Bloom's Sixth

By Doug Ward A short history lesson: April Fools’ Day originated in 1920, when Joseph C. McCanles (who was only vaguely related to the infamous 19th-century outlaw gang) ordered the KU marching band (then known as the Beak Brigade) to line up for practice on McCook Field (near the site of the current Great Dismantling). It was April 1, and McCanles…

We don’t know the last time the first day of classes was canceled. We’re guessing it was January 1892, when the temperature fell to minus 23, the bottoms of thermometers shattered, and students started using the phrase “froze my bottom off” (or something approximating that). Of course, everyone was hardier back then, having to walk five miles to campus barefoot through the snow and fend off wolves with their bare, frostbitten hands and all. At least that’s what our elders told us. So everyone may have just shrugged off the lethally cold temperatures in 1892 and showed up for class as usual…