Word: pinging
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...view with alarm the Psychology Department's current crop of educated pigeons. Professor B. F. Skinner has spent the winter teaching his birds to play ping pong, tell time, and pick out tunes on the piano. He claims the experiment will help increase our insight into human behavior: what makes us suspicious is the speed and interest the pigeons have shown in their studies...
...only be doubly suspicious of the cooperation Professor Skinner is getting from his birds. A pigeon that can play ping-pong can certainly learn close-order drill; it is only a short step from that to organized rebellion. Buried in Professor Skinner's report is the note that at least one of his pigeons appeared on a window sill and virtually volunteered for the experiment; the word is obviously getting around. As far as we're concerned, pigeons exist solely to give monument cleaners a chance to earn an honest living. An educated pigeon will inevitably try to get something...
...remark, "Paris is worth a Mass," and the demagogic slogan, "Every family should have a fowl in the pot on Sunday." Bao Dai put his money in Swiss banks (and thereby saved it from World War II's reverses), collected stamps, practiced tennis with Champion Henri Cochet, learned ping-pong, dressed in tweeds and flannels, vacationed in the Pyrenees, scented himself heavily with Coty and Chanel perfumes...
James J. ("Big Jim") Jeffries, 75, heavyweight champ who was knocked flat in 1910 by Jack Johnson, the first Negro champ, observed that the fight game has become so sissified that "I'd rather see a wrestling match . . . Lots of these kids fighting now would make damn good ping-pong players...
...same time as the dance, freshmen will conduct a carnival in the gym where food, games, beanies and stuffed animals fill be sold. A special attraction will be a booth where Martha McCabe '53 and Janet McNeil '53 will dodge ping-pong balls...