. . . Le Deluge

Although the opening of this Spring Term lacks the authentic atmosphere of its namesake season, there is a certain amount of encouragement in the blanket of snow that has settled upon Cambridge. Tramping to Registration at Memorial Hall may be less romantic than skiing, but at least the march will end with multicolored forms and not the overly-familiar bluebooks. It is even rumored that the delay of the snowfall until after the last exam has a mystical significance. Vermont's official groundhog watcher, for example, reports that yesterday's belated winter assures a fair spring.

The snow, nonetheless, will delay river bank gamboling for several weeks, and make the distance to women's colleges seem even further. The normal activities of this term are already slowed--skaters are pausing to shovel off frozen lakes, and careful autoists are wrestling with tires and rusty chains. Even the shoeshine will have to wait until the small boys put away the buckets of water they are now using to freeze snowballs out of dry flakes.

Unchanging as always, however, is that Word of Cheer passed from one friend to the other before the grip of schedule and test tightens again. Although the snow may have at first frightened the Spring Term optimist, awakened like the Freshman who has overslept an exam, he is now reassured and ready to pass along advice. The new term does, in fact, promise more than the resulting slush and returned exams. If all goes well, there will be as many disarmament plans as there are new atomic weapons, and Marlon Brando will not sell his motorcycle. In all events, a new Spring and twice last year's robins are guaranteed.