Word: bicker
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Scott Fitzgerald describes Amory Blaine's bicker in This Side of Paradise...
After exams, Bicker begins. Representatives of the clubs come in and check out your brand of rep striped tie, yellow shirt, gray trousers, navy blazer, and freshly shined shoes. Talk starts with the room. "Not a bad room for sophomores. Nice picture over there. Nice carpet too," the club man will say. Then there are nods and "thanks" and the talk changes...
...club men report back to their clubs and write comments about you in Bicker Book right under your picture cut out of the Freshman Herald. The next night, if you're lucky, Ivy will come around again and talk to your group. And then maybe again and again. And maybe you will...
...Bicker selections are superficial judgments. But, even though many people are condemned to life in a bottom club because of the system, it doesn't bother Clinch S. Belser, chairman of the Interclub Committee and president of Cottage: "Bicker judgments are partially based on the superficial qualities of people. However, superficial compatability facilitates social interchange and relaxation. Thus, it is not totally adverse that superficialities influence Bicker decisions...
...that is the system. However cruel and arbitrary it might be, few Princeton men reject it. There has not been a major change in its structure since Ivy Club was founded in 1879. Once a sophomore has gone through Bicker, he settles down in his club and is very content and comfortable. The club stereotype seems to crystallize his personality. He may have come to Princeton vaguely thinking he was preppy, but when he made Ivy he was sure of it. Patterns form. The club man begins to think he cannot get along with anyone outside his circle of club...