Is there such a thing as underwater basket weaving?
I received my PhD in Underwater Basket Weaving from Duke University back in the '80s. It made me a millionaire! I recommend it for any young entrepenuer.
http://www.aas.duke.edu/comp/help/templates/dept/
Elmer J. Fudd,
Millionaire.
I own a mansion and a yacht.
At Ga Tech we called the class “The Sub-Aqueous Intertwining of Grasseous Fibers”
tanstaafl, I didn’t know you went to Ga Tech! (Or did I, and just forget?) That makes 3 of us that I know of on this MB.
Hey! We kicked Georgia Tech’s ass in the 1984 nationals! The pompous bastards spent a fortune on wetsuits with their team colors and they still lost.
GO DUKE!
Elmer J. Fudd,
Millionaire.
I own a mansion and a yacht.
As long as Colleges and Universities and Ga Tech (apparently) offer full-ride football scholarships, underwater basket weaving, music appreciation and rock-for-jocks will be full credit programs…
Ahem, are you implying that Ga Tech is not a college or university?
Damn syntax… I didn’t mean any slight upon Ga Tech - Losing to Duke is insult enough.
Seiously though, being a Canuck,we have colleges, universities and tech institutes (all different). The “A&M” and “Tech” and other designations of US schools have always left me a little uncertain about their exact nature. Not here to step on toes (much).
Kylen
Strainger - I’m not sure I ever mentioned it on the board. I was at Tech '76-'80.
Who’s the third person?
Oh, in keeping with the spirit of the thread, we did have a course commonly known as “Rocks for Jocks” (actually something like “Intro to Geology”).
tanstaafl, I went to Tech from 88-93 (5 years because I was in the co-op program). Mullinator is the other GT alum on this board. He played basketball there around 1993 IIRC.
Yep, GT has a Rocks for Jock class. It’s not just for jocks, but for Civil Engineering students as well.
I took UBW as an elective - Basketry for the Non-Weaving Major - but I never went beyond the snorkeling level. There wasn’t much reeding involved, so a lot of us rushed to take it.
Former Techie checking in.
I have the body of a taut, young Swedish boy.
Isn’t Underwater Basket Weaving taught in the same college as Underwater Fire Prevention?
–It was recently discovered that research causes cancer in rats.
Well, I have been wondering all these years what the main difference between my little Division III university (University of Rochester, on the banks of the mighty Genesee River!) and those big Division I-A schools was! Now I know, thanks to this thread, and the intrepid answerers from that OTHER school of Yellowjackets.
At a small school like UofR, there isn’t room for a class in Underwater Basket Weaving (hereafter UBW). The only pool is indoors and it is short and shallow (no diving!). In order to offer a fully functional class in UBW, you would have to have room for an entire football team, along with the basketball team (and one or two sororities, after all, you have to have gender equality and, hey, jocks LIKE sorority sisters!). No way you can fit all that into our tiny little pool!
Instead, little Div III schools like UofR substitute the much more diversified Polynesian Frog Worshipping (PFW). PFW uses far less space than UBW, and since the rites don’t require all participants to actually be in the pool, the small size is fine. Indeed, reports I have read in the past few minutes indicate that the frogs actually prefer the cozy confines of a 25-meter pool to the roomy, but hard to keep clean, expanse of a full 100 meter pool. And, of course, cost is not as much an issue, since there is no need for aqualungs for anyone except the high priest (the sacrificees don’t use them, of course!). Finally, the school colors can easily be integrated into the costuming (leis and other floral garments, for instance) without being quite as garish as yellow and blue wetsuits (thank goodness I have never seen the Minnesota Golden Gophers do UBW!).
So, once again, I thank you all for putting to rest my suspicion that there was something more important that separated a school you find in fine print on the next to the last page under “East” and those you find by reading NCAA violations reports. 
So much for intellectualism in the straightdope message boards. It seemed natural to me that, since there is no real world example of “Underwater basket weaving”, one would then assume the question would follow “Where did the term come from?”.
Obviously, Underwater basket weaving has the real world value of a wood welder, anhydrous steam, the flux capacitor, and as was appropriately pointed out, underwater fire prevention. The difference, being that the last examples consist of obviously contradictory terms. Technically, there is no reason one cant weave a basket under water. But then, there is no reason one would.
The real question I guess, is was there a particular reason for the existence of this phrase?
So much for intellectualism in the straightdope message boards. It seemed natural to me that, since there is no real world example of “Underwater basket weaving”, one would then assume the question would follow “Where did the term come from?”.
Obviously, Underwater basket weaving has the real world value of a wood welder, anhydrous steam, the flux capacitor, and as was appropriately pointed out, underwater fire prevention. The difference, being that the last examples consist of obviously contradictory terms. Technically, there is no reason one cant weave a basket under water. But then, there is no reason one would.
The real question I guess, is was there a particular reason for the existence of this phrase?
The true intellectuals of the Board do not double-post.
My school didn’t have UBW, either – too cold in my locale. We did, however, have Alpine B-B Stacking (ABBS), which I’d venture to guess was a lot harder course, anyway. I, of course, got an “A.” 
Jodi
Fiat Justitia
Underwater Basket Weaving is simply the “John Doe” of high School or college classes. It is also often used to indicate a frivolous class that is taken for elective credit.
Elmer J. Fudd,
Millionaire.
I own a mansion and a yacht.
Actually underwater basket weaving makes sense, it isn’t like wood welding. It is easier to weave wet than dry, you know.
THat said, I doubt it is a real class anywhere.
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