Coe College Publications: Zip n' Tang

What do the Caravan, The Courier, Zip n' Tang, The Cosmos, and the Freshman Folio all have in common?  They are Coe publications featured on the website "Coe College: the First Hundred Years."  For those publications you don't recognize the site gives a description of its history and place on campus (a few weren't necessarily sanctioned).  For those you do, the site supplies bits of trivia you may not know (quick who was the first editor of the Cosmos?).

One of the publications featured on the site is the Zip n' Tang.  The Zip n' Tang was a student owned humor magazine that was published from 1929-1936.  In 1929, when the magazine began, the faculty refused to sanction it forcing its offices off campus and the publication into private ownership.  The Zip n' Tang was owned by its editors who sold the publication to the following years editors until 1936 when the college bought it and shut it down.  This publication was loved and hated by students in equal measure.  Loved for its humor and popular material hated for its Razz issue.

This hatred of the Razz issue was due to an entire section dedicated to sorority gossip, where there was something written for every girl in every sorority on campus. With six sororities averaging thirty girls in each, this was a considerable amount of gossip. The Razz issue contained this editorial: "We desire to have it spread abroad before every one on campus starts snobbing us, that we (editorial we) did NOT write the razz about all the sorority girls, but instead, all of that was written by co-eds, most of which were in the sorority about which they wrote. (So take that and that and that!) Some of the cracks weren't exactly flattering, but as I said before, what do you expect for fifteen cents - a bunch of roses?" Comments ranged from "sweet and innocent" to "she's always near beer and pretzels" and "her sudden crush on a certain person ought to be bad news to Frank W.; or hasn't he heard of it yet. Everyone else has."

To get the full story of this controversial Coe publication see the article on "Coe College: The First Hundred Years" here.

~Sara Pitcher, Archives Assistant