Infiltrating the other, other Longwood area based formal

I reluctantly agreed to miss BBS Recruitment 2013, Weekend 1, as part of a major February compromise, and because I remembered I'm supposed to be doing a year long NRS series on the other, other side of Longwood. I therefore attended the 2013 HSPH Winter Ball. Let us compare HSPH with DMS, Boat-Formal-Redux-Style.

Fashion-Winner, DMS
The true dress code for the HSPH Winter Ball was "black tie," which no one followed, because HSPH students, like DMS students, are also young and poor. Also, this Antibody Tie happened, thanks to my mom (and actually inspired someone else to purchase and wear a Neuron Tie to this event, not pictured, thank goodness):

Take off-Winner, DMS

Because there was no take off. HSPH chose to hold their formal on Land, at the Harvard Club, with a dance floor I would describe as "drab medieval chic" but was supplemented with fog machines and lasers.

Bathrooms: Winner, Tie
The Harvard Club, in its antiquated glory, chose to put its ladies rooms in a hard to locate, under the stairs, retrofitted space (previous servants quarters, perhaps?). However, when compared to DMS and past boat bathroom fails, it wasn't so bad.

Freebies: Winner, DMS
No drink tickets, no take-home-able champagne flutes at HSPH, but there were chocolate covered strawberries that were slight consolation for not being at the Museum of Natural History. Side note: drinks purchased at the Harvard Club carry an additional "club fee."

Food: Winner, HSPH
Actually, we heard that the food at the Harvard Club for this event was so bad, we made reservations at a real restaurant instead. This would not have been possible on a boat.

Water availability: Winner, HSPH
Boat water will always have sketch appeal. Harvard Club water (ie, Boston city water?) was provided at tables all around the dance floor.

Boston Dandy's Table: Winner, DMS
...since there wasn't one at the HSPH ball. On a related note, surprisingly, I wasn't the only treasonous (aka Barnolding) BBS student who missed recruitment to attend the HSPH Winter Ball. And the other BBS student seemed to have attended less reluctantly and less guiltily too.

Music: Winner, HSPH
Not only did they circulate a survey monkey for music requests starting a week before the event, everything I requested (except Lady Gaga but my request list was like 8 songs long) was actually played, all in a row, which is highly impressive. Unless someone has the exact same music taste as me (actually somewhat likely), I felt like the DJ was really trying hard.

Date: Winner, HSPH
Antibody Tie aside, my date was happily on his home turf, paid for my fried chicken and cocktail, etc.

Post-formal plans: Winner, DMS
The aftermath of the HSPH ball included dealings with multiple drunk people, on both the HSPH and DMS side, including the feared disappearance of Top Shelf, and lack of adequate investigation of said disappearance by the Boston Dandy.

It looks like DMS wins by a slight margin, even though the chances of us attending the Boat Formal again are rather slim. The time to investigate this HSPH subculture is running out! I will need to be extra observant during my weekly walks in the vicinity of Kresge Building.