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Alum to be nominated for high-flying post--According to press reports, Jane Garvey, who earned an MAT degree from Mount Holyoke in 1969, is expected to be nominated soon by President Clinton to be the next head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). If nominated and confirmed by Congress, she will be the first woman to lead the FAA. Garvey had been deputy administrator of the Federal Highway Administration since 1993, and moved up to become acting administrator this February.

Back on Broadway--Award-winning 1971 alumna playwright Wendy Wasserstein's new play, An American Daughter, opened on Broadway last month. The New York Times called it the "most overtly political work of her career," and described its central theme as "about the impossible choices women are forced to make, and the ways American society punishes them no matter what they choose." The plot concerns a doctor reminiscent of Zoe Baird trying to enter public life without betraying her values.

From the sublime to the ridiculous--Soprano and MHC music instructor Cheryl Cobb gave a most unusual concert recently. In addition to eighteenth-century Italian arias and works by Margaret Bonds, she performed P. D. Q. Bach's "Four Folksong Upsettings for Mezzanine Soprano and Devious Instruments." These novel instruments included a "pastaphone" made of manicotti and played like a trumpet (more or less), a "Schlaggenfrappe" (paper towel rolls of various lengths struck against the singer's head), and a "tuba mirum" (a flexible tube partly filled with liquid manipulated to produce different tones. The singer told the Union-News she just wanted to have a little more fun than a traditional recital form allowed.