It’s true! If you want to find the truth behind UW–Madison’s history, myths, and legends, you now have two choices. First, you could sign up for Badgerlore: UW Campus Traditions and Student Culture. Taught by instructor Lowell Brower ’04, the class is one of the courses listed under Folklore 315: Intermediate Topics in Folklore. (Other 315 subjects include the internet, family folklore, and the folklore of emergency.) Brower is a fourth-generation Badger as well as a Harvard-trained folklorist, and his course helps students learn that “lore” isn’t found just in far-off lands or dug of the quaint, distant past: it’s part of every culture, every time, and everywhere. Brower’s class helps students learn the history behind campus ghost stories, slang, and “latrinalia,” the graffiti found in bathroom stalls. The class is good for three credits. But if you don’t have a full semester to spend hoping to find the truth behind your legend, you can always take the second option: send your question to Flamingle HQ, and we’ll answer it right here.

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