Upsilon Beta: A House of Ill Repute

According to my home page, I live at Epsilon Theta, a coeducational house of ill repute. People who know me should be saying, "Wait a minute! David would never do anything like that!"

They're right. This is a joke that came from the APO I-Banquet in December, 1996. An article in the APOcrypha, the APO newsletter, described two APO brothers, as having

successfully spearheaded APO Alpha Phi Omigosh expansion efforts before, most notably their virtually uncontested take-over of Upsilon Beta, a Brookline area brothel.

Matt immediately objected to this description. "We're not a brothel," he said with respect to Epsilon Theta. "We're a coeducational house of ill repute."

It turns out that there's actually some history in this phrase...

Date: Wed, 22 Jan 1997 18:42:27 -0500
From: Grant Gould 
To: dmaze@donut.mit.edu
Subject: ill repute

Looking at your homepage I could not help but note that your 
attribution of the phrase "coeducation house of ill repute" neglects 
the first use of the phrase.  It was in a letter from a SN alum 
concerning coedity at the Epsilon Theta chpater:  "I fear that my 
cherished fraternity will become no more than a coeducation house of 
ill repute."

Has this happened to ET? Definitely, there are little bits of sin floating around the house. We jokingly talk about the house's somewhat odd sleeping arrangements to imply that every night is a mad lustful adventure. In reality, though, it's an exercise in trust and cooperation, an attempt to do something a little differently and letting it work out despite being unorthodox.


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