Your daily dose of news, notes and links from around Kansas University.

• A couple of interesting items I spotted in the Columbia Missourian, a newspaper staffed in part by University of Missouri students.

The first one was rather surprising — it’s a sort of ode to Allen Fieldhouse, in one of the last places I ever expected to find one.

The second was rather interesting, too.

A University of Missouri professor became one of the few folks out there defending noted Mark Twain scholar (and KU alum) Alan Gribben for putting out a new edition of “Tom Sawyer” and “Huck Finn” with the “N-word” replaced with “slave.”

I wrote a big story about Gribben this past weekend, and found him a fascinating man to talk with. You can get his explanations in the story — he’s taken a lot of heat, but he’s resolute in his thinking. It sure touched off a lot of controversy, that’s for sure. I’d wager that Missouri professor, too, will find out just what it’s like to come out on Gribben’s side of things.

• It looks like a KU student initiative dubbed “The Big Event” is beginning to pick up some steam.

I’ve mentioned this in this space once before, but it’s designed to be a day of service to the Lawrence community. Essentially, it’s a group of KU students saying “thanks” for putting up with them.

A large group (they’re aiming for more than 2,000 students to get involved) will perform odd jobs like yard work, painting houses and the like. It’s designed to help any resident who wants it. All the person has to do is fill out and submit a form.

The group of students has designs on placing advertisements in the Journal-World with a form that residents can fill out and submit to the group.

“The Big Event” is scheduled for March 31. It started at Texas A&M University, where the students actually get a day off from classes, one organizer told me.

The form will also be available online starting on Friday, I’m told. So stay tuned for the web address. I’m told the form will be available at www.bigeventku.com or www.suaevents.com/thebigevent (though both of those links, as of this writing, don’t go anywhere … alas.).

• Speaking of Student Union Activities Events, I’ve discovered they have a blog. I follow every KU blog I can find, and I love finding new ones.

This leads to a bunch of dead feeds in my RSS reader, as people around campus either lose interest in posting things or just move to a different place.

For example, this Be SeKUre blog (at least it looks like a blog, though I’m not sure they ever called it one), hasn’t been updated since March 2010. But if anyone decides to go update it, I’ll notice.

You never know what you’ll find. For example, SUA is sponsoring a Texas Hold ‘Em tournament for KU students on Feb. 15. No buy-in. And free nachos and drinks will be provided. Though it doesn’t say specifically, I’m going to assume those aren’t of the alcoholic variety.

But I bet there are some students who might be interested in that (first prize is $100), and wouldn’t know about it otherwise. Behold the power of the blog.

Which other KU blogs should I be following — either generated by KU or not? I’m sure I haven’t found all of them. Send me a tip about that or anything else at ahyland@ljworld.com.