The Kingdom of the Crystal Terp

You can't swing a dead gamecock these days without hearing a reference to the University of Maryland and it's awe-inspiring foundation of research knowledge. Or its awe-inspiring dedication to besmirching journalism ethics (Happy fourth birthday, Jayson Blair scandal!). Or, if you're the kind of person who reads certain web sites that rank such things, its dedication to enrolling a student body solely based on its brains. Or even its alumnae's dedication to thwart Soviet plots and remove from their grasps various McGuffins.

On last night's Daily Show, Fareed Zakaria dropped some knowledge about the University of Maryland, citing a study about some terps who tracked data showing that we're actually living in the most peaceful period in 40 or 50 years. I assume the corner of Knox and Rt. 1 was not included in that data, of course.

John Stewart's retort: "You're talking about the University of Maryland here. It's clearly a safety school. Now if you had said Tulane, OK, I could go with that."

Much laughter ensued. Except for us terps, who were made sad. Though several years ago, we were properly feted by an extended Daily Show bit on the Terps 2002 national championship win, during which several jokes were made about rioting and Juan Dixon. Much righteous laughter ensued. And the students never rioted again.

Video is posted below, and the terp discussion starts at 5:36 in.