The Brass Rat

English: 1950 MIT Ring Bezel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Apropos of nothing important, but requested by Bobbi to get me back to writing, this story:

MIT’s mascot is the beaver, “nature’s engineer,” and an MIT class ring has an image of a beaver. The ring, usually made of gold is known as a “brass rat.” I didn’t much care about my rat so I gave it to my mother. Who knows where it is now?

MIT tradition has it that you wear your rat with the beaver facing toward you until you graduate, then turn it around so it faces out. The explanation: “Until you graduate, the beaver pisses on you. After you graduate, the beaver pisses on the world.”