St Patrick is the Patron Saint of Engineers according to my former professors at Milwaukee School of Engineering. A student used to be elected St Pat for the day and he had the power to shut down a class and dismiss it. He would dress up in garb similar to the pope and have a court with people ringing bells and blowing smoke. St Pat would go from class to class cutting the ties off of professors and dismissing the class. If the professor refused to open the door to have his tie cut off the court would ring bells and blow smoke under the door of the classroom until the situation improved. I don’t remember many of my classes at MSOE but I do remember when our advanced calculus topics professor tried to delay the court of St Pat shutting down his class. St Pat eventually won. I wonder what was in that smoke that they were blowing under the door because it always seemed to be effective at shutting down the class. Engineers know how to have fun at least at MSOE.
