The latest sign that Harvard suffers from acute, untreated Yale-envy: in a move that mirrors Yale’s headline-making hire of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, our soulless, unoriginal counterpart in Cambridge has successfully wooed Blair’s successor Gordon Brown.

Like Blair, Brown played a crucial role in orchestrating the rise of New Labour, a coalition which moved Britain’s traditionally left-wing party closer to the political center. Labour governed the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2010, when Brown resigned his post as Prime Minister and leader of his party after a poor showing in this year’s general elections.

So who got the better ex-PM? Well, Blair probably wins on charisma, not to mention beauty. In addition, Blair himself writes in his recently published memoir that Brown has “zero emotional intelligence.” In other words, it sounds like Gordon will fit in just fine at Harvard.

1. Jackie Bruleigh, head scriptwriter. Like Tina Fey on “30 Rock,” Jackie is the boss, she’s a strong, assertive, creative woman, and she’s pretty into food. She’s the one in charge of coming up with ideas for a script and convening the “script team.”
2. Tom Duffy, Ph. D., faculty advisor. Professor Duffy is the Alec Baldwin to Jackie’s Tina, the “suit” who helps to edit the script after it’s been drafted by the “script team.”
3. Raja Pillai, announcer. Tracy Morgan?
4. Kate Kraft, drum major. The drum major, it turns out, is basically the conductor of the band.  So she is a huge deal.
5. Tory Jeffay, props builder. Inexplicably referred to as “squiddeity,” this position involves building the props for the shows––super important!

Now, as you probably know, actual details about the Game show are Top Secret.  But I have assurances from my source that preparations are well under way, and that excitement among the YPMBers is higher than ever.  ”I love being in the band, especially around this time of the year,” she told me.  ”We have bigger audiences, and people tend to really respond well to our Game Show. However, I’m kind of stressed because I want the show to be perfect, especially after what happened last year.”

For more coverage of the Harvard-Yale Game 2009, check out our Game topic page!

“When you go into somebody’s office or you go into their home, one of the things you case out is their bookshelf,” says Fiery Cushman, a postdoctoral fellow in psychology at Harvard University. “Bostonians have unrealistic expectations about how much reading they can get done.”

Harvard: judging books by their covers and only skimming since 1636. Word.