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72-594: The Sacred Cod is a four-foot-eleven-inch (150 cm) carved-wood effigy of an Atlantic codfish , painted to the life, hanging in the House of Representatives chamber of Boston's Massachusetts State House ‍—‌"a memorial of the importance of the Cod-Fishery to the welfare of this Commonwealth" (i.e. Massachusetts , of which cod is officially the "historic and continuing symbol"). The Sacred Cod has gone through as many as three incarnations over three centuries:

144-431: A House committee appointed "to investigate the significance of the emblem [which] has kept its place under all administrations, and has looked upon outgoing and incoming legislative assemblies, for more than one hundred years". Soon sacred cod was being used in reference to actual codfish as well, in recognition of the creature's role in building Massachusetts's prosperity and influence since early colonial times. In 1933

216-655: A facetious proposal "that the sacred cod be immediately removed [from the House chamber], and a greyhound substituted in its place, as the 1937 Legislature has shown itself to be completely under the power of the dog track operators."  Apted (whom the Boston Globe referred to as "Harvard Cop No.   1") wrote to Wenzler: "As one who is, and was, very much interested in preserving [the Cod's] dignity, and furthermore having held it in my arms   ... I most respectfully ask

288-537: A favor, that is: If the greyhound be substituted, that I be presented with the cod in order that it may be preserved for the future of young Americans."  After the House of Representatives moved to its new chamber in 1895, the Massachusetts Senate , which took over the old House chamber, incorporated a fish figure (often dubbed the Holy Mackerel ) into the chandelier there, as a reminder of

360-516: A female straw effigy or drowning it in a river, or both. It is a folk custom in Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, taking place on the day of the vernal equinox . Funeral effigies made from wood, cloth and wax played a role in the royal funeral rituals in early modern France and England. Following the medieval European doctrine of the double body of the king, these effigies represented

432-672: A few years authors, journalists, and advertisers‍—‌even those far from New England‍—‌were using the term routinely. The phrase quickly came to refer not only to the wooden Cod in the State House but to actual cod from the sea as well, especially as an item of commerce. At the 1908 convention of the Retail Grocers of the United States, held in Boston, one delegate recalled the first organized effort   ... for

504-470: A few years, the Committee wrote, the second Cod disappeared from the State House and was doubtless destroyed, for the closest historical research fails to shed any light upon the time, manner or cause of its disappearance, or to disclose any reference to it whatever. Mayhap some burly British trooper, quartered in the improvised barracks of the old State House [during the siege of Boston ], took umbrage at

576-470: A funeral effigy, for instance British prime minister Pitt the Elder , the naval hero Horatio Nelson , French emperor Napoleon, and Frances Stewart, Duchess of Richmond , who also had her parrot stuffed and displayed at her own request and expense. From the time of the funeral of Charles II in 1685, effigies were no longer placed on the coffin but were still made for later display. The effigy of Charles II

648-450: A majesty greater than the dignity that art can lend to graven gold or chiselled marble. The sphere it fills is vaster than that through which its prototype careered with all the myriad tribes of the great deep. The lessons that may be learned of it are nobler than any to be drawn from what is beautiful; for this sedate and solitary fish is instinct with memories and prophecy, like an oracle. It swims symbolic in that wider sea whose confines are

720-542: A plural, creating the singular effigy .) In effigie was probably understood as a Latin phrase until the 18th century. The word occurs in Shakespeare 's As You Like It of 1600 (II, vii, 193), where scansion suggests that the second syllable is to be emphasized, as in the Latin pronunciation (but unlike the modern English pronunciation). Hanging or burning the effigy of a political enemy to ridicule and dishonour them

792-527: A political effigy is the figure of Guy Fawkes , one of the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot who tried to assassinate King James I in 1605 by blowing up the House of Lords . Already a year later, the 5th of November was declared a holiday to celebrate the survival of the king and was celebrated with bonfires. Soon after, effigies of Guy Fawkes were burned. Traditionally, children make effigies from old clothing filled with straw to beg for "a penny for

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864-411: A reminder of human mortality. In the field of numismatics , effigy describes the portrait on the obverse of a coin. A practice evident in reference literature of the 19th century, the obverse of a coin was said to depict "the ruler's effigy". The appearance and style of effigy used varies according to the preference of the monarch or ruler being depicted - for example, some, such as George VI of

936-610: A rival attraction for admirers of Nelson. A tomb effigy , in French gisant ("recumbent") is the usually life-size sculpted figure depicting the deceased on a tomb monument . Although these funeary and commemorative reliefs were first developed in Ancient Egyptian and Etruscan cultures, they appear most numerously in Western Europe tombs from the later 11th century, in a style that continued in use through

1008-476: A tip that a Lampoon editor had flown to New Jersey with the Cod, had the plane searched on landing; the tip turned out to be a red herring. Detectives followed "scores" of clues, one of which took them to a Cambridge box factory and from there to "collegiate circles"‍—‌a "6-foot youth" (tall enough to reach the wires suspending the Cod) had reportedly bought lilies from a Harvard-area florist before being seen in

1080-524: Is a large overlap and exchange between the ephemeral forms of effigies. Traditional holiday effigies are often politically charged, for instance, when the generalised figures Año Viejo (the Old Year) or Judas in Latin America are substituted by the effigy of a despised politician. Traditional forms are also borrowed for political protests. In India, for instance, effigies in protests regularly take

1152-625: Is a very old and very widespread practice. It is reported that in 1328, the troops of Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV , on their campaign in Italy to unseat Pope John XXII , burned a straw puppet of the pope. Burning effigies in political protests is especially widespread in India and Pakistan. In the Philippines, the practice came up during the successful People Power Revolution against the regime of President Marcos . Since then effigy protests against

1224-428: Is also burned in the Philippines. In Mexico, a hard papier-mache figure depicting the devil was used—representing Judas after he betrayed Jesus; and the figure wasn't just burned, but was blown to bits in the course of a fireworks display. The tradition of burning Guy Fawkes has been brought to New England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other British colonies. The Indian and Pakistani tradition of burning Ravana

1296-601: Is also practiced in Trinidad and in Edinburgh and Manchester, UK. In the 1970s German students established the burning of Winter in the form of a snowman at Lake Superior State University in Michigan, US. The Marzanna ritual represents the end of the dark days of winter, the victory over death, and the welcoming of the spring rebirth. Marzanna is a Slavic goddess of death, associated with winter. The rite involves burning

1368-399: Is an emphasis on the social and political aspects of the depicted person. Tomb effigies and funeral effigies exhibit attire and office insignia that indicate social status; coin effigies are signs of sovereignty ; formal punishment of an effigy was synonymous to social death; popular punishment was meant to humiliate and ostracise the depicted; effigies in political protests ridicule and attack

1440-569: Is good old Boston, / The home of the bean and the cod, Where the Lowells talk only to Cabots / And the Cabots talk only to God. —paraphrases an earlier poem now little remembered: Here's to old Massachusetts / The home of the sacred cod, Where the Adamses vote for Douglas , / And the Cabots walk with God. In an incident now referred to as "The Cod-napping" by State House officials, on

1512-706: Is now called the Sacred Cod has hung for three centuries‍—‌though with interruptions, and in at least two (and possibly three) successive incarnations‍—‌in the chamber of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (or its predecessor, the House of Assembly of the Province of Massachusetts Bay ). Of the Cod's first incarnation, the Committee on History of the Emblem of the Codfish (appointed by

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1584-790: Is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court , the state legislature of Massachusetts . It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into single-member electoral districts across the Commonwealth. The House of Representatives convenes at the Massachusetts State House in Boston , the state capital of Massachusetts. Any person seeking to get elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives must meet

1656-436: Is worthless"‍—‌Massachusetts officials were "shocked into a condition bordering on speechlessness" by the theft, "some legislators holding that it would be sacrilege to transact business without the emblem of the Commonwealth looking down upon them." (Nonetheless, at the appointed time "[House] Speaker [Leverett] Saltonstall looked mournfully at the vacant place and then banged the gavel."  Barnstable County offered

1728-637: The Crimson to take credit for its return), or its deeds would be exposed. On the morning of April 28, The New York Times reported that the Crimson had accused the Lampoon of taking the Cod.   The Fish that symbolized a trade   /   Which, in the days of old,   The shores of old New England made   /   A strand of shining gold,   The Fish that millions came to view   /   With ardent admiration,   The Fish whose fame has echoed to   /   The corners of

1800-468: The Renaissance and early modern period , and are still sometimes used. They typically represent the deceased in a state of "eternal repose", with hands folded in prayer, lying on a pillow, awaiting resurrection with a dog or lion at their feet. A husband and wife may be depicted lying side by side. A related type of tomb effigy, the cadaver monument , shows the corpse in a state of decomposition as

1872-616: The Sacred Cod of Massachusetts . The 5-foot-long (1.5 m) pine carving of the cod was offered by Representative John Rowe in 1784 in commemoration of the state's maritime economy and history. Two previous carvings of the cod existed during the legislature's colonial era; the first destroyed in a fire in 1747, and the second during the American War of Independence . Since 1784, the current Sacred Cod has been present at nearly every House session, and moved to its current location when

1944-578: The United Kingdom have preferred to be shown uncrowned, while others have favoured highly-formal representations. It can also be the case that the monarch's reign becomes long enough to merit issuing a succession of effigies so that their appearance continues to be current. Such has been the case for Queen Victoria (three effigies over 63 years) and Elizabeth II , who was depicted by five different effigies on British coins and three different effigies on British postage stamps between her ascension to

2016-664: The British colonies in New England, effigy performances gained prominence as an effective tool in the protests against the 1765 Stamp Act , leading to the American Revolution and the founding of the United States of America. Afterwards, it became an established form of political expression in US politics, and almost every US President has been burned in effigy at some point in his career. The best known British example of

2088-587: The Cod-Fishery to the welfare of this Commonwealth, as had been usual formerly   .... And so the emblem was suspended" in the old State House once again, and this Cod (which Rowe may have underwritten personally) is the one extant today. In 1798 the Cod was moved to the Representatives chamber in the new State House , where it originally hung over the Speaker's desk. In the 1850s it was moved to

2160-534: The First World War, when demonstrators burned an effigy of British High Commissioner for Egypt Lord Allenby during a protest against the presence of British troops in the city. In the second half of the 20th century it became custom to portray contemporary enemies of Egypt as the al-Limby. During the Arab Spring , effigies of President Mubarak and other Egyptian politicians were exhibited and burned as

2232-457: The House presides over the House of Representatives. The Speaker is elected by the majority party caucus followed by confirmation of the full House through the passage of a House Resolution. As well as presiding over the body, the Speaker is also the chief leader, and controls the flow of legislation. Other House leaders, such as the majority and minority leaders , are elected by their respective party caucuses relative to their party's strength in

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2304-544: The House began convening in the State House in 1798. In 1933, members of the Harvard Lampoon stole the cod carving as part of a prank. The theft sparked a large statewide search by the Boston and Massachusetts State Police . Following outrage from Boston newspapers and the General Court itself, the cod was anonymously handed back. The Democrats hold a supermajority in the House. The Speaker of

2376-523: The House in 1895) wrote: There is a dim tradition that in the primitive House of Assembly of the Province there hung a codfish which was the gift of Judge Samuel Sewall [who] died in 1729. [But Sewell's] published remains make no mention of this traditional fish, and it is difficult to imagine that a man of his loquacious verbosity would have omitted to chronicle his munificence. Assuming it existed and whatever its origin (the Committee continued), when

2448-543: The Sacred Cod the Representatives had taken with them. When officials of the World War II aluminum-for-defense drive‍—‌misinformed that the Sacred Cod was aluminum‍—‌asked that it be donated to the war effort, House Speaker Christian Herter explained that the Cod had been created decades before aluminum's discovery, and suggested that the Holy Mackerel be considered for sacrifice instead. "Conceding

2520-709: The Sacred Cod was briefly "Cod-napped" by editors of the Harvard Lampoon , prompting police to drag the Charles River and search an airplane landing in New Jersey . In 1968 it was again taken briefly, this time by students at the University of Massachusetts Boston . A fish figure is displayed in the State House Senate chamber as well‍—‌a brass casting (sometimes called the Holy Mackerel ) above its central chandelier. Years before

2592-407: The State House burned in 1747 "this prehistoric creature of tradition   ... doubtless went up in a whirl of smoke which still clouds its history to the peering vision of the antiquarian".  A second Cod appeared sometime between 1748 (when the State House was rebuilt) and 1773 (when Thomas Crafts Jr. billed the Province of Massachusetts Bay, "To painting Codfish, 15 shillings"). But within

2664-525: The State House on the day of the theft‍—‌and several Harvard College students were questioned by the school's dean. "So much general interest was provoked that The Boston Transcript indulged in two columns of news, hearsay, and speculation upon the missing emblem," the Times further reported, later referring to the Cod as Boston's " Palladium ". Eventually a mysterious telephone call directed Harvard official Charles R. Apted to West Roxbury , where he

2736-432: The al-Limby. Burning effigies is part of many rituals to mark the change of the seasons, performed all over Europe in locally distinct traditions. The figures usually personify adverse forces of life (winter, the old year, the witch, Judas Iscariot ) and their burning marks and celebrates the annual cycle of life—death and rebirth, the defeat of winter and the return of spring. Most traditions are staged around New Year, at

2808-431: The authenticity of this tradition, a question remains as to which of the two codfishes was the handiwork of John Welch. Welch died Feb.   9, 1789; so that, if he carved the fish now in the State House, he must have been in his seventy-fourth year. This seems unlikely, whereas he might easily have wrought the codfish Thomas Crafts [Jr.] painted; and it is quite probable that, in the growing vagueness of domestic tradition,

2880-506: The bettering of conditions in the grocery business. I refer to the Boston tea party . How could we get along without the Boston baked beans or the almost sacred cod? Two years later the New Hampshire Board of Agriculture, bemoaning the counterfeiting of foodstuffs "famous for their distinctive properties or superior quality", warned that " haddock , hake , pollock , cusk , etc., are substituted indiscriminately in place of

2952-428: The chamber's clock. The Cod has faced north (that is, leftward as seen from the Speaker's rostrum) since its installation in the House chamber in 1895, though after being repainted in 1965 it was, at least temporarily, rehung the other way. The Committee's report refers at one point to "the sacred emblem", and while it was working a poem appeared in the Boston Globe referring to the carving as "the Sacred Cod". Within

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3024-431: The current regional population system in the 20th century. Until 1978, there were 240 members of the house, a number in multi-member districts; today there are 160 in single-member districts. Districts are named for the counties they are in and tend to stay within one county, although districts often cross county lines. Representatives serve two-year terms which are not limited. Within the House's debating chamber hangs

3096-585: The early crest of the Salem Gazette . In 1743 a prominent Salem businessman built a mansion in which "the end of every stair in his spacious hall [displayed] a carved and gilded codfish",  and in the 19th century the nouveau riche merchant families of New England were sometimes referred to, disparagingly, as the "codfish aristocracy". In the late 1920s an "amusing" (as author H. P. Lovecraft termed it) codfish emblem appeared briefly, "totem-like", on Massachusetts license plates . Poised high aloft

3168-518: The end of Carnival or in the week before Easter. Many of these traditions have been exported as people migrated to other countries. European settlers brought their traditions to the colonies, where they might have merged with local traditions. In countries of Latin America, the Spanish tradition of burning Año Viejo (the Old Year) on New Year Eve and Judas on Good Friday is widely practiced. Judas

3240-469: The evening of April   26, 1933, members of the Harvard Lampoon (the Harvard College humor magazine) entered the House of Representatives gallery, cut down the Cod, and carried it away in an unusually large florist's box equipped with protruding decoy lilies. According to The New York Times ‍—‌ which reckoned the Cod's value to be "something less than nothing. As an object of art it

3312-406: The first (if it really existed‍—‌the authoritative source calling it a "prehistoric creature of tradition") was lost in a 1747 fire; the second disappeared during the American Revolution ; and the third, installed in 1784, is the one seen in the House chamber today. "Sacred Cod" is not a formal name but a nickname which appeared in 1895, soon after the carving was termed "the sacred emblem" by

3384-461: The following qualifications: Originally, representatives were apportioned by town. For the first 150 persons, one representative was granted, and this ratio increased as the population of the town increased. The largest membership of the House was 749 in 1812 (214 of these being from the District of Maine ); the largest House without Maine was 635 in 1837. The original distribution was changed to

3456-428: The form of the ten-headed demon king Ravana , as they figure in the traditional Ramlila . In Mexico and the United States piñatas depicting a politician are sometimes taken to protests and beaten to a pulp. Procedures of formal and popular justice are appropriated when the effigy of a politician in a protest figures in a mock trial, mock execution and mock funeral. In all cases, except the traditional effigies, there

3528-479: The future."  Using a stepladder, on November   14, 1968, students at the new Boston campus of the University of Massachusetts took the Sacred Cod in protest of perceived legislative indifference to their school. ("Sacred Cod gone from House perch ", the Boston Globe alerted its readers.) It was found days later in a little-used State House hallway. In 1937 Representative John B. Wenzler offered

3600-500: The guy", and communities build their own bonfires. Currently, Lewes , on the south coast of England has the most elaborate celebrations of Guy Fawkes Night . Competing bonfire societies make effigies of important and unpopular figures in current affairs and burn them alongside effigies of Guy Fawkes and the Pope . In Port Said , Egypt, the al-Limby (formerly known as Allenby) is burned during Spring Festival. The tradition started after

3672-506: The honour of the targeted politician. The word efigy is first documented in English in 1539 and comes, perhaps via French , from the Latin singular form effigies , meaning "copy, image, likeness, portrait, and statue". This spelling was originally used in English for singular senses: even a single image was "the effigies of ...". (This spelling seems to have been later reanalyzed as

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3744-461: The identity of the two may have been confounded. In that chaotic revolutionary period which left us no record of the loss or destruction of the object of Thomas Crafts' artistic attention, the Welch family may easily have lost trace of it, and have taken it for granted that the older emblem is the actual symbol of today." In Cambridge , meanwhile, an arranged fracas between Lampoon and Crimson men

3816-461: The immortal and divine kingship. The effigy was dressed in the royal regalia and waited upon as if alive, while the monarch's physical remains remained hidden in the coffin. After the coronation of the new king, these effigies were stored away. The museum of Westminster Abbey has a collection of English royal wax effigies reaching back to Edward III of England , who died in 1377. In the 18th century also other important personalities were honoured with

3888-464: The limits set to the activities of human thought. It typifies to the citizens of the Commonwealth and of the world the founding of a State. It commemorates Democracy. It celebrates the rise of free institutions. It emphasizes progress. It epitomizes Massachusetts. A History of the Emblem of the Codfish in the Hall of the House of Representatives. Compiled by a Committee of the House. (1895) What

3960-471: The loan of its own codfish emblem for the duration of the crisis.) Meanwhile, Boston mayor James Michael Curley received a telephone message: "Tell the Mayor that when the Sacred Cod is returned it will be wrapped in the municipal flag, now flying in front of City Hall. Try and catch us when we cop the flag. Lafayette Mulligan , we are here."  "Indignant" police dragged the Charles River and, acting on

4032-407: The nation.   When first I set my roving feet   /   Upon Bostonian sod,   I hastened blithely up the street   /   To view the Sacred Cod,   And in its dull and glassy eyes,   /   The instant of our meeting,   I fancied that I saw arise   /   A glance of cordial greeting.   Today there is an end of grief;   /   No more

4104-432: The old House chamber, where the Sacred Cod was lowered by the assistant doorkeeper and wrapped in an American flag, then placed on a bier and borne by House messengers to the new House chamber, where the assembled Representatives rose in applause. After repainting by Walter M. Brackett , it was hung where it remains today: "between the two sets of central columns, and under the names ' Motley ,' and ' Parkman ',"  above

4176-426: The old hall of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, riding serenely the sound waves of debate, unperturbed by the ebb and flow of enactment and repeal or the desultory storms that vexed the nether depths of oratory, there has hung through immemorial years an ancient codfish, quaintly wrought in wood and painted to the life. Humble the subject and homely the design; yet this painted image bears on its finny front

4248-508: The rear of the chamber. On January   2, 1895‍—‌the House's last day of business before relocating to a new chamber in the same building— the question of taking with it the "representation of a codfish," which for more than a hundred years had never missed a "roll call," was brought up for consideration. It was, however, deemed wise to investigate the significance of the emblem before its removal   ... Accordingly, after "nearly two months of painstaking research and investigation"

4320-568: The recognition as conspicuous as possible. A History of the Emblem of the Codfish in the Hall of the House of Representatives. Compiled by a Committee of the House. (1895) Codfishing was the first industry practiced by Europeans in Massachusetts, and it is said that the colony's first export was a cargo of fish. Thus the codfish has been an important New England symbol for centuries, its image appearing on many early coins, stamps, corporate and government seals, and insignia such as

4392-545: The sacred cod."  In 1912 President William Howard Taft , in Boston, addressed a journalists' banquet in New York City "by long distance telephone from the home of the sacred cod". And in 1922 historian Samuel Eliot Morison , emphasizing fishing's vital role in the colonial economy, wrote that "Puritan Massachusetts derived her ideals from a sacred book; her wealth and power from the sacred cod."  The famous doggerel poking fun at Boston's Brahmins — And this

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4464-696: The shape of an animal or human. In the past, criminals sentenced to death in absentia might be officially executed "in effigy" as a symbolic act. In southern India, effigies of the demon-king Ravana from the epic poem the Ramayana are traditionally burnt during the festival of Navrati . A wicker man was a large human-shaped wicker statue allegedly used in Celtic paganism for human sacrifice by burning it, when loaded with captives. Massachusetts House of Representatives Minority (25) Vacant (2) The Massachusetts House of Representatives

4536-437: The skies loom black;   A chastened and repentant thief   /   Has brought the Codfish back.   No Stygian gloom now broods around,   /   No heart with woe is freighted;   Bostonian pulses leap and bound   –   /   The Cod is reinstated. 42°21′29.4″N 71°3′49.3″W  /  42.358167°N 71.063694°W  / 42.358167; -71.063694 Effigy There

4608-473: The spick and span elegance of the newly painted emblem of colonial independence and thrift. Such a one may have torn down the cherished symbol from the wall whence it had offered aid and comfort to the rebel patriots, with its assurance of the material wealth accessible to the embryonic State, and, in spirit of vandalism so prevalent at that age, used it to replenish his evening camp fire. The Committee found "good reason to believe that this missing fish   ...

4680-405: The statesmen of the period had decided to make public acknowl­edge­ment of the indebted­ness of the colony to the codfish, and had voted to adorn the assem­bly chamber with a wooden repre­sen­ta­tion thereof, indi­vid­uals and private cor­po­ra­tions were eager to pay tribute to the codfish, and vied with one another in their anxiety to make

4752-485: The successive presidents developed into elaborate spectacles. US President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama have been burned in effigy numerous times in protests against military operations and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq in the countries in the region as well as elsewhere. During the Arab Spring of 2011 and onward, effigies of the countries' leaders have been hanged in Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria. In

4824-484: The three-member Committee on History of the Emblem of the Codfish submitted its report, and after debating "at length" the House ordered "immediate removal of the ancient 'representation of a codfish' from its present position in the chamber recently vacated by the House, and to cause it to be suspended   ... in this chamber   ...."  A committee of fifteen was escorted by the Sergeant-at-Arms to

4896-416: The throne in 1953 and her death in 2022. Effigy mound is a term used in the archaeology of (mainly) Pre-Columbian America for a large earthwork in the shape of a stylized animal, symbol, human, or other figure and generally containing one or more human burials. Effigy vessel is a term used in the archeology of (mainly) Pre-Columbian America for ceramic or stone containers, pots, vases, cups, etc., in

4968-414: Was carved by one John Welch, a Boston patriot". The third Cod was installed in 1784 (the Committee continued) after Representative John Rowe ‍—‌namesake of Rowes Wharf and "a leading spirit in the stirring scenes that led up to the famous ' Boston Tea Party ' " ‍—‌asked leave "to hang up the representation of a Cod Fish in the room where the House sit, as a memorial of the importance of

5040-529: Was displayed over his tomb until the early 19th century, when all effigies were removed from the abbey. Nelson's effigy was a tourist attraction, commissioned the year after his death and his burial in St Paul's Cathedral in 1805. The government had decided that major public figures with State funerals should in future be buried at St Paul's. Concerned for their revenue from visitors, the Abbey decided it needed

5112-421: Was met by an automobile which he followed into some woods; there two young men, with collars up and hatbrims down, handed him the Cod (not wrapped in any flag) before speeding away. In the early hours of April   29, after repairs to three damaged fins, the Sacred Cod was re-hung in the House chamber, "six inches [15   cm] higher [than] the reach of any individual. A stepladder will be needed to remove it in

5184-402: Was staged for the benefit of invited journalists. After sundry other hijinx, "Boyd was taken from Wellesley to Boston, where he and his captors   ... were entertained at tea by friends of the kidnaped editor."  Late on April 27, having deduced that the Lampoon was behind the Cod theft, Crimson editors issued an ultimatum: either the Lampoon hand the Cod over by midnight (allowing

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