RULES

Picture a typical poker tournament in a typical home game. People are trying to make money -- gentleman and degenerates alike. Birds are chirping outside, though you can't hear them -- whatever. The only certain thing is that everyone there would appreciate as much fun as possible.
Some tournaments have a rule the when a new player switching tables decides to sit in the big blind position, they must post the big blind and play the hand. In other tournaments, the player coming in has the option of sitting out two hands before he plays -- just like in most sensible cash games.
In this particular tourney, the incoming player was required to post, but she didn't know about the rule, and she decided to sit out. The host demanded a big blind from her -- it's the rule, he said. Then she said she wanted to sit out and he told her to post or leave. Nobody was happy, and the fact is that with a $200 tournament purse nobody should care if she sat out or not.
Cambridge University has a lot of archaic rules that have been on the books for hundreds and hundreds of years -- that haven't been removed, enforced, or given much attention of any kind since the Renaissance. One of those old rules is that a student must be served a full meal during an exam, on request. Back in the 80s, an unprepared student refused to take his exam because his professor refused to serve a full meal.
The administration became upset, and the student was expelled for not carrying his sword.