The panties are in the mail

What would you do if you received a letter that began, "This is a pretty panties exchange?" You might get psyched to receive 36 new pairs of sexy underwear. The Pretty Panties exchange -- a chain-letter gone wrong -- has come to campus, and is leaving lingerie in its wake. The trend comes to the University from other schools like Tufts and most recently, Princeton, where friends of College junior Brooke Wurst forwarded the correspondence to her. After laughing hysterically for 10 or 15 minutes at her friends' pleas to join the chain, she decided that it was funny and that she would participate. "I have nothing to lose by doing this," Wurst said of her reaction. "It's kind of eighth grade, but what the hell." The letter brings back middle school memories, as it resembles a chain letter and requires the recipient to send it on to friends. Unlike those letters of yore, however, this one has no implicit death threats to relatives, and simply requires the participant to admit to their underwear size. The letter requests that the participant "send one new pair of pretty underwear of your choice (preferably sexy ones) to the person listed as #1 below, and send a copy of this letter to six of your friends." Upon receiving the letter, the participant puts the name of the person who sent her the letter under number one, and their own name under the number two slot with their address and underwear size. The letter says, "this is not a chain letter . . . it's just for fun!" and asks that if the recipient does not want to participate, that they inform the person who sent them the letter. "Please notify me, because it is not fair to those who have participated," the letter implores. But the letter assures its readers that "seldom does anyone drop out, because we can all use pretty new underwear." The letter in a most friendly fashion recommends manila envelopes for underwear mailing, and informs the reader that, within days, they will receive "36 pairs of pretty new underwear." "Quite the return for your investment," Wurst noted. So Wurst, after stopping at Victoria's Secret downtown, began sending letters on campus. "The trend has started at Penn," College senior and letter recipient Allyson Wagner said. "We're trying to send it around." And although the letter-writing campaign may be somewhat apolitical, participants say that it is a silly joke to play on friends, and a good way to get underwear without shopping. "We could all use new underwear, and it's fun," Wagner said. "It's a wonderful form of procrastination."