Presidents Bok and Horner are, as usual, giving a catered reception in the courtyard of the Fogg Museum next weekend for all incoming freshmen. This tradition has several advantages: the food is good, you can see Bok close up, and you can stake out the route to the Norton Lecture Hall before the Fine Arts 13 stampede starts at noon the next day. Even if you miss the party and all these advantages, the Fogg is still a good place to visit. The finest day of my freshman week was spent wandering through it, and since most of my courses have taken place there I've grown fond of the old barn. The museum is down the street from the Freshman Union, admission is free, and it's open 9-5; 2-5 on Sundays. The special exhibit right now is on Ben Franklin (for those of you from points south and west, they take the Bicentennial seriously in New England). It's an interesting collection of Franklin memorabilia that closes a week from today. Check it out.

Other Harvard museums include the Busch-Reisinger (German art and a courtyard with Brancusi penguins), the Peabody (the anthropology museum that also houses the glass flowers) and the Museum of Comparative Zoology (the world's largest whale skeleton hangs from the ceiling.) They're all free, except for the glass flowers.

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is one of the finest in the country--its collections of Egyptian and Oriental art are the best in the Western Hemisphere. Take the Red Line subway to Park Street, transfer to the Arborway, get off at Northeastern and walk two blocks. Admission is $2.50, but you can get in free and buy a one-year student pass for $5.00. Hours are Wed.-Sun. 10-5, Tuesday 10-9. Right now the MFA is also on a bicentennial binge, with an exhibit on Paul Revere and a slide show on the Revolution.

There are lots of small galleries around town--most of them are on Newbury Street in Boston and are expensive and intimidating but some of the small coffee-shop type places in the Square have shows from time to time that are worth looking into, and the Art/Asia gallery on Palmer St. next to the Coop consistently has some of the most interesting exhibits in the area.