House List Roundup: Back to School Edition

This is usually quite a boring time for Houselists, when people are mostly asking for books or class suggestions, but we figured we could finds some diamonds among the rubble:

Kirkland: More obscure heathen rituals from the people that brought you Incestfest:

Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:55:08 -0300
From: "Ken McKinley"
Subject: [Kirkland-list] Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Case Day 2008 is upon us!
To: kirkland-list@lists.hcs.harvard.edu, "Danielle Alexander"


The first Case Day was started by John Thornton Kirkland in 1811.
After assuming Harvard's Presidency, Kirkland declared the first
Friday of Spring Semester to be thereafter known as "Cask Day." The
records from this time-period are somewhat sketchy, but from archival
research and the examination of old correspondence it appears that
Kirkland wanted students to celebrate the new semester and engage in
general revelry, although most scholars acknowledge there was
also an aspect of competition to the celebrations.

After Kirkland House was formed in 1933, Cask Day switched from a
Harvard-wide event to a uniquely Kirkland House tradition. In the late
1950s, after Casks faded from common use, the celebration was renamed
"Case Day."



Currier: Oh No! Anything but Positive Psych!:

“Dear Currier,
> >
> > One of my good friends is considering taking Positive Psychology this
> semester, and I am trying to save him from a harrowing fate. I know that
> there are plenty of people out there with strong opinions on this "class"
> (if you can even call it that), and many others made the same mistake I did
> a couple years ago. It's not every class where you get to have a yoga
> instructor who teaches that our psychology is based on our body type (and
> when you politely attempt to explain that this isn't psychology but instead
> ridiculous assertions made 100 years ago, you are told that you "obviously
> didn't bother to do the reading this week")!”

Winthrop: Jeffrey Kwong Keeps it Real with the Catholic Community:

Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:21:47 -0500
From: "Jeffrey Kwong"
Subject: [THROPTALK] for the catholics in the house...
To: Throptalk

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