Tag Archive: Pundits

  1. Yalies join forces to prank Gaddis’ ‘Cold War’ lecture

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    This afternoon, students attending Professor John Gaddis’ “Cold War” lecture witnessed history come to life. Literally.

    Dressed in costumes ranging from President Ronald Reagan to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, the Yale Pundits, the Yale Precision Marching Band and the Yale Russian Chorus stormed Gaddis’ class this afternoon roughly 10 minutes into the Cold War historian’s lecture. After bursting onto the balcony and ground level of SSS 114, a Gorbachev impersonator delivered a grandiose speech in Russian while other students divided the room in half by stringing a curtain — representing the Berlin Wall — across the lecture hall.

    The Russian Chorus then entered the room on one side, while two students — one dressed as a U.S. Air Force pilot — yelled at each other from the other side of the room.

    “West Berlin is falling, we’re gonna need an air drop!” shouted the makeshift pilot as silver packets of Alpha Delta Pizza chips rained down from the balcony and onto the “free” side of the room.

    The chips had barely stopped falling when Alex Kramer ’13 called across the room to Gorbachev and began to deliver Reagan’s famous speech at Brandenburg Gate, in which Reagan famously asked Gorbachev to “tear down this wall!”

    “Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate!” Kramer called from the balcony, just as the Yale Precision Marching Band burst into the room blaring “The Star-Spangled Banner” and the Russian Chorus rushed down the wall.

    As the curtain came down, pranksters on both sides briefly hugged and celebrated their brief liberation, then fled the room almost as quickly as they had come.

    Gaddis, no doubt used to such disruptions — pranking his class has become an annual tradition — smiled as the dramatic scene unfolded.

    “It’s a good thing they didn’t get champagne on the computer, or there would’ve been no lecture,” he quipped.

    Correction: Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012

    An earlier version of this article mistakenly attributed part of the above events to the Yale Slavic Chorus. In fact, the pranksters were members of the Yale Russian Chorus.

  2. Fake email from Lorimer spams inboxes

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    Hurricane Sandy may have left Connecticut, but the updates haven’t stopped.

    A fake “University Update” from newest campus celebrity University Vice President Linda Lorimer hit inboxes Wednesday afternoon, giving students advice about clothing, note-taking skills and flashlight applications.

    The email — convincingly sent by “lindyloo@yale.edu” and “lindakochlorimer@yahoo.com” — uses capital letters and borrows the same urgent tone that Lorimer adopted when urging students to stay indoors during Hurricane Sandy.

    “For those of you returning to lecture classes, I encourage you all to take rigorous notes,” the e-mail read, under the subcategory “CLASSES.” “Anyone who finds themselves checking their email or Facebook more than is productive, I recommend that you switch to taking notes BY HAND to minimize distractions.”

    Solid advice that we all could use, but was it from Lorimer? The email further encouraged students to find the perfect outfit for today’s 56-degree weather. The supposed Lorimer even went so far as to tell students that if they were unsure about what they should wear, they could email her a description of their outfit for further feedback.

    Read Lindyloo’s full email below:

    CLASSES AND EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES RESUME TODAY.

    FOR THOSE NEEDING HELP: I am grateful to know that many of you will now be able to return to writing papers and reports. For those suffering particular difficulties with structuring elegant prose, PLEASE know that the Writing Center AND your College Writing Tutors offer peer and professional guidance, both under-utilized resources.

    CHILLY TEMPERATURES have returned as we get closer to winter. It is expected to be around 56 degrees today, so I advise you to wear a LIGHT sweater throughout the day. If you are wondering whether something you have picked out is right for today: please give me a description of your options and I will respond as soon as I can!

    CLASSES. For those of you returning to lecture classes, I encourage you all to take rigorous notes. Anyone who finds themselves checking their email or Facebook more than is productive, I recommend that you switch to taking notes BY HAND to minimize distractions.

    To those who added a flashlight app at my suggestion, it is now acceptable though not necessary to remove it. You may find it helpful when searching under your desk for a pen cap or when looking through your purse to find your keys.

    MY HEARTFELT THANKS FOR YOUR COOPERATION as we enjoy a normal Wednesday. Please continue to monitor http://emergency.yale.edu for more tips and advice.

    No word yet on whether this is Pundits.

    P.S. According to Lorimer, it is now acceptable to remove the flashlight app from your phone, but not necessary.

  3. Harden ’09, author of ‘Sex and God at Yale,’ strikes again

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    A few months after releasing his book “Sex and God at Yale,” Nathan Harden ’09 is back again — this time, with new evidence that Yale students are obsessed with sex.

    In a Friday article published with the National Review, Harden (again) criticized Yale’s sexual culture, calling the campus “a bizarre and sad sexual dystopia.” He points primarily to an alleged Saybrook Master’s Tea with “Wilma Dickfit” as another example that the campus has been spiraling toward moral degeneration.

    [ydn-legacy-photo-inline id=”440″ ]

    “The latest example of a Yale’s depravity is so graphic that I can’t even mention much of it on these family-friendly pages,” Harden writes in his National Review post, titled “Yale’s Latest Sexual Perversion.” “Crude, and woman-demeaning, [the flyer advertising the event] is comic material worthy of a 13-year-old’s intelligence and sophistication.”

    Harden caused a stir in August when the New York Times published a review of his book, “Sex and God at Yale: Porn, Political Correctness, and a Good Education Gone Bad,” in which he first accused Yale of sexual corruption.

    Besides bemoaning the crude Pundits (?) humor, Harden also pointed to the poster in response to critiques from a review by The New Republic’s Nora Caplan-Bricker ’12, a former University News editor for the News. Harden’s book and an article he penned in August on The Daily Beast website elicited responses from numerous Yale alumni, including former Women’s Forum board members Kathryn Olivarius ’11 and Claire Gordon ’10.

    Harden wrote on the National Review that he is not surprised his warnings have been “dismissed by the left-wing media establishment.”

    Despite Harden’s claim that “the fictitious flyer wouldn’t be so troubling if it weren’t so true to life,” Wilma Dickfit did not appear on campus on Thursday, casting a shadow over Harden’s fiery concerns over Yale’s sexual mores.

  4. ‘Wilma Dickfit’ to visit campus, allegedly

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    Yale is plastered — literally — with sex.

    The Pundits (?) have taken to the walls of Yale with massive displays of innuendo. On Wednesday afternoon, a poster for a Saybrook Master’s Tea with “Wilma Dickfit” (will it?) — alleged author of “Let’s Find Out The Hard Way” — appeared on entryways and bulletin boards across campus.

    [ydn-legacy-photo-inline id=”440″ ]

    For some, the general “that’s what she said” nature of the posters fits perfectly into the stress-laden midterm week, providing a welcome giggle in a time of academic turmoil and period to forget that grades exist. For certain Yalies, the overload of innuendo may be just the thing that brightens a gloomy, test-ridden day.

    But for others, the posters may not be such a laughing matter. In light of the recent scrutiny on the University’s sexual climate — the Department of Education just ended its Title IX investigation into Yale last summer — this poster may be yet another example of the campus’s troublingly light-hearted attitudes toward sex.

    Read the text of the full promotional poster below:

    Join Wilma Dickfit in discussing the release of her big new hardcover. Dickfit hopes her work will encourage independent thought and action; she hopes to inspire well-intentioned amateurism and creativity. Dickfit said it’s “totally cool” if you cannot attend, but please RSVP no.

    Refreshments will be covered by your tuition.

  5. Pundits crash CS Department meeting on espresso machine

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    Do espresso machines get tested on animals?

    Is it “espresso” or “expresso”?

    These questions and more were posed at a Wednesday afternoon Computer Science Department meeting that aimed to answer a simple question: what model of espresso machine should the Department buy for Arthur K. Watson Hall’s second floor kitchen, and what should be the rules governing its use?

    The meeting went a bit off course, though, when students began asking simple, seemingly irrelevant questions. Early Wednesday afternoon, students across campus received an email from one “Sue N. Tit, Ph.D.” — an anagram for “The Pundits.” The email told students to gather in the Prospect Street entrance to Becton Lab before walking over to the meeting at AKW.

    “No supplies needed, just a strong opinion,” the email read.

    Strong opinions, indeed, While a small group of computer science undergraduates, graduates students and faculty debated which espresso maker to purchase, several pundits voiced their concerns regarding the coffee machine.

    “I heard they test [espresso] machines with animals,” one guest said. “Aren’t there other machines?”

    One guest worried that the throwaway “K-cups” used in Keurig brand coffee machines are not environmentally friendly, while another was concerned that students from other departments would come to the building to use the expresso machine. A third student wondered whether the money could be used for something more important, like “better computers or stuff.”

    “What about a tea maker? Can we just make tea?” another asked. “I’m just confused… is it espresso or expresso?”

    Eventually, though, the jig was up: when one crasher was asked about her experience in the computer science department, she said that she was only a freshman, contradicting an earlier claim that she had taken introductory programming last semester. The small number of computer science students and faculty then gathered and continued the discussion.

    One guest insisted that she attended the meeting to help make the best decision.

    “We’re just trying to create an open forum of discussion,” she said.

    Samer Sabri ’13, a student on the department’s advisory committee who first proposed the idea, said after the meeting that plans to purchase an espresso machine will go forward.

  6. Mysterious email calls for another YCC runoff

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    An email to students Wednesday afternoon lampooned the recent confusion over the Yale College Council presidential race.

    “YCC Elections Committee” — email address yccelectionscommittee@yahoo.com — emailed students claiming that it had overlooked another clause in the YCC’s election rules. (Read more about the first overlooked clause here.) The clause, as it turns out, invalidates John Gonzalez’ ’14 victory in the presidential race and Aly Moore’s ’14 win in the race for UOFC chair.

    At issue, according to the email, was a little known part of the YCC Constitution: Article VII, Section 4, Clause J.

    “The YCC Constitution specifies that if a candidate has a given name of four or seventeen letters, or a name that ends in the letter Y, they are prohibited from running in the election, unless they win by a margin of EXACTLY 43.9975835562 percent,” said the email. “Trust us, this will make sense someday.”

    Neither Gonzalez nor Moore won by a margin of 43.9975835562 percent, but we’re pretty sure their victories stand. We missed hearing from you, Pundits. It’s been awhile.

  7. Pranksters advertise “D.K.E.” at extracurricular bazaar

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    Could this be the return of the Pundits?

    A lighthearted, joyful new student group calling itself “Doing Kindness Everywhere” — or D.K.E. — handed out flyers promoting their “not-fraternity” at today’s extracurricular bazaar. In the fliers, this “group of diverse Yale students” emphasized that it is not a fraternity, its understanding that “NO MEANS NO” and that women can legally drive in the state of Connecticut.

    Read the full text below:

    Doing Kindness Everywhere

    Hey! We’re a group of diverse Yale students who enjoy bringing light and joy to the world around us 🙂

    WE ARE NOT A FRATERNITY.

    Would you like to not join a fraternity?

    Then we are the not-fraternity for you.

    FACTS:

    -Did you know women can legally drive in the state of Connecticut?

    -Did you know NO MEANS NO?

    -Did you know that Delta Kappa Epsilson is not allowed to recruit at Yale for the next five years?

    If you like what you see, do not attempt to come and hang out at 79 Lake Place. Do not come there whenever you like.