A reminder. Today is shopping period day 2; another reminder that tomorrow will follow a Monday schedule, because Monday is Labor Day.

N64 lives. By the 9 a.m. start time for professor A. Douglas Stone’s PHYS 420 course, “Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics, around 30 students had gathered in Mason Lab 107. When a professor failed to show, a man marched in the room, and without saying a word wrote on the blackboard, “Your princess is in another castle. Stone will be back next Wednesday.” The man went on to say, “I am your TA,” before walking out of the room without further comment.

Must be true. In his ever-popular lecture “Death,” professor Shelly Kagan addressed his reputation as a tough grader, saying he first learned of it through an article in the News. He then asked whether anyone in the room had previously taken a class with him. Though TA Alex Worsnip said about 240 people showed up to class, only two people in the back raised their hands. “See? They don’t come back,” Kagan said.

Some do come back. A few thousand miles away from New Haven, Jonathan Kreiss-Tompkins ’12 won his (uncontested) Tuesday primary election for a seat representing Sitka, Alaska, in the Alaska State House.

Local controversy. A Monday report commissioned by New Haven’s school board found Hillhouse High School principal Kermit Carolina guilty of “grade tampering” and “preferential treatment” of three student-athletes, the New Haven Independent reported. Carolina is maintaining his innocence, calling the allegations “baseless.”

National import. Heartened by better-than-expected poll numbers, Jerry Labriola, head of the state GOP, has been working Republican officials at the national convention in Tampa to try to turn Connecticut into a Republican victory, the Courant reports.

Yet so far. Though Republican Linda McMahon led Democrat Chris Murphy in the race for the U.S. Senate in a QPac poll released this week, another poll from Public Policy Polling shows Murphy up by four percentage points.

Smizing. Promotional materials for this fall’s season of “America’s Next Top Model” — the “College Edition” — feature shots of the Branford College courtyard.

THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY 2007 A Calhoun junior faces charges for keeping a cache of illegal weapons and bomb-making materials in his bedroom.