Hall of Fame:LAN

Early Years

1990.2 -- Boycott Oxygen Day

At Lancaster 90.2, Cynthia "Crash" Matuzek realized that oxygen played a key role in many destructive processes, such as rust and burning. Furthermore, she discovered that the element was a waste product of the first inhabitants of earth. To make a statement, Crash and her friend Robyn declared August 1st Boycott Oxygen Day. Propaganda was created, chiefly in the form of signs, saying things like "Every day, billions of people breathe oxygen. Every day, hundreds of thousand of people die. Think about it.," "Anaerobes Have More Fun," or "Blue is Better!" and signed "AP Chem Students for an Anaerobic Tomorrow." There was no big celebration, but picketing and signs were there. Since then, the day has lived on with the O₂ (the molecule of oxygen) in a circle with a line through it painted on the backs of CTY shirts. The holiday was still confirmed to be around for at least five years after Crash was gone, making it a part of the CTY Hall of Fame.

Note: When the first Boycott Oxygen day arrived, Crash showed up late for her ACHEM class unaware that the classroom had been evacuated. An experiment had gone awry, and she ended up with sulfur dioxide poisoning. She was rushed to the emergency room where they administered... that's right, pure oxygen.

1991.2 -- The Duck

Starting in 1991 and continuing since then, a small fuzzy duck has been passed from one CTYer to another at Lancaster. Originally purchased for 13 dollars for a talent show act, the original owner felt silly for spending 13 dollars for a duck he was only going to use once. So, one day, in Thomas 1, he passed the duck to someone else. The next year, they passed it to a new person. And so on, through the years, to the present day. The bizarreness and long-life of this ritual surely earns it a place in the CTY Hall of fame.

See also: Duck

1993 -- Swirly Man

At Lancaster in 1993, four guys who took geology together and (like everyone else at CTY) had lots of in-jokes. They were all 15, and one running joke involved interesting ways to keep the younger CTYers on their hall in line. Swirlies became the preferred method. (Although none was ever actually administered, they were a helluva lot of fun to joke about). Basically, a swirly meant taking a punk by the collar and dunking his head in the toilet.
In the second week of the session, one of them made an impromptu costume for Swirly Man, Defender of the CTY Faith, and wrote a theme song for this new superhero that regaled his super powers and CTY traditions. Swirly Man soon had a sidekick named Toilet Boy; and two other superheros, Horny Man and Mental Man, were also soon born. Each had his own theme song. The four of them together made appearances at dances, activity periods, and other events; but their mortal identities were never known outside of their hall. The next year, the superheros reunited and made appearances all over campus. At the final dance, they were in high demand among the ladies. Their mortal identities might have slipped out that last night, but regardless, they made it into the CTY Hall of Fame.

Edit by Andrew Dodd - I believe Swirly Man was Dan Fingerman. I don't recall who the other superheroes were, it's been over a decade since that Geology class. Toilet Boy may or may not have been Brad Chain.

I believe the identities of the sidekicks may have changed during the ensuing years.

1994 -- The DigiClan

The DigiClan started in 1994 at Lancaster, with a group of students taking digi. Through the years, the DigiClan has grown and expanded. It runs a mailing list, a webpage, and holds many reunions. Soon after its creation, it merged with the Land of the Large Round Tables, and since then, it has been adding members, some CTYers, some not. A perfect example of CTY friendships overcoming distance and time, the DigiClan deserves a place in the CTY Hall of Fame.

See also: Digiclan, Alcove

1996.2 -- Carmen the Frog

One of the most infamous displays of weirdness was put on by Judy at CAR-1-96 and LAN-2-96. Through both sessions, Judy wore a stuffed green frog named Carmen on her head. Carmen managed to hold her perch through class, activities, hall meetings, meals, social time, and even dances. During first session, Judy and her friend down the hall, Won, hooked Carmen up with Won's stuff walrus John, making them "the cutest stuffed animal couple in Carlisle." Second session, Carmen managed to become a scapegoat for the Lancaster faculty, who unjustly blamed her for all their problems. (Note: This is not true. We thought there was really something mentally wrong with her that made her engage in such attention-seeking behavior. It really made you wonder why she would wear a stuffed frog on her head not just once, but every day she was there. We blamed our problems on the administration and the huge amounts of Yeungling Lager we consumed.) Wearing Carmen earned Judy the nickname "Frog girl" and earned them both a place in the CTY Hall of Fame.

2004

2004.1 -- The Most Adoptions Ever

Zev Hurwich currently holds the unchallenged record for being adopted 42 times in his squirrel year. The idea for this started due to his seeming dual adoption, first by Alexia Simmonard, and then by Jeremy Berkowitz. Zev and Jeremy discussed the possibility of being adopted more than once which led to the idea of being adopted 42 times. Zev and Jeremy, in the last week of 04.1, ran around the campus asking people to adopt Zev. The entire Alcove of 04.1 ended up adopting him, plus other random people around the site, leading to a final tally of 42 adoptions.

2004.2, 2005.2 -- First Dietz and Tunak Tunak Tun

First Dietz of 04.2 is most famous for choreographing the Lancaster specific dance to Tunak Tunak Tun by Daler Mehndi. It all started when Adam Roush, the hall's RA, decided to show the Tunak Tunak Tun music video to his hall. By complete coincidence, one of the kids in the hall actually happened to have the official album with Tunak Tunak Tun on it. On the first weekend, the bored First Dietzers decided to make a fun dance to the song that everyone would love. They showed it to everyone later that afternoon, during the weekend activity "A day at the Mall". One year later, at LAN 05.2, 3 First Dietzers tried hard and succeeded in getting Tunak Tunak Tun onto the Lower Canon. Because of their accomplishment, we welcome First Dietz to the Hall of Fame.

2005

2005, 2006 -- Follow the Hager

Follow the Hager was started in 2005.1 by his hall during one of the dances. Brian Hager's hall was not very fond of the official dances, so they had their own "anti-socials" instead, where they'd use Jeremy Cockerham's speakers to blast their own music. Hager was not fond of this, so he took away the power cord for the speakers and made his hall attend the dance. However, they were morally opposed to this and started following him around at the dance and annoying him to give back the cord. Hager told them they wouldn't win unless maybe they got 50 or so people to follow him around. So led by John Russel, Jeremy Cockerham, and El Supremo, Hager's hall recruited about half the campus to follow Hager. During this time they chanted things like "Hager" and "Imhotep, Imhotep" (a reference to The Mummy), this lasted for a while until a Canon song was played and everyone went to participate in that. However, following Hager was continued second session and brought on as an activity in 2006. Unfortunately, Hager did not return in 2007, and Follow the Frank was instead an activity. In 2008, with Frank as an SRA, the activity returned as Follow the Tom. However, this corrupted version of the activity involved cleaning up the campus with trash bags.

2005.2, 2006.2, 2007.2 -- THEO vs. ETYM

[[1]]

At Lancaster 05.2, a war was waged between the Number Theory class and the Etymologies class. It started because the Number Theory class began chanting "PROOF PROOF PROOF, PROOOOOF!" during class. Etymlogies produced their own chant of "PARSE PARSE PARSE, ASSIMILATION!" Then one day, ETYM was outside, parsing words on the sidewalk with chalk. The next day, as they walked out for break, they found that Fermat had spraychalked terrible grafitti over their work. The grafitti read Xⁿ+Yⁿ≠Zⁿ if n>2. PROOF, PROOF, PROOF. Etymologies was outraged. They drew proclamations of war all over the ground in front of Keiper. Number Theory was shocked to find out what had happened, but also had their own chalk. Numerous insults involving sets of Natural Numbers, and "q-ness" could be seen for several yards, and also the adding of an 'n' to Etymologies, thus creating 'Entymologies' (the study of bugs). But perhaps the biggest insult was the writing of "ETYM does not equal 42". Etymologies retaliated with more sidewalk chalk, and by taping Old English kennings to the door of the Number Theory classroom. More chant-offs ensued, but all was resolved come Valentine's Day, when the Number Theory class revealed that they were actually in love with the Etymologies class, and that their past actions were actually covering up that fact. Number Theory gave Etymologies a card which exclaimed that they wanted to make little baby classes with them. And included a poem which read:

Roses are red
Violets are blue
You guys are as golden
as (1+√(5))/2

This infamous display of weirdness soon got attention from people all around campus, thus earning it a spot in the hall of fame.

---

The fight continued into 06, when on the second Friday of Second Session, ETYM locked THEO in their own room via means of a massive rope (consisting of almost 600 yards of dental floss) and a few knots around the doorknob. As of 3:00 pm on the last day, there was still a ring of floss rope around the door.-Jeremy Cockerham (AKA DickinChickin) By the courtesy of the Etymologies class: PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE *PROOF* PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE PARSE!!!!!

I'll parse you!

Among the mischief Number Theory pulled off during second session 06 was to sneak into the Etymologies classroom and write "proof" all over the board. Later in the session, they silly-stringed the Etymologies classroom but were forced to clean it up themselves.

Along with locking THEO in their own classroom, Etymologies, on the last class session, snuck into the THEO room before they arrived and proceeded to hold class in their room. When the number theorists arrived, they were mightily confused.

To signify, on the last day, that the Etymologists were the clear winners of the 06.2 war, Etymologies made Theo walk under a jump rope, admitting their defeat. Only Joe knows what exactly this means.

After becoming increasingly annoyed at Number Theory's chanting (06.02), Math Logic decided to join the fun. In addition to chanting "Proof" loudly, the REAS class had the bright idea to chant "We'll get you while you're sleeping!" The war was later carried outside, with several proofs and paradoxes scribbled in chalk. Interestingly, our Instructor and TA seemed to take the matter more seriously than we did, plotting ways to trick the Number Theory kids into thinking their class was in the library.... (The TA in question would like to point out that she doesn't remember plotting any ways to trick Number Theory kids into thinking their class was in the library. Sounds like an ETYM thing to do. However, we did cooperate with Etymologies, coordinating a time at which both classes would bang on the wall they shared with Number Theory (as both ETYM and REAS were neighbors with THEO)).

Note: In 2007 (only during session 2, the most first session 07 did with other classes was chant the Hymn of the Arval Bretheren to classes-that-weren't-crypto), THEO and ETYM kids shared a hall in Dubbs 2. Although it at first appeared a potentially bad situation, the two classes were in different buildings, and no battles were waged between the classes. And although Crafting the Essay classes on that floor tried to wage war with THEO by yelling CRAFT CRAFT CRAFT, sending an incomprehensible letter, and responding to THEO's Fermat graffiti with some small marks of their own, they failed miserably. Which also brings up more mischief conducted between THEO and ETYM in 2007, most noticeably our own version of tag. In this game (only played in a couple brief spurts, and only between Dubbs 2 members) , players could only tag members of the opposite class. A THEO student tagging an ETYM student would say "Proof, no parsebacks". The tagged student would then have to find a different member of the THEO class to tag and say "Parse, no proofbacks". The novelty wore off rather quickly, and the game is unlikely to continue.

Note: This particular rivalry often extended beyond the two classes. In 06. Crafting the Essay B was right in the middle of their war, and participated whenever allowed.

2006

2006.1 -- The Forty Two Person Grass Orgy

In Lancaster 06.1 during the first week of CTY when hand holding was still considered quite promiscuous Teh Corner decided to start a grass orgy. They had already been reprimanded for similar conduct but they hoped that they could get away with it. Then realizing that the more people who joined the orgy the less likely they were to get into trouble so members of Teh Corner kept inviting random people to join the orgy. When the orgy had past around 23 people the idea came into the minds of those present to achieve a forty two person grass orgy. Within a few minutes they had achieved the ultimate grass orgy and not a single one got yelled at by any member of staff.

2006.1, 2007.1, 2008.1 -- Dr. Mario Dance

In 2006.1, Dan Salvato was one day sitting on his bed with his roommate, Kaai Yee. He was going through songs on his iPod when the Dr. Mario theme song (the Fever theme, as composed in Super Smash Bros. Melee) happened to play. Dan started to do a little dance to the song, which his roommate found quite funny. Upon hearing the silly song, someone else in the hall walked in to find Dan dancing; he thought it was funny as well. Before long, Dan had stood up and was improvising a dance to the Dr. Mario song while many of his hallmates were watching, being thoroughly entertained. After performing this dance a second time, this time to the entire hall, they all asked if they could learn the dance. Dan taught it to his hall (whose RA was Etse) and seven of them, including himself, performed it during the final dance, followed by Dan announcing "We just lost the rest of our dignity." Nobody had cheered for Dan quite as much as the audience did that one night, and Dan knew he had created something special. Unfortunately, the video of the original performance was presumably lost.

The Dr. Mario Dance was then forgotten about until 2007.1, when Dan resurfaced it by teaching the dance to his entire hall. He told his hall to keep quiet about the dance so it could be a surprise when performing it the upcoming Saturday. However, Dan developed a small crowd outside of the cafeteria after dinner one day by playing the Pokemon Theme Song. Being surrounded by this crowd, he couldn't help but do the Dr. Mario Dance, leaving his hall rather disappointed with him, having broken the secret that he himself had created. However, when Dan was on his way inside, Frank Wang caught up to him and asked him if he could personally teach the dance to Frank. Dan couldn't refuse this incredible honor; he taught the Dr. Mario Dance to his RA, Ruven Chu, and to Frank Wang during Quad Time the next day.

When the time came, Dan's hall, as well as his RA and Frank Wang, performed the Dr. Mario Dance during the dance on the second Saturday. Dan then taught it to those involved in the Talent Show, and as a last-minute addition, the dance was added to the end of the show; all Talent Show participants ran up onto the stage and performed the Dr. Mario Dance in front of all of CTY. At of the end of 2007.1, over fifty people had already learned the dance and there was talk of adding the Dr. Mario song to the Canon.

Meanwhile, Frank Wang carried the Dr. Mario Dance over to 2007.2, teaching it during Quad Time. Though it was taught with some mistakes, the Dr. Mario song was played every other dance, as if it were a part of the Lower Canon. The song never quite caught on as much without Dan, however, and there were no plans for the Dr. Mario song to become a part of the Lower Canon in Session 2. However, popularity of the dance continues to grow in 2008.2, thanks to Max Wang and Frank Wang.

During 2008.1, the popularity of the Dr. Mario Dance grew as Dan performend outside the cafeteria after dinner on the first Wednesday. The following day, Dan taught the Dr. Mario Dance during Quad Time after students were taught the CTY Shuffle. This was completely successful and allowed approximately 150 more people to learn the dance. It was then played during the dance of the first Friday. The song was played once more during the dance of the second Saturday before two successive votes were held on Sunday and Monday to remove Rock Lobster from the Lower Canon and add Dr. Mario to the Lower Canon. Rock Lobster was removed and Dr. Mario succeeded with a 53% majority. Because of this slim majority, Dr. Mario has been placed on a one-year trial basis and a second vote will be held in 09.1. If this vote is also successful, Dr. Mario will remain in the Lower Canon for years to come. The removal of Rock Lobster and the addition of Dr. Mario has also been the first official split between the Canons of Session 1 and Session 2.

There is a video of the dance performed by Ruven's hall, with Dan in the front, here. A video of Dan doing the dance alone can be found here. A detailed instructional video will be created soon.

2007

2007.2 -- All-Site Photo Consent Form

In 2007, the entire CTY program adopted a rule that made photography and videography of any sort illegal without consent of all those photographed. For reasons beyond his knowledge, Max Wang was alone taken aside during a period of Acting Improv and informed of this rule. He was brought to Thomas and was told by staff and the site director to erase all of his video memory. Max was told that he could continue photographing and taping AI so long as he had consent, but not anything of a greater scale. After ascertaining that nobody at AI was opposed to any kind of image recording device, Max tore some pages out of his RealCTY binder and began a consent form (simply out of being anti-authoritarian; not holding anything against the Lancaster staff members in particular). By the same time the next day, the consent form had a total of 440 signatures (out of the no more than 459 students besides himself at camp). Max was then given permission to record at his will in accord with normal, state/federal laws (although everybody else could do this anyway...)

Unfortunately, Max currently still requires parental consent to post pictures and will be attempting to attain it shortly. If he gets a reasonably decent number of people, he will simply blot out those who do not consent. Maybe this should go into the Hall of Shame, too...