or Calvin and Hobbes. Dunno.

…however, the person who got elected was not a political radical – instead he was a prankster who ran on an anti-student government platform.

This occured while I was at UW-Wisconsin from 1979-81, but I didn’t follow really closely as I was a grad student, so my memory is somewhat hazy. Actually, I think he came to power the 1978-79 school year before I got on campus.

Everything he did was a gag, including his title of President for Life (I think he took on that title, but I’m not certain). He spent the budget money on jokes. The winter of ’79-’80 he constructed on the winter ice on Lake Mendota a model of the top portion of the Statue of Liberty, giving the appearance that she was standing on the lake bottom with only her top emerging from the ice. He had bought and placed a huge number of pink flamingos on the lawn in front of the administration building sometime earlier.

Indeed, I had seen postcards with pictures of these both on the front, and for all I know they may still be around, though I haven’t been back since ’81.

He also liked to write one-million checks to certain campus organizations, which obviously was much more than the student government’s bank balance. (I personally saw one of these checks, or perhaps it was the only such check that he wrote.)

In any case, this was all fun-and-games, not a serious political movement in any sense of the word.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Yes, my memory was fairly good – here’s a link from the Wisconsin Historical Society that tells much of the story (except about the million dollar checks)

(I’d even remembered that the first name of one of the leaders was Leon.)

Bascom Hill Pink Flamingo

were perhaps the most honest politicians i have ever encountered.

They ran on a platform of graft and corruption, and that’s exactly what they gave the student body.

It took years after they left office for the financial tangles they left behind to be unraveled.

nobody ever bothered to mention anything about Wisconsin. Maybe cheese.

separated by a common language. W. Churchill.

My daughter was up and wanted water. I don’t brain very well when woken by a 2 year old.

Any comment or post that mocks the collective intelligence of another group will *always* have at least one spelling and/or grammatical error in its first version.