is not the only vaguely totalitarian thing in the Sadler Cafeteria. On the coffee machines there is a screen, which defaults to playing footage of the homecoming parade down Richmond Road back in October. Green and gold are everywhere, as are the marchers encouraging devotion to the College, for all its three centuries.
Perhaps I am not the only one to think this but it strikes me as something almost out of North Korea; you almost expect to see missile launchers rolling down the street. Doing such things on public televisions is one thing. Doing such things on coffee machines is a totally different thing altogether. That is a telescreen straight out of 1984. The College’s intentions and sigils have gone all the way down to the food we eat.
By placing a “W&M” on a waffle, the folks in Sodexo and in Blow Hall have made very clear their meaning: that by eating “W&M” you become “W&M.” You become greater than yourself, part of a much greater whole. “W&M” is you, and you are “W&M.” The self is obliterated and subsumed into a greater whole. Self, waffle, College and “W&M” are now metaphorically one, the symbol and the signified being united into one pure green and gold being, all singing proud from hearts that love her, alma mater’s praise.
The waffle is not only a waffle; the waffle is a symbol of the unwavering College that does not waffle about, but rather stays as firm and powerful as the walls of the Wren Building have for centuries. Through its emblazoning on a waffle, “W&M” reminds us that it will last for centuries more.
