Snow phalluses aren't the only "offensive" and "obscene" items being removed from Harvard Yard. Recently, a campus civil liberties group posted flyers to advertise an upcoming meeting. Some of the posters depicted a naked couple with genitalia concealed by tactically placed airbrushing; the image was accompanied by the following text: "Does Your Mother Know What Websites You Look At? The Government Does." Though the aim of the posters was to make a point about civil liberties, graduating senior and self-appointed campus censor Thomas Mucha deemed them "obscene and offensive" and tore them down. When asked to explain his rationale for removing the promotional flyers of a recognized campus group, Mucha told the Harvard Crimson that they were "just gross." The Crimson paraphrased his reasoning thus: "Mucha said the posters are not protected speech because they are obscene."

Readers of Critical Mass and followers of campus absurdity will recognize in Mucha's statement the rationale employed by Amy Keel and Mary Cardinale when they destroyed the nine foot snow phallus erected in Harvard Yard several weeks ago. They will also note the splendid irony: that one of the group's poster-variants depicted the notorious snow phallus itself, along with the caption ìBecause Freedom of Expression Protects Even The Pricks of the World.î And they will note the double standard: Harvard's undergraduate council recently passed a resolution condemning the wanton removal of posters after Harvard Right to Life's posters were removed by those who disapproved of the group's views. Mucha supported the resolution.

It just goes to show you, idiocy is not partial to the left or the right.

Boy, the Ivy League sure has changed since I was a student in the 70s. I was the actual door prize at one of the Lizzie (The Elizabethean Club's) notrious garden parties!