Harvey Mudd Urban Legends

Art Again

An artist painted a mural in Platt that consisted of some landscape, mountains, and trees that represented the foothills. Unfortunately, it was a student who noticed that the hills and trees in question really resembled lettuce-filled tacos (they really do look like tacos; it's a very sad thing). The next day, a monster had been painted into the landscape with a dialogue bubble saying “Mmm, Tacos!” It was coincidence that the artist came to lunch that day, and took great offense to the desecration of his artwork. The monster was removed, but the tacos remain.

Batman

Down at Pitzer, the college prides itself on its architecture, especially the skylights in the main building. A group of Mudders somehow managed to climb onto the roof and cover parts of the skylight, turning it into a Bat Signal. It remained there for a while until Mudders admitted their pranking.

The Caltech Cannon

Dressed as construction workers with “official” documents, a flatbed truck, and a sturdy forklift, six Mudders heisted the Caltech Cannon. The “foreman” said his crew had orders to remove the cannon for repairs. Mudd's president saw to it that the cannon was returned to Caltech, if somewhat unceremoniously, a week later.

The Case Dorm Foundation

The day before Case's foundation was to be laid, a group of students invaded the construction site under the cover of night, and moved all of the construction stakes one foot to the west. Thus, Case dorm ended up being built one foot away from the original layout. This would have caused no problems, except for the fact that the water lines had already been placed underground. The water pressure in Case dorm is terrible to this day.

Fat Joey

Not quite a legend yet, but rather a standing memorial to drunken carousing, this event took place in the backwaters of Linde Dorme. A very drunk student, armed with bottles of shaving cream, sprayed the words “Fat Joey” onto the wall of the Linde Dorme upper lounge. Unfortunately, the student failed to realize in his incoherent state that shaving cream soaks into the cinder wall, making the words impossible to scrub out. After a year of pressure washing, the words still stood, so we decided to make a dedication. A plaque now hangs officially in the upper Linde lounge, the Fat Joey lounge, “in order to celebrate in part the generosity of Adam Kangas with a bottle of shaving cream on the date of...”

a Giant Bug in east Hall

In 1966, a Volkswagon bug mysteriously appeared in an East Hall hallway, with less than an inch to spare on either side. Pranksters had tipped the bug on end, and squeezed it around a corner and into the hallway. Eventually, the perpetrators reversed the same technique to free the bug.

Sofahenge

One morning, students awoke to find a replica of Stonehenge in the middle of the quad, built entirely out of sofas. The perpetrators said that the sofas were chosen based on a rigorous inspection of their spiritual qualities, structural integrity, and (above all) proximity to the site. Six came from South Hall, some from Engineering, many from the Green Room, and two from the Muddhole. The monument was disassembled later that day.

The Stainless Steel Sculpture

An artist donated a sculpture of a plow to be placed in front of Platt Dining Hall, saying that the sculpture was made of a material that would never rust and could never be corroded. This was the equivalent of throwing down the glove. A group of chemistry majors decided to take on the artwork's integrity. Using a combination of acids and other corrosives, the students succeeded in turning the bright, shiny sculpture into a rusty mess. It still stands outside Platt, and is a reminder to all students that when art and science try to compete, the result is never pretty.