Thursday, March 17, 2005

Piling on Harvard

Some entrepreneurial Harvard undergrad started a room cleaning business called Dormaid. However, Dormaid was lambasted by the Harvard Crimson (student newspaper):

"....is a cleaning service that allows students to avoid the perennial problem of dingy, smutty, questionably-habitable rooms. But as appealing as the thought of a perpetually tidy room may be, (independent of family visits), Dormaid could potentially mess up as many rooms as it cleans. By creating yet another differential between the haves and have-nots on campus, Dormaid threatens our student unity."

"There are already plenty of services at Harvard that sharpen the differences between socioeconomic classes......some students pick up clean and neatly-folded clothes in crackling plastic bags. The less well-off among us, however, make semi-weekly journeys to the basement with bulging mesh laundry bags and quarters in hand. These differences extend to the social sphere as well—to final clubs composed predominately of wealthy young men, or to basic activities, like eating out, that some students cannot afford to enjoy..."

I had to underline the funniest part. I never realized that by dining out I was actually offending the famished poor. But wait a minute, I thought the poor in this country were obese? But I digress, that is a ripe subject for another time.

Back to Dormaid. One blogger wrote,

"Oh, those silly little Harvard liberals. Now they want to play communist make-believe! Isn't that cute?",

followed by,

"Well kids, if you're ever in need of student unity, just remember that you're all a bunch of f*cking nerds. That should help."

That may be a little harsh, but it is definitely hilarious.

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