Memories:SAR

2005.1

The Hott Wall

In 2005.1, the Hott Wall 1 was created by Audrey Kohler and Rachel Dentinger in their room, as a bonding experience after buying corny magazines at CVS during first town trip.

In 2006.1, they were conveniently roommates again, by coincidence, and they decided to create the Hott Wall 2.

In 2007.1, the girls were not roommates, so they decided to create the Hott Wall 3 in the hallway. Their superawesome RA Erika, AKA E, did not exactly get permission from the evil Tim, but she looked the other way when her entire hall and some of Jae's girls built it. Pictures from the Hott Wall made it into that session's slide show, and the Howe girls were all quiteeee familiar with them.

In 2008.1, Miryam Coppersmith had the idea to construct Hott Wall 4 in RA Shira's hall. It was quite large and epic, but a certain hall-that-shall-not-be-named started their own, much smaller Hott Wall, and actually stole a few pictures from the original wall. These pictures were eventually returned. Unfortunately, 2008.1's Hott Wall was not as well publicized as its predecessor. 2009.1: Shall the Hott Wall continue?

In 2009.1, RA Shira's Hall made an epic Hott Wall yet again, using magazines tacky CVS magazines like Tiger Beat and J-14 that were purchased by hall members. This Hott Wall was filled with pictures and posters of hot guys such as Taylor Lautner and Lucas Till.

In 2010.1, sadly, the members of Shira's Hall failed her and had a terrible Hott Wall compared to last year's. There were pictures of Sue Sylvester from Glee and cats.

I think the Hott Wall is an awesome tradition and it will be kept alive, if I can help it. For Nevermores, the hot doesn't end at CTY. My sister's college dorm has a kick-ass hot wall, so I encourage you to spread the Hot! Respect the wall, love the wall- Miryam

2006.1

Synergy

The site director (Bill) started the session using "synergy" numerous times in his welcome speech, hence inspiring synergy everywhere. May the synergy live on. This is why "Synergy" is sung during the Canon song "Let it be." More on synergy

2007.2

KЯYP's story

During the talent show, KЯYP, a.k.a. Dave, along with some other Nevermores, was introducing the acts. For one act's introduction, KЯYP was alloted some "creative liberty," so he decided to tell a story. He told a (mostly true) tale about waking up one morning and finding a "crap the size of Danny Devito", which clogged the toilet and caused a pretty big dilemma for Wilmarth hall. This hysterical anecdote went on for about 15 minutes until one of the fed-up RAs turned off Dave's mic from the control booth. But this didn't faze Dave. He just put that one down and picked up the other one. A Nevermore named Edison, a fellow MC, came onstage and mimed blowdarting him, telling him to get off. In response, KЯYP asked the audience if they wanted him to keep going. Their cheers drove Edison offstage. He kept going until an R.A. came onstage and forcibly told him to get off. Despite the other Nevermore's "shame", (KЯYP went so overtime that they weren't able to perform any other funny introductions) KЯYP's story is sure to be remembered for years to come. Although Tim (a.k.a Mr. Rogers), the site director, had a complete meltdown because of the massive overuse of the word "crap" and a subtle sexual reference, he never actually punished KRYP. Alas, for the enraptured CTYers, they never found out how the story ended....

KЯYP: Feel free to post a continuation anytime now.

2008.2

Hott Wall Part 2

In 2008.2, Shira, an RA on Howe 2, decided that she would label a section of her hall's wall "the Hott Wall." It was meant for people to post pictures of attractive celebrities, things they liked, etc. As a result of this, three girls from Kate's hall (also on Howe 2) decided to steal Mike Armstrong's (interpol TA) photo off of the staff wall, because everyone knew he was the hottest. The photo was placed on the Hott Wall after the three girls wrote on it. After a day or two, his photo was replaced on the staff wall and immediately stolen by one of the three girls. The photo was once again replaced, only to be stolen again. DRL Chris Hazard called both Shira's and Kate's halls down to the main office and gave them a stern talking to about the inappropriate things written on the first photo. The final photo of Mike Armstrong was never replaced.

In 2009.2, the office staff decided it was in their best interests not to post a photo of Mike Armstrong on the staff wall.

Vermonster Group Records

Vermonster Group Records are seen as a amazing feat, but even more incredible are the solo records, therefore it is not deemed as a Hall of Fame achievement. However, you can always find them in the memories section.

Group (Overall) - Evelyn Mesler, Avital Rabinovitch, Athena Chu, Eloise Bellingham, and Simona Innocenti (2015.2)

• Time: 4 minutes and 34 seconds
• Average time per person: 54.8 seconds

Group (Duo) - Byron Sun and Andrew Huang (2016.1)

• Time: 9 minutes and 40 seconds (previous record was 21 minutes 35 seconds set by David Lustig and Tyler Jaeger in SAR 15.2)
• Average time per person: 4 minutes and 50 seconds

Group (Quartet) - Duncan Freeman, Zach "Avi" Madsen, David Garrity and Quin Koe (2016.1)

• Time: 6 minutes and 35 seconds

2009.1

Pickle Surprise

Around the middle of the first session, during dinnertime, an epic discovery was made. Lying in the middle of a table in the dining hall was what looked like a piece of human excrement. Upon further investigation, CTYers concluded that it was actually a well-constructed copy made from brownies that were served at the dining hall. Realizing this, the students that discovered the surprise brought it back to the table where they were eating to discuss what to do with it. While at the table, the brownie was christened "pickle surprise". Near the end of dinnertime, these CTYers decided what was to be done with it. One student took the "pickle surprise" and put it into his pocket. Then, he went to his night session of class. However, before going into the classroom, this student snuck into the girls' bathroom, which was conveniently located in front of his classroom, and deposited the surprise into the sink. He then went back to class as usual. At about 8:50, the instructor told the class to go to the bathroom and wash their hands. When the two girls in the class walked into the bathroom, one immediately walked out, shaking her head, but not saying anything. The other girl walked in and started spazzing out about it. She was, as she put it, "scarred for life". Both girls had not realized that the "pickle surprise" was just a very good copy of the real thing. The instructor became involved, and the "pickle surprise" was removed from the sink. The identities of the plotters were not made known to the instructor. However, after the night session, the whole class knew who had done it. Long live the legendary TY, who was, sadly, a Nevermore.

The author of this section claims only half involvement in the plot, although it was he who came up with the idea of putting the "pickle surprise" into the girls' bathroom sink.

2009.2

Town Trip is a privilege that God took away from us

The second town trip of the session got canceled due to rain. Many Nevermores (and a few others) were driven to tears and all were very angered, since that was the trip on which they were planning to break the Vermonster record. In place of the town trip, campers were given other options (i.e. watching Night at the Museum, playing board games, or chilling out in their respective halls). This tragedy was made up for in the third week when all of the Nevermores were taken to a secret place and given all the Vermonsters that were necessary to break the record during quad time.

Physics class

SAR.09.2 will never forget that "Physics is the place where... FUN DIES" (Pfl), and where "Dancing Queen" by ABBA is the boys' favorite song and could often be heard playing in their hall (except for one or two dissenters who claimed that "I'm On a Boat" is better). The instructor was William Kallfelz and the class was TA'd by Irene Ning, both of whom were loved very much by the class.

While Will was known for losing his Expo markers, which were assummed to disappear into a parallel universe, Irene was known for stealing gummy erasers from various students and banning xkcd, while laughing at the jokes herself (and posting an xkcd comic on the door to the room). At the end of the session, the class gave Will, Irene, and Alex Lee (the boys' RA) gifts. Will got new Expo markers, Irene was rewarded a gummy eraser, and Alex got a very tight shirt that read "Skidmore Mom", before his hall all signed it. He wore it to the last dance.

During one particular class, students were instructed to watch "Pirates of the Caribbean" and point out physical impossibilities in the plotline (such as the part where the heroes walk on the seabed inside of an overturned boat but there is no oxygen).

"Let's kill some fun, Excel is sick. I wanna store my data on your memory stick." An attempt was made to "sing" this at the closing ceremony, but it failed. To understand this better, See: recursion.

Bearmom

In the beginning of the session, Onemore Shannon K. introduced the character of Bearmom to her Philosophy class. Bearmom has simultaneously most of the characteristics of a mother and those of a bear. Bearmom is portrayed by retracting the elbows, bending one's fingers to look like claws, and alternately moving one's forearms up and down while talking how one would imagine a bear might. Some of Bearmom's favorite phrases are: "I MADE YOU A DIXIE PLATE FOR DINNER," "I TRIED TO MAKE YOU DINNER BUT I CAN'T WORK THE OVEN," "DON'T DO YOUR HAIR LIKE THAT, IT GIVES YOU BOYFACE," "I WISH YOU WOULD TELL ME ABOUT YOUR HOBBIES; I NEVER KNOW WHAT TO GET YOU FOR CHRISTMAS," "I JUST WANT TO BE HIP!", "DISTANCE YOURSELF FROM YOUR FRIEND WITH THE NOSE RING" and "I AM DISAPPOINT." This also spread to other classes and halls, mostly to Rounds 3, Interpol, and Logic B.

2010.1

BP

"In the event of a BP oil spill, (drowned by applause and cheering) how long does it take to get to the top of Jonsson Tower?"- Young Guang

"Well I can tell you that if it does get up here, you're gonna need Noah's Ark"- security guy

The Gens Game

The Gens Game was introduced to Saratoga by Emperor Maxwell Thomas Hengeveld. The objective of the game is to make a person flinch by saying "gens" and making a movement towards the target's crotch. Minus one point if you gens swipe, where you actually hit the other person's genitals. Also if you say "don't" while making a gun motion at the same time a person gens you, it's considered a point for yourself. Keep in mind, you must always be honest about when you've been gensed, man up, and take it to the crotch. Also, when gensing girls, you may also say "vagines". We strongly encourage the gensing of T.A.'s, R.A's, and any random kid you like or dislike. One of the most coveted moments is a genocide, where someone gets 4 or more people to flinch in a row. This has only been achieved 3 times, once by Max himself during a half naked half hour where he waited at the end of the hall for them to come by and gensed all of them. Reuben Matthews managed the same feat at the same time on the same people. However those two were not as legitimate as the one performed by Emperor Young Guang, who, while on the way to the slideshow, managed to gens 6 people, all of whom were aware of the game.

The Squirrel Outside Tisch

Those lucky people who had classes in Tisch were caught up in the reign of terror that The Squirrel unleashed on them. The Squirrel was an ordinary looking squirrel, but he had the mind and the heart of the devil. The squirrel would lurk by the entrance, ready to leap out at anyone who came near. It was theorized that he was rabid, and the refrain of "Don't go near the fucking squirrel' became a common one within the first week. However, this theory was eventually disproved through careful observation and research. Instead, we found that The Squirrel was actually "protecting" the territory of the trash can, which he was eating out of. At first he would just run in and out of the trash can, taking what he needed. But after a while he would just go into the trash can and stay there. This meant that if an unsuspecting trash-holder tried to open the can to throw something away, The Squirrel would leap out at them like a friggin' demon. CogPsych Dave tried to throw away a candy wrapper, and the thing came out like a chestburster and tried to attack his face. The new refrain that could be heard was "'Don't go near the fucking trashcan.'"

Shaggy Parties

Mr. Boombastic

It Wasn't Me

Hot Shot (add more)

Before and after every dance, it happened, and it was beautiful.

Nuclear Barrel Roll

On July 7th, Harry Brennan blasted "Do A Barrel Roll" through the vents on Wilmarth Two, and successfully barrel rolled Wilmarth floors three and one for twenty minutes. After that, he blasted "The Count Song: Censored" through the vents, not once, not twice, but FIVE times.

Wavin' Flag

The gentlemen on the first floor tore off their shirts and ran all around Wilmarth singing Wavin' Flag after the second dance, continuing the tradition of half-naked half-hour while twirling their shirts above their heads. This tradition was revived at SAR.13.2's dances. This also made an appearance during 15.2's last dance thanks to David Lustig.

The Bleached Wall

During one fine evening, Emperor-to-be Aaron Wan was tapping his pen on the wall of his hall on the 2nd floor, when it spontaneously exploded. The spot became saturated with blue ink in at least two locations near the normal papers hung up in a hall. In a hurry, he and some hallmates tried to remove the mess with soap, water, and white-out, but eventually resorted to covering up the marks with two hastily-made posters proclaiming "Dave Grimes is awesome". The next morning, two hallmates tried to sneak into the bookstore for more white-out, only to find that the store was closed at almost all free times. Out of frustration, they headed to the Atrium store, where one spotted bleach available for purchase. That night, at 4:00AM, the hallmates removed most of the ink using the surprisingly effective bleach. However, the white-out prevented one face of the wall from being cleaned by the bleach. The group of 5 went into a frenzy to remove the white-out, using some odd combination of fork/knife scraping, bug spray, nail polish remover, and rubbing alcohol. To everyone's surprise, the results of were spectacular; there is now absolutely no trace of the explosion. So the next time you accidentally blow up a pen, try bleach. If you somehow blemish a wall with white-out, use bug spray, nail polish remover, and rubbing alcohol.

TiK ToK

At the very last dance of the session, the song TiK ToK by Ke$ha started to play when all of a sudden, the bass line mysteriously cut out. It seemed that the DJ had really blown the speakers up that night... for a moment, the entire camp looked around in confusion, and it seemed that the dance would end with disappointment. But due to the fact that this song had been played at each of the other two dances, everyone knew the words. The entire camp started belting the lyrics at the top of their lungs to compensate for the lack of speaker music, keeping the dance going until the speakers were fixed again. This potential crisis situation was averted by the combined effort of all the CTYers' beautiful singing voices.

Young and Orren

During the course of the session it was revealed to International Politics that their TA Orren was supposedly a former emperor from Skidmore 2004 Session 2 (however, he was not). It also became known that he knew how to rave freehand. So he was armed with two glowsticks, and during Sandstorm of the final dance, he and emperor Young had an exchange of freehand combos, surrounded by the legion of glowstringers.

Chen

Chen was a famous nomore (went to JHU 2011 for nevermore year! I missed SAR :( ) who honored the camp with his presence during Session 1 2010. He was constantly seen with his flute case, offering musical and logistical assistance to anyone who seemed to be in need of it. He made his debut during Session 1 2009 when he played The Pink Panther theme song for the Talent Show, with Adom and Jeshipio running around pretending to be detectives. During the Talent Show weekly Chen unleashed the full fury of his musical talent, being present in multiple acts. His most memorable act was "Istanbul" on the flute, which he transcribed himself in less than two hours. His other act was "Kids" by MGMT, which he played on keyboard with George on guitar and Zoe singing. Chen's awesome presence was further augmented by MCs Avery and Max consistently making up stories about Chen, making him responsible for many great deeds both musical and improbable. Below are samples of his numerous feats:

• Mortal humans fear Chuck Norris, and Chuck Norris fears Chen.
• Mortal humans worship gods, and those gods worship Chen.
• Chen wrote every single song in the Talent Show (except for "I'll Make a Man Out of You", which was written by MuShu)
• Chen wrote "Istanbul" specifically for the Talent Show, while writing "Kids" at the exact same time, while giving back massages with all of hands and feet so he had to write with a pen in his mouth. (This was all in response to an alien abduction.)
• He actually had one free (left) foot, and he wrote "Sweet is a Melody" with that foot.

Chen was a part of David Short's hall, also know by some as "the best hall ever", mostly due to Chen's presence in it. This hall was responsible for Half-Naked Half-Hour(spending the last half hour before lights out without a shirt on), and they could sometimes be heard chanting "Who you gonna call?" "Dave's Hall!", most notably when they were walking to the dances, but it also happened in other occasions, such as after the Talent Show. Other members of the hall who were generally considered to contribute to its awesomeness (just not as significantly as Chen) were Conner "Red Balls" Davis and Mauricio "Harmonica Man" Mangel.

The Prank Wars

The Prank Wars were a series of pranks between Marc's hall of 3rd floor Wilmarth, on the far side of Wilmarth, and David Grimes's hall, which was located on the 2nd floor directly below Marc's hall.

The Beginning, July 11th

It all began on July 11th, when Marc's hall of Wilmarth 3 started clapping for him non-stop in thanks for the weekend (it said to thank your RAs in the hall meeting sheet). Marc then got the spontaneous idea of doing this to David Grimes, so he led his hall below to the 2nd floor and interrupted his hall meeting. Grimes then chased the Nevermores of Marc's hall (Will, Freddy, and Young) from his hall with a bottle of shaving cream. He then ordered his hall to duct tape low on the fire exit, to bar (and hopefully trip) any other people from Marc's hall from entering. Communication lines between some members of Marc's and Grimes' hall and members of Marc's hall sent an unsuspecting Michael Song down to his hall. Unfortunately Michael saw the trap and hurdled over it, and just ended up running half naked with soap on his face screaming all throughout Wilmarth 2.

Day Two, July 12th

In retaliation to the above, David Grimes' hall duct taped the doors, hallways, shower heads, and shower door magnets of Marc's Hall while everyone was at dinner. David Grimes's name was plastered in love tape across the top of Marc's announcement wall. Along with this they wrote on everyone's white boards: not just Marc's hall, but also on Jeremy's and Jordan's hall white boards.

Day Three, July 13th

On this particular day there happened to be a thunderstorm outside, so there was no quad time. Instead, everyone was inside, which led to the most epic day in Wilmarth's history. Marc had managed to get his hands on portable iPod speakers for this occasion. Originally, there was only 1 prank planned to take place this day, but because the campers had an extra 45 minutes that would normally be quad time, other new ideas were implemented.

To start the sequence of pranks, Marc's hall, along with other belligerents from those caught in the crossfire of David Grimes' retaliation "prank," went down to David Grimes's hall, blasting Stacey's Mom on Marc's acquired speakers, with everyone chanting along. They managed to chase David Grimes up to the third floor and then back down to the second. David Grimes later came up to the third floor with Emperor Max armed with detergent as his bodyguard for peace negotiations, but the third floor waited in ambush. As soon as they had David surrounded, they started to play I Want it That Way with altered lyrics:

"Tell me why ain't nothing but a David Grimes Tell me why ain't nothing but a David Grimes Tell me why I never wanna hear you say David Grimes is really awesome"

While the whole floor was serenading him, Marc and a certain other individual went down to David Grimes's room. At first Max tried to stop Marc, but he was stopped by fellow Emperor Young. The main prank: Marc went down and "spooned" David Grimes's room. Now some might wonder what "spooning" is. Well, Marc went out and bought a bunch of plastic spoons, and while his hall/floor preoccupied David Grimes, Marc just dumped spoons EVERYWHERE in David Grimes' room and put it in everything, such as his socks, his detergent, his shampoo, his laundry, his bags, and much more. To this day, David Grimes is still finding plastic spoons in his possessions.

David Grimes's hall retaliated by putting shampoo in Marc's hair. Marc then went down to settle it one-on-one with David Grimes. They also tried to dump foam peanuts onto him as well, but Marc craftily managed to avoid most of the peanuts.

After showering, Marc led his hall down to David Grimes' hall for a peace offering, and he had some song about being friends? (if anyone knows the name of the song he was playing, that'd be great) David Grimes surveyed his hall, and they all refused to accept the peace offering. Then, David Grimes told his hall do whatever was necessary to get even.

This prompted Yih-Jen, Aaron, and Don to put Vaseline on the doors, but they were caught in the act by Young, who then escorted them back downstairs. As he left, Todd poured a bottle of water on him on the stairs. Young got really pissed and threatened to take away the Nevermore books from David Grimes's hall, which would have been unthinkable, but Young's threat effectively ended the participation of all of the Nevermores (which was more than half of the hall).

The Final Morning, July 14th

The final strike was unleashed by David Grimes's hall of numerous Nevermores, including Emperor Maxwell Hengeveld and Emperor-to-be Aaron Wan. At 2:30AM, Aaron, Allen, Neil, and Don snuck up to Marc's door on the 3rd floor and duct-taped it, firmly attaching it to one of the the bathroom doors so that Marc would be trapped inside his room. Behind the other door to the bathroom, they hid a bottle of horrid-smelling detergent, bleach, bug spray, and nail polish remover, uncapped, to spill all over the bathroom floor in Marc's suite as soon as someone opened the door. As they were putting on the finishing touches (writing forms of DAVID GRIMES on flyers and signs throughout the hall, vandalizing signs on doors, etc.) Marc woke up from the racket outside. When he tried to open the door, though, he found it impossible to get out. He had to call one of the members of his hall to cut him out of the duct tape trap when they woke up at 6:30. This was the last act of the prank war mainly because Marc took the prank far too seriously and threatened to have SRAs take away the last quad time from the whole hall. Thankfully, the perpetrators came forward and the rest of the hall avoided this punishment. Fortunately for those who took the blame (first three mentioned above), their sole punishment was the loss of final quad time (sad, but they were Onemores), with DRL Mike giving them a list of "What ifs" (all mostly created by Marc [not confirmed]). The graffiti (made in Sharpie) was left up, untouched for the remainder of the session.

Pottermore Musical Performance

The Pottermore Musical Performance was performed at the Talent Show, and it was beautiful. AJ and Veronica both made appearances and the audience wept. The rendition was titled 'I Gotta Get Back to Skidmore', and Carlisle was used in place of Pigfarts.

Sam Stansell

During the first session of CTY SAR 2010, the name of this prepubescent boy could be heard frequently shouted in a fake southern accent. The story behind this was in 2009 Maxwell Thomas Hengeveld, who became emperor for 2010, was tragically roommates with this boy and was quoted having said (in 2010) "My roommate was Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam STANsel". From here on out, his name would be said whenever he was in eye or earshot of Skylar Carfi (who was the one who started the trend in 2010), or anyone else within Maxwell Thomas Hengeveld's group of friends and spread to the rest of the campus. The a in Sam was stretched outrageously, and the word "Stansell" was pronounced with an aura of exaggerated satisfaction. His name could be heard everywhere, from the quad, to class breaks, and even the nevermore circle. During the slideshow at the end of the year, when there was a picture of only him, more than three quarters of the whole campus yelled out his name.

2010.2

Security Guard Caught

On the last night of CTY, porn was found on a computer in Howe-Rounds. RA's immediately sought out to find the student that was responsible for this. Eventually, they found that it was actually a security guard. This was also the reason why SRA Phil had to leave Wilmarth 2, which allowed the record 27 students to continue their ISO in 210.

I had a feeling there was something on that computer. I cracked the passwords for Phil in session one. - Harry Brennan

Raving on the second to last night

On the second to last night, none of the RAs seemed to be around, so all of Howe 1 were involved in ISOs. The most notable result of this was when Peter and Will, having an ISO in a room facing the grass behind Howe-Rounds, popped out their screen and began raving shirtless to the girls, who were watching and signaling them from their windows. In the process of raving Peter broke one of his glowsticks, so when he returned to his dorm and continued raving, glow in the dark liquid was splattered all over the ceiling, floor, and walls. Those in an ISO across the hall (including Peter's roommate) came over to see, and a frisbee was then covered in glowstick stuff as well. Some then crossed the quad to Wilmarth, while the rest continued to not sleep.

The Ramonster

On the last night, almost all of the guys in Howe 1 came over to Daniel & Peters room for the start of the night. 9 packets of ramen were made and put into Will's vermonster bucket. It was then passed around the circle, with a dedication made after each hit. Our RA, Dave, came in early in the night and told us we were being way to obvious, but we convinced him to take a spoonful of ramen as well. Eventually Will finished off the ramen and everyone split off between two rooms for the rest of the night.

2011.1

Friday

"If Rebecca Black wanted to get down on Friday, how long would it take to get to the top of Jonsson Tower?" - Emperor AJ

Jonsson Tower Record Demolition

On the last day, Matthew De Santis and Alex Libby scaled the Jonsson Tower (including the penthouse) in 35.1 seconds, with Matt as the primary climber and Alex as the timer. Now should there ever be a zombie apocalypse, BP oil spill, or U.S. debt default we can all rest assured that these legends will survive.

2011.2

Voldemort

"In the event of a second return of Lord Voldemort, how long would it take to get to the top of Jonsson Tower?" - Empress Haizen Poole

ISO Record Broken

On the last night, word was spread out across Wilmarth that the ISO record would be broken in a room in Wilmarth 3. Over the first couple hours of the night, people gradually poured in, reaching a peak of what is believed to have been 32 people, including one person who participated in the entire CTY program record of 37 people at LMU. At one point during the night Bryce came in to the door with some help carrying a mattress which he successfully snuck down a hall and up a floor to the room. Inevitably, the ISO was busted by RA Josh, who ordered everyone to line up against the wall in the hallway. Because a few stayed in hiding, the total reached 28 people standing there, trying to hold back laughter. A memorable quote from the radio was "Ok, so 28 people have just exited the room and are now standing here in the hallway" "How did they fit in one room?" "I....just don't know." No punishments were dealt, everyone was just sent back to their original rooms, many having to retrieve their fans, food stashes, beddings, and in Bryce's case, mattress. It is believed that it was only because of the SRA Phil that no one was punished in any way.

Forevermore by The Nevermores

The night before the talent show at around 2am (so technically the morning of) Nick Werker, Dylan Lynch, Muki Barkan, and Peter Park were in a routine ISO in Nick's room. They decided to write a song about CTY. With Dylan and Nick on vocals, Peter beat-boxing, Nick on the Guitar, and Muki on the harmonica, they proceeded to write the song. Their writing was interrupted once by insomniac RA Josh who came into Nick's room to tell him to be quieter while Muki, Dylan, and Peter hid. They joked about the fact that RA Josh never suspected that there were other people in the room despite the fact that there were multiple instruments being played and multiple voices singing. At around 3am when they had finally finished the song, they found RA Shaun in Wilmarth who was running the talent show and asked him if they could perform the song in the show. At the show, it was revealed they would be performing as the finale act. When they went up to perform, Nick whispered to Dylan, "Im a bit shaky on the lyrics, but you know the them, right?". Dylan replied, "No, I was hoping you would so I could follow you". The crowd, hearing this exchange through the microphones, laughed. Nevertheless, the performance was fine, and the song became somewhat of a symbol of the session and CTY as a whole. The song can be listened to and downloaded here [1]

Star Tripping Ban

As night quad time began on the last Wednesday, the students began star tripping as was tradition. However, before all classes were even released, the RA's began spreading the message that Star Tripping had been banned by the administration at JHU. The commotion cumulated in everyone forming a semicircle around SRA Phil and other authorities outside of Howe-Rounds. Many of the well-known students gave effusive and emotional speeches through tears defending star-tripping. During Gwen Hanley's words, her friend Dylan Lynch went up to comfort her with a hug. As more of her friends came up to join the hug, a massive camp-wide group hug was started. This was followed by everyone in the camp holding hands in large circle stretching from one side of the quad to another. In the middle of the circle, Quannah Potts and Nick Werker played the guitar chords to American Pie while everyone else sung along. A few minutes into the singing, most members of the staff asked to join the circle as a sign of resolution.

2012.1

Phone Number

"In the event that Carly Rae Jepson gives you her number (cheering from audience) how long would it take to reach the top of Jonsson Tower to call her maybe?" -Emperor James Gan

Note: All the royalty had kind of forgotten about this. Someone reminded me about an hour prior and I went rushing about to try to figure out what to say. I had come up with the idea of Carly Rae Jepson, and Libby had come up with the exact wording... I think Liz caused me to look up how to say her name. --JGlovesyou 03:39, 22 December 2012 (PST)

Naked at 9:45

Having heard about the previous tradition of half-naked half hour, the boys on Wilmarth 2 took it to a new level. Due to a combination of the heat in the building, RA James' reaction to their nudity, and the group's supreme comfort with their sexualities, Alex Eishingdrelo, Emperor Alex Libby, Nevermores Ryan Simshauser and Jeff Naftaly,and Twomore Aidan Terhune would show up to hall meetings in nothing more than their boxers or the occasional towel. Slowly the trend caught on and sometimes kids on the floor would celebrate half-naked half hour by keeping their shirt on and only removing their pants. Then, after the second dance, Ryan Simshauser arrived first, removed his shirt, and held the door for every guy in Wilmarth commanding them to partake in Naked at 9:45 (even though the dance had ended at 10:00). Though a few kids didn't participate in the event, nearly all of the kids in Wilmarth that night ran around without shirts or shorts.

P.S. RA James was not pleased and made the 5 kids in the original group put on clothes before the hall meeting. Suffice to say he was a bitch.

Drunk RA's

Two RA's were supposedly drunk and making out on the turf field on the night of Wednesday, July 11th. It didn't help that one of the suspected RA's was underage, 19 (turning 20). Never want to see that again...

Bluvuzelas

Created in 2011.1, the Bluvuzelas are the soccer teams that faced the staff in 2011.1 (lost 0-1) and 2012.1 (won 1-0). The name was created by Ryan Simshauser during the 2011.1 Frisbee tournament (came in 3rd place) and is a combination of "blue", the team color, and "vuvuzelas". In 2012, Nick Patel brought a blue vuvuzela which would become the team mascot (it was stolen by RA Evan Patel, Nick's brother, and was reportedly used to alert campers to lights out but was later retrieved when Nick, Kai Wang, and Chris Valdes inadvertently found his door unlocked). Three days after the student victory in 2012, Nick, Kai, and Chris passed the vuvuzela down to striker Jesse Godine who promised to carry down the tradition.

Notable members: Saaaam STANsell (2011), 2012 Emperor Alex Libby (2011-12), 2013 Emperor Eric Chen (2011-12), Miriam Pierson (Skidmore Eleven, 2011-12)

Founders (2011-12): Kai Wang (captain) , Nick Patel (center mid), Jeff Naftaly (goalie), Chris Valdes (coach)

add additional info if the team continues

Talent Show

The painfully bad jokes told for Luke And Danny's Super Magical Comedy Funtime!(is that right??). "Why did the plane crash? The pilot was a bagel." "'Tell them the joke about the jump rope.' 'Nah, skip it.'"

Also, the entire audience singing along to the piano rendition of Call Me Maybe.

During the Party Rock Anthem dance, all of the talent show participants were to jump on to the stage to dance with the original three dancers, but all of the participants followed the wrong cue and ran on stage too early. They immediately went back to their seats, until the correct cue came up about 30 seconds later.

Talent Show Glowsticking Ban

To carry on with the 1st Session tradition to try and convince the CTY student body at Skidmore that glowstringing was no longer allowed at the talent show, Emperor James Gan decided to find a way to convince everyone that glowsticking was completely banned at Skidmore. At the end of the first act, a glowstring ban involving James Gan and SRA Kenny was staged. Other ravers Alex Libby, Khirstine Yu, and Sophie Connor knew before hand that this would take place, and once James Gan convinced SRA Kenny to help out, almost the entire CTY staff was on board. It did not help that most Nevermores were (pretending to be) outraged, or that some prominent glowstringers were (fake) ranting at Kenny (some with false tears), but soon, most squirrels and some other campers were near tears in this ruse. At the end of the Second Act the appointed Nevermore Daniel Keller ran up to the stage yelling "YOU CAN RAVE NOW! WE LOCKED HIM UP IN A CAGE SOMEWHERE!", then they glowstringed.

Notable staff were the Site Director telling Emperor James Gan that he would talk to SRA Kenny about the issue, and Dean of Academic Life's assistant Josh laughing at upset students.

Many students from Session 2 and from previous years of Session 1 found out about the ban, so by the end of the Talent Show, Emperor James Gan had been swamped with text messages asking about it.

Bulletproof Dance

An attempt by RA Mike Schilling to forever engrave his name in the SAR Canon. He made a Daily in which participating CTYers learned his choreographed robot-style dance to bulletproof. When the song was played at the next dance, the people who participated in the daily performed the dance and many others joined in. Mike and SRA Liz performed the dance at the Talent Show dressed as robots. Mike succeeded in creating an awesome tradition. Suffice to say he was the chillest RA there and a sexy beast.

"PUT SOME SASS IN IT"

Unfortunately, with Mike in South Africa for Session 2, the RAs messed up the dance, and the campers followed, Argh!

RAs forgetting the Marriage Booth

For a long time, the Marriage Booth has been a source of polygamy for all Skidmore students. This year however, the RAs replaced Carnival day with "the CTY Olympics" and in doing so, did not hold a Marriage Booth. The RAs replied that they would hold one during the last dance; but this did not happen. While this is not suitable for the Hall of Shame, many nevermores missed out on their last Marriage Booth.

2012.2

Sidewalk Chalk

This year the R.A.S.K. activity was on the last Tuesday, and though highlights included serenading ADA Josh Keimer with One Direction and hugging random non-CTY people, the most profound R.A.S.K. statement was found the next morning. After the RAs usher everyone towards the direction of their respective dorms, they go to the Main Office, pick up the Hall Meeting notices, and then head back to the dorms. During the time that the RAs were inside the Main Office, 2012 Emperor Ginger and 2013 Emperor Max took out the pink sidewalk chalk smuggled in by Ginger and began writing "Jon Good Loves You." on the steps leading to Murray Dining Hall from Wilmarth. When discovered the next morning, no outrage was taken, though Sidewalk Chalk is forbidden at Skidmore. SRA Kenny even took a picture of the writings and proceeded to put it on Facebook with the caption "R.A.S.K. is one of my favorite activities."

On a completely unrelated note: they were both in Geoff Balthazar's hall, the best RA of all time, in the history of ever. (I second this. He was our RA 2011.2, and while I was only able to single-session 2012, he was my RA for my nevermore year, which made it that much better. --JGlovesyou 03:43, 22 December 2012 (PST))

The Cardigan Dance

Originality is the most desired asset in a lip-sync. Upon brainstorming innovative and new ideas for it, Nevermores Kevin "Wang-Bang" Wang, Jaymin Chang, and Bryce "B-rice" Bryce McLaughlin came upon the amazing idea of lip-syncing to lyric-less dubstep. Highlights of the dance to "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" included: Bryce, already suited up for the "Nothing Suits me Like a Suit" lip-sync, dancing like a wild man, his knees flailing about like a wild man, and Kevin's face during the only line, "Dad's home oh my GOD." The universally agreed best dance went to Jaymin Chang for the Cardigan Dance. Jay was once described by the father of a tiny nomore as "an extremely attractive young Asian male," and this is obviously true. During the breakdown of "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" Jay stepped forward and slowly unbuttoned his grey cardigan, sending the crowd crazy. Both genders, obviously. His famous move was later copied during a talent show MC skit and many other times through the session. However, none quite captured the epicness, because let's face it no one was as f&%*@$# sexy as Jaymin Chang.

2013.1

North Korean Attack

"In the event of a North Korean nuclear attack, what's the fastest way to get to the top of Jonsson Tower?" -Emperor Eric Chen with impeccable timing.

Single Ladies

Six fearless men, Emperor Eric Chen, Emperors-to-be Alex Eishingdrelo and TJ Noel-Sullivan, Aidan Terhune, Nelson Kim, and Derek Simshauser put their manliness to the test and performed "Single Ladies" by Beyonce in the Casino Night Lip-Sync. This great performance included very heterosexual grinding, perfectly in time ass-slapping, and sexy booty-shaking, all thrown together in a couple of hours before water day. The song "Single Ladies" was played during the next two dances and the same group would perform their choreographed work of sexiness in the middle of the dance floor.

Talent Show Glowsticking

As per custom, glowsticking this year was not mentioned at the end of program. After the final act, RA Dan Bell got up to announced the end of the talent show, while nevermore Sonya Wang attempted to shush him. Due to RA Dan's height and Sonya's lack of, this proved to be mildly funny before twomore Ryan Guo snuck up behind RA Dan and subsequently 'blammoed' him. RA Dan fell, seemingly unconscious, and the ravers carried him away before taking over the show.

Smashing the ISO Record

On the last night of SAR.13.1, several young men managed to gather together a completely unplanned ISO in a Wilmarth double, with a staggering 42 people at its height. While SRA Kenny asked RAs to bust as many ISOs as possible, most RAs did not put in much effort. RA Geoff, being the boss that he is, caught several kids on the first floor making their way up to the third where the ISO was happening. Geoff told them, "I'll pretend I didn't see that. Try again." and walked away. RA Jeqhari (also known as RA Jaquay-quay) was rumoured to have busted a couple kids while they were hiding in the shower. RA Dan J was confirmed by multiple people to have occasionally walked in unannounced, say, 'Guys, Kenny wants me to check if you just are having an ISO.' before walking out. He was also reported to have walked in, unannounced, with a water gun, squirt several people, and walk back out.

• Pictures were posted on Facebook, which was subsequently picked up on by the girls in Howe-Rounds. Only an hour before, RAs Nikki and Jamie had attempted to bust up a mere five (or six, we're not sure how many) person ISO in a double on Howe 2. However, as there had been a last-minute change to the nevermore pages, Empress Octavia Fitzmaurice, nevermore Christine Lee, twomore Qing Woon, and several onemores (Michelle DeSa and future Empress Charlotte Keeley), needed to commence the frantic restapling six hours before Passionfruit, and they were permitted to stay. The stapling party involved several people coming-and-going to help out. Upon hearing about the 42-man ISO, however, several occupants of the room decided to have a similar one. After rounding up as many people as possible in Howe-Rounds 2 (including the majority of RA Tricia's hall), the ISO was at its peak of 25 people in the aforementioned double. However, by this time, the RAs were suspecting the ISO and attempting to bust it, deliberately parking themselves in the hallways and lounge (RA Jamie had just earlier chased nevermore Sonya Wang down the hall with a water gun after she returned some melted ice cream to the freezer). During this time, as many as eight people were stashed under a bed, before several girls were smuggled out into adjacent singles on RA Nikki's hall, as the gravity of cramming 4 people in a single was considerably less than cramming 25 into a double. A few hours before Passionfruit, Empresses Danielle Gutman and Octavia Fitzmaurice went to a room across the hall to finish their speeches. Several girls entered the room a few minutes later, saying they had come from a bathroom down the hall where they'd been hiding out for two hours. When SRA Kenny eventually broke up the main ISO across the hall, girls all over Howe 2 left their hiding places and ran, trying to avoid being caught. Two girls were found in a bathroom stall, too afraid to return to their hall. The half-hour before passionfruit was spent by RA Tricia desperately trying to track down her hall. We apologize for any inconvenience, RA Tricia.

Eric Chen Losing ID Cards at the Dance

As done for every dance, campers whose "lost" ID cards are found by staff during the dance are called up to retrieve their cards at the end of the night. The man with the most famous name at the camp, Emperor Eric Chen, would famously "lose" his ID cards every dance and have his name called out. However, this legendary man with a legendary name did not just lose one card, but lost more and more cards every dance until his name was called out 14 times the final dance. No one knows how Eric managed to get these 14 ID cards, but no matter how he did it, getting the staff to say "erection" 14 times is truly legendary.

Note: One of Eric Chen's ID cards was passed down to 14.1 emperors TJ Noel-Sullivan and Alex Eishingdrelo, who continued the legacy of dropping his card at all of the 14.1 dances.

Broken Token Machine

What it says above. During the second town trip, CTYers spammed the token machine to the carousel so much that it broke down internally sobbing and the carousel people had to accept dollar bills.

Staff Trifecta

In an unfortunate year for student vs staff athletics, the staff, led by SRA Kenny was able to defeat the students in Ultimate Frisbee, Soccer, and Basketball. The students looked promising in the soccer game, but numerous brilliant saves by staff goalkeeper Shawn Lupoli, in addition to some uncalled handballs sealed the students 0-1 defeat.

Broken Speakers

For unknown reasons, speakers used in the dances constantly malfunctioned and would occasionally begin to play very softly. The problem was usually resolved within a few minutes and epic CTY music would resume playing at normal volume.

2013.2

The Never Ending Game

On the Monday of the last week, the CTY Staff vs Students Soccer game took place. The staff had won the Ultimate Frisbee Game the week before, so the students were determined to show the staff that they could win. The game started at 3:30pm, and in the first half, squirrel Ethan Tu scored the first goal. Later, RA Charly (?) scored the goal for the Staff. The score was 1 - 1, and after half an hour of overtime, the score was still tied. Therefore, the game proceeded to shoot-outs. By this time, students who weren't signed up for Soccer Watching were led to South Field to wait for the game to end and go to their weekly activities. However, the game didn't end until it was time for dinner. The shoot-outs started at about 4:45pm, and Tom, the awesome One-Hit Wonder and first cousin of Jon Good, was consistently blocking the Staff's shots. In fact, after about 20 minutes of watching Tom beautifully block the spiteful RA's shots, Julian (Yes, THE Julian) went up to Tom and kissed his forehead. After that, before Tom took his place inside the goal, one of the boys in the crowd either licked his forehead or kissed it with great affection. Tom always wiped his forehead with a big smile on his face.

The shoot-outs continued for about 45 minutes until SRA Kenny announced that they would play over-over time until either side made a goal. 15 minutes after Kenny's announcement, the Staff scored a goal and won the game. After the game ended, the RA's announced that there would be no weekly's, and everyone ran into the field and hugged a very sweaty Tom. A few boys picked up him up and carried him on their shoulders. Finally, everyone went to dinner.

Stolen Chair

Traditionally, Nevermores steal white plates from the dining hall and get them signed. However after dinner on the last Thursday of camp, right before the dance, two kids (who would like their identities to remain a secret, at least for now) took a chair from the dining hall atrium that they planned to get signed. As it was End of the World/Towel Day, there was an abundance of towels on campus, so as they were walking toward Wilmarth, one kid expertly hid it by throwing a towel over it. They made it down the first set of steps to Wilmarth with the well-camouflaged chair when an RA spotted them and asked where they got it from. When one of them replied, "the dining hall," he merely told them to put it back. The RA did not care and told the CTYers that he was just glad that he did not have to bring it back. This was one of the biggest and most impressive almost-thefts yet. It should also be noted that both kids were planning to return the (signed?) chair to the atrium at breakfast the next day.

The Saratoga Communist Party

One lovely day after lunch around the middle of the session, the much-beloved Isaac Wong was ambling about the quad, when suddenly, about fifteen of his classmates began to bow down simultaneously at his feet while chanting "All hail Chairman Wong!", catching the attention of most CTYers on the quad. This led to the worship of Isaac Wong and the creation of the Saratoga Communist Party. Unfortunately, Isaac was unable to return to Skidmore the following year, but he retained an intensely loyal following.

(Feel free to edit if you have any more information)

Twerking

Session(s):	2013.2, 2014.2

On break, one day, the International Politics class started twerking (a dance move that consists of rocking the booty everywhere) - and nevermore Morgan Jackson was singled out as an excellent twerker, and a video was subsequently posted to The Facebook, and went viral over the next couple of days, with entire classes watching the video. Although RA James was vehemently opposed to twerking, meaning that it only could occur at brief intervals on the quad, twerking gained some notoriety at the dances - in the center of major circles, Morgan would run in for a few seconds, twerk, be greeted by wild cheers, and run out again. He was never caught, although the intensity of the twerking increased at every dance. Even if he had been caught, no RA could've ever stopped Morgan from rocking the booty everywhere. At the last dance, when they played Baby Got Back (C'mon, they were asking for it), he twerked it all over the place. And finally, at the end, when "lost" lanyards were handed back, a number of CTYers started a chant asking Morgan to twerk- he duly complied, and thus twerked in front of the entire camp. Reportedly, RAs were not horrified, as expected, but had expressions of being impressed. The position of Spontaneous Twerker was passed on to AV for 2014.2. As of 2015.2, the next Spontaneous Twerker has not been named.

2014.1

Missing Boeing 777

"In the event of a Boeing 777 disappearing mid-flight over the Indian Ocean, what's the fastest way to get to the top of Jonsson Tower?" -Emperor Alex Eishingdrelo

The Skidmore head security officer then yelled, "You're supposed to say that at the end of the presentation."

(Sorry, quick note from a forevermore: you actually are supposed to. For some reason it's happened in the middle of the presentation for the past two years.)

Improper Raving Music

It was decided that only two raving songs would be played during the dances, instead of the three that ravers were used to. The songs were Sandstorm and Ravers Fantasy, and as these were the only two, Ravers Fantasy was no longer a nevermore-only song. Confused or perhaps a little indignant, ravers continued right into the next song, even despite the genre contrast. This resulted in raving to We Are Young by Fun. at the first dance, and Wavin Flag by K'NAAN at the second. While these songs really weren't made for raving, it was actually pretty neat and no one seemed to mind much. Also, there was a glorious buzzsaw orgy at the end of both songs. Sort of like a grass orgy, but vaguely more uncomfortable with more spinning things and somewhat brighter.

Bye Bye My CTY

The RAs who manage Talent Show try to put the best and most tradition-y acts towards the end of the talent show. Generally this includes CTY canon piano medleys, The Most Beautiful Girl in the Room, and the RA acts, but in 14.1, the third to last act was done by a fairly unknown CTYer named Kevin Shen. Looking onto a somewhat surprised audience Kevin simply sat down in center stage with a guitar and said, "Hey guys. I took this little known song that none of you have ever heard of, and changed the lyrics to make it about CTY. I hope you guys like it". And he started to sing:

A long long time ago

I can still remember when I used to go to CTY

And I know if I had my chance

I'd go to another dance

and sing a verse of American Pie

Kevin went on with 5 minutes of lyrics filled with everything that makes CTY, CTY as multiple nevermores broke down into tears. It was one of the most moving acts of the talent show, and the recording can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H5diu2db1k

Thank you, Kevin Shen.

Talent Show Glowsticking

As is tradition, the final glowsticking performance wasn't put on the Talent Show program. So after the last act on the program, SRA Kenny took hold of the stage and began concluding the show. Just as he was starting to announce nighttime medication, Onemores Ryan Guo and Griffin Badalamente and Nomore Kristin Miciotta snuck up behind him and hit him on the head with their LEDs. They then dragged him off stage and Nevermore Gaynor Norcott ran on stage and yelled "LET'S GET OUR RAVE ON!" and the raving began. Nevermores Aric Zhu and Joseph Chavez also joined in on the epicness. During the song (Technicolor by Madeon), Kristen and Aric did a back-to-back buzzsaw up the stairs while Griffin and Gaynor did the same on the other end. Joe and Ryan held the fort and rocked it onstage. Griffin and Gaynor also managed a back-to-back three-beat, which was incredible. During a choreographed part, Ryan, Joe, and Griffin began performing constant orbitals while Aric, Gaynor, and Kristen did Sam Stansell butterflies behind them which looked like hypnotic circles.

The 61 ID's

On the night of the second dance, people just handed John Corley their ID's all through the night. John kept all the ID's stacked in his pocket. As the night went on, the stack grew, last known, John carried 61 ID's on him. When the RA's had to call out each individual's name to get their card, everyone cheered and clapped- even previous emperor Eric Chen's cards found their way into that large stack of ID's. This ID distribution was the longest one in the history of SAR, ending around 11:05 pm.

Talk Dirty

During this year's Lip Sync, Emperors Alex Eishingdrelo and TJ Noel-Sullivan along with Nelson Kim, Derek Simshauser, and trumpet-player (Vuvuzela-edition) Aidan Terhune performed a sexy dance to Talk Dirty by Jason Derulo. Before the dance began, the emperors dedicated this song Kenny, the SRA. During the chorus of the song, Aidan Terhune went on his knees as he performed his trumpet solo.

Staff Trifecta (For the Second Year in a Row)

Like the previous year, the students were trifecta'd by the staff once again in 2014.1. The staff first tied against the students in a 0-0 game of soccer; this was followed by a penalty shootout that went to sudden death, which the staff won. They then secured a dominating victory in basketball, with a final score of 56-8, and defeated the students again in ultimate frisbee, which they won 6-5.

Surfboard

At Dave's Rave, the triumphant trio composed of Jonathan Drougas, Teddy Michaels, and Nick Liao, performed a somewhat unexpected choreographed dance to Surfboard by Cody Simpson. Their gorgeously choreographed dance included some hip rotations, mid-chorus thrusts, and some actual surfboarding as Aidan Terhune was the guest star who acted as the surfboard as Jonathan Drougas stood on his back. In his Passionfruit speech, Nick Liao passed on this dance to his fellow one-mores and friends, hoping Surfboard could make it to future sessions.

Mike Chin's Return

On the last Thursday, a threat more powerful than any other returned to Skidmore campus: Mike Chin, a JHU representative. Mike Chin is known for his hatred of anything involving PDA or fun, making him a general enemy of most CTYers and staff who meet him. He is best known at Skidmore as the representative who was sent to formally expel the Skidmore Eleven in 2012.1. When it was discovered that Mike Chin would be attending the final dance, a plan was devised by the older students to hide the Nevermore and Nomore couples in the center of a large group during the slow dance songs in order to give them more privacy away from Mike Chin. However, this plan was not executed correctly and Mike Chin could be seen on the edge of the sea of dancing couples, staring down anyone he felt was getting too close. Mike Chin also managed to completely ruin Last Thusday Night. Starting at lights out, he scared the RAs in Wilmarth into doing extra patrols, making it almost impossible to have an ISO. Despite this, one was attempted in Wilmarth 212 by D'Jamuel and Byron. It failed however, due to the fact that Mike Chin himself came to Wilmarth and forced the ISO's participants to scatter. He then wandered around for a while and fell asleep in the Wilmarth 2 lounge to the lullaby of terrified RAs and furious Nevermores and Nomores that he had created.

The Gaynor

On one of the first days of CTY, the Raver Group (consisting of Griffin Badalamente, Joseph Chavez, Kristen Miciotta, Mimi Silverstein, Gaynor Norcott, Eliza Hennebery, Andrew Cheng, Aric Zhu, Max Nobel, Lindsey Houlihan, Jessica Li and Annie Getz) were hanging out under the Raving Trees beside the dining hall entrance. There they discovered a new move: The Gaynor. Named after it's accidental inventor Gaynor Norcott, The Gaynor consists of a three-beat done on the knees while bending back as far as possible. This moves puts a lot of strain on the back, making the real challenge of The Gaynor that of getting as close to the ground as possible without losing your ability to breathe. The Gaynor was used in the weekly Ravers Circles at dances and also made an appearence in the the Glowsticking Talent Show act.

2014.2

The Plates of Destiny

13.2: When their Howe 2 hall was either fast asleep from ISOs galore or at the Saratoga Springs Farmers Market on the second Saturday of 13.2, threemores Dheivanai "D" Moorthy and roommate Emily Leibiger decided to do something special for their hall; they hung paper plates from the ceiling of their common room. They managed to do this in about forty-five minutes. No one is sure how they managed to do it so quickly and efficiently. Each plate was dedicated to a member of their hall, and each one listed why they loved them, what they admired about them, and what they were going to miss about them. On the back, they scribed "I Like you, I Love you, I CTY you! ♥ SAR 13.2!". Soon after, the hall woke up to the lovely surprise- and after all the hugging, thank yous, and admiration, the feasting brought back from the Farmers Market began just in time. A while after the session ended, this beautiful act of love became known as The Plates of Destiny. It went to show that for the love of CTY and its people, anything can happen.

14.2: Amazed at how the Plates had made the RealCTY page, and how much her hall had loved them, twomore Dheivanai "D" decided to carry on her tradition the following year at 14.2, with the help of twomores Emily Huang and Tal Usavatsky, and onemore Naomi Rafal, who graciously bought the plates on her Nevermore Town Trip at CVS. Naomi suggested they prepare the plates that Sunday night and display them on Monday morning, because they were short on time and lacked supplies, but still wanted to surprise their hall. Dheivanai, Emily, Tal, and Naomi worked until 2 AM to finish the plates for each member of their hall and more. They promptly woke up at 6, and with a whopping 4 hours of sleep, they strung these plates and colorful paper lanterns around the common room. They started off each plate with "You are incredible", and wrote the famous "I Like you, I Love you, I CTY you! SAR 14.2!" on the back. This year, the plates were bigger, brighter, and more colorful then last year's plates had been- and they were dedicated to people outside of their hall as well. Their RA Katie McGunugle tried not to cry at the display of her hall's love for each other. It was a great success.

Naomi, Tal, Emily, and Dhevanai hope that their hall tradition will continue in 15.2.

Squirrel Eating a Pizza

One day on their way to the library the International Politics class spotted a squirrel eating a piece of pizza. From that point forward, the class' catchphrase was "squirrel, eating a pizza!" This anoyed some CTYers, but many found it quite funny.

Locked study room

Directly before the second dance, the students at RA Paul's Hall (Wilmarth 2) were told to meet outside his dorm room. After the students were counted, Paul found that the door of a locked study room directly down the hallway was rattling as if someone was locked in it, despite that the doors are known to only be able to be locked from the inside, and the lights were out in the room as judged from the crack under the door. Paul and the students made several attempts on communicating with whatever was trapped inside (Including one in morse code) but they got no response save for the rattling door. Paul decided to "Let it go," as all the students were present and whatever was in there was definitely not a CTYer (As CTYers, unlike Rinas, are reported to be able to open locked doors from the inside, despite for the frequent lockouts). The rattling was not observed after the dance. Who or what it was is not known, and the door remained locked as of the end of the session, but it was a genuinely unsettling and creepy experience.

Birthday Badasses

In the summer of 2014, two girls, Samantha Worobey and Sidney Sponer, became legendary when they pulled a series of pranks and various badassery for their birthdays. The first of these infamous acts was for Sidney Sponer’s 16th birthday. On the morning of August 6th, the entire Howe-Rounds building woke up to lotion on all the doorknobs, faucets, and even staircase, as well as dicks drawn on every whiteboard. This led to an investigation led by SRA Gina. The following night, the night of the Dave Rave, the entirety of Howe-Rounds was asked to stay at the dance for Dave to lecture them. However, the administration, RAs, and the majority of the camp never got wind of who it really was. Only two days later on August 8th, Sam's 17th birthday and the last day of the session, did the girls commit another act of badassery. Due to a rumor of a record-breaking ISO in Sidney Sponer’s and Emma Nance’s room, they were being guarded by an RA and the entryway to their suite was taped off. Sam Worobey, who was over legally, knew they had no other choice then, but to go out the window. At two in the morning on August 8th, the girls jumped out of their two story window into a first floor room. The girls were caught going back up to their room at 4, but since it was time for Passionfruit, the RAs could do nothing but stare in awe as the girls slowly ripped open the tape to get back in their room. The RAs never caught the girls for any of their badassery, but the camp will forever remember Sam Worobey's and Sidney Sponer's badassery and wonder how they pulled this off.

Booth Record Breaking

After getting the idea of fitting 16 people in a booth from the Talent Show performance of Dumb Ways to Die/Dumb Ways to CTY, several CTYers in 2014.2 tried to establish a record, since they already seated a massive amount of people in the booth at each meal to prevent exclusion. They smashed the previous unofficial record by fitting a whopping 21 people into the booth, which included the following:

• Dheivanai "D." Moorthy
• Tal Usvyatsky
• Naomi Rafal
• Celine Khoo
• Eva Rothenberg
• David Lustig
• Clayton Pope
• Tripp Carolan
• Tyler Jager
• Max Nobel
• Jake Garso
• Tess Herdman
• Emily Huang
• Jay Coon-Retelle
• Neil Hooker
• Katie Phelan
• Emilia Nobrega
• Paul Wernicke
• Ryan Puleo
• Nathan Doucette

However, the validity of this record is in question as the record was broken in the large booth near the entrance, and the people involved did not eat their meals in the booth.

2015.1

Failed Jonsson Tower Joke

During the safety assembly on the first night of session 1, the man administering the speech failed to mention Jonsson tower. As a result, Emperor Ryan Guo was forced to ask Site Director Dave to ad lib and mention the tower before he dismissed the student body. When his moment came, Ryan asked, "In the event of Donald Trump becoming president, how long does it take to get to the top of Jonsson tower?" Poor Ryan, due to the awkwardness of the situation, poor Ryan absolutely botched his delivery and brought shame upon his family.

ISO records

Before 13.1, the record for most people at an ISO (illegal sleepover) was 31. This record was broken on the last night of 2013 session 1 when residents of Wilmarth were able to fit 42 people into Sean Lee's room on Wilmarth 3. This record was broken once again on the last night of 2015 session 1 when 55 people were packed into Wilmarth room 230 (Duncan Freeman and Avi Madsen's room). This record was helped by the fact that the RAs in Wilmarth were especially lenient that night and that there were already 10-15 people that usually were in room 230 on a normal night. At first, no one was even going to attempt to break the record, but as more and more people showed up, a list was made keeping track of the amount of people, and more people kept showing up as they heard that the record was close to being broken. 55 people were in room 230 at the time the record was set.

list of the 55 people: http://pastebin.com/2BpEaYwr

Staff Trifecta (for the THIRD year in a row)

Just like the previous two years, the staff managed to achieve a Trifecta, even without SRA Kenny returning.

The students' frisbee team looked promising and even conducted mandatory practices during certain meals / quad times. However, during the actual game, they fell apart rather miserably, as the staff scored twice in the first two minutes. They would lead by as many as 6 points, and despite a late rally kickstarted by a goal by nevermore Will Vanderbilt-Fried assisted by Griffin Robinson, they could not overcome the staff's early dominance and fell.

Despite the confidence in the Frisbee team (and lack thereof in the basketball team), basketball was actually arguably closer than Frisbee. The campers got off to a quick 4-0 start off of two floaters by onemore Anshul Barnwal, but despite Barnwal scoring 25 points in the game, the RAs (lead by Dan Bell, who scored more than 30 of his own), came back and outscored the campers 29-41. Captain Michael Zhou/Moo Moo struggled mightily in the contest, missing all of his shots. Although he did play good defense on TA Evan and had a memorable fast break block on RA Nick, he took much of the blame for the loss.

Soccer was the closest game in 15.1, with the entire game stretching out without a goal. It eventually went to extra time, in which RA Garret scored a miraculous, clutch goal in the final seconds. As such, the staff completed their Trifecta.

UPDATE: The trifecta streak was finally broken on 16.1 by the ULtimate Frisbee team consisting of, Duncan, Adam, Quinn, Andrew, Stanley, Griffin, Didi, Alex, White Ryan, Kieran, Avi, and Bing

The Whip

The popular dance "the whip" was brought to Saratoga Springs and once there took on a life of its own. Most people who wished to learn the legendary dance referred to the amazing nevermore Ashley Nobi as she was known for whipping with the utmost passion and fire. One night while whipping in their room Onemores Duncan Freeman and Avi Madsen came up with the idea of a talent show act of the whip and sprinted through Wilmarth asking various people to join the group which would eventual come to be called "The Boyz". The members of the Boyz on the night of the talent show were Emperors: Ryan Guo and Griffin Badalmente, Nevermores: Moomoo Zhou, Will Vanderbilt-Fried, Will Gao, Onemores: Duncan Freeman, Byron Sun, Hudson Kussie, Avi Madsen, Twomore: Nick Covelli and of course the amazing Ashley Nobi. The act consisted of "The Hills" by The Weeknd being played while The Boyz would hit the whip in time with the song until the ruthless RAs Dan Bell and JQ turned off the music and said that it wasn't the lip sync and "The Boyz" couldn't just dance to a song. The RAs relented and allowed the act to continue only after "The Boyz" agreed to teach them how to whip. This led to some of the worst whipping ever seen performed by Dan Bell. Before Dan's abysmal whipping could continue, the act was then interrupted by a flash mob to "We're All In This Together" from the film High School Musical. Unfortunately, not all of "the Boyz" knew the choreography to the new dance, and thus this interruption generated significant confusion among the members of the group. Additionally, the song "Watch Me Whip/Nae Nae" was played at the next dance, much to the satisfaction to everyone who wished to try to hit that whip as hard as they could.

Glowsticking "Ban"

On the day of the talent show, a squirrel was ostensibly raving on the sidewalk when he / she hit a passerby with his / her glowsticks, giving them a concussion. This person turned out to be a potential student touring the campus, and as such, the Skidmore authorities took the incident very seriously and put a ban on all glowsticking anywhere at Skidmore for the summer. This was spread by the ravers by word of mouth to everyone, from squirrels to nevermores alike. The camp was in uproar, and within the day some glowstringers even started to wear their glowsticks around their necks in protest of this new rule. The news was spread like wildfire throughout Facebook, with former Emperor Alex Eishingdrelo telling people that he had reached out to the administration who had confirmed that it was not a joke.

If not everyone at camp had heard about the ban during the day, they surely heard about it at talent show, when SRA Geoff took Emperor Griffin's glowsticks because of the ban and told everyone to go back to their dorms. However, Geoff was valiantly KO'd by some of the ravers [if anyone knows who they were specifically feel free to add them] and the raving commenced, with Emperors Griffin Baladamente and Ryan Guo, Andi Cheng, Zev Lichtenberg, Duct Tape shield holder Max Nobel, and Duct Tape hat holder Piper Fahey lighting up the stage with their skills.

It was later discovered that this was merely a rumor, perpetrated by the aforementioned ravers to carry on the tradition of "banning" raving at the talent show, with some forevermores and nevermores being in on the ploy. Although everyone was happy that glowsticking was still allowed, many were angry at these ravers and even tackled them to the ground (all in jocularity).

2015.2

JQ and the Boiz

In 2014.2, Wilmarth 3 was a legendary floor. Not only did it have the nevermore classes Physics and Chem B, it had the most chill RA combo to ever exist: Mike Tedesco, Jeqhari (JQ) Miles, and Sean Spellman. Furthermore, it had both current emperors and two future emperors. Of the many shenanigans this led to, such as Jeqhari having “nightmares” about large groups of kids running through the halls at night, perhaps the most notable was JQ and the Boiz. For the lip sync at Casino Night, Ani Nagesha, Ben Eisenberg, Cary Chai, Christophe Theodore, Henry Middleton, Peter Lu, and Serge Piskun, together forming the first iteration of JQ and the Boiz, performed Derek Shue's (DEREK!!!!) choreography of "Sexyback" by Justin Timberlake. Sadly, JQ was not in fact a part of the lip sync, but in his honor, The Boiz taped pictures of JQ to their backs, making said backs much sexier. JQ and the Boiz returned for the first time at the 14.2 talent show. This time, its members were Ani Nagesha, Ben Eisenberg, Cary Chai, Christophe Theodore, Henry Middleton, and Sasha Alex Kennedy. The group sang and danced to "Fancy" by Iggy Azalea, with Ani, Ben, and Chris rapping the verses. Because of the song's CTYi subject matter, many lyrics had to be altered to appease Talent Show supervisor RA Dan Bell. However, Ben got slightly carried away during the performance, dropping the line "so you want a bad bitch like this" only moments into the song. Then, in the final verse, Chris figured he could get away with a few naughty words, too, only making matters worse. As a side note, the girls’ RAs didn’t know JQ and the Boiz would be returning, and so stole the idea of their name, dubbing their act “JQ and the Lady RAs minus JQ.” The original JQ and the Boiz were disappointed at this copying of their name. To commemorate their times together, on Water Day, Ani Nagesha “liberated” an inflatable crocodile from the slip and slide station, which was signed by the Boiz and given to JQ himself. Because most of The Boiz were nevermores, no one expected them to return in 15.2. Despite this obstacle, JQ and the Boiz did in fact come back. At the Casino Night lip sync, they were comprised of veteran members Christophe Theodore and Henry Middleton and newcomers Duncan Freeman, Jack Schumann, Kunal Sengupta, and Maxim Belyayev. Initially, the Boiz planned to render Nelly Furtado’s timeless classic “Promiscuous,” but even given this song’s relative tameness compared to “Sexyback” and the fact that it had been done as a lip sync at previous Casino Nights, it was classified as CTYi by RA Megan, and so, after much debate, the Boiz settled on Lupe Fiasco’s “The Show Goes On.” For their comeback show, the Boiz invented a new dance move known as the “fast whip,” which entails whipping on every beat of the chorus of a song. Continuing Casino Night tradition, the Boiz once again taped pictures of JQ to their backs. Following Casino Night, the Boiz knew they needed to make their fourth and final appearance count. With this in mind, the song “Low” by Flo Rida was chosen. Similarly to “Fancy,” a good number of lyrics had a degree of artistic interpretation applied on RA Dan Bell’s insistence. For their last performance, JQ and the Boiz consisted of Christophe Theodore, Duncan Freeman, Henry Middleton, Jack Sinclair, Kunal Sengupta, Leila Eshgi, and Maxim Belyayev, and were known as “JQ and THE BOIZ + Leila - Leila + Leila (phor real this time): Part fore (IV) of for (4): The Final Countdown.” Chris, Henry, and Leila rapped, and everyone sang the chorus and pulled off stellar dance moves. After JQ and the Boiz’ triumphant final performance, four-time members and de facto group leaders Christophe Theodore and Henry Middleton MC’d the Lady RAs, who had once again copied the naming style of JQ and the Boiz, and gave a stern but fair reading of the part of the CTY honor code pertaining to plagiarism. On JQ’s final day at SAR 15.2, all those who acknowledged the chillness of JQ were given a chance to sign JQ III, another inflatable crocodile who had once again been “liberated” by Chris and Henry on Water Day, and JQ III was then given to the original JQ, giving solid closure to all involved.

2016.1

Jonsson Tower

"In the event that the USA exits the EU, how long would it take to get to the top of Jonsson Tower?" -Duncan Freeman

Flip Flop

Flip Flop

Mulan Flash Mob

In the talent show, Emperor Byron came up with the idea to have all the nevermores dance in a flash mob to "I'll Make a Man Out of You". (Byron Sun, Carly James, Duncan Freeman, Viky Filippou, Piper Fahey, Madison Williamson, Quin Koether, Avi Madsen, Ryan Paddock, Megan Lagerquist, Alissa Kong, Jessie Kwong, Catherine Vandermillen, Riley Yuen, Rachel Xiang, Emma Snoddy, Dori Newman, Sachin Mathew, Daphne Li, Leeza Petrov, Andrew Huang, Stanley Liu, Kieran Collinson, Mark Lavyentrev, Elaine Wang, Vicky Chen, Adam Garrity, Zibing Zhang, Isabel Wallgren, Natasha Stange, Kaiya Vicioso, Zoe White, Hailey Horowitz, Polina Whitehouse, Libby Owen, Chris Curtice, Ben Rosenthal) He choreographed a dance where the RA's pretended to be the Huns who the nevermores fought off the stage. We ended up doing the choreography when the song played at the end of the last dance. New tradition?

The Four Minute Floss

Also during the talent show, a group of nevermore girls sang along to A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton, using their beautiful voices, beautiful piano, and a bunch of kazoos. (Elaine Wang, Carly James, Leeza Petrov, Libby Owen, Dori Newman, Isabel Wallgren, Polina Whitehouse, Rachel Xiang, Emma Snoddy, Natasha Stange, Madison Williamson, Shelby Coe, Kaiti Filippou, Kaiya Vicioso, Vicky Chen, Alissa Kong, Hailey Horowitz, Riley Yuen) Before we started, we called down Randy Wang, professional flosser, to dance for us. He flossed for the entire song. He never slowed down. He was beautiful.

The Frisbee Win

As stated in the 15.1 section above, the staff had trifecta'd the sports games for as long as most of us could remember. Until now. The student ultimate frisbee team (Duncan Freeman, Adam Garrity, Quin Koether, Zibing Zhang, Andrew Huang, Griffin Robinson, Alex Sun, Noah Robinson, Stanley Liu, Didi, Ryan Paddock, Kieran Collinson, and Avi Madsen) beat the staff with a whopping 1 point lead. Incredible.