Reporter's Notebook

Did I Say That?: The 28 candidates running for City Council this year use up between them an awful lot of paper--and that fact has not escaped the notice of certain councillors.

During a routine debate on mail delivery, longtime Councillor Thomas W. Danehy commented that he was concerned that the campaign was turning Cambridge into "litter-city."

"I will only put my literature in a mailbox," Danehy said, adding that he gives all his campaign workers similar instructions so as to circumvent the litter problem.

The Danehy method, however, may have a few problems of its own. As Councillor David E. Sullivan immediately commented, a federal criminal statute prohibits anyone but postal employees from placing any material in mailboxes.

"Far be it from me to be the one to point that out," Sullivan added. Debate quickly moved on to other topics.

Let Me Check My Copy: A Crimson photographer trying to capture the arrests of several Head of the Charles revelers on film last weekend ran into some resistance from Cambridge police.

After the officer placed his hat over the photographer's lens, the Crimson editor asked if he was familiar with the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act, a law which bars anyone from intimidating people in an effort to keep them from exercising their rights under the Constitution or other laws.

"Do you know what it says?" the photographer asked.

After some prodding, the officer responded.

"Yeah, it says `Shut up'."

A Loyal Servant: Vice President and General Counsel Daniel Steiner '54 takes his loyalty to Harvard seriously. Very seriously. So while University administrators nationwide have complained that a massive federal antitrust probe is costing them thousands of dollars in legal fees, Steiner said he would gladly bear the brunt of that cost himself. "The legal costs come out of my budget, so my family won't be eating for a while," Steiner said with a laugh. "But that's all right. Anything for Harvard."

An Honest Servant: Steiner is no less serious about his reputation for integrity. When a Crimson reporter asked him this week if he were reviewing a faculty free speech report because he was concerned about avoiding future lawsuits, he responded. "You guys think I care only about liability."

Par for the Course: A high-powered married pair of scholars from the University of Pennsylvania rejected a joint Harvard tenure offer recently, but members of the departments spurned by the two seemed to be taking it all in stride.

"We're sorry, but that's one of the things that happens when you're trying to bring first-rate people to the University," said Professor of the History of Science Barbara Gutman Rosenkrantz '44, who chaired a search committee that selected one of the two Penn scholars. "You win some, and you lose some."

Lampoonery: Editors of the Harvard Lampoon were practically oozing their characteristic wit this week after guests at one of their weekly parties decided to get off by throwing lighted fireworks into traffic on Mt. Auburn St. Saturday night.

"At a centennial party 13 years ago, there was a nuclear device. So fireworks, by comparison, are hardly a big deal," quipped one Lampy editor.

Unfortunately, Cambridge resident Richard L. Durling-Schyduroff was not so amused. He and his infant son were in a passing car allegedly hit by one of the fireworks, and he says he was struck in the neck.

"I'm definitely looking for court injunctions," said Durling-Schyduroff.

Lampoonery II: Ostentation may have gone out with the Reagans, but the Harvard Lampoon doesn't seem to have caught on yet. A lavish bash the other night for millionaire motorcycle aficionado Malcolm S. Forbes, which reportedly cost somewhere in the $10,000 range, featured such tuxedo-clad cast in the hundreds. Once inside the Lampy castle, Forbes and crew were feted at the head table with a lavish meal. Other guests didn't get dinner, but there were drinks and hors d'oeuvres for all. But despite the big bucks lavished on the celebration, everything did not go without a hitch for Harvard's so-called humor magazine. The vodka supplies were critically depleted, according to a basement bartender, and first choice drinks could not be assured for all.