Combine science fiction with romance and you have Stephanie Meyer’s first adult fiction novel. The Host focuses on what it means to be human in the wake of a foreign invasion.

We’ve all heard the cries of the conspiracy theorists who believe that the Earth is under attack and people are being abducted. This novel explores what would happen if those conspiracy nuts were right all along. This isn’t just another extraterrestrial sci-fi conundrum — we see the story through the eyes of one of the aliens, forcing a perhaps unwanted sympathy. By constructing such a point of view, Meyer turns the violence and animalistic nature of humans into a dualistic package.

At 17, R’s mom bought her her first fake ID so she could go to Vegas on spring break with her friends. A year earlier, another R found herself wandering through the seedy alleys of Chinatown to procure her very own false identification card. Little did they know that years later each R would meet an R much like herself, with whom she would use her trusty ID in good times and bad, until one R’s ID was taken away at Ruloff’s two weeks ago. RIP R’s ID.

Up until that fateful, tragic, soul-crushing night, neither R encountered any challenges in the pursuit of superfuntimes, other than the oft-confusing plight of remembering to pretend to be who our I.D.’s said we were. Interestingly, R’s ID said she was R.

R: Who’s that?

Thursday 10/9:

Sneak Peek! Tonight at 8 p.m., Cornell Cinema will be screening a free sneak preview of Ridley Scott’s latest film, Body of Lies, in Uris auditorium. The film is based on David Ignatius’s novel about a CIA operative who chases a lead on a terrorist operating out of Jordan, and stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe. For (free!) tickets, go to WSH or download them from UberDuzi.com.

Cornell architecture alumnus investigates barns, scarecrows and archaic modes of printing. Interested in farm-itecture? Aleksander Mergold ’00, cofounder of Austin+Mergold, will be speaking at 5:15 p.m. today in 157 E. Sibley. If visuals appeal to you more than aural, check out the Austin+Mergold exhibit in Hartells Gallery in Sibley, today through Saturday.

Friday 10/10:

You know the person you bumped into at Temple of Zeus today? When your elbow knocked into his or her oh-so-delicious soup and sent it flying over his or her body and spilling onto the stack of pages he or she lovingly clutched to his or her chest? Well, that person may very well have been Cornell’s next Kurt Vonnegut, and those pages you accidentally destroyed may just have been the next great, American novel. (Good job.)

Mr. Gorilla Man and Senor BananaOn October 31, 2006, a gorilla woke up, got dressed and decided to spend his day chasing a banana around campus.

Or more accurately, two dudes decided to pull an ingenious prank on Halloween — a guy in a gorilla suit chasing a guy in a banana suit throughout campus — classrooms, up and down lecture halls, skipping through Ho plaza, even meandering through Trillium and Libe Café, picking up some much needed coffee and potassium.

So Dane Cook tells me that “Any guy here, more than sex — if they had the choice between sex and this one other thing — any guy here would rather be part of a heist.” To be honest, I would too: there’s something that’s oh-so-thrilling about the vault. It’s that moment of awe when the composite-steel doors swing open and the titanium bolts unlock. You know: it’s the sexiness of precision machines. At this moment, even veteran thieves (imagine: George Clooney as Danny Ocean) stand for a second in silence in front of their prize.

In our recently-released-from-the-hell-that-was-the-writers’-strike reality television dependent society, when we think fashion or models, we think Tyra and Heidi. However, as you know if you’ve ever been to any CDL events this year or in years past: Project Runway, CDL is not.

I realize this immediately upon entering the CDL studio in MVR. The studios and work rooms are tucked away in a far-off corner of the building I would never have found had I not been led there by some of the friendly members of the CDL board. I am greeted by Meg Cross ’08, president and Kirby Fowle ’08, vice president of publicity, who show me around the room.