IMPOSSIBLE SCISSORS!
I guess it began early on during my senior year in high school. I was working in the newpaper office with Stapley when he showed me this awesome symbol he had learned at Boys' State. I think he referred to it as the "penis in one stroke." It was the greatest thing I'd ever seen up to that point--a depiction of the phallus that could be drawn without ever lifting your pen, pencil, or bloody finger from the paper.
As high school seniors who were not challenged by our teachers (like the incompetent boob the school forced us to learn calculus from,) we had too much time for fun and games. Branding the symbol on chalkboards became a hobby. It then became the unofficial symbol of the Lockport Township High School Scholastic Bowl team. This place was cemented when Jeffery branded on a large ream of paper with a marker.
The "ribald symbol" is now officially called the "Impossible Scissors." Lauren Kramer gave it this name, apparently mortified that we found it so entertaining to draw this phallc symbol. Even to this day, I tell friends that the "Impossible Scissors" is "an M.C. Escher design, like a pair of scissors that could never exist" just so they don't ask why I'm drawing a severed penis.
There's a reason why the impossible scissors is called the "Ribald Symbol." It represents an attitude that my graduating class shared, at least when we were caught up in the drudgeries of schoolwork: that life is a game and a joke; nothing is serious, and nothing can do you serious harm. It's a lovely fantasy, and one I'd like to return to, time and time again.