Bmoc: Big mistakes on campus

Careers and Colleges, March, 2002

Everyone occasionally worries about looking like a fool in class, or making a huge flub on an important essay. If you ever want to feel just a tad better about your intellectual abilities, pick up Anders Henriksson's book Non Campus Mentis (Workman Publishing). Henriksson, a history professor at Shepherd College in West Virginia, has collected hundreds of classic mistakes found on term papers and exams of students from all across the country. Here are a few gems excerpted from the book:

* The pyramids were large square triangles built in the desert.

* Joan of Ark was famous as Noah's wife.

* Roman upperclassmen demanded to be known as Patricia.

* Senators wore purple tubas as a sign of respect.

* Charles the V spent most of his reign aging.

* Americans, of course, wanted no involvement in the French and Indian War because they did not want to fight in India. This led to the Stamp Act, where no stamps could be issued unless they bore the American mascot.

* Another problem was that France was full of French people. Dickens made this point in The Tail of Two Sisters, which he required us to read.

* The British defeated the French from 1793 to 1815, but at gastronomic cost.