So many important issues are on everyone's minds during this time of year, but I have only so few words allotted to this column. Here are a variety of things to ponder before exams and papers start stressing you out too much--a sort of spring cleaning for your brain:

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I used to be one of these people who would feel great angst over the lack of interest in national news displayed by many Americans. However, poor little Elian Gonzalez radically changed my mind on this subject. Is this issue important? Yes. But the other day I arrived at the crux of the issue. A friend of mine, for whom I have the utmost respect in terms of keeping up with current events, flipped off Tom Brokaw's special afternoon update in favor of the highly intellectual Fox show "Real TV." Seeing a 300-pound Marlin pull a man out of his fishing boat definitely felt more important to watch at that point than anything Janet Reno could have done or said with the family. This settled the issue for me; the media has drastically over-covered this event.

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With the new baseball season underway, residents of Boston and members of Red Sox nation have begun another clamor for the construction of a new stadium. Allegedly, it will happen this time--they even have blueprints. But unless Boston Mayor Tom Menino and the Beacon Hill gang actually mobilize in the next few months, the situation will look awfully similar to the football stadium debacle last year that almost led to the Hartford Patriots. The Red Sox are a Boston institution. They ought to get the infrastructure that they want for this project. Everybody wins with a new stadium.

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If the powers that be at Harvard are serious about making efforts to improve undergraduate education, then the decision to deny Louise Richardson tenure still baffles me. As one of the students lucky enough to know Professor Richardson, I will be very sad to see her go. The commitment that she made to her students throughout her Government 1748 course and in her role as head tutor can only be described as remarkable. Granting her tenure would have added even more strength to the already strong government department as well as been a positive step in gaining gender equality among tenured professors.

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