I tell ya, nothing cramps the campus life and events section of the web quite like spring break. We thought about auctioning off your stuff while you were away, but in the end that would have involved leaving the office for more than a mad frozen dash to the coffee cart, and we just weren't ready for that level of commitment.

Alas, today isn't much of an improvement. For me the jury is out on tangentially Irish endeavors on St. Patrick's Day. Wegmans certainly goes to some lengths to seasonally represent; their corned beef/cabbage/soda bread/Guinness/Bewley's Coffee/Irish Drinking Songs CD display is nothing if not widely varied in its stereotypical portrayal of Irishness. All they need is a dear old Mayo mammy in an Aran sweater beating an English soldier to a bloody pulp with a sack of potatoes and they'd be cooking with diesel.

Both local McDonald's outlets ran out of Shamrock shakes before lunch today. I just think that's a sign.

So I'm not entirely heartbroken that there isn't anything particularly plastic Paddy happening on campus. Suffice to say elsewhere in town the bon mots and beer will be flowing like the broad majestic Shannon tonight, but if you were hoping for something a bit more highbrow, dream on.

Of course, you could just pretend you're living in a Beckett play where absolutely nothing happens. That's about as Irish as it gets.

* * *

Simple fact is IC is saving up its event mojo for the "Sport, Sexuality, and Culture" conference this Wednesday to Friday. In the interest of promoting a healthy dialog about sexuality in what could well be the last great bastion of entrenched bigotry on college campuses and the workplace, this conference is free and open to everyone in the Ithaca community.

I'll take a wild guess and presume it doesn't blow your minds to find out the sporting world hasn't always been the most gay-friendly corner of American life. Invariably homoerotic with all that butt slapping and sweaty rolling around in tandem, yes. But queer positive? Survey says "noooo."

Perhaps it's not surprising, then, that the first player to come out in the almost cartoonishly macho NBA was English, and thus already an anomaly in the league. Conference keynote speaker and former NBA player John Amaechi is many things, but "typical" is not among them. Despite having once turned down $17 million to play for the Lakers, Amaechi seems to be doing just fine as a media pundit, author, high profile public speaker, and advocate for LGBT youth. He'll be speaking in Emerson Suites Thursday at 7:00 p.m.

Don't miss this one; lots of good stuff comes to Ithaca year round, but this is a pretty special event even by our robust standards.

Of course John Amaechi is only part of the conference. Lots of other stuff going on, covering topics like

• legal issues involving sex and sexual orientation discrimination
• sport, media, sexuality, and culture
• gender, race, sexuality, and culture
• research trends and issues
• replacing homophobia/transphobia with humanism in sport settings

Check it out and tell us what you think. This is an adventurous and high profile event for Ithaca College, so we expect a lot of chatter.

And to warm you up, check out John Amaechi telling Ann Coulter where she can stick it: