Talk:Harvard Yard

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[edit] Urination on John Harvard Statue

interestingstuffadder has added a tidbit about Harvard Yard urination. It seems like it is at least somewhat disputed, since the history shows some reversion of it. The "citation" is a link to a blog quoting another blog of someone who said she went to Harvard Law and heard rumors about what the Harvard undergraduates did. This doesn't seem to meet Wikipedia:Verifiability. Anyone care to add a better source?--Wikiwriter706 23:22, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

I just added 9 more sources as evidence for the tradition(known to every Harvard undergrad) of urinating on the John Harvard statue's foot. Some are mentions in serious campus newspapers, some are references from a campus humor magazine and some are from blogs/other accounts written by visitors. Hope this helps. Interestingstuffadder 00:57, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

Anyhow, ten footnotes really is cumbersome. Why not just use the best one? AJD 22:54, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

I just came to this article and noticed this is a continuing problem.... which is sad. None of the additional citations make me believe the claim is verifiable fact. It also seems like it is original research (e.g. relying on primary documents like a police report, rather than relying on secondary documents). So on those grounds I don't think it really belongs here... but I agree that it is "interesting stuff" and it is mostly harmless. I don't think it is worth the ongoing edit warring and fighting that seems to have been happening over it. In an attempt to resolve the issue, I did the following:

• Removed inappropriate sources (fictional satire stories and blog posts--please don't readd these, they are completely superfluous)
• Moved remaining sources to a footnote, with qualifying descriptions
• Rephrased the caption to emphasize that this is a rumor, and not necessarily verifiable fact.

It's my hope that this will allowing the tidbit to remain, which User:Ajd and User:interestingstuffadder really seem to favor, but at the same time address the apparent concern of the person(s) who keep deleting it. --Wikiwriter706 20:19, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

http://media.thecrimson.com/1-14-2008/pic-500-1206935.jpg. I hope this will allay any doubts as to whether the said urination actually takes place. It does, and with relative regularity. I'm changing the wording. 140.247.45.179 (talk) 18:56, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

And that couldn't have been a set-up, of course. - Dudesleeper / Talk 19:38, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Edit War/Vandalism

...So, can we start banning these IP addresses? AJD 00:25, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] History needed

Could someone relate the origins of the Yard as a cow yard and explain how Harvard came to own it and when the first trees were planted? --Edit07 19:21, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Is the "Park the car in Harvard Yard" sentence really used to describe the Boston accent? Here in Denmark teachers use it to describe the difference between American and British English - admittedly, Boston English could be described as an American attempt to imitate British English to sound more posh... ;o) --dllu 15:26, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

Yes, it really is. AJD 16:21, 10 April 2007 (UTC)