When H. Christopher Shibutani '85 found several thousand dollars worth of flutes and piccolos stolen from his Adams House room in September, he wasn't content to let the Harvard and Cambridge police do the detective work for him. Slubutani, the first flutist for the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, posted notices and called area pawn shops and music schools.

Within days his efforts paid off when a pawnbroker in Central Square became suspicious of a customer who tried to sell him a handmade flute for $30. It turned out to be Shibutani's, and when the thief tried to flee, he dropped most of the other equipment.

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Harvard biologists were more than a bit perturbed last fall over a dramatic radio advertisement for a thriller novel set in the Harvard bio labs, the scene of an army of cancerous germs sweeping through Cambridge.

Professors said the ad--promoting the book "Spirals," authored by William Patrick, editor of science publications at Harvard University Press--did not make it clear that the frightening scenario was only a scene from a novel, not a documentary.

"It's thoroughly outrageous," asserted the chairman of the department of Cellular and Developmental Biology. Daniel Branton, speaking for many of his colleagues. He said he was "not even sure it's obvious it's an ad."

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The Harvard band, which has practically made a career out of puerile jokes, finally went one stop too far in the fall. After playing "Live and Let Die" during a segment on the Korean airlines shooting and spelling out 'PUKE" during a sequence on the food in the Union, the band provoked official University reprobation.

Acting as Big Brother was Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III, who began reviewing the band's halftime shows to eliminate what he termed "vulgarity" and "in-group jokes." Under the new policy. Epps made small changes in the script the band followed during halftime of the Cornell game, changing a quote from "Macbeth."

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After a year of preparation, the Harvard flying club finally got off the ground this year after College officials legally freed the University of any liability for the safety of the club's 60 members. Led by Javier F. Arango '85 and Clifford T. Russell '85, the club took weekend jaunts out of a Mansfield, Mass. airport.

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Jerry Garcia in Harvard Stadium? The thought itself seems prima facie absurd, but that's what the Undergraduate Council almost pulled off last fall.

Spearheaded by Dudley House Representative David Vendler '84, the council proposed a springtime Grateful Dead concert in the stadium, and lined up both support from the student body and financial backing for the enterprise.

But Epps quashed the proposal in December, citing concerns over the reliability of the financing of the event and the effect it would have on the stadium. The council then pulled together and invited nouveau stars R.E.M. to play at the indoor track in the spring, and the gig went off without a hitch, although the council lost more than $1000.