We Were Merely Freshmen

This week's Sunday School lesson covers the Epistle of James. That book contains perhaps my favorite phrase in all of scripture: "superfluity of naughtiness" (James 1:21). I congratulate the translator who came up with that one.

When I think of the name James, with no last name, my mind often goes back to when I lived in the dorms during my freshman year at BYU. My next-door neighbor Jary would crank up this song on a pretty regular basis, often coming into my room and singing along, loudly. It was kind of endearing, at least compared to a guy who lived a few doors down and would blast this song at full volume, often four or five times in a row. (Jary played his song almost every day for a while, but only once a day.)

With dorm life and superfluous naughtiness now on the brain, it's natural that I'd remember some freshman pranks. We had our share of minor pranks like jamming pennies in the doorjamb and hiding in the little crawl space between the pull-out beds and the wall, but luckily we didn't have to deal with any extreme pranksters.

The most fun and elaborate prank we ever pulled off was at the expense of Jary's roommate Josh. Josh was an affable but spacey guy, and a very sound sleeper. One night he fell asleep early, like 8:30-ish. He was ripe for the pranking. We got everyone who was around on the floor to play along to make Josh think it was the following morning. We all changed our clocks to the time Josh's alarm was set for.

Josh's alarm went off, and he groggily emerged into the hallway, where he saw guys in robes and pajamas. He made his way to the communal bathroom, where other guys were shaving or brushing their teeth and some were coming out of the shower. Josh got himself ready, grabbed his backpack and his bike and headed out for his 8AM class--at about 10PM. I'm not sure how far he got before he figured out what time it really was, but he came back and congratulated us on an awesome prank. (Told you he was affable.)

Sometimes I wonder how we survived without cell phones. But other times I wish they weren't so ubiquitous, because they would make this prank impossible to pull off today. What's the most superfluously naughty prank you've ever been a part of?