The cold, rainy weather Friday night didn't dampen the turnout for the Women Law Students Association's Jenny Runkles Scholarship Banquet at the Corner Brewery in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

It may seem at first blush that we of the Res Gestae aren't huge fans of democracy. After all, our board is selected through a strange combination of fiat and conscription and I'm pretty sure we haven't had a vote on anything in over a decade. In fact, other than being rather enamored of Tuesdays as a general rule, there's not a lot your most local paper has in common with the democratic process in the United States.

9:02: And here come the candidates! In one corner, we have the [Arab/family man--circle one] Barack Obama. In the other corner, tortured by Robert E. Lee himself, John McCain.

9:03: To add to the excitement, we're watching the CNN feed. Not only do we have the political expert scorecards, we have a group of Ohio voters who can't figure out if they are more racist or sexist. CNN calls them "undecided voters." They have little dials in their hands to let us know if they like or hate what the candidate is saying. Our prediction: the undecided Ohio voters will like stuff.

If it seems like every few weeks one of your friends' laptops craps out and results in a frantic, headlong trip down into the library to look for somebody wearing goofy glasses and a pocket protector, the RG has come to put your mind at ease. Our technology columnist, Greg Lavigne, explains in this first installment of his new column, how you can avoid being that person who needs to solicit outlines and notes and replacement porn on LawOpen because you didn't adequately backup your computer's hard drive.

Song of the Gunner
by Walt Whitman

1

I raise my hand, and sing myself,
And what I assume nobody should assume,
And all I read in Hornbooks will be shared with you.

The weather is getting colder, the sky grayer, and the days shorter. The semester is more than halfway over, and classes are picking up speed in the rush to finals. It's the perfect time to think about classes outside of the law school, ways to tap into other parts of your brain. Sure, you're busy. Don't forget all the advice you've been given: a balanced life is a good life; be a well-rounded person, and try new activities to keep yourself happy. In other words, here are ways to take mini-classes and save yourself from being only a law student.

There are few fundamental truths in this world. Bears generally crap in the woods, the Pope tends toward Catholicism, pretty much everyone dies, multiple choice finals are rarely as easy as they sound, Chemerinsky probably knows more ConLaw than you do, and Americans are completely bipolar about sex. These are the things we think we know for sure.

Now that the RG has officially informed us that we are currently in a recession, your two intrepid RG foodies have risked their waistlines to bring you this Recession Special. With rumbling stomachs and eyes on the bottom line, we ventured around Ann Arbor noshing our way through the cheap eats so that you too can save a couple bucks at lunch.