Gardy Loo!

Our encyclopedia tells us that Lake Mead, behind Hoover Dam, is the largest man-made lake in the world, but we know perfectly well that when we trudge to Humanities 119 tomorrow morning, we will have to ford a much more forbidding body of water--the Abraham Lincoln Square Lake, which forms at the intersection of Cambridge Street and Broadway whenever Cambridge is visited by a heavy snow. This inland sea (one of several in the area: the Freedom Square Ice Floe is almost as impressive) is every bit as man-made as the one in Arizona-Nevada, for it results directly from the inability of the Cambridge sewerage system to carry flood water into the Charles and the failure of Buildings and Grounds crews to keep Yard drains clear of ice.

Crossing the Abraham Lincoln Square Lake without proper equipment simply means soaked, frozen feet and possibly pneumonia. A more frightening hazard in the aftermath of a winter storm is the falling of great chunks of snow and ice from rooftops and eves of University buildings. The only warning one may have of impending death from the sky is a cracking noise above and a flash of white.