New Haven is no New Orleans, but in celebration of Mardi Gras and Shrove Tuesday, tables of festive Mardi Gras beads were available yesterday in several dining halls. Pancakes were also provided for lunch and dinner.

Free student tickets for this weekend’s hockey games are now available at the Yale Bookstore. Tickets to the last Friday home game, against Harvard on Feb. 13, were sold out by early that Friday afternoon.

Ready for your close-up, planet Earth? Yesterday marked the premiere of STEP’s second installment in the “Take the Pledge” video series, promoting Project LUX. The video — available on YouTube — educates Elis on how to defrost their refrigerators before spring break.

Gifts to universities across the nation for the 2008 fiscal year were up 6.2 percent from the previous year, although the Council for Aid to Education found that donations dropped sharply in January 2009. In the ranking of gifts garnered, Yale rose from 8th place in 2007 to 4th place in 2008, with $486.6 million raised.

T-Mobile customers will have to “opt in” if they want to receive texts messages from Yale’s emergency alert system, according to an e-mail message sent yesterday by Deputy University Secretary Martha Highsmith and Director of Emergency Management Maria Lavandier Bouffard.

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) introduced four bills yesterday to promote “Service For All Ages.” If passed, the bills would allow everyone from middle-school students to seniors to involve themselves in improving their communities.

Control your anger, help your heart. Dr. Rachel Lampert, associate professor of cardiology and electrophysiology at Yale, is conducting a study on the effects of anger and stress on electrocardiogram patterns for those with defibrillators. Lampert’s study suggests that those who learn to control their emotions might not need a defibrillator.

‘Taxation without Representation’ may not remain the motto of Washington for much longer. Yesterday, the Senate passed a bill sponsored by Sen. Joseph Lieberman ’64 LAW ’67 that granted the district a voting representative in the House of Representatives.

This day in Yale history
1941 The Yale College Council called on Yale students to offer their leadership skills to mentor New Haven shoe shine boys in various extracurricular pursuits, such as stamp collecting and harmonica band. The Friends of Boys Association, the sole licenser of all New Haven shoe boys, estimated that over $40,000 was spent on shoe shines in the Elm City in 1940.

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