Wild Party

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. - After more than two dozen young people trashed a former residence of poet Robert Frost during a drinking party, the dilemma was how to punish them. A jail term might be too harsh, community service too easy. So a prosecutor decided on some poetic justice instead, sending them back to school for training about the celebrated New England bard. Using "The Road Not Taken" and another poem as jumping-off points, Frost biographer Jay Parini hopes to show the vandals the error of their ways and the redemptive power of poetry.

MIAMI — A perfect game was no reason for Roy Halladay to change his routine. He woke up early yesterday for a workout. He beat his Philadelphia Phillies teammates to the ballpark. He spent time thinking about how to improve in his next start. And somewhere in there, he might have taken a few moments to reflect on making history. Not even 12 hours after throwing the 20th perfect game in the major leagues, the ace righthander was back at the ballpark, sticking to his storied workout regimen — seeing no reason to take any time off for basking in Saturday night’s gem against the Florida Marlins.

WATERTOWN -- "Repulsive and fascinating, vicious and vivacious," one critic said of Joseph Moncure March's poem "The Wild Party" when it was first published, just before the Twenties stopped roaring. In the decades since, this lurid, violent, rhyming saga of the vaudeville dancer Queenie, her lover Burrs the clown, and the deadly fete they throw one night has lost none of its nasty allure. March's poem was quickly banned in Boston. William Burroughs called it the book that made him want to be a writer.

OXFORD, Ohio — Miami University’s president has pledged a review of policies and punishments for campus fraternities and sororities after a second sorority was linked to destructive behavior at its spring formal. The Alpha Xi Delta sorority is facing a two-year suspension from the school because of the March 26 event at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. Center officials also described excessive drinking and trashing of the dance floor and bathrooms. The sorority is appealing the planned suspension.

MIAMI — A perfect game was no reason for Roy Halladay to change his routine. He woke up early yesterday for a workout. He beat his Philadelphia Phillies teammates to the ballpark. He spent time thinking about how to improve in his next start. And somewhere in there, he might have taken a few moments to reflect on making history. Not even 12 hours after throwing the 20th perfect game in the major leagues, the ace righthander was back at the ballpark, sticking to his storied workout regimen — seeing no reason to take any time off for basking in Saturday night’s gem against the Florida Marlins.

DETROIT -- With his city teetering above a financial abyss, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick went before television viewers this month and delivered some grave news: He had no choice but to lay off nearly 700 city workers and to cut services. This was no time for wanton spending, he said. Days later, Kilpatrick found his own spending under attack when a local television station reported that the city just signed a $25,000 lease for a Lincoln Navigator for Kilpatrick's wife, a fact the mayor at first denied but eventually confirmed.

OXFORD, Ohio — Miami University’s president has pledged a review of policies and punishments for campus fraternities and sororities after a second sorority was linked to destructive behavior at its spring formal. The Alpha Xi Delta sorority is facing a two-year suspension from the school because of the March 26 event at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. Center officials also described excessive drinking and trashing of the dance floor and bathrooms. The sorority is appealing the planned suspension.

It's a modern-day dilemma: You really want your Facebook friends to see that wild party photo of you wearing bunny ears. But you're not so keen on explaining it to your mother-in-law. Well, Facebook aims to make life easier. Beginning Wednesday, the social network will make it easier to share photos, posts and links with smaller, isolated groups of people. While the site has allowed users to separate their friends into lists since 2007, this option took quite a bit of work and only a small fraction of Facebook users took advantage of it. Now, Facebook...

Behind a backstage door, Maury Povich leafs through papers and listens to his producers brief him on that day's paternity mysteries. He checks the pronunciation of a name or two, tries to get straight which man is claiming a childhood testicular injury. Then he's ready. "Let's play the game," the veteran TV personality says as he rises and heads toward the door. A couple of turns down a hallway later, he steps onto a stage filled with women dancing to "Sexy and I Know It" over the loudspeaker.

How do you make a John Hughes-style teen rom-com in the new millennium? Judging by Jonathan Kasdan's " The First Time ," with a self-consciousness that's sometimes painful and very occasionally true to the characters. Dylan O'Brien and Britt Robertson are the two suburban high schoolers who meet at a wild party and spend the next 48 hours falling in chatty, awkward love -- he's a reedy nice guy with the requisite eccentric friends (one a snide Brit, the other a giant silent African American)

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. - After more than two dozen young people trashed a former residence of poet Robert Frost during a drinking party, the dilemma was how to punish them. A jail term might be too harsh, community service too easy. So a prosecutor decided on some poetic justice instead, sending them back to school for training about the celebrated New England bard. Using "The Road Not Taken" and another poem as jumping-off points, Frost biographer Jay Parini hopes to show the vandals the error of their ways and the redemptive power of poetry.

WATERTOWN -- "Repulsive and fascinating, vicious and vivacious," one critic said of Joseph Moncure March's poem "The Wild Party" when it was first published, just before the Twenties stopped roaring. In the decades since, this lurid, violent, rhyming saga of the vaudeville dancer Queenie, her lover Burrs the clown, and the deadly fete they throw one night has lost none of its nasty allure. March's poem was quickly banned in Boston. William Burroughs called it the book that made him want to be a writer.

DETROIT -- With his city teetering above a financial abyss, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick went before television viewers this month and delivered some grave news: He had no choice but to lay off nearly 700 city workers and to cut services. This was no time for wanton spending, he said. Days later, Kilpatrick found his own spending under attack when a local television station reported that the city just signed a $25,000 lease for a Lincoln Navigator for Kilpatrick's wife, a fact the mayor at first denied but eventually confirmed.

CAMBRIDGE -- As Ted Leo began the title track from his third solo album, "Shake the Sheets," to close his taut, impassioned set at the Middle East Downstairs Wednesday night, he seemed to reveal his musical motivations as he sang, "And how're you gonna save the world, when the world ain't ready?" The politically minded and melodically gifted singer-songwriter has crafted these internal and external doubts into funky punk rock, and his blend of intensity and modesty instigated a wild party at the first of his two sold-out shows.

NEW YORK - It's a modern-day dilemma: You really want your Facebook friends to see that wild party photo of you wearing bunny ears. But you're not so keen on explaining it to your mother-in-law. Well, Facebook aims to make life easier. Beginning today, the social network will make it easier to share photos, posts, and links with smaller, isolated groups of people. While the site has allowed users to separate their friends into lists since 2007, this option took quite a bit of work and only a small fraction of Facebook users took advantage of it. Now, Facebook...