"Look to the left ..."

[Victor Steinbok]

Well, there is one difference--the 1937 article specifically mentioned
"men". This is certainly no longer the case. On the other hand, it goes
with a lot of other Harvard LS lore--hiding casebooks and review
articles so that others would not find them (also no longer applicable
because of electronic access), etc. Some of this has been popularized in
the Paper Chase (book, film, series). Some ended up in Legally Blond.
Some is simply passed on from one generation of lawyers to the next (and
not just at Harvard).

The closest I can think of with an attrition rate of 30%+ is the
Berkeley math department. They are known for bringing in a lot of grad
students only to slaughter them with exams. Someone has to teach the
large freshman courses, after all. Of course, this too may be apocryphal.

     VS-)

On 11/21/2011 1:07 PM, Baker, John wrote:
>          Well, I don't know.  Are there people who think Harvard students are still told this?
>
>          I think it's pretty clear that it's something that Harvard Law School students were once told.  I remember once meeting an alum who asked if we were still told this, as they were in his day.  (This would have been in 1981, so it does not undercut my suggestion that nobody in 2011 thinks Harvard students are still told this.)  He probably matriculated in the early 1930s or thereabouts, I would guess.
>
>
> John Baker

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org