Old tricks for new Cougars: Sometimes the modern generation tends to think it has all of the best ideas. Or at the very least, ideas that are pretty clever - especially when it comes to playing pranks on one another.
We've discovered something by perusing some interesting history books written about Brigham Young University.Whatever it is, it's already been done.
And it got them in a lot of trouble, actually.
Because it's the first week of school, we'll tell you about a few stunts BYU students have pulled over the years with this disclaimer: This is not intended to be an instruction manual. We won't claim any responsibility if some of these tricks were to be repeated this semester.
Full moon: Our favorite is the story of the streaker. Many of us oldsters remember this making the news.
In 1974, when streaking was all the rage, three guys from the university took off in only their birthday wear from one of the dorms, running past a women's residence to a waiting car.
All well and good. They were making good time and national headlines, but when they got to the get-away car, it would not start.
That was their undoing, so to speak. They were caught, thoroughly dressed down and charged with disorderly conduct.
The lingerie district: Along with the running amok barefoot, there were panty raids going on all during the '60s.
BYU President Ernest L. Wilkinson was outraged and called them panty "riots." He often appeared on the scene, threatening expulsion for all involved, but the fun-loving were undaunted.
One year, security police found their spark plugs all disconnected just as the raids began.
Sometimes coeds lured the men by dropping lingerie off the balconies, only to follow with dumps of cold water as the men scrambled for the booty.
Ernie ranted and raved, but to no avail.
Sign in please: Pranksters also changed the marquee at the campus' entrance. Using butcher paper, student made "Enter to Learn - Go Forth to Serve" into "Enter at your own risk.
The block "Y" on the mountain above campus once read, "Y Not?"
Kitten on the keyboard: One of the most famous BYU pranks from 1956 involved someone putting a chloroformed cat inside the keyboard cover of the electronic bell console atop the Carl F. Eyring Science Center.
When the frightened cat awoke that evening, its clamoring was broadcast to the entire city.
Spooky enough.
One month later, students constructed a set of motor-driven steel fingers to play the bells unassisted in the middle of the night.
That would be weirder.
Carrying on: Other infamous pranks include a pair of gym trunks sewn to the nude statue in the Stephen L. Richards P.E. building, the removal of the Foucault Pendulam's 177-lb. bronze ball and reprogramming of the bells in the Jesse Knight building to play "Jingle Bells."
Jokers put dead fish in the indoor planters and live fish in the administration building fountains. They decorated the president's home with 80 rolls of toilet paper and put a bed on the roof of one of the high-rise dorms.
In yet another brainstorm, 44 Homecoming flags were lassoed from the tops of the electrical light poles the same day they were raised.