I'm a bit slow getting caught up on the cowbell debate.. but wanted to 
add one more facet. At the NCAA women's quarterfinal game with 
Minn-Duluth at St. Lawrence last Saturday, they were indeed confiscating 
cowbells at the door - per NCAA policy not SLU's where they've been 
given away in the past.  I regularly sit atop the press box for women's 
games to sound a siren (definitely artificial) to welcome teams onto the 
ice at the start of each period and to celebrate SLU goals (so never 
when the puck is in play).  An NCAA official before the game told me I 
could only play the siren after goals if I did so for BOTH teams.  So I 
had a bit of a dilemna - do I celebrate the opponent's goals (and have 
all the players/fans think I'm not paying attention or have gone 
bonkers) or do I watch from the stands and leave the siren off for 
everybody.  My wife suggested I play it for all goals only if SLU scored 
first, but play it for none if UMD got the first goal.  Fortunately, SLU 
won 1-0, so I was spared the discomfort of publicly celebrating a UMD goal.

Robin

-- 
Robin H. Lock
Burry Professor of Statistics
Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Statistics
St. Lawrence University
Canton, NY  13617
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