67%

It is a dangerous world out there. You never know what you will face when you step out of your house, door, shelter, compound, dorm, bedroom, comfort-zone. There is a girl behind the tree her mouth full of slander and lies. A man peeks his head out of the dumpster out back; he can already feel the weight of your wallet in his hand. A group of kids pass with clenched fists and a gleam in their black eyes. A frisbee flies over head.

Yes, a frisbee.

I'll bet you didn't know that frisbees rank right up there on the danger scale with bullies, pickpockets, and gangs. Though seemingly harmless, they are in actuality a deadly weapon used most commonly by college age boys to harass young women while they study outside on the greenspace. Under the pretense of playing a friendly game of catch with the innocent-looking disks, these devious young men hurl frisbees quite out of reach of their teammates and straight at unsuspecting girls.

Just today a friend and I were pleasantly passing our time out on the grass when the disks started to fly. Twice was her head nearly their victim, and twice was I leapt over by one such frisbee-playing hooligan.

What causes such madness in these otherwise quite average and normal boys? Well, several theories have been suggested, though I'm afraid we may never know for sure what spurs them on. One expert claims that this ritual is simply an indirect and covert way for men to assert their dominance over women. His research, however, has since been found to have several holes in it and some of his interviewees were apparently paid off. The most common theory assumes that tossing frisbees at girls is merely a part of the mating process of college age men. According to recent poles, 67% of college boys thought that throwing a frisbee in the direction of a young woman was a good way to get her phone number. Experts have yet to discover if this method is truly effective.

In any event, I cannot foresee that this hazard will blow over very quickly (forgive my very poor pun). It seems that on beautiful days like today the greenspace will continue to be filled with frisbee-flinging boys and studious young women.

We may just have to start wearing helmets.