Ben: I concur.

I still cant understand why a MOD doesn't clean this thread and create a new on the high jacked topic.

Because letting it die in a mediocre thread that otherwise hasn't been touched in three years is probably a better idea?

It's definitely a school that not everyone's heard of. There are lots of those. But when somebody they "received a diploma from X" it doesn't really matter whether I've heard of it before or not. "Diploma" is kind of a giveaway as to what we are referring to here. Unless you think people routinely get diplomas from all sorts of other places and people like traffic cops, waitresses, the mall, your next-door neighbor, etc.

Actually, I just met a kid who told me he graduated from "western something or other" that I had never heard of. I asked where it was located and admitted I had not heard of that school. I didn't ask, "wait...what does it mean to graduate from western something? I'm confused about this whole concept of how you can graduate from some name I've never heard of. What does this all mean?"

Yes but the problem she had was that it was hanging over the ****er and written in the funny language (latin), not that she didn't know it was a college diploma.

Why is this conversation even going on? She obviously knew it was a college diploma.

I see you point here.

nuisance - Are you trying to level here? Nobody is talking about the chick. That's not the problem anyone has nor is the discussion anyone was having.

Similar to the situation with Bullet (which is the thing we ARE discussing) the context should make that insanely obvious.

you are wrong. and the 'mistake' has now been made by a bunch of people.

microbob - epic fail itt.

if i said to you i got a 'happy meal' degree would you assume it was a degree from a real university called 'happy meal'? if i said that bacon and eggs fc was playing for the superbowl would you think that there was some nfl team called bacon and eggs you had somehow not heard of?

i agree but ******s that troll me need to be put in their place. at the very least this thread has allowed me to identify a couple more to add to my ignore list.

You right! ****** has been clearly identified in this thread. Good job! Mission accomplished!

This message is hidden because 3rdCheckRaise is on your ignore list.

Not sure how it goes wherever you're from, but here, anyone even somewhat familiar with the idea of college education knows the implication of the phrase "_________ diploma," so long as the blank is anything other than something ridiculous or blatantly something else like mcnuggets or gangbang or whatever the ****. This is very simple.

yeah the issue is how ridiculous it is to call a college 'william and mary', and then how likely is it that of the colleges with names that ridiculous, how many could be dropped in to an op on oot and have people actually know them. simple logic would indicate that it would be very unlikely.

as a result when someone says 'william and mary diploma', my first thoughts are:

1. william and mary is some sort of slang for a type of diploma. for example a wharton masters diploma? or a diploma from a school founded by two people named william and mary? or a diploma from a town which crosses state borders between a w state and an m state. or anything else.

the term fannie mac i believe is used in the stock exchange for example. a bunch of stuff like this is used in the military, in which its a colloquial slang used by a group of people to define something.

2. some sort of in joke that i dont know about. something similar to the mile-high club (BY THE WAY DESPITE THE CONTEXTUAL CLUES HERE THE MILE HIGH CLUB IS NOT ACTUALLY A CLUB). it could be something from an online community, a fastfood chain, or pretty much anything else.

3. some kind of diploma with two different colleges. maybe its a diploma with coursework split between a school called Williams, and another called St. Mary, and the diploma is popular enough that it has been given a nickname.

btw im somewhat interested in pursuing this with you/microbob, but any ******s that want to chip in can just save their sick one liners and pm me so i can stick them straight on ignore if they want.

i still fail to see how its so difficult to understand this simple concept. its not like im alone here, its just that im the only one that can be bothered to defend themselves against the ****** onslaught itt.

When I was 11 years old my hometown college, Miami (Ohio) University, hosted William and Mary in football. Me and my friends kept giggling at our obvious jokes about how unfair it was that we had an entire football team playing against just their two people (and one of them was a girl). True story!

Miami won something like 49-7 fwiw.

BulletProof Monk, if you find the naming of College of William and Mary weird, you're going to have to blame the English as the college was founded in 1693 and named after King William and Queen Mary.

I mean there is a Queen Mary University in London right? so why would a University called William and Mary be that weird?

because i would expect such a college to be called 'King William and Queen Mary College', or for them to choose one or the other. i wouldnt expect that just their first names would be used in such a way.

honestly given what microbob just posted im guessing anyone that finds this normal is biased because they have heard of the college beforehand.

If you told me Bacon and Eggs FC was playing for the Superbowl, I'd ask "Why the hell is a soccer team called Bacon and Eggs playing in the Superbowl?"

I understand what you're getting at here though, but it doesn't make it any less excusable. If "William and Mary" was some colloquialism that would surely show up on Google if you were to search, where you'd inevitably discover that William and Mary is an American University. Also the fact that it was written in Latin should be some hint that it is from an academic institution. Further, I'm going to deduce from the fact that you talked about "Bacon and Eggs FC" competing in the Superbowl that you're British. William and Mary was chartered in the late 1600's by King WILLIAM and Queen MARY of jolly old England, and it's pretty famous for being one of the first American universities.

He said,

"You right! ****** has been clearly identified in this thread. Good job! Mission accomplished!"

Agree 100% with Microbob (for the first time I can remember.) You are a ****ing idiot.

Eh. I honestly don't think the masses know W&M, many here might but it's not really the issue we're hammering at.

Basically the kneejerk assumption from pretty much anyone hearing "______ diploma" (again assuming _____is any name or multiple names that isnt absurd) is that it means "diploma from ______."

I can see the logic, if someone said "yea he has a Macguffin diploma" or something that suggested that kind of reference, but two random names that you haven't heard of still falls in the huge majority of the time where you auto assume it has to be a degree from said college even if it sounds somewhat atypical and you've never heard of it.

It's not that bizarre. There are plenty of other small liberal arts colleges with names that you'd never recognize, and if we had to explain to you that none of them are colloquialisms, that would get a bit taxing. I mean, William and Mary College != Bacon and Eggs FC != Mickey Mouse University != etc. It's not an unreasonable name at all.

really?

ok lets think this through.

what is more likely to you.....

option a: That the Superbowl, one of the biggest sporting events on the planet which is steeped in tradition and has likely billions of dollars and millions of people involved and is taken unbelievably seriously by an entire country has somehow changed overnight and without you finding out about it has changed to the point that a previously non-existent english football team with a ridiculous name is going to be playing in it.

or....

option b: That i am giving some kind of silly nickname to a normal nfl team, maybe to insult that team or possibly to use the nicknames of that teams star players, or am talking about some other superbowl.

seriously think about that for a sec. because what you have just said, is that you choose the former just because of the context of the word superbowl.

btw im not british, despite being born in england.

I was mostly poking fun at your dubbing an NFL club an "FC" which you'll never hear anyone in the states do. I'll bet everyone else on the board got the joke, except for you, and further that this disconnect has something to do with your not being able to understand why everyone is so up in arms about how frustratingly stupid you are. Good day.

well then this is the point of contention.

i have never heard a name of a college or university anything like that. not even close. macguffin would seem a lot more normal to me.

its possible that as an american you have heard a wider range of college names which is why its difficult for you to understand where im coming from. but the fact that several others agree with me proves that asking the question was legit.

whether or not its what you meant, the example is perfect for demonstrating the ridiculousness of what several others have already said itt.