ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, September 29, 1996 TAG: 9609270032
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 4 EDITION: METRO
A glossary of VMI-speak
Rat: Freshman students at the Virginia Military Institute, known alternately as fourth classmen, nuts and the "dumbest and lowliest of God's creatures."
First classman: A senior at VMI. Juniors are second classmen; sophomores are thirds. Nobody likes thirds.
Cadre: These junior drill instructors are experts in close-range screaming. They make the rats' lives miserable in the interest of teaching them discipline, marching and how to sweat.
Sweat party: No kegs here. It's a 15-minute physical workout with prescribed exercises: sit-ups, flutterkicks and plenty of push-ups.
Rat Bible: The colloquial name given to The Bullett, the self-described "source of all wisdom" for rats, covering everything from the VMI honor code to the history of the institute to table etiquette.
Flaming a rat: No propane involved here, but plenty of heat. This is the act of stopping a rat and dropping him for some push-ups, or demanding the recitation of facts from the Rat Bible.
Honor code: "A cadet will neither lie, cheat, steal, nor tolerate those who do." Violations of the honor code are prosecuted by the 12-cadet honor court.
Rat Disciplinary Committee: The guys no rat wants to meet. Not the honor court, these are VMI's big, bad demerit counters. Show up late for morning formation too many times, fail a room inspection, and you get worked out by the RDC.
Dyke: What a rat and his "big brother" in the corps call one another. The term evolved from the fact that it takes two cadets to put on the intersecting white belts, called cross-dykes, cadets wear for parades.
Rat Daddy: Any upperclassmen who "babies" the rats.
Straining: The position rats must assume at all times in the barracks and mess hall: chest out, chin coiled into the neck, forehead out, arms stiff at the sides.
Sallyport: The set of stairs at the southwest corner of the barracks.
Sallyport geek: A third classman who loiters on those stairs with nothing better to do than flame rats all day. Nobody likes thirds.
LENGTH: Medium: 57 linesby CNB