BS: School Pranks?

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: Lady McMoo
Date: 02 Mar 01 - 09:44 AM

Another one...work prank this time. You can try this at home...

Four short pieces of thick thread threaded through a raisin which is then subsequently placed at the bottom of a colleagues cup of tea or coffee is sure to cause major mayhem when they reach the end of their drink and see what by then will look like a very menacing and bulbous spider from very close to.

mcmoo

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: GUEST,Matt_R
Date: 02 Mar 01 - 09:53 AM

My friend Ryan was doing bad things! We were over the Newman Center, and people kept calling, asking for Ash Wednesday Mass times for the next day. So Ryan calls us up on the cell phone (from the other room)...my sister answers, and he's saying in this whiny Indian accent "H-Hello? Wha-wha-wha-what time do you have de ashes? You know, de ashes?" Of course, his girlfriend Josie saw him and started laughing...which we could hear on the line. Lol...maybe you'd have to know the Ordinio Ordonez joke to get it...

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: Metchosin
Date: 02 Mar 01 - 01:44 PM

Oooh speaking of explosives....again from my husbands youth not mine, I was sooo good. *BG*

His friend Bob, who was a dutiful newspaper carrier, was constantly the recipient of verbal abuse from the local neighbourhood crank. It seems that some of the younger kids in the area habitually made a short cut with their bikes across the corner of the angry man's yard, compressing the roots of his rose buhes and the man decided Bob was the culprit.

Bob eventually tired of the false accusations and being a bright spark got busy with some old bits of a transistor radio, explosives and a radio transmitter. He carefully buried the products of his fertile mind in the man's yard and waited until one afternoon when the fellow was out in his front garden. When Bob passed by on his bicycle on his paper route, the man started his usual tirade, whereupon Bob hit the switch on the transmitter in the front carrier of his bike and the rose bushes in contention, along with a large quantity of soil flew ten feet in air, while Bob quietly pedalled on.

Another of my husband's school friends was deeply into rocketry. They decided that a rocket powered canoe seemed like a good project and tested their theories one Saturday morning in an area of Esquimalt Harbour. They attached the home constructed rockets to either side of the canoe and my husband's young friend set off across the harbour on a test run. All went well until one of the rockets disattached from the side of the craft and my husband's friend was left spinning in circles in the middle of the harbour until the fuel was spent, while the detatched projectile shot across the bay and fortunately lodged itself in a log boom.

Our daughter recently made an animated film of the hubris of mankind regarding technology, which she based upon the event. She won an award for best animated short for her endeavour. Maybe she should do a cartoon of the rose bush incident as well.

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: GUEST,Carol's Friend Don
Date: 02 Mar 01 - 02:44 PM

Hawaii was clearly the center of pyrotechnical school pranks, since fire works were not outlawed due to the chinese attachment to them during religious ceremonies. Radford High was the high school most of the Pearl Harbor (Navy & Marine Corps) and Hickham (Air Force) kids attended. And we worked hard to make our parents proud.

Take three rolls of TP into a three-holer boy's john, sharing a wall with the girls on the other side. Stuff the TP into two of the toilets, allowing the paper to swell up and seal the drain. Light up an M-80 or cherry bomb and flush down the third john (they stay lit underwater) and kick the last roll of TP into place. Result: since the boys and girls johns shared the drain, the explosion would blow the girls off the seats, usually with some product of their efforts slammed into their bottoms. One on occasion one of my friends, now a Navy Captain, just flushed the commode with every seat on both sides occupied, during a football game. Unbelievable! One old guy just in a stall next to the explosion thought we had been nuked, and was screaming for a geiger count on his butt. The second is far more evil, but was well established at our school. Take a good sized sewing needle (like you'd use for sewing carpet) and thread with approximately 18 inches of thread, tied off at the end. Hold the thread at the knot, between thumb and forefinger and hold your hand upright from the elbow, palm facing your target. Allow the needle to dangle near the back side of your elbow. By snapping your hand forward in a rapid movement, the needle will flip over your hand and fly point first at incredible speed (enough to stick it in a concrete wall 20 feet away). The thread acts as fletching, trailing behind the needle as it flys through the air. Jocks were especial targets, with extra points for burying the needle up to the thread.

The last involves a shotgun shell with the pellets removed, and a mouse trap. You get the idea. A military high school was no place for the weak.

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: GUEST,Norton1
Date: 03 Mar 01 - 12:39 AM

School is where you are at I think - I was on a troop ship going to viet Nam via Okinawa (The Rock to us Marines and the friendly Ryukus to the natives). Well that old ship was made for WW II and the racks in the hold stood ten tall. If the guy on the bottom farted the guy on top bumped his nose as the shock proceeded up the chain.

Anyway - I digress

This old tub, the General Hugh J. Gaffey (not a clue who the hell he was), had no room for any type of activity. With the notable exception of card playing. We had the gangways all full of little card games. At night it was really fun because they would run in blackout (only red lights lit) I think they thought the Viet Cong had submarines or something.

Anyway - geez get to the freakin point - the Navy decided we were being a pain in the ass as at battle drill the sailors would fall all over us in the gangways (hallways for the uninitiated) where we were beating the pants off them at poker. So they decided to have us do their laundry.

Now anyone who knows the Marines knows they have a penchant for the Navy. The laundry was about midships and hotter than hell. Sweat was running all over in there. So a couple of us found out where the valves were to let the seawater in and then again how to flush the system. It only took the lookouts a few minutes to spot the white trail of Navy uniforms heading aft in the bright blue Pacific Ocean - but many precious minutes, and uniforms, were lost while they hunted for the valve we had opened.

Of course we had already departed and they never did find out who actually turned the valve. Sweet revenge for having to spend the time in that tub.

And to tell you how bad this tub was - the crappers were iron sheets with holes cut in them. There was about a 16 inch pipe cut in half that ran under them with a constant flow of seawater to keep the thing cleaned out. Must have been 10-12 seats over each trough. We took a huge roll of toilet paper, soaked it in lighter fluid, lit it on fire and sent it down the pipe. It was hilarious at the time!! Still is matter of fact.

I saw the Gen. Gaffey for the last time in 1981 at Bremerton Naval Station, Washington. They were cutting him up for scrap. I was part of a training cadre at Ft. Lewis (joined the army for a bit cause I was broke) and a buddy of mine who flew Hueys told me about it. We took off and flew up to check it out. I can truley say I got the last shot on that pile of rusty old iron - Urinated on the good General from a few thousand feet up. Gave a new sense of what "prop wash" is all about!!!!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: Naemanson
Date: 03 Mar 01 - 05:52 AM

Norton, Norton, Norton! Tsk, Tsk, you have to be careful with the stories you tell here. You could shock some of these poor artistic souls! *BG*

But not me! Great story. Reminds me of my Navy days and dealing with the Marines on our old tub.

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: GUEST,Mike
Date: 03 Mar 01 - 08:05 AM

When I was in grade school (a three-room school in Indiana) the place was heated with a coal stove in each room. A friend and I discovered that the screwdrivers given away by the local grain elevator had an early form of plastic in their handles that,when put on the hot stove, made a *horrible* smell and we collected and employed large numbers of these. Breathing these fumes probably explains why we are the way we are today. But this was a mild prank: my grandfather, in his high school days, once took the pricipal's Model T apart and reassembled it in the man's office. This act became a local legend, and I have always aspired to my grandfather's standards in subsequent pranks. Thanks to his influence, I came up with the notion of loading someone's high school locker full to the brim with frozen cow pies late one Friday afternoon in January (frozen cow pies, for those of you from the city, are not something you buy in the freezer section of the supermarket, but are readily available in many Indiana fields for free). By Monday morning, the cow pies had thawed to their normal, summetime consistancy (and odor). Education is truly a wonderful thing...

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: Firecat
Date: 03 Mar 01 - 09:30 AM

Careful, you're giving me ideas!!!

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: GUEST,Norton1
Date: 03 Mar 01 - 02:22 PM

Naemanson - The Navy made right by us. Your/our Corpsmen saved a lot of lives. And just before the beach assault at Quang Ngai we got "Steak and Eggs" for breakfast. I'll never forget - Thank you for having us!!

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: kimmers
Date: 03 Mar 01 - 10:38 PM

I never played pranks in high school, but helped with a few in college. My boyfriend (now husband) had a dorky but basically nice freshman roommate. Mike and I, lordly in our upper-class might, wasted no opportunity to torment the poor boy.

Pat had a characteristic habit of walking into the dorm room, yanking open his closet door, and staring into his closet before finally hanging up his coat or backpack. These were large closets for a dorm; you could actually walk into them (when empty). So, one day we removed all the screws holding the doorknob in place, then removed the pins from the hinges.

He walked in, yanked on the doorknob... and it came off in his hand. He stood there, staring stupidly at the knob, as the entire closet door came off its hinges and fell on him.

We're lucky we didn't kill the poor boy. And he still came to our wedding!

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: Naemanson
Date: 04 Mar 01 - 08:08 AM

Norton, I wish I could say I had been there on that ship for you but I spent my Navy time floating around the Atlantic and Mediterranean (and dealing with a different set of Marines). However on behalf of the Navy I accept your appreciation and say to you that you are welcome.

BTW, I joined the Navy to avoid the jungles. My draft number was low and things looked bad. All of my NamVet friends believe I made the right decision.

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: GUEST,Wavestar
Date: 04 Mar 01 - 08:44 AM

Where does anyone gets sheets of lead, Matt? My father helped us make them! :)

Seriously, though, we took lead from old pipes and mostly from used bullets and melted it down - has a very low melting temperature. We poured it into pans, let it cool, and then dumped then out.

-J

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 04 Mar 01 - 12:59 PM

Used bullets???

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Mar 01 - 01:43 PM

Tot he best of my recollection, yes, Susan. It was many years ago. Ask my mother. I'm not sure where we would have gotten them - gathered them in the field after target practice, methinks.

-J

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: Bernard
Date: 04 Mar 01 - 01:56 PM

When I was a Primary school teacher, I was infamous for catching out the entire pupil population on All Fools Day...

One year I sent a letter round (on L.E.A. notepaper) to all classes apologising for the cancellation of the Easter Holiday - even some of the staff fell for that one!

My finest hour was when we'd had a fire in the school kitchens, and the School Meals service had to deliver the food in containers.

We'd had a late fall of snow, so I sent a note round to all classes explaining that the school playing field was out of bounds during the mid-morning break, as there was a problem getting the meals delivered. Heavy snow near the Central Kitchens meant that the vans couldn't get through, so our food was being delivered by helicopter...

I made sure I was on playground duty that morning - children kept pestering me 'When's the helicopter going to get here, sir?'

Five minutes before the end of break, I blew the whistle (which meant the children had to stand still, in silence). I then shouted 'April Fool!' - and the kids erupted! I'd got them again!!

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: Melani
Date: 05 Mar 01 - 01:53 PM

When my university first instituted "computer registration" back in the dark ages of computer punch cards, they had the library set up with tables manned by the various professors or their grad students, each with a pile of cards equal to the number of spaces available in the class. Students registering would go from table to table, collecting cards for the classes they wanted to take, and when all the cards for a certain class had been given out, the class was closed. When each student had collected all the cards for their classes, they would take their "registration packet" to a final table, where it would be handed in with their name and fees, and then the schedules would be drawn up accordingly by computer.

After observing this procedure the first time, a pair of enterprising computer students obtained a computer punch that made the same rectangular holes that were already in each card. They went to the library and set up a table at the end of the registration area, just before the table where the packets were handed in, and put up a sign that said, "All students must stop here." "Let me have your packet, please." (punch, punch, punch--at random) "Thank you very much." It took the university three weeks to straighten out the class schedule.

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: David Coffin
Date: 05 Mar 01 - 05:29 PM

My favorite two pranks in boarding school were: hiding all the silverware so 250 students had to eat eggs for breakfast and spaghetti for lunch with our fingers. The second one was taking all the hubcats from the student and faculty cars on campus and writing on the front lawn, in hubcat font, : April Fools. David

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: mousethief
Date: 05 Mar 01 - 05:35 PM

hubcat? This is the cat at the center of other cats?

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: David Coffin
Date: 05 Mar 01 - 05:57 PM

yeah, the alpha cat. HUBCAT. Thank you. David.

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: David Coffin
Date: 05 Mar 01 - 05:58 PM

I give up. HUBCAPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP. phew.

Not sure this was worth the effort. David

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 05 Mar 01 - 09:57 PM

I heard there's an alternate folk music site called the Hubcat Cafe. It started up after the nasty split among the people at the Hepcat Cafe.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: mousethief
Date: 05 Mar 01 - 10:35 PM

Geez, David, take a little teasing.

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: CamiSu
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 08:06 AM

Susan, The lead Jessica used was from old flashing and pipes. We made it into slingshot pellets, but a large chunk was made into the April Fool weight. It's still in the barn.

My father in law, when he got back from WWII went to college. When he saw the lines for registration decide he'd been in enough lines--ever. So he went and got his coveralls, a ladder, and a light bulb. He walked into the registration room with said accoutrements, put them aside, and registered. When his bride found out, she nearly killed him, as she was still in line!

The original lead trick came from my husband's HS days. Seems there was a student with a briefcase who HAD to be the first one out of the classroom, even if it meant leaping over other students. The teacher had an Xray machine in his back room and so David and a friend took one of the lead plates from it and placed it in the guy's briefcase. When the end of class came the student stood up, placed his hand on the next desk and vaulted. However the briefcase went straight to the floor, taking the guy's arm with it. That slowed him down for a while.

Dave also made "Gramma paper" once. He put spray adhesive on some feed sacks and spread them out on the kitchen floor. His mother came in and stepped on them, and stuck!

His school also had one of those tubular fire escapes in the upper classrooms, and kids would regularly escape out the window and down the tube. One teacher got tired of this and poured some corn syrup down the escape. It was much easier to catch the kids when they were stuck in the tube.

In my high school we had a teacher who once led the whole class out of the room after one student fell asleep. We then watched through the window as he woke up and looked around in panic. (This same teacher also once let a student who REALLY needed to sleep, stay asleep in his classroom. He put a sigh on the door telling the classes to meet elsewhere and also sent messages around to his teachers, about where he was and why. great guy.

Cami Su

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: CamiSu
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 08:09 AM

I KNOW I corrected those typos! But I'd lost my connection last night and a gremlin came in. It was a sign, not a sigh.

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: Kim C
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 02:30 PM

Mister told me that when he was in high school in the bad ol' 70s, he and a couple of his pards stole an outhouse (not in use) and put it in the courtyard with a sign saying "Principal's Office" as a Halloween prank. The principal got on the intercom and said, whoever this belongs to, please come get it. They did, and took it back, and no one got in trouble.

Last year in Mt. Juliet, which is right up the road from NAshville, some seniors were caught breaking into the school after hours and destroying property. There was a big hoo-ha because their punishment was that they could not march in their graduation. Their parents thought it was unfair. But last time I checked, breaking and entering was, like, illegal...

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: David Coffin
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 04:04 PM

Hey Mousethief, The teasing I can take no problem, it's making the SAME typo repeatedly that galls me. I think I'm just suffering from cabin fever. The snow is starting to pile up here in Gloucester and I can't practice with all the kids home from school. So here's another prank I love on April Fool's day, or any other day for that matter. With black electricians tape, wrap the handle (if it's black) on the spray faucet on the kitchen sink and make sure it's aimed at the person who turns on the water. Be sure to be in the other room to stay dry.

David.

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: GUEST,Wavestar
Date: 11 Mar 01 - 04:51 PM

There you go, Susan. it must have been the slingshot bits I was remembering. It was a while ago.

Glousterman, you silverware story reminds me of a pledge prank I helped a pledge at my fraternity pull this summer... While the brotherhood was busy, we crept in and stole every drinking vessel in the house- every single one. In order to get them back, they had to order Chinese food, do all the dishes, and buy new dishtowels for the house.

-J

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: bill\sables
Date: 11 Mar 01 - 05:55 PM

Here is one that backfired. We were on a works trip to the coast for a spot of sea fishing and rented a couple of little boats and set out into the North Sea with about six other work mates. The sea was not stormy but there was a long swell and one of the older blokes was sea sick over the side and lost his false teeth. We saw this happen and heard him cursing about his loss, so one of the other lads took out his false teeth and tied them to his line and cast them into the sea. After a few minutes he called out he had a bite and pulled out his teeth dangling on the end of the line. The old bloke who had lost his teeth grabed them and tried them in his mouth. He then said "Those arn't my buggers" and removed them and threw them back in.
Bill

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: NH Dave
Date: 11 Mar 01 - 06:08 PM

Years ago when the aactual Jeeps were still pretty common, some students at Dartmouth College broke one down into easily trasported bits and reassembled it on the desk of one of their engineering professors. It may even have been his Jeep as they were fairly cheap then...mostly war surplus.

Another time, during a long weekend, engineering students broke into a fellow student's room and welded railroad rail into a 8 pointed "jacks" arrangement from each corner of the room to a great knot in the middle of the room.

During MY college days, my school had a ten minute rule for all classes. If the instructor hadn't shown up by ten minutes after the hour the students were free to leave with no penalty.

On the last morning before Christmas Break we sat and watched one of our English teachers trudge slowly up the walk towards the classroom, at a pace that we realized would not get her to class on time. The more daring left by another entrance so as to escape her notice, while those with more decency or less imagination stayed behind.

Casting her eye about the nearly empty room she decided to save her prepared lecture for after vacation, and spent the entire hour discussing the various materials we had read over the term, talking about many not so obvious parallels between these works, and generally treating us a graduate students or equals in this learning game.

Six weeks later, 90% of what she had discussed with us found its way onto the end of term exam, to our delight, and the consternation of those who had chosen to cut her class that winter morning. We took great delight in noting that they really should have been at that class whenever they began complaining about not ever hearing those points in class before.

Dave

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: Benjamin
Date: 14 Jul 01 - 11:43 PM

You should check out The Gopher Prank!

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: Philibuster
Date: 15 Jul 01 - 01:00 AM

Whats that, it's a bird, it's a plane...damn it, it's Phil's doins. =P.

Step 1: Find a large bee or fly, the larger and noiser the better, catch him, and put him in a mason jar.

Step 2: Refrigerate at 40 degrees farenheit for one hour.

Step 3: While the bug is cooling down, construct a set of airplane wings (to fit the bug). Architects velum or balsa wood is best, 3 to 4 inches works well for your averaged sized wood bee.

Step 4: About this time, your bug should be pretty lethargic, if not unconscious. Glue his belly onto the middle of your wing set. Make SURE he's glued, as you don't want a lose and very pissed bee flying around.

Step 5: Put Bee-Plane into tupperware container. Take to place where humor and havoc is appropriate, preferably indoors. When that bee gets warmed up, he'll get to buzzing pretty good, then just give him a launch. Hours of fun.

Variations includer putting your little beastie on a leesh (and tying it to someone else), getting it to tow a banner (i.e. "Math Sucks" or "Bee Mine" at valentines day), and multiple insect engines. I plan on doing quite a bit of this once school gets started back up. Thanks for all the ideas. =P

Philibuster, who is probably going to get arrested for pulling half this crap.

Subject: RE: BS: School Pranks?
From: Celtic Soul
Date: 15 Jul 01 - 01:43 AM

OOO! I can answer this one *and* make it about music!!

It's not the nicest thing I was ever involved in, but it was a long time ago, and I was a lot more naive.

In my Jr. High, the band room was *way* out of the way, and not even really attached to the rest of the school. It had huge double doors, and the handles were those u-shaped things side by side. The engineer that designed this part of the school must not have been too bright, as he put the light switch *outside* the room. Some bright young burgeoning delinquent decided that it might be a fun prank to put a bar of wood through the handles (and so, obstructing anyone from leaving), and of course shut off the power. It took a period before anyone noticed.

I am happy to admit that, though I knew about it, I did not mastermind it.