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Tea Leaves and Taurus

The CRIMSON has sent its seer in Pnom Penh his annual retainer, and, in return, he has mailed us the following prophecy for 1962:

January

Riots break out in Harvard Yard as freshmen returning from Christmas vacation discover that their rooms are infested with loxasceles laeta, poisonous Latin American spiders escaping from the University's Museum of Comparative Zoology. President Pusey announces that his Asian trip has converted him to "high-caste" Hinduism, and that "there will be no repressive measures taken against our little spider brothers." Acting on his orders to prevent violence, University Police crush the riot with tear gas and truncheons, driving the freshmen back into their spider-infested dorms.

President Kennedy sues Henry Luce for Time's Man of the Year article claiming that Kennedy's qualities "if developed further, may make him a great President." "But I am a great President," Kennedy complains. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. soothes the President by saying he would rather write a biography of Kennedy than Henry Luce.... From Gettysburg, former President Eisenhower telegrams Luce: NOTHING CAN BE DONE WITH THAT FELLAH UNTIL YOU AND ME ARE WILLING TO CONFRONT ONE ANOTHER WITH ANOTHER BELIEVING THAT AS LONG AS PEOPLE ARE MEN, AMERICA IS WHAT MAKES IT. A delegation of Princeton undergraduates calls Eisenhower's statement "a compellingly conservative credo for our troubled times." Eisenhower announces that, if asked, he will run for the presidency in '64.

February

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Scattered survivors of the freshman class form a Jubilee Committee in Exile in New York City. They telegram the Harvard Administration: ALL RIGHT WE ARE TWO NATIONS. Prime Minister Nehru writes a letter strongly praising Pusey's "forceful defense of the principles of non-violence." Kennedy cables support of Pusey, too, calling him "a great President," and "little brother." Pusey cables Nehru an impulsive offer of the deanship of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which Nehru declines, calling Pusey "a tower of strength and a pillar of wisdom."

A Gallup Poll finds that Eisenhower and Kennedy are both so well liked that it would threaten the American people to have to choose between them in '64. "The loser's feelings would get hurt, and that's not nice," an Iowan couple is quoted as saying. Reading the results of the poll, Eisenhower promises not to run again for the presidency. "I can't stand to see a grown public cry," he explains. The public and Kennedy calls Eisenhower "a great President, to whom I bear a striking resemblance." Henry Luce cables agreement, and Kennedy withdraws his law suit. "Henry and I--we're like that," says the Man of the Year.

March

Mary I. Bunting becomes "Girl of the Day" on WCOP, and they play her song: "The Dear Lady Twist." ... The Harvard Washington contingent, with the exception of McGeorge Bundy, quits in a body, protesting Washington working hours "We're just not used to a 9 to 5 schedule," Abram Chayes explains. Bundy has another explanation: "They've never had to meet a payroll before." He and Bobby Kennedy issue a joint statement calling the Harvard renegades "soft." "I'm going to send my boys to a school with guts, not some place run by some kind of Hindu nut," Kennedy says. Nehru breaks relations with the U.S., calling Kennedy a "racist," and Ambassador Galbraith a "beanpole." ...Cardinal Cushing wins the Irish sweepstakes and endows a home for old policemen. President Pusey calls Cushing "a great cardinal," and suggests that they hold an "ecumenical summit."

April

Fidel Castro demands the return of the Harvard spiders to Cuba. "They belong to the people of Cuba. We have expropriated them in absentia," Castro insists. He appeals to the UN, which regrets that it has no neutral observers left to send him... 146 Young Americans for Freedom depart Cambridge to fight in the Katangan army. "We are not to be confused with the Peace Corps," their leader explains. "We are not going to help Katanga, we're going to fight for it."

May

Westinghouse and General Electric sponsor a television spectacular on union featherbedding in Newburgh, New York. "Unions have lost touch with morality," Ralph Cordiner, president of GE, explains, "and a free handout is not the American way of being poor. Only through corporation can America reach its purpose." ...President De Gaulle personally leads a march from Paris to the Spanish border protesting the resumption of plastic bomb tests.

The Brattle Theatre management announces a new schedule designed to "please all"; a ninemonth Bergman Festival at both the Brattle (with English sub-titles) and the new Harvard Square Theatre (with dubbed-in English dialogue).

June

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