Part of this was about Durham University being quite prestigious, after the Oxbridge Uni's (Oxford and Cambridge). I thought I ought to confirm this (yes, Durham and St. Andrews are apparently where folks go if they can't get into the southern universities, or that is their reputation). In doing so I stumbled into some weirdness:
Milking - apparently a speciality of our very own Newcastle University; other universities such in Nottingham have joined in.
Porting, brought to us by Durham University
And, just so folks will know that St. Andrews is even posher they made a video of their own but apparently it upset people so much that the young men had to apologize for pouring bottles of Moet Chandon champagne over their heads. So maybe they aren't just more posh they are more polite? That video has apparently been removed from YouTube (my, they take this very seriously!) but hopefully you can still see it embedded in this article from the Daily Mail.
Don't ask me what this all means. I think it is a ramification of social media and probably something to do with rampant hormones or just the high jinx of being young. What I missed, not going away to uni!
Oh wait, it has spread... Has this come your way?
But never mind them, what about the high jinx of being retired? That will have to be another post...
4 comments:
I went to Bristol Uni, which competed with Durham for the dubious honour of being full of Oxbridge rejects. BUt yes, St. Andrews was always posh. Newcastle also had quite a few members of the landed gentry because all the farmers' sons went there for the agricultural program. That's why the likes of Beatrice (or Eugenie) went there.
Funny, I remember seeing St Andrews and thinking it was all posh because of the famous golf course...I didn't appreciate the status of the uni at all at that time. I remember that lots of Middle Eastern families sent their sons to the University of Oklahoma (not on your Ivy League list at all) to study oilfield management. Just as with the clash between the poor and rich in Durham, there was quite a culture clash when American girls fell for the charms of the handsome young Arabs.
I will have to ask my children if there is an equivalent in Western US universities. They were never ones to waste food or drink - especially not drink!
Beryl - Never mind the milk but imagine the stink of sour milk on the pavement; I noticed they did drink some of the milk. And never mind the port, look at all those crisp white shirts that were probably ruined! I noticed none of the Durham lads swigged at the port - that would be far too common. I've no idea if champagne stains clothing but I thought the St. Andrews video was fairly boring compared with Newcastle (which I thought was really pretty clever) and Durham (did a great job of demonstrating upper class ideals).
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