damned intellectuals
[from Peter Appelbome’s column in the NYT]
Then, in a decidedly less consequential matter, Yale hit an unwanted
news jackpot after a blog called IvyGate reported on a titillating,
if somewhat inscrutable, e-mail message sent by the master of Yale’s
Calhoun College to its residents.
Under the subject line “Shower Stalls Are for Showering,” he gently
took an unidentified couple to task for repeatedly using the showers
for more intimate acts than applying soap to wet skin.
“Last night, the shower flooded and the bathroom could not be used
for over 90 minutes,” he wrote, raising more questions than he
answered. He added, “This may be pleasurable and exciting for you,
but it is a violation of community standards. Please stop.”
The tale shot up the media food chain and to the Internet. On one
conservative Web site, a Yale student, Dan Gelernter, said the story
reflected “the moral vacuum that has been created by Yale
intellectuals,” where “students seem to be left without even the most
basic guidelines for proper and decent behavior.”