You might think sweaters, fleeces, lanyards, messenger bags, sweatpants, Nalgenes, flip-flops, T-shirts and rugby shirts would be enough pride gear for any residential college. You might think Yalies would turn up their noses at blankets with sleeves. Apparently not: For the price of just $10, Branfordians can become the proud owners of — yes — Branford Snuggies.
“The Branford snuggies have arrived!” Branford Master Steven Smith wrote in an e-mail to Branford students this afternoon. “This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen, but people seem to like them.”
Ridiculous or not, the navy blue blankets seem to fit Smith himself pretty well — and there’s photographic evidence. Smith, along with his assistant Alicia Heaney and Andy Shumaker ’10, who originally lobbied the Branford College Council to order 40 of the Snuggies, modeled the cultural phenomenon in a photo Shumaker e-mailed to the entire college.