Maira Kalman’s latest opinion art piece loves on Benjamin Franklin. Hard. While Penn doesn’t get a shoutout by name, Franklinia does. And so do bifocals, the odometer, the American Philosophical Society and much, much more. Even Ben’s success with the ladies is noted. B-Frank RULES!
Via the Inquirer, we hear that Joan Rivers is already lobbying to get her tween grandson into Penn.
“Melissa went to Penn, you know.”
We know, Joan. We know how proud you are. You tell us every time we meet. “Melissa works hard for Penn. She’s a big member of the Penn family, planning meetings, raising money. Make sure you put that in. We’ve got to get Cooper into Penn, and we’ve only got 10 years. . . . If my grandson doesn’t get in, I’m coming after you.”
Not only did Melissa go to Penn, but she famously founded The Tabard Society. So her son will obviously join the one of the secret society’s manly counterparts, such as Oz, when he (inevitably) gets here. We sure hope he’s smart! If not, we’re looking at a serendipitously-timed Rivers family addition to the gym. If he’s a dunce though, we could use a new yoga studio…
Champion!
Penn athletic triumphs are rare (like great commencement speakers) which makes the following news even more exciting: Penn athletes didn’t just compete at the World Maccabiah Games, they totally showed the world who’s Macca-boss. You can read the full DP Report here.
Basketball players Zack Rosen and Julie Becker both won medals (gold and silver, respectively) and demonstrated why they call us “The Social Ivy That Also Smokes Clowns Like You On The B-Ball Court.” Soccer player Sarah Friedman and fencers Zane Grodman and Danielle Kamis also participated, with Kamis and Friedman each bringing home medals. UTB extends our greatest congratulations to these Chosen Champions – you five will dominate all the “What I Did Over My Summer Vacation” discussions the first week back at school.
We’re guessing their time at the Games must have been thrilling for a few reasons:
Continue reading »
There’s breaking news for all you friends of the liberal arts: you can now apply to Wharton, even if your biggest collegiate foray into mathematics came in the form of MATH170.
Our buddies at the DP reported this morning that the Wharton MBA program will begin accepting the GRE as well as the GMAT. So if you’re still in a pickle over whether to go for that PhD in Medieval Literature or to sell your soul to get an MBA, now you can apply for both.
We just can’t promise you’ll get in.
Iiii can do anythinggg!!
What time is it? It’s Summer Street-in’ time!
As the young nerds that we were, plenty of us Street folk had a fascination with the incredible PBS show that is Reading Rainbow. As LeVar Burton shepherded us through the great depths of children’s literature, we became instantly hooked on phonics. And what has this obsession morphed into? A penchant for billion-paged books! Check out our summer reading list for 800+ page books that will take you right into NSO.
Don’t forget to check out our film review of In the Loop too, if you’re looking for a break from the books. And nothing says summer like good old fashioned BBQ and playgrounds, mini-golf, and carousels. Pick up your copy of the SP today, or check out the print version online; it’s our second-to-last week to take you fools out.
All summer long our favorite 24-hour munchie provider — aka Wawa — has been celebrating Hoagiefest. There is some sort of contest with prizes and stuff involved, but more importantly, every two weeks Wawa chooses a special Shorti to feature for only $2.99. The fun was supposed to end July 26th, but The Wa (as our friends at Princeton call it) has decided to extend the deal through August 9th.
Bonus: not only has Wawa prolonged the sub-fest, but instead of picking just one Shorti to discount, they have decided to discount all of their featured Shortis — including Turkey!
We meant no harm when we posted about the chit-chatty Hub listserv and their request for an electric sander to refinish a table at the Kelly Writers’ House. KWH staffer Lee Huttner unfortunately found our post to be “deplorable,” a sentiment he shared in the email below, which became a catalyst to a long string of responses.
We were just playing around, being the silly folk that we are (electric sanders are kind of funny, no?), and we’d be sad to make Pennemies with any fellow collegiate writers. Plus, we don’t discriminate against KWH emails in particular - we like to expose any and all bits of Penn listserv ephemera.
In any event, KWH, we think your programming is generally pretty cool, and we’d love to be friends. Tough love? Can we at least call it a truce?
See their email after the jump.
Continue reading »
Though the Penn Club in New York City is actually really legit, we’re a little, well, curious about an event they’re hosting tonight: Speed Networking.
We assume this is like speed dating, but for connection-making rather than love-making. All we can say is: someone from Wharton must be responsible.
We’d totally go, but registration closed last week. For now, we’ll have to stick to networking in slow-mo.
Commencement 2010?
This week we heard speculation that Jon Huntsman (ambassador to China and son of Jon Huntsman, the Hall) would be the commencement speaker for the class of 2010. And we were all, “Say whattttt? They already know?!”
So we investigated, and our stud gov source told us that commencement speaker selection began last October. Silliness. Wonder how he’ll compare to Eric Schmidt and James Franco…or if this is just totally bogus hearsay.
Who do you want as your commencement speaker? Tell us in the comments.
Princeton Review has released its annual ranking of the country’s top party schools. And this year, our sort-of-rivals from Penn State top the list. Congrats to the Nittany Lions (and to our friends at Onward State) for this enviable honor. Not shockingly, no Ivies made the list.
Today we needed to use the new and oh-so-improved Penn InTouch to rearrange our fall schedule. But, to our dismay, we were denied. We’re assuming registration is closed since freshman course requests are being processed, following the frosh advanced registration period which ended Friday at midnight.
But, fear not, ye poor student with a Friday morning recitation. As per usual, add/drop will open up again when the freshmen get their schedules in the next week or so.
This is just here because we like puppies. Plus they're eating, which is pretty relevant.
We didn’t want to have to write about the recession again. We’re tired of hearing about graduates from our fine school entering the jobless world, looking at a forecast of unemployment with a chance of hiring freeze. All this exclamation-point-punctuated madness — Economic crash! Hundreds Laid Off! Aaahh Real Monsters! — reminds us to be very, very happy that we live in a collegiate bubble, insulated from the outside world by our vehement denial of its existence and protective beer goggles. This willful ignorance of the universe beyond University City, however, can no longer go on. The Inquirer reports that a sacred Penn institution is suffering from the big bad economic crisis: The Food Cart. Featured in the article is Rami’s, a Middle Eastern food cart at 40th and Locust where for less than $4 a person can enjoy delicious falafel goodness and Sami Dakko’s charming, thick accent. Read the full story here, but only if you are prepared to find out just how tough times are for Rami’s and that Sami actually says “Hello beautiful” to everyone, not just you.
Over at Philly.com, former DP ed Zoe Tillman tells us a depressing tale of blood, sweat, tears…and recessionomics.
Jobless and frustrated, ‘09 grads Sean Christman and Andrew O’Malley passed out their resumes on the Ben Franklin Bridge yesterday.
Christman, who graduated in May with a degree in finance and management from La Salle University, estimated that he had sent out at least 250 job applications to companies, mostly up and down the East Coast, since December.
“I’m not going to stop until I find a job,” he said.
O’Malley also graduated in May, with a business management degree from Rutgers University. Both graduated cum laude and have several summers’ worth of experience at local investment and money management companies.
This makes us sad.
Shots with oysters in them. Street takes you there.
You know who it is. Yeah, it’s Street again. And you know what day it is. Yeah, it’s Thursday. It’s been a whole week since we saw you last, and it’s about time for another rendezvous, summer style. Because we’ve missed you.
Let’s start this little get together with some dinner — and with University City Dining Days, the fixed price is right. Check out our extensive list of choices and reviews, for your convenience and viewing pleasure.
Up for some after-dinner dancing? Read our Street eds’ account of their venture westward to Chicago’s Pitchfork Festival, and tune your iPod to the list of featured bands. Speaking of Apple, peep our review of the newest iPhone. Because what’s sexier than the latest in gadgetry?
And finally, follow us and hit up the aphrodisiac-filled Oyster House, sure to satisfy your Center City shellfish cravings. Let’s put it in terms of the transitive property. If you’re reading UTB, and UTB reads Summer Street, then you should read Summer Street. And you thought math served no purpose beyond your Formal Reasoning requirement.
Oh! Silly little electric sander!
A long, long time ago, someone subscribed us to a bunch of listservs. As youthful freshmen, the promise of being in the know seemed well worth it, so we gladly scrawled our e-mail address here and there and everywhere.
And now we regret it.
In our latest indictment against listserv abusers, we find repeat offenders “the Hub,” the party planning/self-promotional list run by the Kelly Writers House, to be guilty. Apparently, the “Summer Staff” of the KWH needs an “electric sander” for “refinishing the dining room table.” In search of this elusive item, the Hub master sent out the following note, passed on to us by a tipster:
Subject: Seeking Hand Sander to Refinish Dining Room Table
Hello Hub,
The KWH summer staff will be refinishing the dining room table. We were wondering if any Hub member had an electric sander he or she could lend us for a few days? If you are in town this summer and happen to have a sander lying around, please let us know. That would be greatly appreciated. And this way the table can be nice and shiny for the start of the school year.
Thanks.
–Summer Staff
Now we’re all for fine furnishings, but excuse us for asking who EXACTLY might have an electric sander hanging around, in the middle of July. And in any event, there are far better things to pass around on listservs.
