Smells like spring. You know it’s spring in New England when people start pulling out the salmon-colored shorts, the quintessential look for a preppy college student. And based on a new Tumblr “whiteboysinsalmonshorts,” it seems that Yale may top the list of salmon-defined preppiness: As of press time, more than half of the photos in the Tumblr featured Yale men sporting the shorts as they lounged on Cross Campus or strolled past Bass Library.

Somewhere over the rainbow. For the next few days, the “Global Rainbow New Haven” project will be shining every night from dusk to 1 a.m. over the Elm City, kicking off a citywide celebration of the 375th anniversary of New Haven. The four-day project, which was launched Wednesday night from East Rock,  features a laser light sculpture that projects a full spectrum of the rainbow across the city sky and can be seen for 35 miles.

The mystery continues. More than five months after city authorities discovered a skeleton under a tree on the New Haven Green, they have continued to unearth city treasures. On Wednesday, workers discovered two copper tubes under the tree, which may prove city historian Rob Greenberg’s theory that a time capsule was buried beneath the Lincoln Oak when it was planted in 1909. The tubes have been taken to the state archeologist for scanning.

Practice for Spring Fling?  In the midst of finals studying and papers, it’s important to keep the brain active and body prepared for Spring Fling, whether that means thrift shopping or listening to Grouplove on repeat. Yalies across campus got a preview of Spring Fling yesterday afternoon when the Guild of Carillonneurs played an abridged version of Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop” from atop Harkness Tower.

Studying selectivity. A recently updated study from two economists at the National  Bureau of Economic Research found that students who attended more selective universities did not tend to earn more than their counterparts who earned similar SAT scores but attended less selective colleges. The economists used data from 30 colleges, including Yale, Wesleyan, Columbia, the University of Michigan and Pennsylvania State University.

THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY 1988 Yale joins the Elm City in commemorating the city’s 350th anniversary. University and city leaders attended a tribute — entitled “A Concert of Celebration, the Story of New Haven, a Yale salute” — the day before as performers narrated the histories of Yale and New Haven.

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