The Tale of the Snipper

While I was a student at BYU in the late '80s and early '90s, there was a crime spree. A serial scissors-wielder would silently accost sleeping co-eds in the Harold B. Lee library. The young women would wake up after a much needed power-nap to resume studying to find that their clothes had been cut in revealing places. The Daily Universe was full of reports, theories and warnings.

There's nothing funny about that.

But, there was another student newspaper. It was an off-campus paper called the Student Review. And, it talked about all kinds of things that were happening at BYU that the Daily Universe avoided. It also was wildly satirical at times. And, it claimed to have discovered the identity of the perpetrator.

His name? Snipper Blake. Evil twin of BYUSA President Brett Blake. And they even had pictures. He sure looked a lot like Brett Blake. Except his eyes were wild, his hair wasn't combed as neatly, and he had a really big pair of scissors. I thought this was hilarious. I often think about Snipper. I love to tell this story. My husband and I were talking about Snipper the other day.

And, now, the story has come full circle. Snipper's not-as-evil twin posted on my education blog earlier this week. But he was really mean. He flamed my friend Becky, who is running for the state House of Representatives. And I wondered...Maybe Snipper was the good twin, and he was just misunderstood.

Poor Snipper. We hardly knew you.