The timing is almost too perfect. Just as everyone is packing up and deserting campus for three-ish weeks of no class & no exams, one of our favorite Philly blogs, Philebrity, broke the sad news about our own Philadelphia International Airport (PHL): it has been titled the “Most Stressed Airport” in the US for 2008! We hate to be mean, but this does seem more fitting for a city known as “Killadelphia” than a World Series win.
But that’s the thing. As believable as this superlative feat seems, my personal experiences at the Philly Airport haven’t been that bad–which, for an airport, is practically a compliment. (And really, if you think about it, isn’t the award itself kind of redundant?)
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For those of you who are not incarcerated in Van Pelt for the next week and a half (we hate you), you can venture to President Gutmann’s Holiday Party tonight. Her socialite assistant, Leah Popowich, sends these details:
President Gutmann’s Holiday Party!
Monday, December 8th, 2008
8-9 pm
President’s House, 3812 Walnut Street
Come for great food and a study break!
Don’t forget your Penn ID!
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“Final” does not have two “i”s, but asinine does.
SAS webmail is out of control. First there was this bizarre phenomenon (which then stopped for awhile, but recently began again) and this morning I received the quintessential scam email regarding my webmail. Read below:
DEAR WEBMAIL E-MAIL ACCOUNT USER,
This message is from WEBMAIL E-mail messaging center to all our email account users. We are currently conducting a maintenance exercise which is for upgrading our database and e-mail account center.This exercise involves the deactivation of dormant /unused/invalid email
accounts to make room for further upgrading.
To confirm the validity of your email and to prevent your account from deactivation, you are advised to update it by providing us with the following information.
CONFIRM YOUR EMAIL IDENTITY BELOW
Email Username: …………………
Password: ………………..
Date of
Birth: ………………………
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We’re not exactly sure why English House Gazette, a blog for “news & information by students at Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges,” is writing about our favorite all-male South Asian a cappella group, Penn Masala, but really, is a reason even necessary? As the story details, they’re a cappella all-stars:
Riding on the success of previous albums, their newest one features three original Hindi songs, which have been written and composed collaboratively by the group. One of the songs ‘Pehchaan’ which literally translates into identity has truly established Penn Masala’s identity on the a cappella scene as it will be featured on the BOCA or ‘Best of College A Cappella’ 2008 album.
Though we may not have known such a disc existed, we are impressed nonetheless. Congrats, guys!
Though Philadelphia Magazine is not the rag you probably reach for, December’s issue covers the top 100 moments in Philly in the past 100 years. The magazine’s website strategically offers little insight about what these moments are — guess we’ll have to read it while lurking at Barnes and Noble — aside from a slideshow of the top 10 moments. Consider this a supplement to HIST 204.303.
Even if history isn’t your thing, don’t write this off just yet: you’ve lived #6 on the countdown! Without even trying, Chase Utley simply does not cease in bringing us joy.
Sure, he’s here to discuss the economic crisis, but more importantly: you have the chance to catch a glimpse of him! Obama’s meeting with the National Governors Association at Independence Hall today, so dropping by there is your best bet for sneaking a peek. Palin is expected to be in attendance too, so that promises some awkward good fun as well!
If you see our dear President-Elect, let us know.
Street loves haikus. We write haikus about ingredients like quinoa and kid classics like applesauce. We even enjoy writing about people who write haikus.
But are you a haiku champion? Philly.com is making our favorite 5/7/5 beat syllable poems a competitive sport with its Live Haiku Challenge. From 12-1 PM each day, there is a topic that you can write a haiku about. All submissions are posted live, so you can see what the competition comes up with. It’s fun for all, but only the winner can declare: I AM HAIKU CHAMPION!
If you have a favorite haiku, share it with us in the comments!
The Rhodes Trust just released the 2008-2009 winners of the Rhodes scholarship to Oxford. Sure, Princeton can claim 3 winners this cycle but we have Abigail Seldin (C’09) to rep our good name. Her winner bio details:
Abigail P. Seldin, Tierra Verde, Florida, is a senior at the University of Pennsylvania where she majors in anthropology. Elected as a junior to Phi Beta Kappa, she is the first undergraduate to curate an exhibit at the Penn Museum, a major collaboration on the Lenape Tribe, based in part on her original ethnographic research. She also has field archaeological experience in Egypt and France, and is interested in preserving cultural heritages across the world and in cross-cultural collaboration in museums. At Oxford, Abby plans to do the M.Sc. in materiality and museum ethnology.
Congrats, Abigail!
With finals inching nearer and nearer, Van Pelt has initiated extended hours for floors 1-5 of the library, which are now open until 2 AM. Rosengarten will be open 24 hrs, 7 days a week–yes, even on Fridays and Saturdays–so the comforting fluorescent lights of the Undergraduate Study Center will always be available to you.
The only thing better, of course, than additional hours would be additional desks. Let the territory battles commence!
Big news for Penn sports: tomorrow at noon is the Penn vs. Harvard football game and at 7:30 PM Men’s Soccer battles Harvard in the Ivy League championships, held at our own Rhodes Field. And they want an audience–so much that they’re not playing games with these games. A tipster notified us that Penn Athletics is promising free Penn knit caps for the first 1000 attendees!
Props to the teams: we’re actually tempted, even knowing it is supposed to rain tomorrow. What can we say, we love free stuff. And with last year’s Making History event long past us and Homecoming come and gone, freebies are looking to be few and far between in the near future.
Almost as rare as Penn championship games.
Street counts itself as a proud follower of the cult of James Bond. And how could we not? Long before The Office got the phrase “that’s what she said” stuck in our heads, Agent 007 was making ridiculous sexual innuendos. And in case you’re wondering exactly what he said, Maxim has compiled clips of the best Bond sex puns. Now hit that.
Yesterday’s DP wrote about sophomore underwear activist, Calina Cuevas, who has founded a Facebook group dedicated to getting Victoria’s Secret’s PINK collection to manufacture Penn-branded underwear. Though she follows in the successful Facebook footsteps of the Penn students who called for firing certain McDonald’s employees at the 40th and Walnut location, we think it’d just be easier to make the panties ourselves. It’s cheaper, and fun!
Though we wish you the best of luck, Calina, take note: with the minimum order a feasible 6, you could totally order them for everyone in your group!
More after the jump!
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We hear that over the weekend some students with SAS email accounts began to receive emails seemingly sent to their SAS account from their SAS account… a technical feat beyond our understanding. Does anyone have an explanation? Has anyone else been told this mysterious force has “all their personal information”? If you can help us out, shoot us an email.
The store window of Douglas Cosmetics, between 36th & 37th on Walnut.
Too soon, Douglas, too soon.
