Don't talk like a frosh: a guide to Yalespeak

This is a dictionary of Yale lingo. Cut it out and stick it in your pocket, but take it out before you wash your pants.

Annex: Freshman year you live on Old Campus. Sophomore year you move to your college. Junior year you're back on Old Campus. You've been annexed.

Bagging: You're in bed. It's 9:45 a.m. You had a class at 9:30. Maybe you'll make it next week.

Beer Goggles: People start to look much more interesting when you've had something to drink. If you hook up as a result of this phenomenon, you've been seeing through beer goggles.

Big Sib/Lil' Sib: Worried about making friends at Yale? You'll have one assigned to you.

Blue Book: This Bible of class listings and descriptions is your shopping guide to academics.

The Bookstore: Barnes & Noble's idea of a college student's paradise, complete with college mugs and silk Yale lingerie.

The Bowl: One of the oldest stadiums in the universe and desperate for a facelift. It can hold 75,000 spectators, but even with free tickets for students, the Bowl never brims to capacity.

Bursar: The Bursar and your parents should become good friends. If not, you might get put on "Bursar's hold." This means that you think you're a Yale student, you feel like a Yale student—but somehow, you're not.

Bursar Billable: Free!—until your parents get the bill and start to complain.

CCL: Cross Campus Library, underground home of weenie bins and lots of '70s furniture. Almost as popular a place for socializing as for studying. Also, late hours mean lots of snoozing studiers.

The Co-op: What Yale's main bookstore was before the Administration sent these guys packing to a location next to Chapel Square Mall. No longer independent, occasionally cheap goods. Not to be confused with the LGBT Co-op.

Couch Duty: There are two people in your bedroom and you are not one of them. Guess where you get to sleep? Also known as "sexile." CR/D/F: Taking a class Credit/D/Fail means doing just enough work to get a C-, or doing too much work, getting an A, and feeling like a dork. Used to be CR/F. Back then, all you needed was a D-. Those were the days. Dean's Excuse: No need to choose between a wild night on the town and that seminar paper. Just practice your fake cough, stop by your Dean's office, and postpone it.

The Doodle: The Yankee Doodle, a time-tested hole-in-the-wall sandwich shop. This hamburger shack honors Doodlers who stuff themselves with butter-topped burgers in the Doodle Challenge—the current record is 28.

D.S.: Directed Studies. Also known as Deep Shit and Directed Suicide. Now when someone mentions Kant, you can say in all honesty, "Critique of Pure Reason? I hated Critique of Pure Reason!"

DUH: Acronym still used to refer to the old Department of University Health, even though they changed the name to University Health Services about 17 years ago. Have a headache? According to these professionals, you either have mono or you're pregnant.

Durfee Sweet Shoppe: This bursar-billable coffee and snack shop is located in the basement of Durfee. A convenient place for students, especially freshmen, to pick up a late-night snack.

Feb Club: A party every night for the whole month of February—if you can find it before the police break it up.

Gecko: A schizophrenic club—is it a cigar bar? a pool hall? a beer dive? a dance club? a bird? a plane?

GESO: A scary organization of grad student TAs that wants to become a full-fledged labor union. An endless source of controversy and a thorn in the side of the Administration.

Gut: An easy class that takes the pressure off a busy schedule and fulfills distributional requirements, such as "EE 101," "Physics for Poets," or "Clapping for Credit."

Kav's: Kavanagh's, the Chapel Street pub that, along with Miya's, in recent years has become a hot spot on the increasingly fickle Thursday night scene.

Krauszer's: This 24-hour food mart is the perfect and only place (after two in the morn') to fill up for a long night of studying or mitigate that 4 a.m. food craving. It is still referred to by its former name, "Wawa's," by upperclassmen fuddy-duddies.

Legacy: A Yalie who is here because his or her parent or other miscellaneous relative went here. They help the curve and heavily populate colleges like Branford and Davenport.

LGBT (Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgendered) Co-op: Sponsor of dances wild enough to attract students of all orientations. Not to be confused with the Yale Co-op.

Machine City: A subterranean mecca connecting CCL and Sterling, it's home to study groups, TAs' office hours, lone coffee-swillers, and vending machines that fulfill your wildest junk-food fantasies.

Mory's: An exclusive Old Blue establishment where Yalies drink from "cups" filled with alcohol-based colored concoctions. It even has its own song.

Naples: Far from the city in Italy, this pizza joint features greasy pies and bad beer. At one time a popular dance dive for Yalies, the Thursday night social scene is still alive at Naples, minus the dance floor.

Payne Whitney: Two pools plus four basketball courts plus one weightroom equals Yale's own "House of Payne."

Problem Set: The annoying weekly assignment you're inevitably faced with in any Group IV or econ class. This thankless task will keep you up until 3 a.m. on Sunday nights, but will only count for about 1/50 of your grade.

Reading Period: A whole week with no classes? You'll laugh, you'll goof off, you'll cry when finals come around on Monday.

Science Hill: A half-mile from Old Campus, this is God's way of punishing Group IV majors who would otherwise get no exercise.

Section: Is your lecture class simply too large? That's why there are weekly bonding sessions where you sit through long uncomfortable silences, avoid eye contact with the TA (see below), and listen to that one guy who's done all the reading.

Shopping Period: Couldn't decide between Ornithology and Introductory Kiswahili? Go on a shopping spree and make sure the TAs speak English.

Spring Fling: Campus-wide party the weekend before Reading Week. Held on Old Campus, this year's Fling featured Wyclef Jean.

Study Break: Don't feel like studying? Neither do the people downstairs.

Swing Space: Officially Boyd Hall (or "Boyd'we get screwed," according to displaced students), this swingin' new dorm temporarily houses Saybrook students while their college undergoes renovations, to be followed next year by Timothy Dwight.

TA: Teaching Assistant. They grade you in large lecture courses based on how enthusiastically you participate in (or attend) 9:30 a.m. Friday sections.

Tang: An intramural beer-drinking competition. Current chug-a-lug champs: Saybrook men and Morse women.

Toad's: This New Haven hot spot attracts all kinds of great musical performers—you know, like the Radiators and the Molly Maguires. The Saturday night dance party is a weekly fixture for those looking to get jiggy wit it.

Tyng: The college intramurals prize. The ax-toting Morsels won last year.

Weenie Bin: Similar to isolation tanks, the weenie bins are study carrels in CCL. They also serve as nap rooms and the sites of strange sexual escapades.

The Whale: Feels like a hockey rink, looks like a whale.

YCC: The Yale College Council, a student-government equivalent that prompts a deluge of pestering and postering just before the elections. Campaign issues range from two-ply toilet paper to building a pyramid on Cross Campus.

YDN: The Yale Daily News. Yale's daily newspaper. Don't work for them; it'll stunt your growth. Forsake their stuffy building for our comfortable, cozy office.

The Yale Herald: Campus's favorite weekly paper, with lots of photos, news, a calendar of events, comics, sports, and more. We also publish free telephone directories and valentines. Plus, we're cuter and we have more fun. Join us.

Back to Something Blue...