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If at All Possible, Involve a Cow: The Book of College Pranks
The most brilliant minds on American campuses will not be found slaving away in some library or laboratory. No, the true geniuses apply their gifts in a more creative fashion: with irreverent college pranks. Steinberg has collected tales of the most inspired pranks from hundreds of colleges across the country. 30 photographs.
Paperback, 239 pages
Published
August 1st 1992
by St. Martin's Press
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Because I was involved in the planning and execution of EVERY major prank that occurred at the fundamentalist college I attended, I have a warm place in my heart for college kids who put phone booths on top of the student center or herd live cows into the president's office. If you think fondly back to the days when you floated a life sized inflatable anatomically correct doll in the school pond and watched from a distance as the crowd gathered and the police force showed up, sirens wailing, to...more
A fun, fast read. Read it during homeroom in high school. Details some of the best college pranks, including ones done at MIT and Caltech, and between the Lampoon and the Crimson. Actually an inspiring book.
I always feel guilty abandoning a book, but such is life. You know how a really good non-fiction writer can take something that many find inherently boring (like calculus) and make it scintillating? Well Neil Steinberg takes something that should be inherently fun and makes it dull.
Then there's the little problem of accuracy. There was only one reference to my alma mater in here, citing as the school's most famous prank something I'd never heard mentioned. At the same time he completely omitted...more
Then there's the little problem of accuracy. There was only one reference to my alma mater in here, citing as the school's most famous prank something I'd never heard mentioned. At the same time he completely omitted...more
A fascinating book! But like other reviewers have said, it's better read in bits and pieces rather than straight though. But it's an excellent book nonetheless. George P Burdell also highly recommends it... :)
This book should have been more fun than it was. Organization was also an issue. In the middle of a story, entire unrelated stories would sometimes be introduced in multi-page sidebars, requiring immense effort to understand either narrative.
And I would have liked more cows.
And I would have liked more cows.
If at All Possible, Involve a Cow: The Book of College Pranks by Neil Steinberg (St. Martin's Press 1992)is a history of exactly what it says. It's also an insider's historical catalogue of the greatest college pranks ever pulled - or at least those of which the author has first or second-hand knowledge. It recites the record of pranks played by the engineering superstars of Caltech and MIT and heavily focuses on the Ivy League. Most importantly, the author includes his contact information in an...more
Hilarious book of college pranks! A must read for a good laugh, and for plotting pranks of your own. ;-)
From the early shenanigans of putting a stuffed raccoon on the pulpit in the college chapel or parking the university president's carriage outside of a local brothel to the more modern hijinks of hacking into the scoreboard during the Rose Bowl or transforming MIT's Great Dome into a giant boob, Neil Steinberg has documented the history of college pranks. The absurdity of the pranks aside, Steinberg writes in an engaging witty style that had me laughing outloud. I was left with an appreciation o...more
A great book, listing dozens of great college pranks.
A good book to pick up and thumb through, but not as enjoyable to read straight through. Some of the pranks described were brilliant, some left me wanting more information as to how the participants actually pulled it off, and some made me wonder who would ever think that would be a clever idea for a prank.
Featuring MST3K co-creator Jim Mallon.
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Neil Steinberg is a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, where he has been on staff since 1987.
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May 22, 2012 06:41am