
MIT awards pirate certificates to undergraduates - jamesbritt
http://articles.boston.com/2012-03-03/arts/31115703_1_pirate-day-mit-physical-education
======
wylie
This article is about my best friend. He told me the backstory a couple nights
ago:

He gets a random email asking if he's available to talk to the Globe about his
pirate license. "Sure, why not?" So he gets on the phone with a reporter who
asks him about his interest in piracy, and that's when he mentions that he
used to dress up for Talk Like a Pirate Day in high school. "Do you have any
photos of you dressed as a pirate?" "No..."

So a couple hours later he gets an email asking if the Globe can _take_ photos
of him dressed as a pirate. And when he suggests they do it at the MIT Sailing
Pavilion, they ask around and find a photographer who somehow knows the guy
who runs the pavilion. So they meet up, and in some down time the manager
tells Jacob: "You know, he's a pretty awesome photographer. Everything he does
ends up on the front page."

And it did.

edit: I forgot the best part of the story (for me). I was eating lunch with
his former roommate when he walks right past us. We both text him. So he comes
back and talks to us for a while, then mentions offhand "So I need to go take
photos with a reporter for the Globe. By the way, can I borrow your socks?"
The next time he passed by he was in full pirate costume.

~~~
blhack
Link to photo?

~~~
wylie
Photos: [http://bostonglobe.com/arts/2012/03/03/mit-awards-pirate-
cer...](http://bostonglobe.com/arts/2012/03/03/mit-awards-pirate-certificates-
undergraduates/7bevphhaZi94oVMvctNslL/picture.html)

Video:
[http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/video/?bctid=1465014301001...](http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/video/?bctid=1465014301001&pconnect_name=986599)

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jeremyis
During my last semester at MIT, I really wanted to take the sailing class. It
always fills up pretty fast, and I was late registering. Clearly, my only
option for getting into the class was to show my passion for sailing by coming
dressed as a pirate.

I showed up to the sailing Pavilion all decked out, and the people who didn't
think I was weird (which was relatively few as folks are used to strange stuff
on the MIT campus), seemed to like it.

We weren't allowed to sail the first day, but the instructor did a
presentation entire the whole class (30ish students). He asked the class for a
sole volunteer to crew for him. Being excited to get out on ye olde charles
milky-greens, I hastily shot my hand up. After a moment of contemplation, the
instructor somewhat reluctantly said "yeah, we'll take the pirate".

Since he and I were now alone in the dinghy, I drew my [plastic] cutlass and
started whacking him in an attempt to commander the vessel. That didn't work,
so I gave up. On the way back, there was a lull as the wind died down. We were
just sitting there with the entire class watching and I was bored/thirsty, so
I took out my flask and took a swig. He gave me a strange look, which I
thought meant he wanted some. So I offered him some, which he kindly yet
strangely declined.

Needless to say, I learned to sail that semester!

Here are some pics:

In lab after the events, finishing my flask:
[http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-
snc7/25837_577030723648_...](http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-
snc7/25837_577030723648_706902_33312851_7597022_n.jpg)

Being a software pirate: [http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-
ash2/25837_577030868358_...](http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-
ash2/25837_577030868358_706902_33312852_1988020_n.jpg)

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JonnieCache
Anyone else think that making it official makes it less fun? I guess if you
were a student there now it would be cool that it got made official, but in
future it will be just another official piece of paper, rather than something
people do or say because _they_ decided to.

Maybe I'm just a killjoy...

EDIT: I see the article has a page two, where it details how they involved the
students in the whole thing. Note to self: resist the urge to skim read
articles, even if they are about students dressing up as pirates.

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wccrawford
I've never fully understood why a college would have a class that was wanted
so badly it was nearly impossible to sign up for, but not just have more
classes of it. It seems awful silly.

I could understand if it was a certain professor that was wanted, and not a
subject.

~~~
kd0amg
I'm not really surprised that the availability is still pretty low. Regular
lecture-oriented courses don't have to deal with requirements like "there is
only one room on campus where this course can meet," but this becomes a
problem _very_ quickly for pistol, archery, etc. I've never seen MIT's range
(didn't even know there was a range in Cambridge until now), but I'd guess it
can't handle too many students at once. On top of all that, I'm not sure how
easy it is to find instructors for hire in the Boston area (it looks like they
have one instructor teaching all sections of pistol and rifle).

~~~
wccrawford
Lack of land to have multiple classes of the same kind at once... That I can
understand, too.

Sadly, I can no longer cite some of the ridiculous ones from my college years
that merely required any classroom.

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evoxed
Adding to the (very long) list of reasons I wish I had considered engineering
much earlier in life (or rather, known what AP exams were– small towns,
pffft).

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noonespecial
When they finally meet the ninjas from Harvard, the battle will be epic
indeed.

~~~
glimcat
Yale students - not enough coffee, or actual zombies?

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adoyle
Rats. I don't think there was archery back in my day. I did pistol, sailing,
and 2 sessions of fencing. At least I didn't have to sign up at 8 am.

~~~
losvedir
Similar boat (heh) here. I did archery, sailing, and pistol. Ah well.

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d2vid
When will this certificate be available on MITx?

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fatjokes
Maybe one day in the future, we'll award terrorist certificates to college
students who take classes in chemistry, religion and aviation engineering.

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tomjen3
I am split. On one hand it is pretty cool that the recognize it.

On the other hand the entire forced 'physical education' just screams revenge
of the jocks over the nerds. At least at MIT it should be the other way.

~~~
cadr
The physical education requirement was pretty fun. I mean, if you can take
'pistol' to satisfy it, how much can you really complain.

On the other hand, I didn't understand why we had to pass a swim test.

~~~
gwillen
As I recall the story, it's because some large donor many years ago demanded
it as a condition of a donation. (And of course so that students don't die if
they fall in the Charles.)

~~~
Symmetry
The story I heard continued on to say that the donor's husband had died on the
Titanic when it sank, and hance her concern.

EDIT: And incidentally, I got 2 of the 4, and Kendo really ought to count as
well.

~~~
duskwuff
It's a pirate certificate, though, not a ninja certificate...

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killnine
Jealous..

