Another Op'nin'

As connoisseurs of the theatrical arts and readers of time magazine already know, Cole Porter has written the songs for a new show known as "Kiss Mc, Kate." Among those songs is one called "Another Op'nin', Another Show." It is sung by a group of actors who are about to try out a production of "The Taming of the Shrew," in Baltimore, of all places.

Keen minds will have grasped by now the connection between all this and today's registration. But for undergraduate politicians and men below Group 8, here are a few words of explanation. Today, in Memorial Hall, everybody from A to Z is performing an operation which, in effect, is another op'nin' of another show. A few swift, sure strokes of your pen, and you have begun to play your part in that great annual drama of education known as the Spring Term.

Some of the actors are old-timers--troupers, as they are called in show business. Typical of these is the man whom you may see standing outside various classrooms the first few days of the term gazing studiously at the feet of the passing masses. He is shopping for courses; he counts the number of white shoes entering various classes, and the four classes with the highest total he takes.

And some of the actors are Freshmen--neophytes, or Freshmen, as they are called in the trade. Or sometimes rookies. Typical of these is the man whom you may see, if you look carefully, studying in the Lamont Library this afternoon.

And some of the actors are Student Council Committee chairmen--comedians, as they are called on old Broadway. The outstanding characteristic of these actors is their ability to look as if they are thinking about something.

And some of the actors play pin-ball, and some of them write these, and some of them ski--you get the idea. As for the play itself, well, it varies a little from year to year, but the third set is always played in searsucker jackets and the epilogue in caps and gowns. Just what sort of comedy the play is--whether it is farce, or burlesque, or tragi-comedy--has never been settled. But that is a matter for pedants to discuss. Today, as the great bard has said, we have another op'nin' of another show, and if it isn't "The Taming of the Shrew," and if it isn't in Baltimore, of all places, what difference does that make, so long as the lectures are at eleven o'clock, the reading is light, the girl is cager, the weather is nice, and the examinations aren't until June?