Harvard

So I get an email urging me to enter a March Madness bracket into a contest to win big. How depressing. It comes from my retirement planner, who is telling me this is my only chance to even think about retiring: win a contest. Most of you have retirement in mind: yours and mine. Sometimes I get the impression folks are looking forward to my retirement more than I am. I checked with my Northwestern Mutual retirement planner Chad Chatham recently and he said, "You would be in great shape right now if you died.

The video billed as Andrew Breitbart's last project is posted on the late conservative provocateur's website. It is so far provoking outrage from some corners and yawns from others. The footage of a Harvard law student protest in 1991 captures then-Harvard Law Review president Barack Obama speaking in support of a professor who had launched a campaign to push the school to hire more minority women to its faculty. Former Harvard professor Derrick Bell, the first black tenured professor at the institution, was eventually fired after refusing to come back from a leave over the issue of minority hiring.

Senior Lucas Giolito of Studio City Harvard-Westlake, arguably the No. 1 high school pitching prospect in the nation, sprained the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow in the seventh inning on Tuesday and will be sidelined for six to 10 weeks, Coach Matt LaCour said Wednesday. "He's probably done for our season," LaCour said. Giolito pulled himself with one out in the seventh inning of a game against Mission Hills Alemany after "he felt a grab on his last pitch," his father, Rick, said.

Fans and professional scouts packed O'Malley Family Field in Encino on Tuesday to see the 17-year-old pitching whiz who hit 100 mph on two radar guns last week. Lucas Giolito, the senior right-hander at Studio City Harvard-Westlake, has the baseball world buzzing. But velocity alone doesn't guarantee success, and Giolito was outdueled by Mission Hills Alemany senior right-hander Cody Thompson, who struck out seven and gave up three hits in a 2-1 Mission League victory over the No. 2-ranked Wolverines.

Feeling a sense of urgency, senior guard Kajon Mack ignited a second-half comeback Tuesday night that enabled top-seeded Gardena Serra to come away with a 62-50 road victory over Studio City Harvard-Westlake in a quarterfinal game of the Southern Section Division 4AA basketball playoffs. The Cavaliers (27-2) trailed by as many as 10 points in the first half and were down, 25-19, at halftime. "My coaches were telling us, 'This will be our last game. Step up or lay down.' We didn't choose to lay down and I had to step up as a leader," Mack said.

1. HARVARD-WESTLAKE. SS2 2. MATER DEI. SS1 3. LAKEWOOD. SS1 4. LONG BEACH WILSON. SS1 5. RIVERSIDE NORTH. SS1 6. ORANGE LUTHERAN. SS1 7. BISHOP AMAT. SS4 8. ALEMANY. SS1 9. EL DORADO. SS1 10. SIMI VALLEY. SS1 11. JSERRA. SS1 12. REDLANDS. SS2 13. ESPERANZA. SS1 14. BECKMAN. SS3 15. Newbury Park 16. EL TORO. SS1. 17. CAMARILLO. SS1. 18. CYPRESS SS2. 19. WEST RANCH. SS1. 20. SAN FERNANDO.

Jeremy Lin and the New York Knicks gave the reigning NBA champion Dallas Mavericks all they could handle and more Sunday in a nationally televised game. Lin, the young point guard from Palo Alto via Harvard, had another stellar game with 28 points on 11-of-20 shooting and a career-high 14 assists in a 104-97 victory over Dallas at a raucous Madison Square Garden. It wasn't just the 6-foot-3 Lin helping New York improve its record to 16-16 in the absence of injured All-Star forward Carmelo Anthony.

My wife arrives home, January in her cheeks, smelling like a winter morning. Cradled in her arms, the biggest cinnamon roll you ever saw. More and more, I believe that all happiness begins with the mouth. The little guy divvies up the cinnamon roll this way. "You get half, I get half, Mom gets half. " Sounds fair enough to me. But then Posh has to explain halves, thirds and quarters. I'm standing there craving this cinnamon roll - one of the best pastries I've ever made love to with my eyes - but I have to wait till she's done lecturing the little guy on fractions.

  President Obama nominated a former Treasury official from the George H.W. Bush administration and a Harvard economist to fill two vacancies on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. The nominees, Jerome H. (Jay) Powell and Jeremy C. Stein, would serve 14-year terms on the board if they are confirmed by the Senate. "I am grateful that these individuals have agreed to serve their nation at this important time for our economy," Obama said Tuesday. "Their distinguished backgrounds and experience coupled with their impressive knowledge of economic and monetary policy make them tremendously qualified to serve in these important roles.

The social networking site Facebook is helping researchers answer one of the oldest chicken-and-egg questions about human nature: Do we become friends with people because we have a lot in common to start with, or do we become more like our friends over time as we are influenced by their tastes and preferences? A study published online Monday by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says the first scenario is correct -- at least if we are college classmates at Harvard.