[1103] in Humor
Cakes & Ale
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (stratton@MIT.EDU)
Thu Sep 28 01:18:01 1995
From: stratton@MIT.EDU
To: humor@MIT.EDU
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 01:14:43 EDT
I forwarded the message about Cakes & Ale to my sister at Swarthmore,
and thought I'd pass along her reply back to the list:
(first the orginal message)
> The story goes that one day during an examination at Cambridge University,
> a bright young student popped up and asked the proctor to bring him Cakes
> and Ale. The following dialog ensued:
>
> Proctor: I beg your pardon?
> Student: Sir, I request that you bring me Cakes and Ale.
> Proctor: Sorry, no.
> Student: Sir, I really must insist. I request and require that you bring
> me Cakes and Ale.
>
> At this point, the student produced a copy of the four hundred year old
> Laws of Cambridge, written in Latin and still nominally in effect, and
> pointed to the section which read (rough translation from the Latin):
>
> "Gentlemen sitting examinations may request and require Cakes and Ale".
>
> Pepsi and hamburgers were judged the modern equivalent, and the student sat
> there, writing his examination and happily slurping away.
>
> Three weeks later though, the student was fined five pounds for not wearing
> a sword to the examination.
: My friend from England said that this actually happened at Oxford and he
: was supposed to get bitter (ale) but it was considered null and void
: because he wasn't wearing his sword to the examination. It really did
: happen though. He also said that you still have to wear medieval robes to
: exams. Until about 40 years ago, students and faculty had to wear robes
: around campus all the time or get fined.
Chris
stratton@mit.edu
