Editorial: Casual Fridays 3/22/13

Golf boo

While town board meetings aren’t typically the rowdiest of affairs, the small town of Riverhead, N.Y., ruled that booing during meetings is permitted — if it’s done quietly and politely. The town had voted to ban booing at its meetings, resulting in this somewhat confusing compromise. The decision does not say what booing quietly and politely means, and disruptive behavior is still prohibited in town board meetings. Can Pitt students follow this guideline if they’re protesting SGB meetings?

Married, we are

A proposed law in Scotland would create a third category for legal weddings, “belief ceremonies,” which could be held alongside religious and civil ceremonies. This would open up a new category for Scotland’s most popular wedding officiants: the Humanist Society of Scotland, which is a secular organization. But the unclear category of belief ceremony could open up the possibility of many organizations, such as the Flat Earth Society or the Jedi Knights, holding official weddings. If people can start holding Jedi weddings, could they start writing their wedding contracts in Yoda speak?

Harlem shake-up

According to the Huffington Post, at St. Hilda’s College of the University of Oxford, a librarian was fired and students were fined over the filming of a Harlem Shake video. The librarian was fired because the filming happened while she was in charge, although she didn’t witness the filming, and the students were fined because they didn’t get permission to make the video. Many, including students, faculty and politicians, have petitioned for the librarian to be rehired. Luckily, the administration at Pitt is somewhat more liberal — Gangnam-Harlem flashmob in Hillman later, anyone?

Punctuations not everything

According to the Guardian, a district council in southern England is considering banning apostrophes and other punctuation marks from street signs in order to avoid confusion. The mid-Devon council said it had not had punctuation on signs for many years, but a new policy would make the ban official. The policy will not be taken up at the national level, leaving other towns — such as the southern town Westward Ho! — unaffected by a punctuation ban, which is fortunate because Westward Ho implies a very different meaning.

Bread and honey

According to National Geographic, one ATM in East London gives users two language options: English and Cockney. The bank machine offers users several quick cash withdrawal options: speckled hen (ten pounds), horn of plenty (twenty pounds) or dirty (thirty pounds). Cockney relies on a system of rhyming to create slang terms. For example, “bread and honey” is slang for “money.” Use of Cockney is on the decline because of increased immigration to London. Unfortunately, there are no current plans to install “Yinz need some cash?” machines in Pittsburgh.