"He just took ahold of himself and went to [urinal] one," Helgen said. "He braved the arctic cold, so to speak. I think every guy understands that there are these rules to adhere to in the men's room."

Java the Hunt

In the '90s, coffee-house culture is hard to avoid. Whether watching "Friends" at their favorite hangout or visiting the Square's various Starbucks branches, Harvard students have all taken part in what seems a harmless trend.

Janson Wu '00, a history of science and women's studies concentrator, in researching a project for Anthropology 105, interviewed student Starbucks patrons and a Starbucks employee to find out the truth behind the trend. What do consumers really buy with the dollars they spend on Starbucks coffee? Wu, who took the class as an elective, says he became interested in this topic while reading an article for his junior tutorial.

"Starbucks markets coffee in a specific way. They associate it with yuppies and elitists," Wu says. "But they also say that anyone can afford it. So it's democratic in that way."

Wu didn't interview random patrons for fear of annoying store management, but he asked around to find those students who are Starbucks regulars.

From these interviews, he found that consumers drink Starbucks coffee "for a huge variety of reasons."

He says that some people drink Starbucks because it's "much better than Dunkin' Donuts," which some say is watered down.

Wu says that "Starbucks is into teaching people to consume good coffee," so there are those who have learned to appreciate Starbucks' "bitter" taste.

Others, he says, will pour out half of the coffee and fill the rest of the cup with milk. According to Wu, consumers become the "second producers of coffee."

Wu also went into three Starbucks stores in the Square--the one on Church Street, the one in the Garage, and the one next to Broadway Market as well as to one in Boston to observe Starbucks consumption first-hand.

"People are not just consuming coffee, they're consuming space and time. More people get coffee-to-go or stay and do work there...It's not part of the elite lifestyle and it's not a social hangout," he says.

Wu says that Harvard students say they buy Starbucks because they need caffeine or because they're grabbing a cup on the way to class. Even though they're going out of their way, students tell Wu that they head to Starbucks because of the name recognition and because they know the menu.

As for Starbucks efforts to appeal to a broad base of consumers, Wu says that ultimately, he found, "It's an upper-to-middle class joint. People just can't afford $2 for coffee."

Men Behaving Badly