New England Diary

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A raging ‘diminutive jock’

Coxswain, at the right and yelling, at the Head of the Charles (River) Regatta.

“In crew, contempt is important. In Boston, Boston University and Northeastern crew are treated with contempt by the college up the river. Intramural crew is treated with contempt. Nonathletic coxswains (Chinese engineering majors, poets) are treated with contempt. A true coxswain is a diminutive jock, raging against the pint size that made him the butt of so many jokes at Prep school. He runs twenty stadiums a day, his girlfriend is six feet one, and he can scream orders even when he has the flu (which he catches at least three times a winter).”


— From The Official Preppy Handbook, by Lisa Birnbach