5 Fun Facts about Ithaca:
• Ithaca offers more restaurants per capita than New York City.
• An alternative currency called Ithaca Hours was founded in 1991 by Paul Glover. Ithaca Hours are honored locally by more than 400 businesses.
• The downtown Ithaca Commons was named one of the New York's top design projects of the century by the state chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
• Cayuga Lake splits the upper half of Tompkins County in two. The lake stretches about 40 miles northward from Ithaca, is the longest of the Finger Lakes, and is one of the deepest lakes in the eastern United States at 435 feet.
• Newfield Covered Bridge was erected in 1853 to protect those crossing the Cayuga Inlet Creek in Newfield. It is still standing and is the only covered bridge in the Finger Lakes District.
Famous People from Ithaca:
Gillian Anderson
John Lithgow
Gavin MacLeod
Christopher Reeve
Carl Sagan
Rod Serling
David Foster Wallace
Paul Wolfowitz
Local Slang:
Beast – Refers to the beer Milwaukee’s Best, which you’ll find in kegs at most fraternity parties.
Full Suicide – The Full Sui, found only at Hot Truck, comes on a half loaf of garlic bread. It is built by layering tomato sauce, mushrooms, sausage, pepperoni, and mozzarella cheese. Finally, it is baked to perfection. What a sandwich!
IC – Ithaca College, sometimes called IK.
Ithacating – The perpetual mist, similar to a light drizzle, which is unique to Ithaca
Libe Slope - The hill that leads from west campus to the libraries and the quad of the College of Arts and Sciences is fondly called Libe Slope. The length of Libe Slope at the longest section is 480 feet, and the steepest angle is approximately 18.8 percent.
Nasties: Name given to Bear Necessities, a convenience store/dining hot spot located in Robert Purcell Community Center on North Campus.
Prelims: Short for “preliminaries.” Some classes, rather than having a midterm and a final, will have 1-3 prelims spaced throughout the semester, as well as a final.
There are large, beautiful gorges all over Ithaca, including on Cornell’s campus. Almost everyone seems to own a shirt that says, “Ithaca is Gorges,” or some variation there of.
The Ithaca Friends of the Library used book sale is the third largest in the country. On the last day of the sale, you can buy a bag of books for $1! The fall sale is for two weeksin October.