@DwightE
Are the ECs more active than their websites/facebook pages would otherwise indicate? I really want to join the Harvard-Radcliffe Christian Fellowship group if I'm accepted, but it almost never updates, and seems quasi-inactive. Is this the exception, rather than the rule?
^Yeah don't go by the websites. Nobody reads most Harvard groups' websites so it's not surprising they don't update them frequently. The group you mentioned is pretty active though.
Some ECs are harder work than a course or your course load. For exam to be a member of the 'Poon or the Crimson you will work harder on your comp than your course work. In many senses this makes sense as you will learn as much --sometimes more--in your EC than the formal course work. I have always given the Yale Daily News credit for my writing ability--such as it is, rather than any course, and having taught at Harvard for a couple of decades now, I think that many undergraduates would credit their time on a publication, a team an orchestra or any number of other ECs as the most formative experience that they have had.
Also, you will learn more from your classmates than you will in your classes--even if it is in working through the assignments. My S who has done Math 55 said it was his hours and hours in the "War Room" rather than in the class itself that made him a mathematician.
Where do you think Conan learned the most. I would venture it was in some castle on Mount Auburn Street not in some English seminar.
@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...
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 H. Updike '54 | News | The Harvard Crimson The kidnappers then go on to win Pulitzer Prizes. I still can't figure out why...
@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.
@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.
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.
@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.]
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.
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.
WindCloud Ultra--the only thing to which I have always objected about the standard description is the split infinitive. :-)
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.
