Editor, the Gauntlet,

     When first reading Mr. Oakes' ill-thought-out article I had presumed that it was part of the weekly lampoon that is "Academic Probation." Unfortunately, I was incorrect.

Long after the evening BCEM lab clears out and the fruit flies are put away, long after the die-hard jock puts down his weights, fairies come out and play as fantasy becomes reality.

Well, not really. The fairies are actually the facilities staff who magically tidy the campus, and the only fantasies to be had are of the Den-induced alcoholic variety. Still, many strange and wonderful things happen once most of the campus population leaves for the day.

Let's start with the bad news. The Dinos men's basketball team is a dismal 1-5 thus far with their sole victory coming against a motley crew of University of Calgary alumni.

The good news? The preseason is over.

The Dinos have been forced to go with a much smaller lineup this year after losing inspirational big man Chris Harris to a severe knee injury, steady inside man Wes Jickling to academic pursuits and hard-luck John Woods to an endless barrage of wounded limbs.

Much like the recent resurgence of the Shaft movie franchise, good things tend to reappear when you least expect them. With that said, here's to the resurrection of the unbeatable Dinos women's soccer team.

After a midseason slump where the Dinos had trouble finding the back of the net, the team flew out to the West Coast and earned two wins and a tie. And these games weren't against chumps either. That's two top 10 teams and the defending Canada West champions the Dinos had to play.

After a surprising hiccup at the start of the year, the men's hockey Dinos have recovered their composure and are now crushing their opposition with merciless, robot-like regularity.

The lights nearly went out on the Dinos football team Fri., Oct. 26. Calgary held a paltry 3-4 record going into the game at McMahon Stadium as they played host to the University of Manitoba Bisons--arguably the best team in the country. The team's fate was in their own hands. Win or tie and they would be playoff bound. Lose and all control would be lost with no guarantees of anything.

Two thousand years ago, the proudest boast was civis Romanus sum. Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is Ich bin ein Dinos fan.

The University of Calgary women's volleyball team beat the University of Manitoba Bisons 3-1 in exhibition action on Fri., Oct. 26. After this momentous victory over the defending national champions, the somewhat modified words of John F. Kennedy's June 26, 1963 speech to the people of Berlin still ring true.

I wonder if the tortoise schooled the hare the second time they raced? Doubtful. You see, you only underestimate a foe once--humility is a lifelong lesson.

It's almost a place that James Bond might feel at home in, except there are no vodka martinis and definitely no bullets.

The new, high-tech Prairie Regional Research Data Centre on the University of Calgary campus officially opened Mon., Oct. 29. Dr. Gustave Goldmann of Statistics Canada was on hand to deliver a presentation on the centre's operation and what function it will serve on the university campus.

Men have long outnumbered women in some fields, and almost 200 people gathered at the University of Calgary last weekend to do something about it.

"There's the need to educate all students about opportunities in science and engineering," said Allisha Sordi, President of Women in Science and Engineering. "[Gender discrepancies] is an issue that still exists in these fields and there's still a lot to be done about it."