So who stole the cakes? All eyes turn toward Edward “Eddie” L. Jones II ’05, Youssef’s Straus roommate and a varsity wrestler. “Hey, it wasn’t me, it wasn’t me,” he says with a lopsided smile. But the glint in his eye tells a different story.

Jones, affectionately known by blockmates as “Eddie the Enforcer,” is an easygoing blond from Montana. He says his first few days in a strange northeastern dorm were a bit disorienting.

“He didn’t talk for the first week he was here,” laughs Lauren N.D. Wiggins ’05-’06, who blocked with Jones. “We would go to the dining hall with him and count the words he would say and it would be in the single digits. But he turned out to be a gentle giant.”

Jones says he “thought a lot to myself” during the first weeks of school, but ultimately found the Straus environs to his liking. His freshman entrymates, however, have not stopped bothering him about first-year foibles.

“He takes horse pills!” Leif Holtzman ’05 volunteers at one point. The two are roommates in Winthrop House.

Jones knits his brow. “Penicillin is the same whether it’s for dogs or horses or humans,” he says.

Holtzman laughs. Holtzman is headed to a career in marketing, after serving as president of the Harvard Advertising Club; this fall he’ll start work as an analyst for Digitas, a consulting firm. Julie E. Kobick ’05 sits across from the two boys; another blockmate from Straus A, she headed up the Harvard Center for Enterprise, a program that fosters entrepreneurial interests among undergraduates.

At the other end of the table sits Erin K. Sprague ’05, clad in a floral print summer dress.

Sprague and Youssef joined Crimson Key together their freshman spring, helping each other through the difficult comp process. The two coordinated Freshman Week for the Class of 2007 and emceed that year’s a cappella jam together.

But when it came time for Crimson Key elections, both former Straus residents had their eyes on the top spot. Did the friendship survive a heated election?

The two are silent for a moment. Then Sprague breaks into a smile.

“Awk-ward,” she laughs. Sprague took president, Youssef vice president.

“We came out better at the end,” Youssef says diplomatically.

BIG MAN ON CAMPUS

“Is there room at this table for a Strauser?”