Profile: Mutual Procrastination (Even FM has to procrastinate sometimes)

Name: Benjamin "Ben" Odell '98

Home: Grays West and Pacific Palisades, California

Concentration: When last we checked, the night before the study card deadline, he wasn't ready to say (probably English).

Specialty: Procrastination.

The strangest form of procrastination he's ever undertaken: Poster-gum penis sculpture.

How he began sculpting poster-gum phalluses: A friend has a cartoon he scribbles everywhere, sort of a graffiti tag; it's a penis with an arm saluting. He calls it Corporal Penis. One day we were on the T, and I had some poster gum. I made a little statue of Corporal Penis and struck it on the T, and it was pretty amusing. So, I had some [poster gum] at home, and I started making penises to decorate all of my posters.

What he's doing to procrastinate now: I'm swimming (though FM questions team sports as a valid form of procrastination) and doing a bit of photo on the side...I'm playing with little pieces of paper on my desk, rolling and unrolling them.

On procrastinating past deadlines: I turned in my last Expos paper with the rough draft for the paper before; this was two days after the final one was due.

Random indicative procrastination story: Last semester I had all of my classes on Tuesday and Thursday, and none of them had finals or mid-terms. (FM: We should have talked to this guy during shopping period--he's a natural!) I thought it would be awesome; I'd have four-day weekends to do whatever I like. But I usually just mad penises out of poster gum. Monday I'd have to do all of my reading for all of my classes, and it sucked.

On last-minute inspiration:There's nothing like the incredible terror in the pit of your stomach when you have two hours before your paper's due. You have the Cliffs Notes at your side and you're trying to find out what the question is. Nothing inspires you more. One the gun is at your head...(FM stops BO for fear of forced wackiness.)

The worst excuse he's ever used: "I'm working out a few kinks in the essay; could I just have a few more days to work on it?" This really means, "I still have to figure out what I'm supposed to write about."

Free associations (always the crux of a good profile!)

Deadline: [long pause]

Red City: Orange pen; what do you say?

Blue Period. Wait a minute...Extension: Mmm, 64 slices of American cheese, Mmmm.

Reading Period: All the work I didn't do during the semester.

TF Sucker!

Photo Booth: SPF 15 lip healer (FM: Ah, yes, the breakdown of free associations as an interview technique.)

His procrastination idol: Darth Vader. It took him a whole fucking movie to finally admit that Luke is his son. Actually, it was two movies...