As for your comment that the "hapless initiates" were seen "butchering that modern-day ballad by the Backstreet Boys," I can only assume that you did not see the performance. Those boys were in tune, and they made those outfits work! Did you notice that there were almost 200 Harvard students watching this performance, and laughing hysterically? I don't know when the last time you saw that large a group of students laughing together was, but it doesn't happen often enough.
And while a class or two may have been interrupted, 15 minutes is a huge exaggeration. I saw a number of professors laughing and smiling as the song was taking place. If you don't know how they felt about it, you shouldn't just guess.
Final clubs play no role in the lives of the majority of students and are just not newsworthy. If The Crimson aspires to be anything more than the tabloid it has become, start talking about things that matter.
Ryan G. Schaffer '00
Dec. 16, 1999