The Blue Plague

Colleges & Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>alot of trash talking coming from the Harvard Crimson, not much response at all from the Yale side.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=515803%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=515803&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>It is a shame that in the United States of America today there still exists a segment of society that, due to historical inequalities, suffers from preventable disease. Many people are shocked to learn that there are still 128,260 people in the world today who are going or have gone to Yale. Although you may ask yourself, “Wait, I thought that was eradicated, like smallpox?” the sad truth is, no, the disease commonly known as “Yale” still haunts us today. In fact, it is estimated that next year 1,300 other people will contract Yale even though they could make lifestyle choices now to prevent this misadventure. </p>

<p>Why does Yale still endure after three centuries of attempts to rid humanity of this pestilence? The answer is undoubtedly linked to the fact that the primary “Yale colony” continues to spawn in New Haven. Every year many bright young adults who could better their life situation end up spiraling down into the gutters of society. Why does this tragedy occur? Perhaps some believe that since their parents and their parents’ parents suffered from Yale, they can’t hope to break the cycle. Some are probably scared that if they don’t go to Yale, they will end up at some wilderness academy in central New Jersey. Some undoubtedly never intended to go to Yale but during high school recklessly experimented with strong opiates. Some are the result of their communities’ failure not to teach the consequences of Yale from an early age. </p>

<p>For 122 years, Harvard has led the fight against Yale. By biannually hosting one of the largest conferences that matches “Yalies” with the brightest minds in the world, Harvard has shown its commitment to developing, once and for all, a cure for Yale. To foster a feeling that the world accepts Yalies despite their condition, Harvard always houses sufferers with successful Harvard undergraduates. There’s a game of American football to show that, although Yale has absolutely crippled any athletic promise they once had, Yalies can still enjoy having a bit of exercise. There is nothing as touching as seeing the blue crowd cheer after the Yale football team scores a touchdown; it’s almost like they don’t realize the Harvard team isn’t trying...</p>

2

<p>"Not much response at all from the Yale side"? What is that, a joke?</p>

<p><a href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=34360%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.yaledailynews.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=34360&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>This Yale Daily News article isn't trash talk- it's actual hate speech. It's not humorous. Here's an excerpt:</p>

<p>
[QUOTE]
I hate Harvard. I know you hear that a lot on this campus, but I really do. One of my happiest memories is of walking through Harvard Yard wearing my "EHGK POCR Harvard" shirt (the one where you fold along the dots; if you've never seen it, think about what happens when the top word goes over the bottom word). Bottom line, folks: Harvard sucks. We're smarter, we're more attractive, we actually have lives.

[/QUOTE]
</p>

<p>The Crimson articles you quote were tongue-in-cheek. Insulting, absolutely- but tongue-in-cheek. They were humorous. This article is just a little lame- it's a direct declaration of "I hate Harvard." It's someone who takes this WAYYY too seriously for his own good.</p>

<p>Other articles from the YDN (I included brief excerpts):</p>

<p><a href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=34347%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.yaledailynews.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=34347&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>
[QUOTE]
I'm not even sure Harvard has a band: They may just be too good for something so jovial and immature.</p>

<p>...</p>

<p>So, this year, U.S. News editor-in-chief, Mortimer B. Zuckerman (that kind of sounds like a Hahvahd name: "Yesss, Morrrtimer, please pass the fresh fruit preservatives, I think my toast is a little dry")...

[/QUOTE]
</p>

<p><a href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=34339%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.yaledailynews.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=34339&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>
[QUOTE]
I initially planned to lambaste Harvard and its asinine tailgate restrictions in this pre-Game column. What an opportunity to stick it to those miserable Cantabs!</p>

<p>...</p>

<p>[As one of the reasons to go to the Game]Revel in the fact that you did not go to Harvard. Look around at all the unhappy, plagiarizing Cantabs and be glad you are not one of them. You'll be so proud to be an Eli, you'll want to smack a kiss on Dean Brenzel's forehead for letting you in.

[/QUOTE]
</p>

<p><a href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=34250%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.yaledailynews.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=34250&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>
[QUOTE]
Harvard sucks and Princeton doesn't matter. From the earliest days of my Yale education I learned and internalized that little saying - just like thousands of Yalies before me and since. But this year, Harvard has truly outdone itself in the fine art of sucking.</p>

<p>...</p>

<p>Harvard sucks. Seriously, it really, really sucks. We arrived Friday night, got something to eat (drinking on an empty stomach is bad), and like good little underclassmen proceeded to look for "the parties." Unfortunately, all we could find were random room gatherings where people were drinking Smirnoffs and watching Joe Millionaire reruns. So we said "screw it," I called up my buddy JP who went to MIT and lived in a frat house in Boston, and we hung out there for the night. Oh yeah, they happened to be throwing a pretty big party, and so we managed to salvage Friday night (Read: we had more fun hanging with MIT kids than their Harvard counterparts - pretty ridiculous).

[/QUOTE]
</p>

<p>By the way, I'd like to interject- everyone in Boston knows that MIT throws some of the best parties, no one denies that (don't let their reputation scare you off- they work hard, they party hard.) Of course, I guess going to a college with almost no other colleges in a fifty mile radius must make it a foreign concept for Yalies to leave their campus at all- but that's probably a good thing, because they'd just get mugged. (Note: Don't take that seriously, it was just more trash-talking.)</p>

<p>My point is, Crimsonbulldog- EVERYONE TRASH-TALKS. And it's a good thing- it's healthy, it's fun, it's exciting (and the prank Yale pulled two years ago is nothing short of hilarious.) But then when people like you try and claim that Harvard's the only one doing this- all I can say is, "You can dish it out, but you can't take it."</p>

<p>What makes it even sadder is that you almost certainly read that first article I cited in the YDN- I mean, you read just about every Crimson article, you have to read at least a few from your own school's paper- but I guess you chose to ignore it because it didn't support your point. Let's try to keep this a fair and fun rivalry. Calling foul over trash-talking is just hypocritical.</p>

3

<p>First of all I didn't say it was a bad thing (I don't know where you dreamed that one up). In fact I am sure tomorrow there (better) be some sort of editorial about how harvard sucks in the ydn (I'm nervous that the apathy this year has pervaded even the editorial board). </p>

<p>Secondly, the articles you cited are nothing compared to the low brow stuff coming from the editorial board of the Crimson. Just look at the titles of the articles you cite from YDN, which are from individual columnists and are pretty mild (I'm sure you must be so offended at the vicious comment on the Harvard Band)</p>

<p>1.Falling to Harvard unacceptable for '06 football program
2.OK, so The Game might still matter
3.10 reasons why The Game is still worth it
4.It's Game time </p>

<p>Now, here's the real trash talk, from the EDITORIAL BOARD OF THE CRIMSON:
1. The Blue Plague (shown above, where Yale is a DISEASE)
2. Elis: Don't Be Losers, You'll get your chance on Saturday</p>

<p>The YDN articles are about GOING TO THE GAME and the worth of the GAME, insterpersed with some negatives about Harvard and personal opinion about the BAND. The first article you cite is really about how Sidelecki should lose his job. The Crimson articles are solely about how much YALE sucks. There is a major difference in the articles, both in content and in focus. </p>

<p>That said, I hope tomorrow the YDN editorial board will make something as low brow and crude as the Crimson has done twice this week. Maybe they can find some sort of passion amidst the columns warning against Yale's apathy. </p>

<p>Before you reply, please calm down reread what I wrote so that I don't have to respond again to misrepresentation.</p>

4

<p>
[QUOTE]
The Crimson articles are solely about how much YALE sucks."

[/QUOTE]
</p>

<p>as opposed to, I suppose,</p>

<p>"I hate Harvard. I know you hear that a lot on this campus, but I really do... Bottom line, folks: Harvard sucks."</p>

<p>If you'd actually read my post, you'd have seen that... along with</p>

<p>"But this year, Harvard has truly outdone itself in the fine art of sucking."</p>

<p>So don't start claiming the Harvard articles are "only about how Yale sucks." They're insulting, absolutely- but at least they have a sense of humor about it, unlike the incredibly unsubtle comment "I hate Harvard."</p>

<p>Oh, and by the way, the band joke wasn't against the band, it was suggesting that Harvard students were "too good" (i.e too snobbish) to have a band. If that wasn't clear to you, blame the writer from the Yale Daily News.</p>

5

<p>Also,</p>

<p>"The Blue Plague (shown above, where Yale is a DISEASE)"</p>

<p>Wow, do you have a sense of humor at all? IT'S. A. JOKE. They're taking language usually used to describe one thing and describing another. They're not actually suggesting that Yale students be eradicated.</p>

<p>And here's the thing- nowhere in the articles will you find the words "Yale sucks" or "I hate Yale." Why? Because the writers found a way to trash-talk without being that obvious. The Yale Daily News writers decided just to write "I hate Harvard" and "Harvard has truly outdone itself in the fine art of sucking."</p>

<p>Could there be an actual humor differential across the two schools? I guess that's a reason so many Harvard graduates ended up as Simpsons writers (like Conan O'Brien), while so many Yale graduates ended up as politicians (doing little more than mudslinging.)</p>

6

<p>whoa there "Admiral", chill out. I guess you missed last year's pep rally! either that or you're hypocritical Talk about scary and violent!!!</p>

<p><a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=510008%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=510008&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Whacking bulldog pinatas that spewed condoms reading “**** Yale” and shredding stuffed bulldogs, about 2,500 students gathered in the Yard last night to rally around the football team two days before The Game in the first pep rally in recent years. </p>

<h2>A sea of students wearing white “Yale Sucks” headbands cheered as the football team crowded on stage to receive the send-off, thanking the students for their support and assuring Harvard a victory..</h2>

<p>or how about this one:
<a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=510055%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=510055&lt;/a>
There are always those days when everything you do just goes wrong, and it seems that your mere touch turns things for the worse. And you think to yourself, “Does someone up there hate me?” or “Am I doomed to forever live a life of tragedy?” Fortunately for most of us, these days pass, and the feelings subside. For the life of a Yalie, however, things are a bit different. With an unprecedented fifth straight loss to Harvard in The Game this weekend, the powers that be are sending a crystal-clear message to the students in New Haven: “Yes, unequivocally, you suck.” </p>

<hr>

<p>it appears you are not a good historian "Admiral." Just chill out. I never said talking trash was bad, but you're now going on a mysterious rambling that only you think is true.</p>

7

<p>don't forget this gem as well yeoman,</p>

<p><a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=511868%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=511868&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Blue-and-White Lining</p>

<p>How Yale relieves the pain</p>

<p>With the soiling of Harvard’s name in the national media, the Bulldogs have been quick to pounce on their vulnerable rival. “Characteristically smarmy,” is how the Yale Daily News described The Harvard Crimson on Feb. 23 in its piece, “Cantabs can benefit from Yale’s Example.” </p>

<p>And while we are the first to acknowledge Harvard’s problems—our decrepit curriculum, our rogue faculty, and our paltry dining hall hours—even these seemingly weighty faults cannot remove Harvard from its 370-year-old position atop academia. </p>

<p>Because, as always, Yale still sucks...</p>

8

<p>Drake is turning into the unfun-Czar</p>

<p><a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=515824%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=515824&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Tonight’s campus-wide Harvard-Yale pep rally in the Yard has officially been cancelled, according to Campus Life Fellow John T. Drake ’06. </p>

<p>“It’s real. We are cancelling the pep rally,” Drake said. “It looks like it’s going to rain through the duration of the event tonight, and it’s an outdoor event so it doesn’t make sense to ask students to stand out in the rain with electrical equipment.”</p>

9

<p>You know, I don't think anyone at The Crimson can pick out a single legitimate problem at Yale besides the classic "New Haven is a ****hole". Things at Yale go smoothly. People are happy, so we don't feel as much need to lash out.</p>

10

<p>The council of masters should have funded transportation. I wrote an email to Master Smith criticizing the decision. You should try to go anyway.</p>

11

<p>Pretty much everyone I know is going anyway except for the people that bought plane tickets for saturday. It's too late to decide now for people that haven't bought tickets.</p>

12

<p>"Drake is turning into the unfun-Czar"</p>

<p>Right, because he does control the weather. Seriously- what would you expect him to do? If it's going to rain, why wouldn't he cancel it? Wouldn't it be a lot more "unfun" if he instead held a lame pep rally that no one went to because it was wet and miserable outside? (Incidentally, before you find a chance for a cheap shot- yes, Cambridge does have lousy weather, I'll freely admit it. Not much worse than in CT, but probably some.)</p>

<p>(By the way, I missed last year's pep rally because I'm just a freshman).</p>

<p>More important point- both sides talk trash, we both admitted it, arguing which side does it better is just stupid (though even you admit that Yale hasn't brought out its A game yet this year), so what are we arguing about again?</p>

13

<p>man you are competetive and dreary</p>

14

<p>I'm the one who said we didn't have anything to argue over.</p>

15

<p>I also don't spend all my time trolling on college boards posting negative news stories...</p>

16

<p>Here is the YDN's trash talk reply, I guess if you can call it that. Its more like "**** off, we don't care anymore." When I spoke of trash talking, I meant this sort of article, not the interjected I hate yale/harvard statement in the sports section. Its an actual dedicated article.</p>

<p><a href="http://yaledailynews.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=34408%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://yaledailynews.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=34408&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Sorry, Harvard: It's just not working out</p>

<p>Listen, Harvard, we need to talk. </p>

<p>It's not working between us, and something here just needs to change. It's not you, it's - well, no, actually it is you. 122 years was a pretty good run, but you've changed, Harvard, you've changed since we first met. </p>

<p>Not that you were ever "fun," per se, but you weren't always as tragically self-important as you've become. Remember back when you asked us whether you should all have gone to Yale? Of course you should have, and it's time to stop lying to yourself about it. Your protestations of superiority were cute, for a bit, but also pretty pathetic. We've been telling you all month we weren't planning to return your calls, let alone buy a $60 ticket to visit you in your puritanical Boston police state. Save your dignity, and take our hint. </p>

<p>When we heard that your pep rally scheduled for Thursday was rained out, we were almost moved to pity. First, your poor HoCos couldn't throw parties on Thursdays because there weren't enough police available - we're sorry, but are you in college, or out on parole? And then, the pep rally, your plan B, failed too. Angels must have been moved to tears at the sight of your premature self-congratulations. </p>

<p>Make no mistake, Harvard: We will prevail tomorrow and sow salt in the ruins. In football, as in life, we will show that we are the better party, not to mention the better partiers. </p>

<p>We're don't mean to be doing this at such a rough time for you - your misogynist president forced out, your peers as ethical as Jayson Blair - but this situation has become untenable for us. If we've told you once, we've told you a million times: You can't treat us with such disrespect and expect us to stick around. It's not that we can't afford your drinks (besides, honestly, we're smart enough to sneak in a flask, or three), it's that we have better things to do with our hard-earned money. As for your promise of free parties? Desperation is never attractive. Frankly, at this point, you need us way more than we need you. Denial is the first stage of grief, but move on already. You screwed up, and now you've got to deal with the consequences...</p>

17

<p>You should have exercised your selective quotation powers and omitted the boring parts of this one too. But then I guess you wouldn't have had anything left to post. ;)</p>

18

<p>The important thing is- Yale just DESTROYED Harvard in The Game, so all this is a moot point.</p>

<p>Really- we were decimated. No excuses.</p>

<p>Ah, well, look on the bright side- we don't have to go back to New Haven. :)</p>

19

<p>So Harvard won't play Yale next year? Has Harvard canceled next year's Game already?</p>

20

<p>What? Oh, no, that's not what I meant! Harvard is playing Yale in New Haven next year, they're not going to cancel it.</p>

<p>What I said was a joke Harvard students have when they lose to Yale: "We may have lost, but you guys have to go back to New Haven." It's a joke about Yale's city.</p>