Lexicon

General

• Activities: Scheduled social events and such that CTYers are required to attend after classes and on weekends. Popular ones include Discussion Group and Improv. "What activities are you signed up for?" "What's your daily (done for one day only)/weekly (done for a whole week)?"
• Baby CTY: CTY Young Student's Program.
• Canon: The songs which must be played at all CTY dances. The Canon varies by site (and sometimes even by session).
• CTY: Can't Tell You / Center for Bad Spellers / Catch The Yamaka / Corrupted and Tainted Youth / Commune for Truncated Yogurts / Center for Troubled Youth / Center for Intelligent Youth / Camp Touch Yourself / Center for Transvestite Youth / Communists Training Youth / Crazy Twisted Youngin's / Chinese Talented Youth / Ceriously Talented Youth/Center for Transvestite Yodellers
• CTYer: A CTY student or Alumnus; also, in some cases, anyone who is associated with CTY and understands the CTY spirit. "My college roommate was a CTYer too, but I didn't know her when I was there."
• CTY-L: The main CTY e-mailing list.
• ERS: Egyptian RatScrew, a very popular card game at CTY.
• Five-year Freak: Lucky fobber who through some combination of birthdate, grade-skippage, and pure luck is eligible to attend CTY for five years as opposed to the usual four.
• Flying Squirrel: Someone who changes sites. For example, Suzie went to Lancaster in 2004 and in 2005, she went to Carlisle. At Carlisle, Suzie was refered to as a flying squirrel.
• Floor orgy: Synonym for grass orgy, only usually inside (on the floor, as opposed to grass). Abbreviated "Floorgy."
• Grass orgy: In a grass orgy, one CTYer lies down on the grass, a second CTYer lays down with his or her head on the first CTYer's stomach, a third CTYer lays down on top of the second CTYer and so on, until many CTYers are all lying on top of one another on the grass. Also known as "Tummy Chains". Abbreviated "Grorgy."
• Hall bondage/Hall bonding: A Sunday activity in which a CTYer is required to hang out with other students living on their hall. May occasionally be after Study Hall for a weird hall.
• Hall hopping: Either legal or illegal practice of having sleepovers in other halls. Usually illegal.
• Hall meeting: A meeting of one's hall. It is conducted by the RA, and is used to announce news and sign up for activities. Also good chance to annoy your RA.
• Illegal Sleepovers: Sneaking into others' rooms overnight on weekdays. A common practice in these sleepovers is 'practicing' on each other.
• Mafia: A popular activity game involving God/mediator, a doctor/angel, a detective/cop, mafia, and townspeople.
• Mandatory Fun: Activities, especially weekend activities. It is one of the oldest terms in the CTY lexicon, dating back at least to the mid-80s. Mandatory Fun activities have a very notorious reputation for being extremely boring and/or stupid. (referred to as non-mandatory fun at LMU site)
• Mao: A very popular CTY card game, played at a variety of different sites. Also popular with math teams such as ARML. Everybody has a slightly dfferent way to play. Occasionally they are same. Chicago math team Mao is the same as Massachusetts math team Mao, but is quite different from CTY Mao.
• Meet Market: The evening social time at CTY. Called Quad Time at some sites.
• Nevermore: At most sites, a Nevermore is a CTYer who can no longer return due to reaching the age limit of 16. At Lancaster, a Nevermore is a CTYer who cannot return for other reasons and is not yet 16. Some tradition-unaware CTYers use this term interchangably with "Nomore," or do not know what either are.
• Nomore: At most sites, a Nomore is a CTYer who cannot return due to reasons other than age. At Lancaster, a Nomore is a CTYer who can no longer return because they have reached the age limit of 16. Some tradition-unaware CTYers use this term interchangably with "Nomore," or do not know what either are.
• One Shot: Someone who is both a first year and a nomore.
• One Hit Wonder: See One Shot.
• Onemore: A CTYer whose next year will be their nomore year. Similarly, there are twomores (tumors), threemores, minus-onemores, etc.
• Passionfruit: A morning ritual involving toasting friends and drinking juice. After the Canon, one of the most important and universal CTY traditions. Some sites have Passionfruit every week, others only on the last day.
• Post-CTY depression/CTY Withdrawal: The feeling of sadness CTYers, especially nomores, experience after leaving CTY. They miss their friends and their CTY experiences. Sometimes, this can last for weeks until school starts again, or even longer. It is characterized by crying when hearing American Pie or other Canon songs, talking obsessively about CTY to friends from home, and hastily organized end of summer reunions. For some people, lasts all year until the night before they leave for CTY again...
• Quad: The large, grassy area in between all of the residential buildings where CTYers spend their free time. At some sites, "Quad" also refers to the buildings around the Quad, as in, "I live in Quad 10."
• Quad Time: Evening social time from 9:00-9:40. Has a reputation of seeming unbearably short. Called "Meet Market" at some sites.
• RA: Residential Advisor. Like camp counselors, RAs are in charge of watching students while they aren't in class, organizing activities, and conducting Hall Meetings. Can be pronounced as "R.A." or as "Ra".
• Scum: A popular card game at Lancaster; there are several variations, including Scum: The Masquerade and Scum: The Ascension.
• Seven-year Satan: Someone who has been at every single possible year of Baby CTY and CTY and has an optimal birthday, age, and grade level in school. Not to be confused with the position of Satan at Lancaster.
• Shorthand Dates: The format of expressing CTY sessions, sites, and courses.
• Silent Football: A complex game involving an invisible football, hallucinations, and tattling. This game is most popular at Lancaster, especially second session.
• Six-year Satan Spawn: Someone who has, through some combination of Baby CTY and CTY, been at CTY for six years.
• Squirrel/Sperm: 1. A first year CTYer. Squirrel is the more prevalent term at Lancaster, while Sperm is used at Carlisle despite administrative attempts to squash it. "Even though Katie is a squirrel, she understands the essence of CTY."
• TA/LA/PA: Teaching Assistant, Lab Assistant, Professor's Assistant; these terms are synonymously, but each site only uses one. Usually, college/grad students who assist with instructing classes.
• The Game: (LAN/CAR) A game that is very popular at Lancaster and came to Carlisle 06.2. You just lost the game.
• Thursday: According to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the Earth is destroyed on a Thursday, and the only survivor from Earth on the day of destruction is a one Arthur Dent, who happens to be wearing a dressing gown. Hence, each Thursday, CTYers wear bathrobes all day, or towels if one doesn't own one (towels are the most useful thing a hitchhiker can have; Ford Prefect has his when the world ends). Also, many CTYers refer to the last Friday of camp as Thursday since the world and CTY both end. At LAN the last two days of camp are switched (Friday, then Thursday) so that, not only does CTY end on the end of the world, but one also need not wear a bathrobe/carry a towel to the last dance (which is on "Friday", seeing as you can't have a dance on Thursday).
• Two-year Tragedy: A second year who is 16 and thus cannot return to CTY.
• Uber-CTY/Uber-CTYer: Person or thing that embodies the spirit of CTY, that is very involved in the life of CTY. Example: "Sarah is such an uber-ctyer."
• Veil law: The rules, instituted in the mid-80's, that states that boys can not be in girls' rooms, and girls can not be in boys' rooms, for *cough* obvious reasons. Called the veil law, because the theory was that next the admin was going to make the girls wear veils. Eventually, this rule was accepted as a matter of course. This rule exists at all sites and is rarely referred to by this name; it was named by a Carlisle student.
• Weiness: the loose skin on your elbow. a common discussion topic at lunch is who has the largest weiness.

Lancaster

• Acting Improv: Best. Activity. Ever.
• Agreedball:
• Arches: A popular place for activities at Lancaster, outside of North/South Ben. Different Arches are also meeting places, places for activites and places to sign up for things. Arches split into North Arches, Central Arches, and South Arches.
• ASFC: The field house at Lancaster, which contains a pool, small basketball courts and an indoor track. During 2004, this space was used for meals while the dining hall was reconstructed. Also used for indoor dances when outdoor dances are rained out.
• Alcove: The great-great-grandspawn of Digiclan at LAN. Originiated in 2001. Was in exile during 2002 - 2004 (due to the lack of an actual alcove), but was revived in 2005. Rumored to have killed/been killed by Game Corner.
• Big Top: A very painful memory from 04.2.
• Blammo: A popular game involving plastic spoons, God, and stalking.
• Digiclan: A group of Lancaster CTYers; started as a group of students who took Digital Logic in the early 90's. They are known for their weirdness and their (currently defunct) webpage.
• FNORD: Kinda weird that there's no title for this entry, huh? Just a blank spot, no visible word.
• Fob: Little plasticy things first issued in 2003 at Lancaster that magically opened doors with a simple wave. Stands for "For Opening Doors." Universal curse-word substitute.
• Fobmasters/Fobsters/FoBoys: a sort-of clan originating in CTY Lancaster '05 Session 1, mostly boys from Atlee 3 and their friends. Jokes like Motherfobber and the Fob Dance, and the Switchfob. See Switchfob.
• Hammertime: The time zone in which Lancaster Session 2 is in. It can also be defined by the time on the watch of the person who has the smiley face mood ring that Jeff Sachs plans to pass down. Inseperably associated with silent football.
• LLRT: The Land of The Large Round Tables. A group of Lancaster CTYers, and a shoot off of the DigiClan. LLRT originally referred to a group of CTYers in 1993; the name has passed down through several generations and is still used today. Also, Dining Hall 4 at Lancaster, where LLRTs ate.
• Nerdgasm: Referring to any event of such nerdish proportions it can/does produce orgasm. A particularly appropriate example was when, for the LAN.06.2 talent show, one CTYer solved a rubik's cube onstage while reciting the first 200 digits of pi.
• PoserMofo/PoserMobo: An inside joke stemming from the PoserMobile commercial from Lancaster Session 1 '05, usually the Logic A kids.
• Second Saturday: Lancaster's version of "Drag Day," which, at Lancaster, is referred to as "Cross-dress Day." This occurs on the second Saturday of each session and is marked by gratuitous references from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
• Switchfob: A trick where a Lancaster CTYer would squeeze the fob between his or her room key and his or her meal card. The fob would fly out. Awesome way to open up buildings. This trick became quite popular, to the point that some people would fob Stager Hall, which was usually unlocked.
• Thormanism: A religion started in 05.1 by a group of MIND students in which a god is elected for a one-session term and may then appoint a king of kings and a cabinet of apostles.
• Turkey Hill: A convenience store right outside of F&M campus. Each hall visits Turkey Hill twice; extra visits may be won from Mandatory Fun.
• Ultimizzle Frisbizzle Tournamizzle: Name of Ultimate Frisbee tournament held 05.1 and 06.2. Marks a general overuse of the suffix -izzle, and inspired the 05.2 Alcove shirt.
• Winged Llama: Llama. With wings.
• Your mother: She doesn't work here. Running joke that can be traced back to a speech given by Chris Mahoney, site director at Lancaster for the first week of 01.1, at the opening ceremonies.

Carlisle

• Anita Tuvin Schlecter: The auditorium used for dances, talent show etc.
• Betty the Cardswiper: Betty is the cardswiper at the HUB. She was infamous for her saying of "Hello. Thank You." And partying in the pants of certain kids.
• Cake: A metaphor for the safety-learning-fun hierarchy of cty. referred to constantly.
• Conspiracy to fatten: A conspiracy involving the ratio of eating time to non activity time to activity time. Are they trying to fatten us up for tthe sluaghter?
• Couching: The act of sitting on the Couches in the HUB during free time. A Coucher is one who Couches. "After dinner, Pierre and Sarah joined other CTYers who were Couching."
• Double-Klineing: Spending both activity periods in the Kline gym.
• Goregasm/Goregy: Dissent Session 2 '06 had a severe obsession with Al Gore, especially after seeing an Inconvenient Truth and deciding to start an Al Gore-based religion. The word Goregasm was invented to describe the feelings an Al Gore lover gets when doing anything Al Gore related, an event referred to as a Goregy.
• Groundbats: 1. Flying rodents that can also burrow underground. Interesting facts about groundbats are that the males nurse their young, and also that they have no limits. 2. A hall theme invented by some RA back in the day, and resurrected by RA Jacob in 2006. The theme was especially embraced by his Session 2 hall, who invented the groundbat signal, chant, and also the groundbat shuffle, which consists of alternating phases of "burrow", "fly", "lactate", and "no limits".
• Ha!: A game based off a Grass Orgy; it involves laying on the stomachs of other plays and trying to make them laugh by saying "HA!" At Carlisle, it is an accepted excuse for an orgy.
• HUB: The Holland Union Building: eating and hanging out place at Carlisle
• Kline: The gym at Carlisle
• KW: The offices at Carlisle... where you go if you get sick or in trouble.
• Massy's: The creamery near Dickinson where students often enjoy meet markets when RA take side trips. Frequently used as rewards for good behavior.
• Rinas/Rinos: Through some strange coincidence, several CTY sites have, in their histories, been shared with ballet camps; the camps currently are found at Carlisle. Ballet campers are called "rinas" from ballerinas, and usually are looked at with scorn by CTYers, though there has been a case of a student who was both a CTYer and rina in their life. A male rina is called a "rino," which is pronounce "rhino" like the animal. At Carlisle, many CTYers choose to compliment at least one rina a day, and make friends with one rino who compliments your outfit.
• Space Nazi: A Group Of RAs. During the dances, they would go around to the different grinders and tell them to "Leave Room For Jesus".
• Squeegle : Session 2, '06. Variation of Your mom.
• The Devil's Den: The conveniant store in the hub. Filled with lots and lots and lots of energy drinks, along with other junk food items, but mostly people just buy energy drinks.
• Vertical Rule: The rule that says if you're at meet market and you don't sit up straight, you get a bright light in your eyes and many RAs looking at you suspiciously. However, the vertical rule can be bent if you are out in the open or perpendicular to each other, as in playing the game Ha!

Siena

• Butt Rock: A popular landmark that was supposed to be a commemorative heart for 9/11 victims, but is actually a giant pink butt. CTYers are technically not supposed to sit on it.
• The Ten-Plus-One Commandments: At Hamilton, the basic rules were displayed in "thou shalt not" form. originally there were ten. over the years, they were rewritten but eventually there ended up being eleven (or ten-plus-one) commandments. #11-"No sitting on window ledges or crossing them on your way out the window." This was necessitated by the actions of one John Hague, aka Spam, a former CTYer and now RA, who sat on a Hamilton window ledge.

Saratoga Springs

• Dipshit: Silent football to the extreme.
• Jazzies: The jazz camp people, usually used to refer to cute boys at the jazz camp "oh look, sari's flirting with the jazzies!" They are distinct group from rinas/rinos, and better liked.
• Synergy: Session 1, '06. Means teamwork, cult like following based on a speech made by the Site Director.
• Tater: A stuffed potato. He is used in separating grinders, or generally dancers who are too close. Also stolen by Manan (SRA '06) during the first mandatory fun saturday: Where's Tater.
• Varsity Catch: A game in which a bunch of people run around with a ball, throwing it to each other. When the ball is dropped or kicked, everyone stops and yells at the offender, "You're the worst!" The game is then resumed.
• Your mom: Any phrase can be turned into a "your mom phrase": "This food is gross."- "Your MOM is gross."; "What time is it?"- "Half past your mom."

Hawai'i

• PandaClan: The students of 2003 FCPS Sess 1, so named because of a very bad panda joke told by the instructor, which then spread through campus like a radioactive, mutant virus. Students were known to hide behind bushes, jumping out at passers-by shouting, "I'm a PANDA!"

Baltimore

• Bumpkin: A term used by Simon and Stefan's halls in 06.2.
• Viet's iPods: Refers to an RA in 06 who mercilessly stole iPods because they were not allowed to be listened to. It is said that he once walked to the office with 20 iPods in his arms. He was also a really mean and nasty RA in general.