In response to the anti-queer vandalism and mailings of the past week, Grinnell College has seen a flurry of activity as students organized and participated in a host of marches, rallies and open forums. Still, some members of campus had questions about the response by the other half of Grinnell's community--the town.

Voting for the first round of the SGA presidential election was thrown out and a new election will be held today for which candidate Neo Morake '09 is removed from the ballot. The decision was made by Election Board Wednesday night in response to a grievance concerning the placement of Morake posters on the window of a non-residential building.

Thanks to a four-week pilot program recently negotiated between the school and USA Today, students now have access to free daily issues of The New York Times, Des Moines Register and USA Today. The papers are available in four separate racks in the Spencer Grill, Kistler Science Library, Creative Computing Lab and Fireplace Lounge.

Robert Peck, a prominent expert on constitutional law, visited Grinnell this week and gave three lectures to students on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. He also sat in on other classes and talked to faculty outside the lectures.

Leonard Boswell has represented Grinnell and the rest of Iowa's Third District in Congress for more than a decade. With his seniority and prominent positions on the Agriculture and Intelligence committees, Boswell is noted for his success in bringing pork barrel funding to the district--$404 million alone in crop subsidies from 2003-2005.

For some students on campus the term "can-can" invokes a leggy dance commonly performed by Vegas showgirls. With an ambitious new pilot program intended to promote recycling on campus, the Student Environmental Committee hopes that more students will think of the "can-can" as, well, a place for cans.

As snow slowly melts and sunlight returns, patches of green begin to show themselves on baseball diamonds across the Midwest. To many, the month of March brings much more than warm weather and longer days; with spring comes the crack of bats, smell of leather gloves and yells of umpires. Baseball is here.

Last Saturday, the Midwest Conference Indoor Championships took place at Illinois College in Jacksonville, Illinois. On the men's side, Grinnell College finished sixth with 36 points, while the women ended up being fourth with 44 points. "We got fourth, which I think is better than we've done before, so that's great," said Allison Louthan '08. "We weren't even focusing that much on indoor conference."

As long as he can remember, Dan LaFountaine '09, has been smashing balls on the tennis court. After temporarily quitting tennis at the age of six, LaFountaine returned from retirement at the age of nine. "Not many six-year-olds quit tennis," noted LaFountaine.

It was Friday night, and the men's basketball team was ready to make it to the finals of the MWC tournament. However, like last year, the Pioneers fell short, unable to defeat the well-balanced attack of Carroll College.

Die-hard Cubs fan Jai Garg predicts how the 2008 MLB season will turn out. Find out if he goes there with his NL Pennant call...

This weekend is a campus favorite--Mary B. James. For many, it will be a chance to blow off steam and have fun before mid-sems. But given the events of the past weeks, this party should also be a time to begin the changes that we've spent the last weeks discussing.

Historically, mothers have been known to tell their children all sorts of half-truths. The causal link between bread crusts and curly hair has yet to be established, and I'm pretty sure no one's face has ever "stuck like that". But here's something you mother never warned you about: Tattoos=leprosy magnets.

So a priest, a rapist and a pedophile walk into a bar. And that was just the first guy.

Does this joke make you chuckle? From a purely comedic standpoint, I find this joke incredibly cliche and embarrassingly unfunny. But I'll admit it--I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to humor. And who am I to tell you what is humorous?

Have you ever wondered why the South Campus loggia is enclosed while that on North Campus is open? It's not because South Campus is more exposed to bitter northwest winds. Rather, the South Campus loggia was designed to incarcerate women students.

Despite hordes of screaming student fans hounding him daily in the dining hall, Lyle Franklyn Bauman remains a modest, goofy, and all-around loveable Grinnell dining hall icon. "I don't know if I deserve as much as I get," he said, smiling sheepishly. If the student initiative to make Lyle the face of the new campus pub is a sign, Grinnell's students may disagree.

8:00 a.m.--Wake up with intentions to shower. Fall back asleep.
8:48 a.m.--Showering is overrated. Haul ass to Stats.
10-11 a.m.--Talking about childbirth in Mothers & Infants makes my crotch hurt. Note: remember to call Mom to thank her for the use of her uterus and to apologize for the pain I caused.

After the homophobic events of the past two weeks, many on campus have discussed creating more safe spaces on campus. But creating safe spaces is not as simple as one might expect. Just look at the controversies surrounding gender-neutral housing.

The Men's Quadrangle, now known as North Campus, was completed in 1917, shortly after the Women's Quadrangle (South Campus) was built in 1915. Until 1968, one housed only men and the other only women.

Strolling into Kershaw Hall, one notices a departure from the typical Grinnell dorm. Finger paintings adorn the walls, the density and quality of door decorations seems greater than usual, and the dominant smell is cookies, not last night's Natural Ice.

Sean Penn is best known for the intense, unsympathetic and no-nonsense characters he plays in movies. Here, however, he swapped the actor's mask for the pen and came through with flying colors.

You don't have any reason to not want to see American Gangster. A Ridley Scott-directed gangster epic starring Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men) and even the RZA (of the Wu-Tang Clan) has more than enough star power to sustain even the weakest script.

In the mid-nineteenth century, Jesse James was famous as a neo-Confederate bandit fighting for the glory the South lost in Civil War. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford attempts to reconstruct the last few months of Jesse's life leading up to his death, but the movie suffers from its ambition to be so meticulously accurate and realistic.

Venturing down to Lyle's Pub on Saturday, Feb. 23, it was hard to ignore the sounds reverberating up through the JRC, the long line of coats in the hallway and the constant stream of curious students. The room was packed while student bands The Klezbians and Vegetable Medley play; it was nearly impossible to make it to the bar. Not bad for a basement that used to only see crowds for tornado warnings.

This past Saturday, Frodo and his buddies returned to the big screen, as anxious event-goers came out to Harris in unexpected numbers to indulge themselves in everything Lord of the Rings.

The Department of Theater and Dance's spring semester's mainstage production, Vanishing Marion, directed by Elizabeth Bonjean, Theatre, is a contemporary comic drama that presents the audience with a relatable and relevant look at familial and social dysfunction.

Excitement began to build around campus last week as more and more people discovered and anticipated the controversial arrival of Jean Grae, a smart, politically savvy artist, calling herself "the Correta Scott King of my generation." However, when she did arrive, 40 minutes late, and began her show, I, for one, was disappointed.

If one of this week's biggest events (it rhymes with hairy and Haines) doesn't satisfactorily bring enough sketch to your life, checking out The Chinese Stars and White People Music in Lyle's next Wednesday night should probably do the trick. It should also rid you of any memory of midsems for a night, which can't hurt.

Winter's still here! While I'm a huge fan of the snow and cold, I'm also willing to bet that you can't wait to ditch the coats and mittens and relax for a while in the sun. To help cope, you might want to make a delicious, hot cup of cocoa. We all (maybe?) know how to stir up a cup of Swiss Miss, but here's my favorite recipe for rich, chocolatey homemade hot chocolate.