Friday Fun: Beloit College Faces Accusations that "Mindset List" Really the Drunken Ravings of Old Man

this is all kinds of funny: Beloit College Faces Accusations that "Mindset List" Really the Drunken Ravings of Old Man.

I tend to find the Beloit College list on the one hand kind of lame and the other kind of irrelevant.

And The Cronk knocks it out of the park:

Beloit, Wis. In a statement that surprised many higher education professionals across the country, Beloit College admitted that their popular "Mindset List," which documents the changing worldviews of entering college freshman each year, may actually be based on the drunken ravings of Marty McCommons, a well-known regular at Suds O' Hanahan's Irish Pub.

*snip*

McCommons' possible role in the creation of the Mindset List came to light when he released a clandestine recording of an alleged July conversation with McBride and Nief. The recording was aired on NBC Affiliate WMTV in early August, along with an interview of McCommons and his attorney Michael Benzali, who are preparing a lawsuit against Beloit.

In a statement released today, Benzali indicated that he hopes the matter will be settled to the satisfaction of all parties.

"Mr. McCommons, Dr. McBride and Mr. Nief all played a role in higher education history," said Benzali. "While it's true that anyone who's ever had a conversation about college students has the exact same observations that are documented in the annual list, Mr. McCommons' role in inspiring the Mindset List must be acknowledged. We are looking forward to working together to continue producing annoying overgeneralizations about college students together in the future."

In the same spirit, I'm happy to point to Tim Morris's Mindset List, Class of 1915, including among other salient points:

• The Toledo, St. Louis and Kansas City Railroad has never run in their lifetime.
• No one has ever been able to sit down comfortably to a meal of meat packed by Lithuanian immigrants in Chicago.
• Sears, Roebuck has always been a larger retailer than A.T. Stewart and has always employed more workers than the beef-tallow-candle industry.