Letter to Harvard Coach

[jtwcornell91]

I assume that twice driving 1000+ miles each way to see Cornell play in holiday tournaments, and listening to nearly every game for two seasons when I was in Switzerland and they started at 1am local time exempts me from the ticket line requirement and qualifies me as an honorary Faithful despite my not having caught on to the joys of Cornell hockey until I was a couple of years out of college.  (Note to aspiring writers: avoid run-on sentences like the last one.  My excuse is that I'm a scientist.)

While I agree that even those of us not disgracing Lynah with assorted projectiles Friday (or Saturday) night are in no position to be sanctimonious, I think people are being a little hard on Mike.  While I was disgusted at the late-game fish, especially the ones thrown during play, and the completely pointless bottles, it was competing with other strong emotions, namely anger at Mazzoleni for acting like a loud-mouthed jerk and his players for taking out their frustration on the team that had just dominated them, and most of all joy at the Red's having crushed a bitter rival at a time when both teams were nationally ranked.  So I didn't focus on the behavior of some Cornell "fans" (which had become so ridiculous that I had by then dissociated it to some extent) until Mom mentioned it in an email the next day.

In the end, Mike's letter is ill-conceived for the following reason: Mazzoleni should be left to worry about his (and his team's) actions himself--he was penalized for his Gaudetesque stick-banging, and having to kill that 5-on-3 finished any chances the Crimson had of pulling off any heroics in the final minutes of the game--we Faithful have enough to concern ourselves with on our end.  Also, Maz didn't bang the stick in response to the fans; the only things thrown on the ice between the beginning of the second period and just before Harvard's last goal were the hats for Sam's non-hat-trick.

[Tom Hamill]

First thought...God, I sure hate these little icons :-D :-)) :-);-) :-P :-| :-/ :-( :`( :-O B-]

Second thought...my guess is that a clear majority want a Lynah that's free of profanity.  And certainly throwing things without gills onto the ice after the game starts is just sheer idiocy.   The best remedy is for the Faithful in the stands to let those miscreants know that they have gone too far.  Police ourselves.  Have the courage to tell the bottle thrower that what they did is just totally unacceptable.

Why try to change the behavior of the Harvard coach?  Let's concentrate on things we have some control over, like our own fan excesses.

[CowbellGuy]

I'm not sure who the "clear majority" is, Tom. We did that poll several months ago and it was the most one-sided result I've ever had. Around 100 said keep profanity, around 10 said ban it. I don't think many, if any students, want to get rid of it, and though the cross-section here is hardly indicative, it's also not just students, so I daresay the majority doesn't want to abolish profanity. But I agree about self-policing. And as for the icons, if you hate em, don't use em. Informally, you seem to be in the clear minority there.

[jeh25]

(Note: I tend to stand on the A-B aisle ten rows up)

At the beginning of the 2nd period, as people in B started throwing fish,  a very few fans, myself among them, yelled for people to stop. Whether or not this helped I don't know, but the fish did stop after the 3rd fish. Meanwhile, fish just kept flying onto the ice from D. At this point, I started screaming at them to stop.

What happened next was the interesting part: the guy in front of me turned around and started taking me to task, telling me to shut up.  Admittedly, the chance that the morons in D would hear me was slim to none, but still I hoped that enough people around me would join in and D would get the message.  I then asked him if he thought we should get a penalty at which point he responded with something to the respect of "Like we are gonna lose?" as if beating Harvard at home was a preordained event. When I pointed out that well actually had lost to Harvard on a fish PP in the past, he seemed unimpressed. He then turned around and went back to pawing at his jailbait girlfriend.

I think this is a case where having a divided student section is a big problem. Given that the self appointed hockey mavens that frequent this forum consider B to be the "true" student section and thus make great pains to watch games from B, section D ends up losing any potential leadership that would help to educate fans.

Given that by posting to the eLF, we are only preaching to the converted, I suggest that we take out a fullpage ad in the Sun laying down exactly what is kosher and sign it "The friends of eLynah."  I'd also like to take this chance to put some of the blame on Uncle Ezra. Rather than stating that, while not condoned by the university,  fish before the game are acceptable whereas anything else, at any other point,  is strictly verboten, Ezra suggested that a zero tolerance policy exists. Given the impunity with which fish are thrown before intros, this logically leads people to believe they can also ignore future warnings.

[Craine]

Dude,

What kind of poll you running where you get 100% saying keep profanity and 10% saying to ban it???

[Faithful \'01]

I don't think he said it was 100 percent, more like 100 people. Mike Craine wrote:

[CowbellGuy]

I thought maybe I'd round off to simple numbers for you since you can't seem to read, Mike. Yes, I was referring to votes, not percentage. See if you can wrap your brain around that one.

[Greg Berge]

Plenty of our cheers have low level profanity in them.  "Screw B.U." is profanity, unless you think it's some arcane reference to carpentry.  Anybody care to ban that?

I think we'd all agree that Carlin's 7 words you can't say on television (Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker and Tits, and evidently you *can* say them on eLF) shouldn't be encouraged.  Overuse of any term should be discouraged -- it overwhelms more creative cheers.

But "I'm for/against profanity" is a meaningless generalization.

[Craine]

Ouch... Now my brain hurts...

Maybe now I'll learn to read...

[Josh '99]

If anyone can find a way to use "piss" in a cheer, I think that'd be great.  :-D

[Al DeFlorio]

From Merriam-Webster (note 4a(2):

4 a (1) : to mistreat or exploit through extortion, trickery, or unfair
                     actions; especially : to deprive of or cheat out of something due or
                     expected (2) : to treat so as to bring about
                     injury or loss (as to a person's reputation)                      machinery to screw our political enemies -- J. W. Dean III> -- often
                     used as a generalized curse b : to extract by pressure or
                     threat
5 usually vulgar : to copulate with

[jtwcornell91]

The relevant definition of "profanity" is "profane language".  The relevant definition of "profane" is "serving to debase or defile what is holy".  "screw", "@!#$", "sucks", "@!#$" and "@!#$" are not profane words, merely vulgar.  Examples of profanity are "God damn you" and "go to hell".  The only profane Cornell cheer I can think of is at the end of "Don't send my boy to Harvard".

[Tom Hamill \'85]

Look, when I say profanity, I'm not referring to "you just suck" or "Screw BU."  But let's be creative enough to avoid cheers involving synonyms of "to copulate."  Let me go back to the tired old bromide to evaluate whether an action is offensive.  If the 2005 Hobey Baker winner is in section K with his parents, will what you say or what you do cause them to not want to come to Cornell?  If the answer is yes, please refrain, for the good of Cornell hockey.

Look, I am a libertarian at heart.  I don't want jackbooted ushers determining our fates. We've got to police ourselves or the CU police WILL step in.  Throwing crap on the ice (outside of the pre-game fish and caps for the hat trick) is just wrong.  Grow up. Take responsibility for yourself and educate your fellow fans who degrade the Faithful tradition.

[ugarte]

If the 2005 Hobey Baker winner is in section K with his parents, will what you say or what you do cause them to not want to come to Cornell? If the answer is yes, please refrain, for the good of Cornell hockey.

::yark::  (I get to use that one right away!)  That is a bit over the top. There are a lot of reasons crowded arenas should not scream out "@!#$" in unison.  Mostly, it is just evidence of a pathetic and deprived means of expression.  (Not exactly the same if it springs forth in a burst of emotion.)  If you require a self-interested motivation, let it be that you hope to bring your own kids to Lynah one day to watch the game. (Which also deserves at least some sort of eye-rolling emoticon.)

Note - the emoticons aren't linked up right. That was supposed to be the puking guy. And I know that I didn't type "@!#$".

[CowbellGuy]

::coffee:: Sorry. Got em straight now. And sorry about the profanity filter, missed that. You should be able to edit it properly now. hehe