History of the LMF Cow (La Vache Folle)

When I joined French House as a social member in freshman year, I wondered why the mascot for LMF was a cow given that the national animal of France is the Gallic rooster. In the 2021-2022 school year, our shirt was a geometric rooster, whereas in previous years there was the LMF cow. One theory was that LMF consumes so much dairy (butter, milk, etc.) for baking, so obviously the animal was a cow. It was a good theory, but I needed more information to determine the origins of the iconic LMF cow. 

The beloved LMF cow logo from our website 

How I discovered the story of the LMF cow was by accident when I did my interviews this semester as the LMF historian. Each person I interview is different, though I tend to ask the same sort of questions based on a document I made. One question I ask is, "Did people meet their future spouse at LMF?" When I asked a group of people from the early 00s, Keith '03 mentioned that Melanie '02 and Jim '01 are married, Jim being the guy who designed the cow. It was good to know the person who drew the cow and know that this cow has been part of LMF ever since its birth. 

Though Jim did not sign up for an interview, I did get to interview Kevin '99, who overlapped with Jim. I eventually got the answer from Jim, but I asked Kevin first if he remembered anything about the story. The response was quite delightful. Before the LMF cow logo, LMF designed a cow-themed shirt that said "je parle français comme une vache espagnole." The literal English translation of this idiom is "to speak French like a Spanish cow," which is a nice way of saying that someone's French is incomprehensible. 

I later got a reply from Jim that slightly differed from Kevin's recollection of the cow: 

Hi Vivian, this is a fun question but I'm not sure I have a satisfying answer. I think it was a whiteboard doodle that made people laugh and we reproduced it on signs and t-shirts... I like Kevin's explanation and it seems plausible but my memories of undergrad are spotty due to chronic sleep deprivation 😂

The answer was simpler than what I thought, but I am still glad I learned about the origins of the LMF cow that is on our website, merch, boards, and even our Gmail account for this Blogspot (lavachefolle.lmf@gmail.com)!