Crowd Awed by Slack Liner Dangling Inches From Ground

By James Ekstrom

May 27, 2013

Last Wednesday began like any other spring day on the Quads. Frisbees were being thrown, classes were being conducted in the grass, and the sun’s rays were searing their way into the pasty skin of winter-worn Chicagoans. At about 1 p.m., everything changed. Daniel Wader, third-year, somehow managed to affix a line between the bases of two trees, which stood 15 feet apart, without any passers-by or University authorities taking notice. With little regard for the fact that at any moment he could lose his balance on the line, crashing down to the soft earth dozens of millimeters below, Wader mounted the line and began to traverse it. As if to taunt the planet itself, the line had been made slack enough that Wader actually drifted even closer to the Earth’s potentially bruising embrace as he stepped.

Within seconds of his bruise-defying quest’s beginning, a crowd of dozens had encircled him. Some were graduate TA’s who shielded the eyes of their students, some were supporters who cheered him on loudly, but most were merely struck dumb by his calm in the face of potentially skin-breaking scratches. University of Chicago Police were quick to arrive on the scene – yet in spite of their recent title as the University’s RSO of the Year, they found themselves unable to decide how best to straddle the line between maintaining order on campus and ensuring the safety of the lone slack-liner. About 30 seconds and four feet into his act, Wader stumbled off the line, but stayed on his feet.