There is a surprising number of ways to get into Cornell. You can get in early decision, you can get in regular decision, or you can get in off the waitlist. You can get in as a guaranteed transfer, or just transfer in.

Everyone loves surprises. There are tasty surprises — like my buddy Justin’s surprise birthday cheesecake Emily made on Saturday. There are pleasant surprises — like going on Blackboard and seeing that a homework assignment is due in 2 weeks, not 2 hours. And there are, of course, startling surprises — like Lady Gaga. Recently, I’ve been surprised by a lot of occurrences in the world of sports.

The WNBA playoffs are underway! I found that one out on Saturday night while waiting for SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays. I had no idea. Linda Cohn’s closing remark as she reported that the Fever and the Mercury would be matched up in the finals: “Good stuff.” Unfortunately there was no connection made between fevers and mercury thermometers.

Anyone who picked up the Daily Sun yesterday would have had a tough time missing the quartet of headlines on the front page warning of the impending doom facing Cornell as a result of the nation’s recent economic downturn. Inexplicably missing from yesterday’s outcry — the cancellation of intramural ice hockey.

It is undeniable that the latest casualty to campus-wide budget cuts — intramural ice hockey — is the headliner of a long list of “things-administrators-have-decided-are-less-important-than-other-things-and-will-no-longer-be-funded.” And yet, I only found out about this a couple of days ago.