[1155] in Humor
HUMOR FOLLOWUP: Cakes & Ale - Will it ever end?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Andrew A. Bennett)
Wed Oct 25 09:48:08 1995
To: humor@MIT.EDU
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 1995 09:42:23 EDT
From: "Andrew A. Bennett" <abennett@MIT.EDU>
Basically, we'll never really know to everyone's satisfaction, so
we'll end it with this...
-Drew
From: Jonathan Litt <littlitt@MIT.EDU>
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 1995 09:26:05 EDT
From: Larry Stone <lcs@harlequin.com>
Subject: Re: FW: Lex Cantabrigiensis...
I thought this story had a whiff of Urban Legend about it so I forwarded
it to an internal humour list. Sure enough, one of the Cambridge graduates
at our Cambridge, UK office debunks it:
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 95 10:21:02 GMT
From: Mark Wainwright <markw>
Subject: Re: FW: Lex Cantabrigiensis...
> It seems that during an examination
> one day a bright young student popped
> up and asked the proctor to bring him
> Cakes and Ale.
This story is at least as old as you might imagine. There are variants
from other ancient universities, though I have always had a preference
for the ring of the Cakes and Ale version (as opposed to, say, the glass
of port wine, or similar), which I've only heard attached to Cambridge.
The sword is sometimes replaced by ceremonial buckles, another enjoyable
touch.
One of the most unimaginative versions appears in the a.f.u. FAQ (or one
of the associated resources). It is set in an American university, with
the regulations in question (including the one about the sword) asserted
to date from 1873. Whoever wrote that had no sense of history; it would
be about as likely to date from 1973. But then these Americans will
spoil things. I didn't like the insertion about hamburgers and pepsi.
Incidentally, it wouldn't be the (non-existent) Laws of Cambridge, but
the Statutes and Ordinances of the University of Cambridge. They are
certainly still in effect, and still continually revised and amended;
it's entirely probable that there are some very ancient ones still on
the statute books.
Mark
L'amant, trahi par ce qu'il aime, | markw@harlequin.co.uk
Veut-il guerir presque en un jour? |
Qu'il aime ailleurs; l'amour lui-meme | http://www.cl.cam.
Est le remede de l'amour. --Marivaux | ac.uk/users/maw13/
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