Word: porcellians
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Porcellian is reputed to hold the most elegant "punches," the weekend outings to which would-be members are invited for inspection. With more local graduates to choose from--the Porcellian is partial to Old Boston families--the club can always find a wealthy alumnus who will lend his palatial residence and spacious lawns to the club for a raucous afternoon of football and drinking, usually carried on simultaneously. Skeet shooting, bowls, or other forms of leisurely recreation are sometimes provided for the less energetic...
...Porcellian's Final Dinner (the last function of the punching season for all the clubs), each prospective member is required to tell one dirty joke, and his success in amusing the members often determines his fate at election time. New members are elected in December and initiated in February, when they are filled full of alchohol, led blindfolded through the Porcellian cubhouse, and finally unveiled before a large assemblage of exultant graduate members...
...curiosity of the Final Club system is that the more prestigious the club, the more it isolates the individual member from the rest of Harvard. A student elected to the Porcellian Club--and therefore presumably among the most popular of his class--will devote more of his time and energy exclusively to his club than will a member of a club that will a member of a club that is not so highly regarded...
Peter Birge '67, who was initiated into the Porcellian Club last year and became disaffected shortly thereafter, said that "for most people in the Porcellian, membership is their number one achievement at Harvard...
...importance that Porcellian members place on their club experience makes them more reluctant to share it with anyone on the outside. According to Birge, some members of the Porcellian class of '66 introduced a proposal earlier this year to invite Faculty members to the club once a month, but the rest of the club voted it down. Howland is likely to have less trouble pushing his resolution through next fall, because Delphic members do not consider the confines of their clubhouse so sacrosanct...