This bit of news, courtesy of the ever brilliant and vigilant members at Metafilter (myself, cough, included), that the New York Times's "Select" aka Times Select--which provides access to their columnists, designated articles, and archives--is now FREE if you have a ".edu" e-mail address, and that made me very happy because I was able to use my current Columbia University e-mail for this. However, I'm not sure if the "alumni.brown.edu" will work.