I'd like to share some of the amusing pranks and jokes from my undergrad days in the dorms at this fine institution. Just in case any statutes of limitations haven't expired, I'll say these are *alleged* incidents. ;)
1) Backwards Music
One year my roommate and I got involved in a feud with a fellow who lived across the hall from us. His favorite pasttime was to sit in the window sill outside our room smoking, looking like a small, sullen version of George Michael. He usually did this with his stereo cranked up so he could hear it conveniently anywhere on the hall, but oddly enough he only turned up slow, quiet songs, like Sinead O'Connor. My roommate and I would crank up his (my roommate's) stereo, which looked like an amusing piece of Soviet war surplus (and finally was destroyed when he threw it out an upper story window back home). "Smokey" would scuttle back in his room, and try to find something Bad to play, and inevitably fail, frustrating him greatly because usually by that point we were treating him to choice selections of our own plethora of foul music. But once when he was gone, his own roommate (with whom we were friends) let us in, and we made some...modifications...to his tapes. We opened up some of the ones with screw-fastened cases, and flipped the reels. Exchanging the reels merely exchanges tape sides, but flipping both reels about the horizontal axis and re-inserting the tape through the mechanism makes it play backwards (once it is has been rewound). The next time the guy tried blasting us, he was less-than-delighted to hear Sinead singing in tongues, something like "Eeeyurp brep vrup vweeeooop".
2) Umbrella Fun
Here's a classic joke I tried on my roommate when we had a prank war our freshman year: take a newspaper, and shred several sheets into confetti. Stuff the confetti out of view in the victim's umbrella, and take care to ensure that none will fall out until it's opened. The next time they open their umbrella, they'll be a one-man ticket-tape parade. I knew this had worked on my roommate when I spotted a big soggy cloud of confetti outside the chemistry building on my way to class. :)
3) Mystery Conference Call
My roommate was instinctively drawn to the phone whenever bored,
and was delighted when the school installed 3-way conference
calling. He would find two random people in the phone book, call
one of them, say "hold on just a second", call a second person,
and then stop talking and listen. A very confused conversation
would then follow, something like:
"Who is this?" "Who is *this*?" "Why did you call me?" "I didn't!
You called *me*"...
His finest phone prank was an on-the-radio phone chat with a certain president of this fine institution, but I won't elaborate further. :)
4) PB&J Sandwich from Hell
One year, a different roommate and I got started playing jokes, and would hide a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in each other's things. This was just a single sandwich, however, and it was soon a fossilized lump, turning up in boxes, drawers, pillow cases, etc. The day he left for home, I hid it in his winter hat. I can just imagine him, thinking himself free of this odious object, stepping off his flight into a cold brisk wind, and pulling on his hat...
5) Folder 'O Shaving Cream
Many of you might be familiar with the old trick of filling a accordion-type file folder full of shaving cream, sticking it under a victim's door jam, and then dropping a heavy object on it to expel the contents. One time, during a night of frivolity on the floor, two guys were "coined" into their room (the door was jammed shut with pennies). A fellow I'll call "Matt", because that was his name, set out to pull this trick, and filled a folder with a *lot* of shaving cream. Too much, in fact, because when he dropped a textbook on it, most of the contents blew out the bottom and covered him head to toe. Oops... The situation degenerated significantly from there, however, as the guys within the room finally broke out, and squirted everyone in the hall with squirt guns filled with *bleach*. They wrecked a lot of clothes, and got in a *lot* of trouble.
Incidently, interesting results may also be obtained by filling an empty Pringle's can with shaving cream, replacing the lid, and squeezing very hard.
6) "Dude! You're Glowing!"
One summer when I was here for a high school program, I and some of my new friends went to a chemistry demonstration in the evening. The lecturer demonstrated "Cyalume" light sticks, which produce a bright, eerie green glow from a chemical reaction. The sticks consist of plastic tubes with inner vials; when the tube is bent sharply, the vial breaks, mixing the two chemicals. He tossed it into the audience, and one of my friends caught it and took it back to the dorm with us. We cut it open, poured the contents into a small cup, and amused ourselves for a while by making glowing drip trails in the darkened hallways. Finally, one of the guys on the floor whose roommate was sleeping stepped out, saw the glowing glop, and was inspired. He went into their dark room, poured out some of the stuff on his sleeping roommate's hand, and then woke the poor guy up, saying, "Dude! Wake up, Dude! You're GLOWING!" Outside in the hall, we could only see a glowing hand being raised, and then there was a lot of hollering. :)