“What I really want to know,” I say, “is what was your answer?”
“Tom,” he says much quicker than anticipated, his voice full of conviction. “There’s no way Timothee wins that.”
I waver. There is only one Tom, and so many Timothees to take into account.
“But there’s a whole bunch of them…” I say with hesitancy.
He shakes his head and says, “Yeah but have you seen that soccer match where one team of soccer players beat five hundred children at the game?”
I say no.
He sits forward and says, “They’re all children who play rec league soccer, so they know what they’re doing with their feet, but this one team beat five hundred of them. You always pick the one horse sized over the chicken sized. That’s my theory.”
Daniel Howe, Union’s very own “Cobo Question Guy,” sits across from me in the dining hall. Howe is a senior graphic design major who dedicates time every week to creating intriguing questions to ask on a poster board outside the Brewer Dining Hall. The questions are never boring, and often quite unusual. Howe prides himself on this fact.
When asked about the origin of these questions, Howe says, “Either, I try super hard to think of a good question, and I think of a completely stupid question that would be funnier. Or, I take a classic debate and put a spin on it.”
“The original board was when my friends and I were having a debate: is pimento cheese a base cheese?” He says. “I thought it would be funny to get public opinion, but I didn’t know how to do it. Then, I was asking around and I found out that you don’t have to be a part of an organization to get those tables out there.”
The tables he refers to are used to promote events and activities that happen on and around campus. They are lined up outside the dining hall and are an easy way to grab the attention of the student body. The tables are usually used by various organizations at Union; however, Howe has different plans in store.
He grins. “You can just be a guy and get a table. So I was just a guy and got a table,” Howe says.
After the success of settling a debate among friends, Howe decides to continue this tradition of one question a week. Including inquiries such as “One Horse Sized Tom Holland vs. 100 Chicken Sized Timothee Chalamets” and “Would Apples Or Oranges Be Better At A Party,” the table soon becomes quite popular.
“I hear that people talk about it in class or in passing to each other and bring people to the board,” Howe says. “One of the coolest things that’s happened is seeing people as I’m exiting Cobo who go ‘hey I voted on this, you’ve gotta come vote.’ I appreciate that.”
Sophomore communications studies major Danielle Harrington says, “I really like it. I think it spices things up a little bit and it allows for good conversation. I think it allows for healthy and beneficial conversation with people you wouldn’t typically talk to.”
Naturally, the boards are made to grab attention from students. However, they also catch the eye of many professors and even Union’s President Samuel W. “Dub” Oliver.
When asked how his board has been received by non-students, Howe says, “Faculty have started to come around. Dr. Garrett likes them. He helped me on the ‘How Hot is Ryan Reynolds’ board. Someone had written a 10 with a ton of zeros and he helped me figure the scientific notation of one times ten to the power of what I think was 48 — just so I could categorize it better.”
“Dr. Dub votes on them when he’s around. If I see him, I’ll say ‘hey have you seen the question this week?’ And he’ll go vote,” Howe says.
It is easy to see how the idea has kept momentum, providing entertainment to people passing by. However, there seems to be so much time and thought put into each and every board. The biggest question is “what is the motivation?”
When asked, Howe nods and says, “Well, it’s funny. It wouldn’t be funny if it didn’t look good. And I wouldn’t be okay with it if it didn’t look good.”
He continues to say, “The Post-it notes make this fun and inviting board where at the end of the week, you’re like, ‘I want to see what this is.’ There’s so many colors there.”
“The sharpies are important because anything smaller and anything less powerful of ink … you’re not going to have the right contrast and the right thickness,” he says. “A lot of notes wouldn’t be legible.”
Howe has a very educated way of viewing this activity born from good-natured fun. Instead of doing things haphazardly, he has utilized this opportunity as practice for his major. With an eye for design, he is able to create an inviting place for students at Union to share their opinions without fear.
Sophomore history major Sam Poore agrees, saying, “I think there’s benefit to anonymous voting because people are more willing to freely share their thoughts. I like that people write random things to where it’s not a straightforward answer and that people are sharing their thoughts in unique ways on the sticky notes.”
As he is a senior, the question arises of whether he will be choosing a successor to take his role as the “The Cobo Question Guy.” After thinking for a moment, he gives an answer.
“I would have to know the successor is going to ask the same type of questions and put the same amount of care into the board,” he says. “I don’t forget weeks, and I put a lot of care into the board. I would have to make sure a successor would do that. That’s really important.”
His care toward what he has built is admirable. He is making sure the future of the question table is bright. Even though his time at Union is coming to a close, Howe does include a sneak peek of information for the student population.
“I plan to have a big finish with the board,” he says, “but I’m keeping that on the down-low.”
Ideas are brewing, but Howe’s schemes will stay under wraps for the time being. I suppose fans of his questions will just have to wait and see.
What a fun article to read! Great interview write up.