Oxford is better than Cambridge

... maybe familiarity breeds contempt? There are bits of Cambridge that are clearly insanely beautiful ...

I was going to say similar. For example, though neither are beautiful (insanely or otherwise) you could post up images of the respective stations.

Plus I'd rather play football on Jesus Green (from an aesthetic viewpoint) every other Sunday morning, than anywhere I know in Oxford...though I'd trade Coldhams Common *for* anywhere I know in Oxford. ;)

Anyway, Cambridge has The Free Press - which isn't much of an advantage now, I suppose, but was when I lived there.

I can't compare with Cambridge, since I've never visited, but has Oxford's Blackbird Leys improved since the 90s? Is there a Cambridge equivalent (must be)?

A stroll alongside the Cherwell in the University Parks on one of W's T_norm + 2°C summer evenings, or indeed a -5°C frosty morn, and a football kickabout on the cricket square (Aargh!) anyone?

Did Matthew Arnold, who said this about Oxford:

And that sweet City with her dreaming spires, she needs not June for beauty's heightening

say something similar about Cambridge? Mind you, if he'd been there this last couple of Junes, or suffered the delights of Blackbird Leys, he might have penned something less complimentary.

Heretic! Nothing about oxford in any way, shape or form can be described as better than Cambridge, you know that, it's the law..

At least, a glimmer of sense from the pen (and lens) of the furry curmudgeon.

Give me Magdalen and its walks, in frost or finery.

The only way you will convince me of this is to show me the rain gauges.

Meh; they're much of a muchness. Oxford doesn't have so much mist and fog, and is closer to hills. Cambridge has better light.

When I was last in Oxford, I was invited to a society meal. Most of the people there joined in enthusiastically with the song "I'd rather be a leper than a tab" ("tab" = Cambridge person, maybe specifically Cambridge student, from "Cantab"). There then followed a lot of drunken bigotry aimed at Cambridge - the place, the people, the university.

This surprised me, because I don't remember Cambridge students giving much of a damn about Oxford. Maybe things have changed in the last 20 years, but the idea that we would have had an abusive nickname for Oxford students strikes me as ridiculous. We revelled in being Fenland Poly; I can't even remember the equivalent monicker for the Other Place.

I deduce that Oxford students have an enormous chip on their collective shoulders. Understandable, given that they didn't get into the better university.