The above is Gerry Fialka's recent interview of Eric Wagner. I watched the whole thing a few days ago, quite entertaining. As I was watching it, I noticed that Eric was wearing a t-shirt for Miskatonic University, although if Gerry spotted that, he didn't mention it.
Miskatonic University, located in Arkham, Massachusetts, is featured in the work of H.P. Lovecraft. And as Illuminatus! makes use of Lovecraft's "Cthulhu mythos," there are references to the school in the text. "Miskatonic University, in Arkham, Massachusetts, is not a well-known campus by any means, and the few scholarly visitors who come there are an odd lot, drawn usually by the strange collection of occult books given to the Miskatonic Library by the late Dr. Henry Armitage."
I couldn't see Eric's shirt well enough to see what it depicted, but for many years, there have been quite realistic MU sweatshirts and t-shirts that look like the merch put out by more ordinary schools.
When I went to the University of Oklahoma in the 1970s, an old friend of mine, once quite active in science fiction fandom but now gafiated, would wear an authentic-looking Miskanonic University sweatshirt around campus. When he showed up one day to economics class wearing it, there was a dialogue along these lines:
Professor: Miskatonic University? Where is that?
Old friend: It's a small liberal arts school in Massachusetts.
Professor: Huh, I thought I knew the name of just about every college in the U.S.
I should mention that when I texted my friend a couple of days ago to remind him of the incident, he had forgotten it. But I remember him quite well describing it at the time.
