Editor's Note

Dear Reader, It’s Halloween, but have no fear — the Steven Pinker scrut is finally here! We can’t wait for you to read REJC and MJH’s wonderful, hard-earned, behemoth scrut that’s been a long (long, long) time coming. In the rest of our frightfully good issue, CRR and MW cover the reopening of Cambridge Queen’s Head pub. JKL and JL report on the new technology the Museum of Comparative Zoology is using to catalog the seven million insects in its collection. YK and TCW visit the Houghton Library’s collection of death masks, which are just as creepy as they sound, and examine the spiritualism of William James. SSG and JGY interview Kim Smith, the woman we have to thank for the re-opening of Barker Cafe. VAK talks to public historian Hannah Scruggs, who researches the enslaved and free Black communities of central Virginia. SSI chats with SSJ about STS. KLM and JKW chronicle a series of inter-House pranks in the early 2000s, which included 250 dead goldfish, dhall restrictions, and a gong. JQY takes us back to a Harvard tradition that was unfortunately abolished for “reasons of liability” — racing down the Charles in makeshift rafts. RHDN explores roller skating, refugee legacy, and transcending the boundaries between self and family in his poignant endpaper. AHL pushes back on the fetishization of female pain after Spotify recommended her the “sad girl starter pack” playlist one too many times. CM writes a love letter to a sexy redhead. Of course, we couldn’t have done it without help from our supernaturally talented staff. HRTW proofed Pinker not one, not two, but three times. SCS drew Pinker not one, not two, but three times. JH and MH kept up the morale at 10:30 maestro, and SS kept up the Derek Bok Choy bit. JGG brought me cookies while I lay supine on the FM couch on Thursday night, editing the scrut. MVE brought me another cookie while I sat hunched over my laptop at Sunday brunch, still editing the scrut. SOMEONE AT CRIMWEEN stole the can of Campbell’s tomato soup that accompanied my Andy Warhol costume, and I was quite peeved. >:( But alas. Have a happy Halloween, and even happier reading! Yours, SSL & MVE