Actor Jason Segel – best-known for his portrayal of Marshall Eriksen in the hit television show How I Met Your Mother - has been spotted in and around Harvard Square since Wednesday evening.

Segel was allegedly seen imbibing alone at Grendel’s on February 1.

Today, this shot of the actor was taken in the Yard:

(Photo credit: Casey Thomson '13.)

Segel is in town to accept his honor as the Hasty Pudding Man of the Year on February 3.

And the countdown to fangirl it up starts…NOW.

grateful for #occupyharvard today. Supporting the occupants in thought, word, and deed.

Harvard is still on lockdown. Told by a guard it’s until protests end. No tourists, no Cantabrigians. #OccupyHarvard

The #OccupyHarvard movement has begun! Will you stand with the Will Huntings against the Zuckerbergs? #WeKnowNothingAboutHarvard

Douchebag alert!!! Harvard student yelling on bullhorn out dorm window: “1%! 1%! Thank you Cambridge Police” ew #OccupyHarvard

#occupyharvard bc 25% of the students get 100% of the prime real estate

Gates to Harvard Yard were locked last night as Occupy protesters erected tents in the heart of campus. (Photo credit: dailycontributor.com.)

“education is a right, not just for the rich and white” #occupyharvard #occupyboston

RT @TheAtlanticWire: Harvard keeps #OccupyHarvard for Harvard students only http://theatln.tc/sM5znI

Though in other ways we may strive to be in a top 1% (of test scores, grades, our fields, etc.) we stand as part of the 99% #occupyharvard

“We must occupy again because Harvard employs the very people who were responsible for the economic meltdown” #occupyharvard

It’s raining, we’re super busy, and supplies are low. We hope #occupyharvard is doing alright. Solidarity.

WE ARE THE FUTURE 1%! #OccupyHarvard

This is great: Harvard Divinity students forming a human shield around Harvard Yard occupiers. #OccupyHarvard

Protester inside yard holding this sign high #occupyboston #occupyharvard http://yfrog.com/nv5ktmej

RT @keithmr81: Group of Harvard janitors w/ SEIU joins student march around campus for #OccupyHarvard - at least 400 ppl here now.

Harvard students opposed to #occupyharvard cursing at us marching. Your future presidents! #sad http://yfrog.com/g0k74gtj

These kids may be book smart but know nothing of real life. #OccupyHarvard

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-78jhVdOd00

More coverage of the protests to come.  Send us cell phone pics, tweets, video, etc.!

E-mail: thehvoicemail@gmail.com

Twitter: @harvardvoice

Happy 375th, Harvard!

As part of Harvard’s 375^thAnniversary hoopla, excerpts of famous speeches given at the university in the past one hundred years will be playing on speakers placed in the trees of the Yard, a project entitled Harvard Voices*. Among the individuals whose dulcet tones will be gracing our ears are Bill Gates, Mother Teresa, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., e.e. Cummings, J.K. Rowling and the late Senator Edward Kennedy.  The complete list of voices may be found here, and instructions to access all the speeches are at this link.

So next time you’re racing to get to Lit and Sex before all the seats in Sanders fill up, do take time to pause and revel in this shining exemplar of your extant sanity.

Yard. Pretty. Sound. (Photo credit: commons.wikimedia.org)

*Why yes, we do love this name.

—

Dear Harvard,

Life is short. We have a lot of snow on the ground right now. It will be ugly soon.

The course of action for us is clear. Massive, schoolwide, multi thousand person snowball fight.

But it can’t happen without you. Invite your friends. Post the event on your wall. Forward to lists.

Will your life be filled with lameness or awesomeness?

The choice is yours.

Spread the word!

Harvard Moves Snow!

Sam Novey

–

So, basically: 8:30 PM.  Yard.  Be there.

(And please don’t be a jerk.)

This is not a teepee.

It’s likely that by now, you’ve noticed that there’s something wooden and dome shaped in the middle of the Yard, in front of Matthews Hall. No, it’s not overflow housing for next year’s class; it’s a wetu. As in, it’s not a teepee, igloo, or a hut. As stated on the signboard in front of Matthews,

A Wetu is atraditional Native American dwelling that is very similar to and sometimes referred to as a wigwam. A Wetu is built by criss-crossing saplings into an upside down U shape. The frame is then covered by sheets of bark on the outside and lined with woven rush mats on the inside. A hole is left at the top of the structure in order to release the smoke .

The wetu has been left partially uncovered so that students and passersby can see its interior structure.  At the Opening Ceremony this past Thursday, students, administrators, and members of the Aquinnah Wampanog tribe spoke about what it took to get the structure put in the yard and what they feel, seeing it completed.

Why is it here right now? Well, this year marks the 360^th anniversary of the signing of Harvard’s charter, which called for “the education of the English and Indian youth of this country, in knowledge and godliness.” It’s presence on campus also overlaps with Harvard’s annual powwow, which will take place this  Saturday at Radcliffe Yard and will be open to the public. The wetu will only be in the yard until May 3^rd, so if you have questions, ask fast. And just think, how many of your friends’ colleges have wetus in their yards?? Not so many.

Snow.

Photos by Grace Sun ’13

Primal Scream: it’s the weirdest yet most liberating Harvard tradition. The night before finals, students (both guys and gals) run around the Yard in their birthday suits (or bikinis and masks for those more hesitant of showing off their goodies).

This year, Primal Scream takes place this Friday, December 11th, at midnight. The Voice has compiled a guide for those who will participate in the run, whether it’s your first time or not.

1. Don’t bring a camera! Seriously, nothing screams “creeper” like bringing a camera to an event with a bunch of naked college folk with their ding-dongs and love lumps hanging out.

2. DO wear sneakers! The corners are icy, and slipping could be, well, disastrous.

3. Bring a buddy. Have a bud waiting with a robe/towel/bedsheet/pillow so you don’t have to push your way through the viewing crowds looking for your clothing with all your junk hanging out. That might have been fun when you were sprinting around the Yard with a bunch of other nudies – not so fun when it’s just you with a bunch of … not-nudies.

4. Get it over with. Do it as early on in your Harvard career as possible. In that way they will be less people that recognize you as you hurtle naked around the Yard. If you do it as a senior it’s basically social suicide (unless you have awesome abs, tattoos that you want to show off, or you’re just shameless).

5. Shave. It might be a good idea.

6. Get ready for some awkward conversations. One of your professors may see you. Or an Annenberg employee. Not that we have a firsthand experience or anything.

7. Don’t pull stunts. Like, don’t make a snow angel.. unless you want to catch pneumonia and fail your finals.

8. Beware of where your eyes roam! Don’t make eye contact, stare only ahead of you, and keep your eyes above shoulder level.

9. Be alert. If you see a girl or guy start to trip and eat asphalt, (it’s mean but…) be ready to hurdle them or you’ll go down with the ship.

10. For the gals: find ladyfriends. If you’re a lady, find some other girls to run with or find them in the crowd because guys are crazy assholes and they push. Also a skin-on-skin brush-up with an adjacent person will be less embarrassing this way.

11. Feel free to accessorize. You can keep it all off and go as as the good lord made ya. but feel to wear something special like a tiara or a piano-key tie.

12. Paint up, don’t suit up. If you’re going to paint your face or body use a non-toxic oil based face paint. Acrylic cracks on the skin and flakes as you run. Not attractive.

What do you think should be added to this list? Have you run Primal Scream before? How was it? Let us know in the comments!

Photos by Sasha Mironov ’13

The only thing redeeming about this is that new book smell.

What. The. Heck. Is. This?

Here on Noice, we love free things. We love them so much we devote an entire tag to it. We love them so much that we bring you copies of The Voice for free every month. Heck, we’ll even give you two copies if you like! HOWEVER, we do not like to get free crap if it’s actually just crap. This blogger’ll take a free slap in the face over what she and many others received yesterday coming into the yard.

Man, they really had us fooled! We saw some man peddling The Origin of Species 150th Anniversary Edition and grabbed it thinking “Hey! One less thing I’ll have to buy for my Science core!” But alas, a few hours later in the comfortable Snuggie™-fied glory of a common room we discovered… aghast! “THIS ISN’T WHAT WE THOUGHT IT WAS! TROJANS, THIS IS A HOLLOW HORSE! ”

Complete with a “special introduction” by some d-bag named Ray Comfort, this version of the out-of-copyright 19th century classic includes gems like:

After much research, I do concede that you won’t find anything in Darwin’s writings that would indicate that he in any way felt blacks were to be treated as inferior or that his views of them were do to their skin color. He just thought that they were closer to gorillas than whites (33).

[on Hinduism and reincarnation] It’s an interesting concept, but it doesn’t deal with your real problem of having sinned against God and the reality of Hell (46).

Buddhism: Amazingly, the religion of Buddhism denies that God even exists (46).

[on Islam] So Islam believes you can earn God’s mercy by your own efforts. That’s like jumping out of a plane and believing that flapping your arms is going to counter the law of gravity and save you from a 10,000-foot drop. (46)

Now, assuming that you are not about to tear out your hair, we pause to ask… what does all this horribly offensive, nutty nonsense even have to do with The Origin of Species? And if you’re not convinced that this free book is a farce: it includes a handy prayer guide for your imminent conversion:

Dear God, Today I turn away from all of my sins (name them) and I put my trust in Jesus Christ alone as my Lord and Savior. Please forgive me, change my heart, and grant me Your gift of everlasting life. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Now misappropriation and misinformation have their place (just take a look at the Long Johnson campaign site) but for goodness sake, if I was looking to convert people I probably wouldn’t try it by giving away bad editions of The Origin of Species at Harvard of all places. Who do these people think we are? It’s not like teaching the South won the Civil War to 7th graders in rural Virginia. Who do you think you’re fooling, Ray?

And Ray, if you really wanted to convince us that you even read through your own edition of The Origin you might want to:

Remember, when you go to toss this book out (or at least the 50 page foreword), please recycle! Green is the new crimson, afterall.