As the banquet approached, the Law Review's editors, their coveted, career-making judicial clerkships in hand, turned their efforts to the Harvard Law Revue, an annual send-up of the publication. Along with others who had opposed publication of the Frug article, Craig Coben and Kenneth Fenyo set about to lampoon it.

The result was a five-page, footnote-laden parody, saturated with inside jokes and sexual innuendoes. The article was purportedly dictated "from beyond the grave" by one Mary Doe, described as the "Rigor-Mortis Professor of Law, New England School of Law, 1981-1991" and "wife of Gerald Frug, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School." In it, Ms. Doe recounts childhood sexual fantasies about men in tight swim trunks, defended the use of obscenities in her scholarly work, and reflected on "the irony that I, a postmodern feminist, am being published because of my husband's tenure here."

"Postmodern feminists represent a diverse group of people," the parody continued. "Some of us are intellectuals. Many are politically committed. Most are disillusioned. Others are just plain horny. But there is one thing that we have in common: we have no sense of humor."

As the article began to circulate over the next few days, the adjectives flew. Andrea Brenneke, a third-year law student and one of many women to speak out, called the parody "a perpetuation of the forces that killed Mary Joe Frug." In an open letter, nearly every member of the Harvard law faculty called it "contemptible and cruel." As usual, Laurence H. Tribe and Alan Dershowitz weighed in with their observations. More criticism came -- to his many critics, belatedly and begrudgingly -- from Dean Robert C. Clark.

Then came the apologies. The eight editors who oversaw the Revue called the takeoff "tasteless" and "offensive." This group included David Ellen, the Review's outgoing president, and Paul Clement, who will clerk one year hence for Justice Antonin Scalia at the United States Supreme Court. The two women among them filed a concurring mea culpa. Mr. Coben and Mr. Fenyo abjectly apologized as well, though they noted that none of their colleagues ever objected to what they wrote, at least until the whole school came down on them.