<p>^ written like a present or former CrimEd :-)</p>
<p>I wouldn’t call it even “semi-secret” seeing as that exact language is used on the Lampoon’s Wikipedia page…</p>
<p>ahaha!! ^nice!</p>
<p>@GlobalDolphin: It’s a (sort-of) inside-joke. There’s of course nothing remotely secretive about the Lampoon’s existence…though what goes on inside is anyone’s guess… ;)</p>
<p>Oh I know what’s bad about Harvard: after 4 years, many students still do’t know what the Lampoon exactly does…</p>
<p>[Crimson</a> President’s Chair on Jimmy Fallon! | Flyby | The Harvard Crimson](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/9/28/crimson-chair-fallon-nbc/]Crimson”>The Harvard Crimson)</p>
<p>They steal furniture from other campus organizations and engage in various forms of petty crimes. They also used to kidnap officers of other more reputable campus organizations. [John</a> H. Updike '54 | News | The Harvard Crimson](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2009/6/4/john-h-updike-54-two-time-pulitzer/]John”>John H. Updike '54 | News | The Harvard Crimson) The kidnappers then go on to win Pulitzer Prizes. I still can’t figure out why…</p>
<p>@WCU They got the chair back! Or you, not they? And 'poon had been planning to send it to Tunisia, too, so it’s good The Crimson managed it or else they would shortly have been very much out of luck.</p>
<p>@GD We are all aware of the so-called humor magazine that they (still) publish. They door-drop assiduously, and just there’s a lot of general word of mouth when they pull stunts like the above. Those of us who’ve attended the college are joking around about it.</p>
<p>Although I still don’t understand one thing about the Crimson’s form description. Why is it in the pluperfect tense about the magazine? They still publish the magazine, and I don’t get the joke in pretending they don’t.</p>
<p>@exultationsy: What about you? Are you ‘they’ or ‘us’? Or neither? Haha. I’m a former CrimEd, as EtonDad guessed. I’m slightly ashamed to say that I’m not quite sure how/when the Crimson’s description of the Lampoon acquired its current form; I’m guessing part of the joke is that it used to be funny, and what they currently publish, not so much. [There’s also the stereotype that poon members spend more time doing other stuff than actually planning or editing or writing their content. Just as there’s a stereotype that Advocate members spend all day smoking cigars and drinking bourbon neat and pretending it’s still 1930…or something like that. Ok, that’s not really accurate at all…but you get the picture.] </p>
<p>Of course 'poon alum (and Advocate and Crimson and so on) are extremely talented and go on to write great things for the Daily Show, and Colbert, the Simpsons, the other late night shows, or even their own ventures and routines. Frankly, the criticism that the work the Lampoon puts out is sometimes (often) perfunctory and/or bland and/or uninspired is also probably applicable to the pieces in other publications, the Crimson included. I reread a few of my pieces for the Crimson a few months ago when I was cleaning out my room and was in horror at how bad the writing was. Including stuff I was quite proud of at the time of writing/publishing. It’s very difficult to be self-aware when you’re 20-21.</p>
<p>I’m not on the Lampoon, no. The thing is, their magazine is not funny. But all of the supplemental materials they put out are always hilarious. Last spring, there was a fake Crimson; this year during shopping week, they made a fake guide to courses. I can’t find it, but I kept my copy for the better part of the semester because it was hilarious: the Ukrainian Literature course’s description was the professor pleading to be let out of the closet he’d trapped himself in two years ago, but nobody’d noticed since nobody entered that department. One of the Folk and Myth classes studying German fables was “limited to members of the men’s heavyweight sailing team.” Etc. I’m not doing it justice, but it was great. The magazine–not even worth opening. This dichotomy I do not comprehend.</p>
<p>WindCloud Ultra–the only thing to which I have always objected about the standard description is the split infinitive. :-)</p>
<p>My S, who is going to comp the Poon once he finishes 55, has been told that he is never to be seen actually touching, let alone reading The Crimson. At Yale, the News and The Record have a similar set of pranks which is more for the amusement of the seniors making the “heelers” (comp-ers) do stupid things than actually caring about “getting” the other publication.</p>
<p>Harvard and Exeter look the same, so if you have spent 4 years at Exeter, well…</p>
<p>Also, isn’t the food at Harvard supposed to be really bad?</p>
<p>^^ if you want to be freaked out as an Exonian, visit Williams…whoa…those two campuses are freakily similar (and size wise too…)</p>
<p>@GD The food at Harvard is pretty ok in the freshman dining hall, really bad in a couple of the (often the prettiest) Houses, and ranges between pretty good to actually quite good in the other Houses.</p>
<p>Like any institutional food it can be a bit “bland” in order to account for different tastes and because of the cost factor. Yale’s food is generally better but not markedly so. What is wonderful is that the food service is very responsive to student suggestions an complaints. They will respond in writing within 2 or 3 days and often change things on the basis of this student input.</p>
<p>They recently started serving “breakfast for lunch” on Saturdays, too. Some people had asked them to change it, and now I can get pancakes as well as noodles on Saturdays as well as Sundays! (I don’t know why it took us this long to think of asking them to do it, especially since I had actually wished for that to be the case all last year.) OLAG. Pancakes.</p>
<p>My good-will is easily bought.</p>
<p>As long as the discussion has turned to food, check out today’s Crimson Headline: [Mealworm</a> Found in Winthrop House Dining Hall | Flyby | The Harvard Crimson](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/series/spotted/article/2011/12/19/mealworm-winthrop-dining-HUDS/]Mealworm”>http://www.thecrimson.com/series/spotted/article/2011/12/19/mealworm-winthrop-dining-HUDS/)</p>
<p>A big complaint I hear from my friends that went to Harvard is that while the social scene is good for the surrounding schools, it pails in comparison to schools that everyone else from my high school went to. University of Wisconsin, University of Illinois, IU, and Purdue bringing up the rear all have a much more active social scene than Harvard (from their accounts). Apparently people just don’t go “crazy” as much there.</p>
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<p>True. But on the positive side there is much less vomit on the sidewalks on Saturday mornings.</p>
<p>I mean, Harvard was never going to compare to Madison…Were you expecting it to? Harvard’s social scene–which you seem to be using just to mean “crazy” partying, but I really think should be expanded to the whole social scene, including some safe activities–is approximately the same as that you’d find at its peer, non-tech schools.</p>