Reporter's Notebook

Dance AIDS Away

Free condoms, safe-sex pamphlets and the music of Christian and the Infidels were featured at a fundraiser held Friday night by the Harvard-Radcliffe AIDS Benefit Committee.

The benefit, which took place in the Adams House dining hall and attracted several hundred people, raised money for future events and provided information to students about the AIDS epidemic.

"I think most people here still think if the [AIDS] as a gay problem. It's not a moral question: the bottom line is one bad f--- will kill you," said Judith R. Barish '88, one of the event's organizers.

Reactions to the two jars of the free condoms at the front door were mixed. Many people found the hand-out amusing, said George E. Hicks '88-89 President of the AIDS benefit committee, adding that response was not disturbing.

"I think that's fine, because the worst thing that could happen is for everyone to become paralyzed with fear about the AIDS epidemic," he said.

Funds raised by the committee will be given to various AIDS-related groups, including the Boston AIDS Action Committee and the New England Deaconess hospital.

A Little Bit of Italy

An Adams House tutor won a pre-doctoral fellowship in Classical Studies from the American Academy in Rome last week.

T. Corey Brennan, a fourth-year graduate student in Classics, is one of 27 American students awarded a scholarship to study at the Academy in one of 10 different fields for a year.

Brennan will work on his dissertation about high-ranked government officials in ancient Rome while he is at the Academy. He said he plans to complete the bulk of it next year and return to finish it in 1988-1989.

Since he only has a "reading knowledge" of Italian, Brennan said that his other goals for his year in Rome would be to "improve Italian and meet Italians."

As Leverett Turns

Despite what the flyer called "certain unintentional similarities between From Here to Eternity and Days of our Lives, Dallas, Dynasty and Love Story," the first episode of the Leverett House Soap Opera, directed by Adam Schwartz and Cliff Goodstein, was in fact amusing.

Most of the jokes were in-house, but to the audience which packed the dining hall, that seemed to be the best bit. "It was great fun" said Leverett Co-Master Judy Dowling, who played Mandy the cleaning lady. In her final scene, Dowling cleaned up the body of the promiscous house-master, J.D.(like J.R.: get it?), her real-life husband, killed by a jealous wife. And Mrs. Dowling's epitaph for her murdered husband? "I wonder which one of his 50 bastards did him in?"

A Saintly Horde

Boston Garden was transformed into a bigger Bright Center Saturday when the Harvard men's hockey team played St. Lawrence in the final of the ECAC Tournament. But the usual Harvard cheers, for the home rink, seemed strangely rude in the Garden.

Maybe the opponent had something to do with it. The SLU fans are known for their gentle spirits, so when the "You're not a goalie, you're a sieve...you're not a black hole, you just suck!" cheer burst from the Harvard contingent it seemed most ungracious.

The SLU band tried to compensate for these harsh antics only by playing loudly. When the game was nearly over-and Harvard was well on its way to its fourth ECAC Title in 26 years-the Crimson fans yelled, "Hey, St. Lawrence, start saying your prayers."

Whatever the behavior of the Harvard spectators, one thing was certain: the Crimson victory was heavenly. After the game, the Harvard band draped a banner over the glass that proclaimed the Crimson ECAC Champion. The cloth banner fell to the ice once and Harvard forward Steve Armstrong triumphantly lifted it back over with his stick.

Lane MacDonald and other Crimson skaters went over to the fans and received high-fives and hand shakes. Harvard Coach Bill Cleary, upon receiving the ECAC Trophy, insisted that his assistant coach, Ronn Tommasoni, come out for presentation as well.

Cleary also dragged Tommasoni to the post-game press conference and made him say a few words. Assistant coaches are rarely treated to such a forum.