Fun, Fun, Fun: Fusilli, Homebrewed Beer and the Menu Man

How does that old Cyndi Lauper song go? The Fusilli Club just wanna have fun? Well, not exactly, but according to two Currier House residents, it's true.

Indeed, the Fusilli Club, "the most nonexclusive, all-inclusive, fun-conductive club at Harvard," has no other goal in mind but to have--you got it--fun.

Sean R. McCarthy '92 the Fusilli Club's provisional president, began the club in the spring of 1990. As he retells it, however, he didn't have much success with getting the organization off the ground.

In fact, he admits that for that one semester, he was the sole member of the club.

But the fun-seeking Fusilli Club had a bit of good fortune in the fall of 1990, when McCarthy met his roommate and future club vice president, SJ Klein '92'-'93.

"We were thrown together by a stoke of pure luck," says McCarthy. "We were just up talking one morning at four [a.m.] and i was telling SJ about the club... He liked the idea, and we decided to really do something about it."

Oodles of Noodles

Fusilli, which means "spring" in Italian, is a type of noodle, or more specifically, "that little corkscrew noodle," as member Rana K. Der-showily '92 describes it.

According to McCarthy, the founder of the Fusilli Club is Mark Sutton, a student at Williams College and the "Chief Noodle."

McCarthy, a friend of Sutton's, says he formed the group at Harvard in hopes that it would serve as a "forum for the pursuit of fun."

"We wanted to form a club with a relatively low commitment level because we realize people here are very busy with things," he says. "We just want to get together and have fun."

According to Dershowitz, The Fusilli isn't a very hierarchical club. Admission to the club is not selective, nor does the organization have difficult entrance prerequisites. In fact, there are only tow requirements.

"You just have to express an interest in joining the club--and you have to learn how to weave," says Dershowitz. "Weaving" is the official club handshake.

A bonus that may have attracted many students is that the club has no fees, no dues and no obligations. "You don't even have to be a Harvard student to be a member," says Dershowitz.

According to the provisional president, the Harvard Fusilli Club currently has approximately 350 members, including Harvard alumnae, graduate students, Harvard dining hall workers, House tutors and undergraduates, not only of Harvard but of other universities as well.

"We now have members from all of the undergraduate houses on campus...even Mather," says McCarthy.

He adds that many of the club members are also a part of the Crimson Key Society because of the similarity of the groups' purposes.

"The purpose of the Crimson Key is to be friendly and to welcome people to the college, and the purpose of our group is to friendly and welcome people period," says McCarthy.

Signing the 'Manipesto'

Though the organization is not a national one, nor is it an official club at Harvard--yer-- McCarthy and Klein are working on getting approval from the administration.

Presently, the club leaders are working on attaining faculty advicers and on getting the "Manipesto," the group's charter, signed.

Events the club has held in the past include a trip to the circus, an outing to the Indigo Girls concert, sleepovers, pasta parties and beer-fests, for which Klein brewed his own beer. And yesterday, the got the Currier House dining crew to serve up fusilli to the whole house.

As the group's membership grows, McCarthy plans on sending a bi-monthly newsletter to all members, informing them of upcoming happenings.

According to Leslie R. Amper, a music tutor at Currier House and a Fusilli member, "it is a very fun-loving, up-beat and Warm-hearted group of people." She did admit, however, that she needs "a few more lessons to master the weave."

Menu Man Wanna Have Fun Too

Perhaps it is this fun-loving reputation that has attracted even the mysterious "Menu Man" to the Fusilli Club.

"It's a happy, harmless organization," says Menu Man.

"They've been hassling more me for a year now to join the club," he says. "They're great guys. [McCarthy] took a semester off and went to Ireland last year, and we kept in touch, I gave him my secret telephone number."

Of course, unlike members of other clubs, the members of the Fusilli Club used their political connections to have even more fun: yesterday, they were on the Dial-a Menu recording.

When asked whether or not he plans to join the club, Menu Man replied, "If they'll have me--and I'm easy to be had."

And since the group now performs phone inductions, Menu Man doesn't have to worry about revealing his identity. He'll just have to learn to weave with the telephone cord.