<p>I always enjoy the show “Moving Up” which features mostly NJ people who buy new homes and then remake them in their own image. The old owner is brought back to comment on the changes without the new owner around and typically slams the changes. The new owner then proceeds to generally call the old owner all sorts of non-family friendly names with the woman of the house doing most of the talking. I could not imagine that show being as funny and raw if done in Seattle or even Atlanta.</p>
<p>Never saw “Moving Up.” Are you implying that people from the south or west are never rude or crude? Only NJ people are? (Well, we do have quite a cast of characters around these parts, I must admit.)</p>
<p>I hope nobody reading my slower pace of the south comment took that as a disparaging remark. I think there would be plenty to be gained by slowing things down around here a tad.</p>
<p>The North and the South both have their positives and negatives. There are rude people both places and there are extremely nice people both places. There is no denying things move slower down South, sometimes thats a good thing and sometimes its not.</p>
<p>Dima, I like the fact that you’re a super liberal and are comfortable in W and L’s environment. It sounds tolerant to me. Can you imagine being a conservative and surviving at a place like Wesleyan (Ct.) or Harvard? No fun, I bet.</p>
<p>“im not sure of your connection to the school, but muct have an awfully close one to know about the controversy of the trident’s resemblance to a swastika. thank you for acknowledging how utterly ridiculous that is.”</p>
<p>I’m trying to get caught up on the recent posts on this thread but had to stop and comment after reading the quote above. We’re not closely connected to W&L so we were unaware of the controversy, but when my S brought home a water bottle from the college after his visit, my first thought about the trident as drawn on the bottle was that it looked like a swastika. Not every trident would bear a close resemblance to the Nazi symbol, but I’m afraid theirs does. Should W&L change it? Probably not, but even if people’s impressions about things like the Confderate flag and the trident are mistaken or completely ridiculous, unfortunately those impressions can still impact the school’s image and reputation.</p>
<p>Dima- I am with you. There are rude people here in N.J., and rude people in the southern states. I also know there are nice, honest people in N.J. (I am here :)) We go to N.C. quite often, and the only trait I so not notice as much as in N.J. is the super fierce competitivness, such as over a parking spot, or when walking to a line. Just last week, in the A&P parking lot, I saw an elderly man in one of those motorized scooters here in N.J. use $#@%% words and give someone the finger! I guess life is funnier than fiction sometimes…</p>
<p>Both my wife and I are NJ proud, but there is just some extra edge to the people there–maybe all the Northeast–compared to the rest of the country–and I have lived in all of it.</p>
<p>barrons, its all the stress people have up north (I feel so much more relaxed down here, where there isnt that crazy spirit of competition)</p>
<p>I never thought the Trident looked like a swastika until the jersey company printed our hockey jerseys with it turned sideways . . . I was pretty horrified.</p>
<p>DD had originally looked at W&L, but thought it might be a real reach, and I personally sort of discouraged it because of the great amount of Greek involvement.</p>
<p>I’ve come to learn from my friends who went to school in the Southern states that the Frat/Sorority scene is much more traditional and not necessarily as negative as I’ve made it out to be in my mind/experience as a UC graduate. Personally, I thought the entire Greek scene at my alma mater was absurd, and it has made me admittedly prejudiced about recommending schools to DD where there a heavily-Greek scene.</p>
<p>That being said, from my preliminary research on W&L, it seems like an outstanding school, but not necessarily a good fit for my D.</p>
<p>If I’m not mistaken, the trident was designed over 75 years ago, before the Nazi party co-opted it. Brief history lesson: the swastika is actually an Indian sign of peace; the “arms” go in the opposite direction. Even if the original Trident resembled a swastika, who would have cared? It would be like something resembling the circle with the three lines in it that we use for peace.</p>
<p>Which reminds me: Do you guys know anyone who was turned off from the University just because Lee is in the name? Because I have to be honest, sometimes I think it hurts recruitment (especially minority recruitment)</p>
<p>Okay, here are the 3 images. The W&L trident only has one arm sweeping to the right and two to the left. The two that face the same (wrong) direction are not 90 degrees apart as is a swastika.</p>
<p>The NY Yankees logo and the W&L Trident are both designs comprised of 2 letters on top of eachother, the “N and Y” or “W and L”. They both have bent arms rather than the straight lines of a swastika.</p>
<p>You people are really reading too much into an logo.</p>
<hr>
<p>And back to how General Lee is recognized by the US Army:</p>
<p>We of course have a Fort Lee in Virginia. This is still an active military base.</p>
<p>At West Point itself, there is the Lee Housing area where all the Lieutenant Colonels live and there is Lee Barracks for the cadets. I don’t know anyone who was turned off by the name of the housing area. Nor do our southern cadets whine about living in Grant Barracks.</p>
<p>I got a facebook message from a Red Sox 2010er letting me know the front license plate on her car is a Red Sox one . . . talk about random.</p>
<p>Us Yankee fans are definitely a minority here - hating the Yankees is the “cool thing to do” now, theyre the new bandwagon team. Which makes it just about a clean sweep . . . I am definitely a minority here.</p>
<p>Motherdear:
I belonged to an organization which hired a graphic designer to create a new logo for them. When it was introduced, loads of people complained that it looked just like the logo of a certain car company. The president actually had to show the members a Powerpoint slide or two to prove that the symbols were distinct. Side by side, when you compared them, the two logos really didn’t resemble each other much at all, but that didn’t change the fact that many people perceived them to be quite similar. This is a similar case.</p>
Erin’smom, I think greek life is absurd. Not just heavy alcohol and animal house antics, but this “traditional” description from Dima: </p>
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<p>The entire system is incredibly unappealing. It fosters every insecurity kids have, making them think they must have official stamps of approval from socially connected people who approve of one’s image. I want my kids to grow while in college, and keep an open mind about everyone they meet. The greek life puts people in carefully labeled boxes and hinders any natural inclination one has to meet people who aren’t just like you. YUK!</p>
<p>The Yankees have been around longer than the Nazi movement. Did Hitler steal their logo?</p>
<p>The trident DOES resemble the swastica. I’m sure that wasn’t the designer’s intention. Is this a newly designed version of an old logo? If so, it would be wise to scrap it and start again. If it’s a long standing logo, that’s a tougher call.</p>
<p>My son is always drawing military aircraft. Big battle scenes with enemy aircraft plunging from the sky. Years ago I asked him to stop drawing the Nazi symbol because as he doodled in the waiting room or wherever, it seemed to jump off the page and grab negative attention, despite his innocent intentions. It causes such a painful & visceral reaction that I wasn’t comfortable with a passerby understanding it was just a little boy’s military drawing.</p>