HILLSDALE: The Boy Mayor and Other Town Tales

ALTHOUGH I DON'T KNOW WHY this New York Times article is in the House & Home section (besides the few paragraphs that describe a messy bedroom), I suggest taking a few minutes to read "When the War Room Is the Family Room," a profile of Michael Sessions, the 18-year-old mayor of Hillsdale, Mich., who secured election by just two votes in the November elections.

Despite growing up in Michigan, Hillsdale was one part of the state (near where Indiana, Ohio and Michigan meet) that I've never gone to. There's really no reason to pass through town, since it sits away from major highways.

But Hillsdale College is there and if you dig back in the recesses of your recent memory, you might remember it as the home of a collegiate Greek tragedy. This 2000 article in Salon gives a good synopsis of the shocking events involving Hillsdale College's George Roche III: "Sex, lies and suicide: While championing family values, former Hillsdale President George Roche III was sleeping with his daughter-in-law."

The tragedy would make its way into a "Law & Order" episode. And this book, "Hillsdale: Greek Tragedy in America's Heartland," by fellow Michigan Daily alum Roger Rapoport, is a quick, but eye-opening read on the controversy.