Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Tongues Make Statement

Back when I was taking classes at USM part-time in the late '90s, I took a great class in Renaissance Lit with Professor Bertram. One evening when we were all out on break, wandering up and down the stairwells in search of vending machines as usual, we found something disturbing on the stairwell. To all appearances it was a tongue. A fleshy, squishy tongue. On fetching Professor Bertram, we determined that it was unlikely that it was a human tongue because of its size. It was more likely to be a cow or sheep tongue, probably bought from a local butcher. As to its presence on the stairwell landing... who can say?

Later on I heard that tongues had also been stuffed into various other locations around the campus, including faculty mailboxes. Obviously this was meant to be a protest of some sort, or maybe even just a prank. The reasoning (or lack thereof) behind the episode was never revealed to my knowledge.

This is one of those historical episodes in my life that remains a mystery. If anyone knows more about it or has any recollections of their own to add to the account, please feel free to comment!

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