Currently, it could be said that two cases are pending in the Holyoke Center file. One such Harvard appeal is a poem sent to the University to publish "because it has been censored everywhere else." Another is from a prisoner who would like Harvard to take up his appeal for "a victim of an act of Communism or Marxian Socialism." However, the latter appellant gives Harvard another option: "If you have no interest in this matter then please send me the address of the New York Times. Thank You."

The Times is the subject of yet another Harvard postcard, though in a less flattering light. "The Marxist-Socialist-liberal New York Times is a treacherous brainwasher that can be dangerous to your mental health"

Although many of these letters can be brushed off as aberrant humor. Hightower asserts that there is a limit to what one can just chuckle about "Some of the letters are genuinely sad, because in many cases you can read between the desperation in the message by the way the word is put down on paper"

Much of what fills the file relates in some way to religion. However, the bulk of that mail is in coherent Two letters outlining societal do's and don't's are signed by Jesus Christ and the Messiah respectively The latter correspondent prophesies that on the Monday following the Resurrection. Millicent Fenwick will become President and Alan Alda will become the Secretary of Radio TV

Harvard also received "A Prayer for Luck" which was supposed to bring "good luck within four days frin receiving this letter, providing you send it back out." The University apparently did not send it back out A no-strings-attached offer was also made in a pamphlet titled "The Triumph of Christianity," which "increases buying power 50% and provides a PhD education" by abolishing the Federal Reserve and the income tax.

The News Office makes no effort to understand the "rambling" letters. One, written in multi-colored inks, is addressed to "Former Associates of J. Edgar Hoover." It is a disorganized discussion of mental illness making as much sense as the random change of ink color.

There are also multiple copies of an address book. On the back of each sheet is an address of either a University of California Berkeley professor or an United Nations consulate. Pencilled in for March 5 is "Middlesex Court next" at 9:00 am and "Harvard cheats" at 6 00

Other confusing missives include a copy of a mailgram which reads 'semi-castration saves' and a postcard with several Massachusetts citizens and stores in those towns written haphazardly The all time confounder, however, belongs to a postcard which only has "ATM" written in the middle of the card and "BPX" in the bottom right corner

There is, however, the occasional clever or intentionally funny letter to Harvard that restores, some faith in humanity The Harvard Gazette once had 1 photo of a Houston area development map which was using some Harvard Square area names for streets. An observant, clever, or bored writer indicated to the News Office that 10 of 15 of the Harvard names were on dead end streets

Nothing, however, will rival the day that Ball opened a package addressed to Harvard and found only black rosary beads and a sweat sock "When I first got this. I wasn't sure whether there was something had inside like poison. You never know what's in the letters," he says.

Other memorable enclosures have come to his office. A woman once sent two items: an empty envelope from the Alabama Department of the Treasury and a blank white envelope. A four-page collage of magazine clips was the interesting enclosure of another letter but it was upstaged by the envelope with 22 different U.S. stamps including a 1/2c. Yet another multimedia package has been contributed by Heaven on Earth, a society that has been in touch with UFOs and has produced a casette tape detailing its contact: with the alien beings. Both Bell and Hightower enjoy being the receptors of Harvard's stranger mail. As Ball says, "It's interesting to see what's going on out there"