Happy Lupercalia! Ladies, remember: if a band of half-naked kids hits you with a strip of goat-skin, don't panic; they're just trying to help you have children some day.

Valentine's Day came and went, just as two horrible exams came and went, a frivolous analysis paper came and went, and so on and so forth. As I walked around the campus last night I realized that this was the second February 15th I hadn't spent in eastern South Dakota in five years, which sounds trivial unless placed in context: Rapid City is 300 miles away from anywhere that matters on the other side of the state. As a result, I had little experience with this holiday, and, not knowing what to do, I did nothing. I wasn't alone in this, however, as most Iowa State students have shown an unerring propensity to be both cheap and alone. Cheap, because we're poor; and alone, because ISU is a technical school, and we're geeks.
(Well, except for the business majors, but they don't really count, because they have money, and hence significant others.)

More tales of corruption and greed come out of Iowa; this time infomercials are the topic of discussion. Have you seen the one about making lots of money through real estate with the rich couple by a pool? Ever wonder how an ordinary-looking pair made so much money? Well, apparently they did it by screwing the little guy over and over. And over again. It's pretty sad. So is the tale of the small-town mayor who allegedly misappropriated city funds to run a meth lab out of her home. It is possible the misappropriation and the meth lab were completely unrelated, but I have my doubts...
Back on campus, the room of a kid from Wallace Hall, one of the off-campus dorms, was raided as part of an investigation of fake ID manufacturing a while ago. The suspect is back in the news in a story in the DSM register that not only explains the fruits of the investigation, but also drops the names of a few of the forger's clients, who the police tracked down and cited. Ouch. The most amusing part of the article, which didn't make it into the online version: the fake IDs (Illinois driver's licenses) were laid out in Microsoft Word.
I won't detail the on-campus business in the news lately... it's a bit too crazy. First attempted murder case in at least twelve years...

There is more, but I will save it for another day so I have something to share the next time I sit down in front of the text editor.