Rago on Animal House

Head over to the Wall Street Journal to read a piece by former Review editor-in-chief and Dartmouth ’05 Joseph Rago on the reasons for Animal House‘s enduring appeal. In his review of “Fat, Drunk, and Stupid,” a new memoir by Matty Simmons, founder of National Lampoon, Rago lauds the way Animal House captured the essential uniqueness of the college experience – a one time pass to do it all to excess, consequences be damned. And as Rago correctly notes, these are still the things that make college, especially a college like Dartmouth, where much of Animal House remains true, the finest time in a young person’s life. Let us hope, whatever changes in student life may come about, that fact holds steady.

–Benjamin M. Riley