|
It's the night before final exams. You haven't studied and now you're looking at a disastrous GPA. Too bad your roommate's in perfect health. If he or she were to "kick the bucket," you'd be on easy street with a 4.0. Or so the legend goes. However, like that similarly morbid story about Pop Rocks and Coke, this one simply ain't true. Snopes.com believes the legend started as a joke among stressed-out college students. Over time, the desperate and dimwitted started believing it. To be fair, it does have a certain kind of logic to it. The death of a roommate would be traumatic for anyone, so it makes
sense for the administration to give the grief-stricken survivor a free pass. Alas, while bereavement leave is often granted in these situations, no school automatically gives out straight A's. This article on urban legends mentions a few other tall tales from campus. Our favorite is the one about the two slackers who decide to ski instead of study. After a day on the slopes, they return to school, tell their professor they had a flat tire, and ask for a make-up exam. The understanding professor obliges and puts the two in different rooms. The last question on the test simply reads: "Which tire?"
|
