DISPERSE, YE REBELS
It's not a last-week-of-the-semester without a riot. Last night, I was going to bed around 1:00 when I heard the bellowing robot voice of the school alarm system in the distance. I live about half a mile from the center of campus, and it carries well enough that I could just make out: "Crowd... disperse peacefully right now... not comply, police... respond... appropriate force." There were no other voices or rioting noises, so it was hard to form a mental image of what was going on. I'll be going in to school in a few minutes, though, so I'll see then. It's sure to be not as exciting as it sounded during the night; probably a gaggle of loud drunken seniors with a keg pushing each other into the campus pond.
(A gaggle of seniors? A herd or troop of seniors? An ambition of seniors? A binge of students.)
In other news, I'm going to an induction ceremony for Phi Alpha Theta, the history honors society, this afternoon. When I joined a couple of months ago, they sent me my first issue of Historian, their quarterly. It has a list of recent joiners at the back (my name will probably be in the next issue). I was highly delighted to see that the new members were listed, not as "New Members," not as "Inductees," but as... "Initiates." Yes. I am an initiate of Phi Alpha Theta. That is a combination of classy and conspiratorial which pushes all my buttons. If they don't give me a secret handshake and an initiation rite that involves obscure Old Testament references and Egyptian pseudo-history, I will be very put out.
(A gaggle of seniors? A herd or troop of seniors? An ambition of seniors? A binge of students.)
In other news, I'm going to an induction ceremony for Phi Alpha Theta, the history honors society, this afternoon. When I joined a couple of months ago, they sent me my first issue of Historian, their quarterly. It has a list of recent joiners at the back (my name will probably be in the next issue). I was highly delighted to see that the new members were listed, not as "New Members," not as "Inductees," but as... "Initiates." Yes. I am an initiate of Phi Alpha Theta. That is a combination of classy and conspiratorial which pushes all my buttons. If they don't give me a secret handshake and an initiation rite that involves obscure Old Testament references and Egyptian pseudo-history, I will be very put out.