I’M YALIE OF THE WEEK.

UPDATE: I’m the very first one, according to this followup email:

As I think Jackie Nelson has already told you, you are the first-ever Yalie of the Week on our website. (I do hope you view this as a blessing rather than a curse.) We’ve admired your work, and have had you on our copious list for the print magazine, for quite some time. We’re bound to come to you for the print magazine one day soon, but meanwhile, this seemed a good way to start.

That’s awfully nice. Though not nice enough to make up for the news that the Yankee Doodle Diner has closed!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Prof. Kenneth Mayer is one of many who’s sad to hear about the Doodle:

Glenn: I was in grad school at Yale in the 80s, and frequented the Doodle. It was cheap, fast, and good: two eggs over easy, hash browns, a muffin, probably $3. The guy who ran it was fast, and I can still picture him scrambling a couple of eggs in a steel bowl using forks. He was old school. I’m sad to hear the news that it’s closing but it did bring up some fond memories.

Yeah, I stole his fork-scrambling technique, though I’ve never achieved his speed.

MORE: Lots more emails, including this from Cormac Kehoe:

In the fall of ’89 I was a broke student too proud to ask my (somewhat struggling) parents for money. At that time, Doodle regulars could occasionally “put it up,” i.e., run a tab. Lew, the owner, floated me at the Doodle for over a month, a tab that neared $200. Never once was I asked to pay up – they just trusted that I would. And I did, plus a big tip for the interest equivalent. I have never forgotten the kindness and never will. Great place, great people, great food. My favorites: ham and egg on a roll, cheeseburger with an egg on top, and the decadent fried doughnut with butter!

Nice story.

WHAT OTHER COUNTRIES CAN TEACH THE UNITED STATES about free-market reforms. “Every industrialised country in the world has launched free-market reforms during the past two to three decades. About a dozen of these countries have reformed substantially in a number of areas. The United States is one of these. But other countries have achieved more in areas where the US still has a lot do to. And the economic and social results from the reforms have often far exceeded expectations.”

BOB OWENS HAS THOUGHTS on today’s female suicide bombings in Baghdad:

Both bombs appear to have been remote detonated. These women probably did not know they were carrying explosives at all, and it would probably be fair to include them among the victims. . . . This tells us several things.

First, it tells us that al Qaeda in Iraq recognizes that attempts to use male suicide bombers and vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs), their preferred method of suicide attacks for those seeking martyrdom, are no longer effective. These attacks fail because the combination of coalition military forces, Iraqi security forces, and neighborhood militias, known as “concerned local citizens” (CLCs) creating a security system that increasingly works, and makes it very unlikely that these preferred attacks will succeed. There is also some speculation that the influx of would-be foreign suicide bombers into Iraq is drying up.

Today’s attacks also tell us that al Qaeda in Iraq is getting very desperate in seeking the high-casualty attacks that they so value. They were forced to scrape the bottom of the proverbial barrel, and use not only women (which they’d prefer to subjugate), but mentally disabled women at that, suggesting that finding willing volunteers is becoming ever more difficult.

Good suicide-bombers are hard to find, and retention is even tougher. Meanwhile, Michael Yon emails from Iraq:

All well in South Baghdad, but sounds like the suicide bombings were pretty bad. I did not hear them detonate so must have been far away. It’s the al Qaeda mode, though. Sounds like the women were mentally disabled.

And Austin Bay emails that this may be the start of the “Terrorist Tet” he’s been predicting. As Bob Owens notes, some people here at home are all-too-eager to help. Just like last time.

WHAT, BEER ISN’T ENOUGH? A Super Bowl drink recipe. Call me crazy, but I think that Super Bowls and Midori don’t mix. . . .

INSTAPUNDIT TRAFFIC HAS BEEN really good this year. Don’t know the reason for the increase, but hey –Thanks for visiting!

WHICH OF THESE MEN DID THE PHOTOGRAPHER THINK was a hero?

ANN COULTER endorses Hillary.

EXERCISE AND AGING:

Dr. Wright, a 40-year-old runner, decided to study people who kept training as they got older or began competing in middle age. She wanted to know what happens to them and at what age does performance start to decline.

Their results are surprising, even to many of the researchers themselves. The investigators find that while you will slow down as you age, you may be able to stave off more of the deterioration than you thought. Researchers also report that people can start later in life — one man took up running at 62 and ran his first marathon, a year later, in 3 hours 25 minutes.

It’s a testament to how adaptable the human body is, researchers said, that people can start serious training at an older age and become highly competitive. It also is testament to their findings that some physiological factors needed for a good performance are not much affected by age.

I don’t think this is especially surprising. In my observation, the main thing that slows people down when they’re older, assuming they keep exercising, is the cumulative effect of joint injury and wear. The rest of the body seems to hold up pretty well.

IN RESPONSE TO MY EARLIER POST on the Asus Eee PC, Dave Johnston emails:

What the reviewers have been missing – frustratingly, even Walt Mossberg made this mistake – is that while you CAN use the little WiFi icon and “Wireless Networks” feature to connect to hotspots, you should actually be setting up wireless using the “Network” option to create a frequent, known hotspot, such as your house or favorite coffee spots.

Click into “Network,” click “Create” a connection and follow the steps to make sure that your Eee remembers that connection. You can set it to remember the security key as well as tell it to auto connect, even “On Boot” if you choose.

I have set up my three most frequent networks, and it connects EVERY time, within 30 seconds or so after the super fast boot.

I’ll give it a try. Plus, in the comments over at PopMech, people say you can use the Verizon USB card without any software. I’ll have to give that a try sometime too.

SYMBOLISM BACKFIRES: You could see this coming. Well, you could. They apparently didn’t . . . .

MCCAIN AND ALCIBIADES? It’s a stretch, but the temper point is valid. Though one of my friends, disappointed in Bush’s measured approach to diplomacy, saw that as a feature, not a bug: “He just looks like he might get mad enough to nuke somebody.” It could be like Nixon’s crazy act!

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE: Microsoft to assimilate Yahoo!? Elsewhere, Michael Weiss calls it “a clear bid to outstrip Google of its market dominance.”

THOUGHTS ON the weakness of university trustees.

SEEMS LIKE A GOOD IDEA TO ME: “West Virginia is considering a bill to teach schoolchildren how to handle a gun and hunt safely.”

If it saves just one child’s life, it’s worth it. Who could be so cruel as to want our children to handle guns and hunt unsafely?

SHOUTING FIRE IN A CROWDED AIRPORT? “A lawyer for an MIT student held at gunpoint after she walked into Logan International Airport wearing what authorities believed was a bomb asked a judge to throw out the charges Friday, saying the device was a legitimate form of free speech.” People don’t seem to be buying it.

AN ARMY OF MAVERICKS?

YAY! Tennessee beats Vermont. On self-defense law, to the discomfiture of the Brady Campaign.

IN THE MAIL: Michael Sheuer’s Marching Toward Hell: America and Islam After Iraq. Quite a different assessment from, say, this one by Stratfor. Who’s right? We’ll find out, I guess.

UPDATE: Bill Quick isn’t impressed with Scheuer.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Hillary Clinton and John McCain on earmarks:

In his State of the Union address Monday, reinvigorated public discussion of earmarks — lawmakers’ specific spending items inserted into appropriations bills. While fiscal conservatives in Washington are skeptical about Bush’s ability to do much on the issue, the president may be helping his party by bringing up this issue, which touched on fiscal conservatism, government transparency and political corruption.

Earmarks, and their use of tools of corruption, could play a large role in the 2008 presidential contest if the current front-runners succeed in grabbing their respective parties’ nominations. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is a leading opponent of pork and one of the only lawmakers to forswear earmarks, while Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., is Congress’ leading porker.

Clinton’s earmarking is not merely offensive to procedural purists who demand spending go through standard channels. It also is not merely a transgression against fiscal conservatism. Clinton’s earmarks often directly benefit specific corporations and businessmen, who, in turn, make large contributions to her campaign. This “pay-to-play” earmarking, as one left-leaning budget watchdog group put it, highlights the truly dirty side of earmarks.

Indeed.

HAPPY GRADUATION TO MAJOR JOHN TAMMES, who will celebrate by going to Disneyworld Iraq.

WASN’T JOHN EDWARDS SAYING THIS LAST WEEK? Huckabee: I Won’t Be Driven From Race.

A GALLERY OF armed robots. Plus, this reassurance:

“We’re not building Skynet” says Bart Everett, the technical director for robotics at SPAWAR.

Well, that’s a relief. I’d prefer Bolos. But that would require getting the ethics right, too.

IF YOU MISSED IT ON XM SATELLITE RADIO LAST NIGHT, you can listen to PJM Political online today.

HIGHER EDUCATION gets a warning from a friend in Congress.

Plus, questions about what students are learning.

I THOUGHT HE REPRESENTED A NEW KIND OF POLITICS, but Mickey Kaus accuses Obama of outrageous pandering. “This isn’t the language of a politician who wants to transcend partisan diference. This is the language of a politician who wants to wallow in partisan (and ideological) cant!” Nothing new about that . . . .