Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2001 06:17:33 -0400 (EDT)
From: L Silberstein, A 83
Reply-To: johnny at charm.net
To: johnny at charm.net
Subject: A Story!




Mr Thomas confesses -

> I was doubly closeted at the time:  unwilling to admit to myself, much less
> to others, that I was a fag.

... and this set me to musing.  A short while back Mr Meeder saw Mr Brokaw
and me - with whatever validity Mr Meeder's vision might have - as using
terms which might possibly be capable of being interpreted as labelling
folks as ''sissies' or 'fags'' (internal quotations original).  Mr Thomas'
tossing off of this colloquialism for male homosexual above, in addition
to this, now reminds me of... A Story!

During my febbie summer in Annapolis another student (who may see
fit to volunteer identity but I'll err on the side of caution and
not) and I began putting out an alternative to the various
authorised College newspapers... for reasons I'll not go into here
we called this underground rag The Calypsan.  During my Junior Year Abroad
in Santa Fe ('Cheaper than the Sorbonne and Almost As Foreign!') we
dragged the tradition along with us and put out a Western Edition;
despite our class-status it was filled with our usual sophomoric barbs and
in-jokes.

One of the works it contained was our attempt at a St John's College
Fight-Song entitled (and bearing the refrain-line of) 'Everyone Who
Doesn't Go To St John's College is a Faggot'.  The msuic, we stated, had
been Lost to the Ages but was rumored to have been some manner of
Lochrian Polka; it contained such deathless verses as:

Kick 'em in the elbows,
Kick 'em in the knees,
Kill 'em while you quote from
Aristophanes!
Oooohhhhhhh.... everyone who doesn't go to St John's College is a faggot!

After this issue (sorry, I *cannot* resist)... 'came out' several
students - Very Sensitive Students who were Very Sensitive to the Feelings
of Others - approached the co-editor (most folks, for some odd reason,
considered me to be unapproachable) and suggested that this was, well...
Insensitive and possible Quite Hurtful to the homosexual students on
campus... none of these Very Sensitive Students, of course, was gay.

We were also told that Mr Venable, scarcely able to control his laughter,
gave his Freshman Music Class the homework assignment of writing a melody
for the Song... draw your own conclusions.

L Silberstein, A 83