The original Miss Sweetie Poo is entering college this week.
Miss Sweetie Poo is a role — a vital role — at the annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. Miss Sweetie Poo is a very cute eight-year-old girl. She sits on stage the entire time. Whenever Miss Sweetie Poo feels that a speaker has talked long enough, she goes up to that person and says, “Please stop. I’m bored. Please stop. I’m bored. Please stop. I’m bored. Please stop. I’m bored.” She continues doing this until the speaker stops speaking. Thanks to Miss Sweetie Poo, the ceremony always proceeds briskly.
Because of that age requirement, we need a new Miss Sweetie Poo every year or so. Natasha Rosenberg, who pioneered the role (and who in subsequent years has performed other roles at the ceremony) is now 18, and is a college freshman. We all salute her, and miss her, and hope that some year she will come back and take yet another new role in the ceremony. On October 1, 2009, Natasha’s legacy will grow, as yet another new, eight-year-old omnipotent Miss Sweetie Poo will take the Ig Nobel stage at Sanders Theatre.
The photo below shows Natasha helping 2000 Ig Nobel medicine prize winner Pek Van Andel finish up his one-minute-long acceptance speech.
