not quite as dumb as you think...

A picture worth a thousand e-mails
Heard the Aggie joke about preparing for a hurricane? The world has.

By LAURA HENSLEY
Eagle Staff Writer

A new Aggie joke was born out of last week's Hurricane Rita preparation craze.

"How do Aggies board up their windows for a hurricane?"

You can ask the folks at Loupot's Bookstore on University Drive for the punch line. They decided last Sept. 23 to attach plywood on the inside of the shop's windows instead of the outside.

Since then, a photo of the peculiar method has made the rounds on the Internet, gaining widespread attention, a little good-natured teasing and a lot of eye-rolling.

So why exactly did they do it?

Suanne Pledger, projects director for the famed bookstore, has been answering that question a lot lately.

She even has a stock answer saved on her computer that she can easily cut, paste and send to the dozens of people from around the world who have e-mailed the shop.

The long answer: The shop's windows will not support the weight of plywood screwed into the frames. Neither is there sufficient masonry wall surrounding them for an attachment.

Therefore, the shop's contractor and all-around handy man (who also happens to be an Aggie) suggested mounting the boards inside. Doing so might sacrifice the easily replaced glass to the storm but could save the store from a major cleanup, the thinking went.

The bookstore, across from the Texas A&M University campus, was the only one of Loupot's three local locations that was boarded up for the storm. That's because, Pledger said, it is the only one that faces south - from where the storm was coming.

As employees were deciding last week how to prepare for the possibility of high winds, it didn't cross their minds that what they were doing would seem odd to some people, Pledger said.