Yeah, that's great, but what does it actually represent? The writer is doing the usual "wink wink, nudge nudge, know what I mean, get it" thing, but I never did postgrad and I don't get it.
I believe they're alluding to your PhD defense, due to questions like "does my advisor pick the snake?". Your advisor doesn't pick whom you do your defense to, but its not a random choice either.
