Here they are just in time for runners to reminisce and for creepers to creep! For those of you who’ve always wondered what it looked like but didn’t want to get too close, here’s what a bunch of kids streaking through Harvard Yard the night before finals looks like. SOSFW(sort of safe for work). And for those of you with netbooks they’re big enough to save as your wallpaper. You’re welcome, creeps.

photo credit: as if!

This morning, from 10 to 11:30 AM, Mt. Auburn Street in front of the Harvard Hillel was packed with absurdist anti-protesters responding to the demonstration of the Westboro Baptist Church across the street. The sixty-odd anti-protesters bore signs designed to highlight the absurdity of the three WBC protesters’ hateful claims by totally thrashing them in a nonsense contest. Some of the best signs of the morning included “GOD HATES MUGGLES,” “PRAISE CHEESUS,” “TEAM EDWARD,” “I HAVE TO PEE,” and “I WAKE UP IN THE MORNING FEELING LIKE P. DIDDY.” There were also people holding up giant rainbow signs, a couple of supportive Quakers from the neighborhood, two WHRB members in rabbit suits and a moose man who was blocking everybody’s view with his magnificent antlers.

Take THAT, Westboro Baptist Church!

Absurdist responses to the hatred of the WBC have precedents in several major cities, most notably in San Francisco, where church members canceled a demonstration in front of Twitter’s local headquarters but the anti-protesters carried on with their randomness anyway.

While many suggest that acknowledging the WBC’s protests is just giving them more of the attention they want, Hillel members insist that this anti-protest is actually a part of a much larger movement toward peaceable activism. In a message to attendees of the Facebook event, Harvard junior Chelsea Link wrote,

“…remember that, really, this event isn’t about the Westboro Baptist Church. They are not worth our attention. But their message of hatred and intolerance is all too common in our country today. We are using them as a foil to the world we want to create – a means to achieve real change in our own communities. This is a movement of acceptance, of support, of engaged pluralism, and of radical love.”

FINAL COUNT: WBC – 6 members. Harvard Supporters – ~300 members.

I’m not going to lie – I feel a particular fondness for the tall fellow after his recent stint as a statue in Harvard square. Yet, it’s quite hard to recover my eyes after seeing how the man dressed up for Halloween:

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING IMAGE MAY BE TOO FRIGHTENING FOR YOUNGER AUDIENCES.

Image courtesy of YouTube

A 300-pound, 7 foot tall man belting out Beyoncé? It’s either entertainment or fear-inciting, but we’re not quite sure yet.

Sadly, we could have seen an repeat performance of  the phenomenon now called Shaq-randomly-appearing-somewhere-and-announcing-it-on-Twitter but “somebody important” called to say that was a bad idea.

What a shame. Maybe this following video could have been done in our very own Harvard Square.

And don’t worry – he didn’t win our Halloween costume contest! One more day to submit to thehvoicemail@gmail.com!

While we were in the first floor reading room finishing an Expos paper due at midnight, we witnessed some shocking, random, and hilarious displays of intense exhibitionism.  Perhaps our Gmail outbox best represents the events in the hour leading up to Primal Scream:

10:52 PM:

There currently is a girl across from me in Lamont who has been taking off article of clothing by article of clothing while studying.  This has taken place over more than a half hour.  She is now down to literally just her underwear.

Nobody has reacted.  I actually don’t think many people have noticed.

Oh, wait…there are multiple girls doing it.

I think, at least five.  This girl across from me is the least afraid and got down to bra and panties first.  But another one just took her shirt off and three more are definitely on their way.

Anybody know what is happening?

Shit, paper due in an hour.  Focus, focus, focus…

Reply:

I think what’s happening is that you’re getting mentally tired and hallucinating what you want to see.

Read the rest of this entry »

For those of you who missed it or simply desire to relive it, here’s a bit more from Boston’s contribution to World Pillow Fight Day:

All photos courtesy Humbi Song.

What a beautiful day for a pillow fight!  Today, in cities across the world, people met to indulge in the great childhood tradition of the pillow fight.    Boston’s pillow fight, organized by Banditos Misteriosos, took place right across Mass Ave in the Cambridge Commons.  Last year’s fight was estimated at 1200 participants.  No word yet on numbers for this year, but we think it was quite the success:

Reading FM today one of our staff writers found this little gem:

In case you can’t read that little box quite right, here’s the actual text:
Two true things:
1. Thanks to the Class of 2013, visits to Stillman for alcohol-related issues have reached a historic high
2. The Class of 2013 is the most socioeconomically diverse class in Harvard’s history

Giving no context for these “two true things”, we wonder how FM will defend this. Don’t see what we mean? Publishing these “two true things” is not only totally irrelevant, but implies that the greater socioeconomic diversity at Harvard somehow explains the rise in alcoholism. Transitive property. Y’all are smart, you don’t need us to explain why this is super fucked up.