In loving memory of Tom Hogg, 1943–2023
MoFunny for
Punday · April 5, 2027
Why do we wear a Cap and Gown for graduation?
+----- Answer At The End -----+
Character - the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life - is the source from which self respect springs. -- Joan Didion, "Slouching Towards Bethlehem"
Maps encourage boldness. They're like cryptic love letters. They make anything seem possible. -- Mark Jenkins, "To Timbuktu"
What is important is to keep learning, to enjoy challenge, and to tolerate ambiguity. In the end there are no certain answers. -- Martina Horner, President of Radcliffe College
Americans spend more on dog food every year than they spend on baby food.
The frog is the part of a horse's hoof that is the center of blood circulation.
If someone is pretty ugly, which are they?
My two-year-old daughter, Paige, was with her mother while her older sister was being examined by a dentist. Paige kept herself busy playing with toys in the waiting room until she noticed that her mom was resting, her eyes closed.
With about six other patients waiting, Paige marched up to her mother, looked her straight in the face and shook her shoulder.
"Mommy," she yelled, "wake up! This is not church!"
My wife, Lani, woke from her doze to the sound of other patients laughing.
John went to his friend's house unannounced, and he wanted to spend the night. His friend was sorry that he could not offer him a whole room, so he said, "You can sleep on the floor in the living room, or you can sleep in the room with Baby."
John said that he would prefer the floor.
The next morning he went to the bathroom, and there he met a gorgeous young blond. "Hi," he said, "who are you?"
"I'm Baby, and who are you?"
"I'm stupid," he said.
Anti-Stress kit Penny: To remind you the value of your thoughts - BIG ones and little ones! Share them with others.
I couldn't help overhearing a man at a nearby pay phone.
"I know it's something you want," he said earnestly, "but I don't think tattoos are a good idea. And the same goes for body piercing. As long as you're living in my house, I think you should respect my wishes."
I was secretly cheering him on for his fatherly firmness.
Then he said, "Besides, Ma, you're 75 years old! You don't NEED a tattoo!"
Says a little old lady to the judge: "Your honor, I am 86 years old.
"So there I was, sitting there on my front porch on a warm spring evening, when a young man comes creeping up on the porch and sits beside me.
"He starts to rub my thigh, and it feels good, Your Honor. So I don't stop him, and he begins to rub my old breasts, Your Honor.
"Why, Your Honor, I haven't felt that good in years! So I just spread my old legs and say to him, 'Take me, young man, Take me!'
"That's when he yelled, 'April Fool' and that's when I shot the son of a bitch!"
You might be a redneck if…
Taking your wife on a cruise means circling the Dairy Queen.
After trying a new shampoo for the first time. A guy fired off an enthusiastic letter of approval to the manufacturer. Several weeks later he came home from work to a large carton in the middle of the floor. Inside were free samples of the many products the company produced: soaps, detergents, tooth paste, and paper items.
"Well, what do you think" his wife asked smiling.
"Next time," he replied. "I'm writing to General Motors!
A man entered a stationery store and asked the clerk for a birthday/anniversary card.
The clerk replied, "We have birthday cards and we have anniversary cards. Why not take one of each?"
The man said, "You don't understand. I need a card that covers 'both' events! You see, we're celebrating the fifth anniversary of my wife's thirty-fourth birthday..."
Why do we wear a Cap and Gown for graduation?
In the often unheated buildings of the middle ages, long gowns were necessary for scholars to ward off the cold.
Academic dress for graduations started in the 12th and 13th centuries when universities first began forming. Whether a student or a teacher, standard dress for scholars was clerical garb. Most medieval scholars had made certain vows, and had at least taken minor orders with the church so clerical robes were their main form of dress to begin with.
In 1321, the University of Coimbra mandated that all Doctors, Bachelors, and Licentiates must wear gowns. In the latter half of the 14th century, excess in apparel was forbidden in some colleges and prescribed wearing a long gown. By the time of England's Henry VIII, Oxford and Cambridge began using a standard form of academic dress, which was controlled to the tiniest detail by the university.
Not until the late 1800s were colors assigned to signify certain areas of study, but they were only standardized in the United States. European institutions have always had diversity in their academic dress, but American institutions employ a definite system of dress thanks to Gardner Cotrell Leonard from Albany, New York. After designing gowns for his 1887 class at Williams College, he took an interest in the subject and published an article on academic dress in 1893. Soon after he was asked to work with an Intercollegiate Commission to form a system of academic apparel.
The system Gardner Cotrell Leonard helped form was based on gown cut, style and fabric; as well as designated colors to represent fields of study. For example green was the color of medieval herbs, and was assigned to medical studies. Because olive is close to green, was designated for pharmaceutical studies.
In 1959, the American Council on Education had a Committee on Academic Costumes and Ceremonies review the costume code and make changes. In 1986, the committee changed the code to clarify the use of dark blue for a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Specifications:
The shape and size of the hood and the sleeve design of the gown show the degree a student pursued: a Bachelor's Degree gown has pointed sleeves and no hood, a Master's Degree gown had long, closed sleeves with arm slits and a narrow hood, and a Doctor's Degree had bell-shaped sleeves and a draped, wide hood.
The color of the hood's lining tells which college or university the degree was given by. For example: Harvard is crimson, Temple is cherry and white, and Cornell is purple and white. However, other than the lining, the hood must be black.
The field of study is designated by the color of the hood's facing. For example: Theology is scarlet, Arts Letters and Humanities are white, and Music is pink.
Caps should only be made of black cotton poplin, broadcloth, rayon, or silk, to match gown they are to be used with. Velvet may only be used for a doctor's degree.
Tassels should be fastened to the middle of the cap's top and allowed to lie where it will. It should be black, or the color of field of study, unless it is for a doctor's degree in which case is may be gold.