By a Smoot!

It's October, which means back in my hometown of Boston, the hot topic of conversation has to do with smoots.

As in Oliver Smoot, an MIT fraternity pledge who in October of 1958 lay down repeatedly so as to measure the length of one of the bridges that spans the Charles River. Yup, that's how they roll at MIT.

Every October the story of the famed prank is retold. For those of you who are trivia gurus the answer is 364.4 smoots (Oliver was 5' 7", you do the math).

In 2011, the term smoot made its appearance in the American Heritage Dictionary, the same year Google Earth allowed users to measure distances in smoots. 

So next time you're in Boston, be sure to include a stroll over this famous landmark. The measurements are still there, blazing their way into infamy.

"The hardest thing in life to learn is which bridge to cross and which bridge to burn." - David Russell