If you’re a reader of ‘The New Yorker,’ especially of the fiction section, then you probably caught the story “Extreme Solitude” in a July issue by Jeffrey Eugenides. Eugenides, who wrote “The Virgin Suicides” and “Middlesex” (which, if you haven’t read it, I highly recommend), and an alumni of Brown, uses Brown as the backdrop for this story about two Brown students studying semiotics who fall in love–or something like it. The story is good, and that it’s set at Brown makes it even more interesting and fun for a Brown student to read. Though this story is set during the 80s, maybe it will inspire some of those who are looking for love to sign up for semiotics this fall.

Click here to read Eugenides’s story.

David T. Howard ’09.5 has pled no contest to the charge that he assaulted a customer while working as a bouncer at FishCo, the Projo has reported. Howard, who has since been drafted to play for the Tennessee Titans, had originally appealed his conviction, but changed his plea to no contest after plea bargaining.

Howard allegedly punched and kicked a Southborough, Mass. man who complained about having to pay for drinks, though he had paid a fee to get all-you-can-eat-or-drink, as other attendees told police. FishCo, popular Wednesday night spot for Brown students, had to close down for three days as punishment.

So let this be a reminder to you, kids… FishCo may seem like it’s all class with its Ke$ha soundtrack and pole dancing and house-drink Fish Piss (we still don’t know exactly what it contains), but it can be sketchy too.

Just don’t complain about the prices.

As a counterpart to our semester series Time-waster of the Day, we’re offering summer Productivity Boosters. Take a few minutes out from watching Jersey Shore or wasting time on the internet at your boring desk job to do something mildly productive. It’ll give your parents one less thing to complain about!

Today’s tip: Create a profile on LinkedIn. Grown-up’s staid version of Facebook, LinkedIn allows you to recreate your resumé online and make connections (a.k.a. friend) other people with profiles.

This suggestion may seem overly simple, but it’ll take you a while to find a picture that’s just right.

And why you should do it now? Better to start adding connections now, while you know undergrads, than to be that graduate living in his parents’ basement who adds people the minute he hears they got great jobs.

Hello, (possibly) devoted readers! Hope everyone’s having a lovely summer. We know our posting record’s been a little spotty so far, but we’re coming back strong in the run-up to the beginning of the school year.

We hope continuing with our usual brand of blogging will not seem insensitive in the wake of this terrible loss. But (blog-)life must go on.

So let’s kick this off with some neat/funny/odd stuff you might have seen about Brown on the internet, if you’d bothered to look. Follow the jump!

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The Brown community was informed last night by a Herald breaking news update, this morning by an e-mail from the President, of the death of Paige Hicks ’11, who was struck by a tractor-trailer in South Dakota while participating in Bike and Build, a cross-country bicycle and community service trip.

The Blog is accepting submissions from friends, family and other loved ones for a memorial for Hicks. We will publish all submissions here at BlogDailyHerald.com. Please send messages, photographs or artwork to blog@browndailyherald.com.

After a long hiatus, your friends at BlogDailyHerald (summer edition) are back to report some breaking gastronomic news that has sent the cyber rumor mill spinning: Chipotle Mexican Grill is setting up camp across the street from the Brown book store.  For those of you who have not been satisfied by the offerings at Gordito Burrito, your prayers have been answered.

Can you say “¿Carnitas, por favor?”

EUGENE, ORE. — With a year full of shake-ups for the track and field program, there is one thing that is certain: Craig Kinsley ’11 is this year’s best collegiate javelin thrower in Division I athletics. With the championship meet being held at the storied Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., it is fitting Kinsley continued his storied career with a title winning throw of 250 feet, 3 inches. His throw bettered that of Pontus Thomee of Boise State by 8 feet, 3 inches. Kinsley finished the 2010 season with his third consecutive Ivy League title and bettered his national finish of third from a year ago. Additionally, Brynn Smith ’11 finished 18th nationally in women’s hammer throw and Duriel Hardy ’10 was 21st in men’s 10,000-meter run.

Kinsley’s win is the first time since 1952 that a Brown athlete has owned a National Outdoor Championship, according to Brown Athletics. We’ll have much more on the big Brunonian bonanza in The Herald’s upcoming summer issue.

Simmons, pictured while not speaking at RISD. (Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald)

Ruth Simmons had several commencements on her plate this season, following up Brown’s festivities of last week with a keynote address at RISD’s commencement Saturday.

She told the Herald in May that she couldn’t reveal her remarks because she hadn’t written them yet — but BlogDailyHerald has learned the real reason for Simmons’ reticence: she didn’t want us to know she was going to badmouth us behind our backs.

Lucky for us, the ProJo was there to report on the speech. Remarking on students’ fun costuming — and, we guess, unaware she was speaking into a microphone — Simmons told the crowd, “I hope no one will repeat this, but the Brown commencement was last weekend, and it was a sleeper compared to this.” She also spilled the beans about all our innermost desires, revealing to the crowd that “people up the Hill are very envious” of RISD students’ style.

“Did you know there is someone here with antlers on their head?” she asked. (We weren’t, but that does sound pretty stylish.)

Et tu, Ruth? But maybe the Prez had a point. As the ProJo notes, RISD grads get to wear “festive and zany” costumes — and as one senior told us of Brown’s ceremony, “it was a sleeper.” Just one more thing to be envious of.

Campus Dance 2010, held on the Main Green, Quiet Green, and Lincoln Field on May 28-29, attracted students, alums, and people of all ages. Here are some images of the festivities.

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Photos by Nick Sinnott-Armstrong/Herald.

Remember that commerical about how it’s “time to make the donuts?”

Well friends, today is the time to EAT the donuts.

For actual historical reasons, today is National Donut Day. And even though you’ve all dispersed away from Lil’ Rhody, this is a Free Food Digest event everyone can take part in.

Gawker compiled a listing of where you can get your munch on, no matter your location in the USA. Here’s hoping you’re somewhere with better proximity than College Hill.