As the men’s basketball team defends Carleton’s honour against other universities, so does the Charlatan defend Carleton’s honour against other student newspapers.

 
We have faced challenges both international and local, from the Carl at Carleton College in Minnesota to the Fulcrum at the University of Ottawa.
 
The Carl’s challenge first emerged in January with an e-mail, followed by a package in February.

 
The Carl sent us a letter, challenging us over use of the name “Carleton.” Their suggestion was for us at Carleton University to change our name to “Carlton” – sans the ‘e.’
 
They also sent a love letter to the woman on the cover of the Charlatan Magazine’s sex issue from last term, a mix CD of the ‘best Canadian music’ (featuring such luminaries as Celine Dion, Sum 41 and Avril Lavigne), a copy-edited issue of the Charlatan (largely correcting for American spelling) and copies of their own student newspaper, amongst other things.
 
We’ll still putting together our package to send back to them to defend our Carleton and Canadian honour, including a video of how awesome the Charlatan is, a Beavertail, Canadian Tire money and assorted other surprises. We’ll reveal the whole package in a future issue of the Charlatan, once its sent – we can’t give away our surprise yet!
 
The Charlatan vs. the Fulcrum fight has normally taken place in the ring of Trivial Pursuit.
 
Before this year, we had played two matches – the Charlatan took the 2006 (non-existant) trophy, and the Fulcrum won in 2007.
 
We resurrected the challenge this year, with matches in each term.
 
The trivia battle in the first term was intense, and if the Charlatan hadn’t shown such good sportsmanship, we are confident the Fulcrum wouldn’t have won.
 
Unfortunately, with the Charlatan team divided into two, the Fulcrum trivia team snuck up the middle and won the game in a last-minute heartbreaker. (Seriously, who knows what Serenity Base is?)
 
Anyway, the Trivial Pursuit challenge continues next week, as the Charlatan travels to home Fulcrum territory to reclaim our glory.
 
We promise, Carleton community, to uphold the honour of our school and thoroughly trash our cross-town rivals.