The Week in Brief

Don't worry, though—the Yale College Democrats are making an effort to distribute absentee ballots. Ballots will be hand-delivered to registered Democrats over the course of the next two weeks. The goal, according to Robert Smuts, SM '01, the vice president of the Yale College Democrats and the assistant registrar for New Haven, is "to make voting as painless as possible."

Smuts added, "We do this not to push for a particular candidate, but for the public good. In this sense, we are acting more as a service organization than an activist group."

—Abigail Phillips

Toad's Place stabbing premeditated

The assailant, Marc Iannucci, 23, of North Haven, cut his victim on the arm with a utility knife and also inflicted a wound on a bouncer before being restrained by people in the vicinity of the fray and being arrested by nearby police officers.

Phelps said that almost everybody in the club was unaware of the fight because it occurred near a staircase by the side entrance of the club, away from the crowds. Phelps added, "There was nothing you could do about it. This guy came with the intent of hurting the other guy.

"The whole thing took place in less than a minute. No one saw it and no one was seriously hurt. There hasn't been anything like this in 10 or 12 years. It was not a good situation, but no one was seriously hurt."

—John Chin

Piersonites confront a losing streak

Conroy believes this is not the first time "Yale's Finest" have had to deal with birthday-suited Elis. "There have been other incidents," he said.

—Molly Ball

First-hand account of bizarre York St. suicide

According to Amela Trhulj, BR '01, the man, estimated to be in his thirties, struck a match and lit his gasoline-drenched clothes on fire at approximately 7:30 p.m. He took off his jacket and tried to run, but he fell after bumping into a parked car. Trhulj's roommate went into the near-by Bangkok Gardens restaurant to seek help, and the restaurant manager came out with a fire extinguisher. A police officer was on the scene by that time, Trhulj said, and he took the extinguisher and used it to put out the flames. The man was ablaze for about 30 seconds to a minute, Trhulj estimated.

Trhulj described the incident as unreal rather than shocking. "He seemed like a street performer. He wasn't screaming."

—John Chin

Black woman speaks in favor of Buchanan

Fulani, who has a reputation for her controversial stance on race politics, began the speech by asking, "Where is the agenda for the black national agenda?" According to Fulani, the standard African-American political policy has been to work as "a minority group."

Fulani advocated "breaking with traditional minority politics and to make independent alliances with white Americans in particular." In order to achieve this goal, Fulani endorsed Pat Buchanan. "Buchanan has a fervent following in blue-collar America," a group Fulani feels shares policy needs with the "no-collar" African-American "underground."

Fulani largely sidestepped questions about the specific policies she thought that Buchanan would endorse.

—Ayon Nandi

DAVID GEST/YH PERILS OF THE BEACH: Sunburn, iceburn, snow in your shorts.

IVY LEAGUE NOTEBOOK

Princeton
Princeton approved a $2 million increase in its undergraduate financial aid budget on Sat., Jan. 29, hoping to attract more middle-class students to its Ann Taylor-Ralph Lauren campus. To show their support for the administration's effort to diversify, Princeton's famously exclusive eating clubs are adopting new rules that would cater to a variety of socio-economic backgrounds. The president of Princeton's most exclusive eating club reportedly said, "We've already allowed members who own only one BMW to join our club. We look to expanding our future membership to people who own American-made cars, like Cadillacs."

Harvard
The Harvard Lampoon surprised the entire campus on Fri., Jan. 28 when it actually produced an issue of its supposedly humor magazine. But the origin of this surprise was unclear—it might have been that fact that some Cantabs actually turned out to have a sense of humor, or it might have been that they managed to do something other than try to top one another's GPAs.

—Compiled by Jane Gao from the Brown Daily Herald, the Daily Princetonian, and the Harvard Crimson.

WORDS

—Psychology Professor Marianne LaFrance in a Wed., Jan. 26 press release from Proctor & Gamble about a study commissioned for a new hair care product called Physique.

CR/D/F

YALE INDEX
1) Number of votes cast for George W. Bush in New Hampshire	71,121
2) Number of votes cast for Bill Bradley in New Hampshire	70,295
3) SAT verbal score earned by George W. Bush	566
4) SAT verbal score earned by Bill Bradley	485
5) Average SAT verbal score of Yale students	730
6) Average SAT verbal score of Princeton students	730
7) Number of copies of the Herald circulated each week	5,000
8) Number of copies of the Herald per Bush voter	.070
9) Number of copies of the Herald per Bradley voter	.071
10) Approximate number of copies of the Herald per Yalie	1
11) Correlation between reading the Herald and being verbally gifted	-.0023
12) Percentage of likelihood that Bush is actually smarter than Bradley	0
13) Number of New Hampshire voters who changed preferences after reading the Herald	0

—Compiled by David Wertime

Sources: 1, 2) New York Times; 3, 4) Washington Post; 5, 6) U.S. News and World Report; 7) Surly Dan Silk, SY '01; 8, 9, 10) Dave's mathematical mind; 11) Exhaustive laboratory testing; 12) Common sense, man!; 13) Exhaustive field research

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