If it wasn’t for brewers drop I’d be putting holes in walls 
drupe
Say! {chuckle} That’s pretty good!
{jots it down for use at the next cocktail party with short-tempered Canadians in attendance}
Deep breaths, folks, deep breaths…
LolaCocaCola, I hereby offer to show you around Oxford. I will lead you around its storied streets; you can marvel at the beauty of its mediaeval buildings and the rich history behind them; you can stand atop a Saxon tower and gaze out over the rich rolling English countryside; you can absorb the intense intellectual atmosphere of the oldest University in Britain (I think it’s only Paris and Bologna that are older, in the world) in the colleges, or in the libraries, or the museums; we can refresh ourselves in the pubs frequented by C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien; we can spend a peaceful afternoon punting along the Isis in the company of swans and mallards; in the evening, we can visit theatres and concert halls, or the multifarious ethnic restaurants, or the night clubs that (judging from the unconscious bodies on the pavements every morning) appeal so strongly to the international students… It’s not New York, I’ll grant you that; it’s Oxford, and it has its own appeal.
And, if you ever catch me disparaging, denigrating, or otherwise condemning New York, you can show me round there, okay?
Deal?
Steve, its pointless. Oxford isn’t in the United states, so it must be small and insignificant and just not important!
Picklefuck indeed.
How very Freudian.
Picklefuck indeed. Me that is.
droop.
:mad:
Jeez, TwistofFate, she’s just having a go at ya. Don’t take it so seriously.
Now go down to the mud flats and scoop up a Guinness, there’s a good lad.
(The plan is, I’m conciliatory and nice to LolaCocaCola till she takes me up on the deal. Then, all I have to do is quote Neil Simon [“New York is not Mecca. It just smells like it”], and bingo! I get a free tour guide to the Big Apple.)
(PS. : don’t tell her.)
Heidelberg is older too, isn’t it?
– Ukulele “I Can Guess Your College’s Age!” Ike
You may very well be right. I’ll just nip over to Heidelberg, saw it in half, and count the rings.
But can you guess its weight?
Well, I’m back… you know something? The Germans really do have no sense of humour; they find you sawing away at one of their institutions of higher learning, they get all cross and shout at you, no matter how good your reasons are. And I was diplomatic and everything, too, I didn’t mention the war… well, not much.
Anyway. Oxford dates to around the 1160’s, precisely when in that decade is not entirely clear. The Germans, on the other hand, are organised, and know exactly when Heidelberg was founded - 1386. So, it’s very much a junior institution, almost puerile, in fact, hardly worth bothering about.
A carping critic writes: Steve, you have, in the past, spoken very proudly of your first degree from the University of Edinburgh, and derided your former schoolmates who, in your opinion, faffed around at places like Brasenose and LMH for three years while you worked at a proper up-to-date institution. Given that the University of Edinburgh was founded in 1583, is your attitude here consistent with the dismissive tone you adopt towards Heidelberg?
I reply, loftily: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson (attrib.)
(On the other hand, I completely forgot about Salerno, which is older than Oxford, Paris, Bologna, or, indeed, anywhere.)
Columbia well predates the Republic. Fifth oldest university in the country, founded in 1754.
Did I miss something here? I thought the university they were referring to in this “zinger” was Oxford, which was founded in the 1100s. Harvard is the oldest American university, founded 1637 (only 17 years after Plymouth landing), but that does in fact, if my math is correct, make Oxford at least twice as old as Harvard, nevermind the USA.
“Harvard is the oldest American university, founded 1637”
1636, actually, as Massachusettes Bay Colony College (I believe). John Harvard donated his library to the school in 1638, after which the school changed its name in his honor.
Picklefuck… is that anywhere near Pucklechurch?
Nosing around various collegial websites, I found a few others that cropped up before 1776…
University of Pennsylvania, 1751
Brown University, 1764
Rutgers University, 1766
Dartmouth College, 1769
Perhaps they were referring to the vertical plane, not the horizontal or the population?
Or rather the vertical and horizontal instead of just the horizontal.