IHTFP
From Free net encyclopedia
IHTFP is an abbreviation which makes up part of the folklore at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It originally stood for "I Hate This Fucking Place", but due to use of profanity is often euphemized with other backronyms. Some of the more popular meanings include "I Have Truly Found Paradise" or "Interesting Hacks To Fascinate People", alluding to the humorous and inventive "hacks" (campus synonym for pranks). The precise time of origin is unknown, though the term was already widely used at MIT by 1960.
A common motif in the MIT Brass Rat is the inclusion of the letters IHTFP hidden somewhere in the bezel.
Famous hacks
Though hacks are fairly common on the campus, a few hacks have stood the test of time.
One hack involved a police car with its warning lights running. The unusual aspect of this hack was its position -- on top of MIT's Great Dome. Upon further examination, the car was shown to have been gutted and somehow hoisted up on top of the MIT landmark. Furthermore, it was shown to be a junked Chevrolet, painted meticulously to match the MIT Campus Police patrol cars. The car had a dummy cop inside with a box of donuts and a license plate that read, "IHTFP." The number painted on the car was pi.
Due to MIT's proximity to Harvard, many hacks involve the annual Harvard-Yale football game. Because of the Cambridge rivalry between MIT and Harvard, hackers often are found at the games and have come up with some of the most famous hacks in the Institute's history.
One notable hack attempt targeting the 1948 Harvard-Yale football game involved the use of primer cord. One night shortly before the game MIT students snuck into the Harvard stadium and burried primer cord just under the field. The plan was to burn the letters MIT into the middle of the field during the game. Unfortunately for the hackers their work was uncovered by groundskeepers and disabled. During the game the hackers were apprehended while wearing heavy coats on a fair-weather day. The coats were lined with batteries, obviously intended to be used to detonate the primer cord. An MIT dean came to their defense, opening his own battery-lined coat and claiming that "all tech men carry batteries". This phrase has since become common among MIT students.
The Harvard-Yale football game was again the target of MIT hacks in 1982 when a weather balloon painted with "MIT" all over it was inflated seemingly from nowhere in the middle of the field. In 1990 an MIT banner was successfully launched from an end zone using a model rocket engine shortly before Yale attempted a field goal kick. The next day the Boston Herald ran the headline "MIT 1--Harvard-Yale 1 Tech Pranksters Steal the Show"
The cleverness of many MIT hacks has even resulted in urban legends about supposed hacks. One rumored hack involved a certain student's adherance to Pavlov behavior response. Throughout the off-season this supposed student visited the Harvard football stadium during his lunch break. He dressed in a black and white striped shirt and trousers, filled his pockets with bird-seed, then went on the field, blew a whistle, and spread his birdseed on the field. The result of all of this effort, the story goes, is that on opening day as the Harvard football team took the field to face their opponent, the referee blew his whistle to signal the start of the game, and the field was suddenly innundated by a flock of birds looking for their lunch. Despite sounding like a classic MIT hack this particular prank has never been verified. The author of a 1990 book about pranks pulled by MIT students stated that he had not come across this tale during his years of research.