Well here's something that'll melt the ice around even the coldest heart out there: On Sunday, Professor Henry Louis Gates mentioned at a book-signing that he and Sgt. James Crowley might attend a Red Sox or a Celtics game together.

Speaking at the Martha's Vineyard Book Festival, his first public statements since meeting with Crowley, Gates also said that his and the Cambridge police officer's families may dine together and joked that he'd even help Crowley's children get into Harvard.

Heck, it looks as though that annoyingly over-hyped "beer summit" may have actually done some good after all!