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By Newsweek Editors
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Never at a loss for innovative ways to entertain themselves, Oxford University students have taken to jumping--nude, tuxedoed, en masse --from Magdalen Bridge to celebrate the May Morning festival. Romantic and daring, yes. Also treacherous and stupid. The bounding began in 1503. But the number of May 1 jumpers exploded in 1993, when reporters swarmed the bridge, bribing students with champagne and cash to take the plunge. Hundreds of students obliged. In the past three years, more than 130 jumpers have suffered injuries -- 35 of them serious. Two men are crippled for life. And despite a major police effort this year, urging students to end the practice, around 30 people last week took the 18-foot leap into the filthy, hip-high Cherwell River. Fifteen got sprained ankles or hypothermia. One genius dived in head first, and smashed his nose. All leaped to the tune of the 16th-century "O Lusty May," sung by the Magdalen boys' choir, as 18,000 spectators looked on. Let it never be said that Oxford's cherished reputation for decadence is fizzling.
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