Did anyone else see that documentary about the University of Iowa's 'Greek system' of sonority and fraternity houses. It was quite the weirdest thing I have ever seen. Apparently a fifth of all new students arrive a week early to go through a sick selection procedure ('Rush') for all these 'secret' single-sex societies with names like 'Alpha Kai Kai' and 'Gamma Beta Sigma'. If they get in the girls get to be all prissy and live without alcohol and the boys get to boast about collecting more sonority girls' knickers than those pussies over at Beta Pi Eater. And they have to pay up to $11000 over their time at university for the privilege.

I never really understood what frat-boys were before. But yeah, if anything the girls were sicker. They all sang songs like 'We are Alpha Kai Kai and we are great / Always Alpha Kai Kai / I love Alpha Kai Kai' whilst touching each others pointed fingers and banning fruit in drinks. But the REALLY scary

Well here I am posting again (this has become habit forming). I want to talk about a few things, but I'll start with Nick's inquiries about the frat. part

was that 80% of all major CEOs and most of the military and all but two US presidents have participated in this 'character-building' tomfoolery. It's like SoS - but *WORSE*. Would any US listee like to admit to being part of it and explain why this is complete mispresentation?

I can't claim to have ever being part of a frat, but for someone who hates it as much as I do, I had to live the worst of the frat world, when I was unceremoniously placed with a frat boy as a roommate my freshman year. ( i was supposed to live with a guy who ended up not coming to school because he was dealing with issues of his sexuality.) He was a horrible human being--twisted and wrong, fat, smelly misanthrope who thought he was clever and cool because he was in the goddamned frat. Before he met me, he offered that i should join his frat over the phone. then he met met me and figured he didn't want a "faggot like me in his frat." I was constantly berated by his "brothers." His homophobic tendencies caused him to question all of my friends sexualities. He was a filthy individual, leaving food lay around for weeks at a time. Just thinking about it infuriates me. But I think it is obvious that the frat feeds into capitalist views of society. Everybody conforms into one big unit with a certain ideological doctrine and thus they have no use for those who go against the status quo of the frat. Because I saw no sense in the frat I was labelled in an attempt to discredit me. Too bad I lived in the honors dorm, and I tended to have more allies than enemies. Anyway, on to happier things. Thanks to everyone who recommended Jim Jarmusch's Down by Law. Excellent film. i especially loved Tom Waits in the film. Anyone had the pleasure of hearing his new album yet? And one last word, on impatience. Does anyone have any helpful hints? I am by nature an impatient person and the waiting game I am going to have to play with liz will probably make this summer difficult for me. So far I have been deflecting my impatience with mass quantities of beer, but I know that this is a band-aid measure and won't stop the problem. I have to be patient though, because my impatience will kill my chance before I even started. So if anyone has a suggestion, please let me know. Brandt "VIRGO AND CANCER: Virgo provides the emotional security that Cancer needs and the little attentions that provide affection. Cancer's dependence finds its perfect answer in Virgo's needs to be protective. cancer's imagination is stimulating to Virgo, and Cancer's anxiety to please deepens Virgo's affections.Both will come out of their shell and begin to enjoy life." --Sexual Astrology (1976) +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the reborn Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail "sinister@majordomo.net". To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to "majordomo@majordomo.net". WWW: http://www.majordomo.net/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "jelly-filled danishes" +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+