Do you possess brute strength, a superior grip and the desire to strong-arm our neighbors to the north? Then congratulations, you may be eligible to participate in the epic tug of war, billed as the “Battle of 33rd Street,” that PennRec is organizing in conjunction with next week’s Penn-Drexel basketball game (set to be part of ESPN’s all-day college basketball marathon). The following e-mail is currently winding its way through Penn’s most muscular listservs:
A couple of weeks ago, I sent out an email regarding a tug-or-war that PennRec is organizing against Drexel the night before the Penn-Drexel Basketball game during ESPN’s 24hrs of basketball. They’re looking for 20 guys and 10 girls to participate in this event and all participants get free tkts to the game the next day.
I know I got a couple of responses about this earlier, but are other people interested in doing it? You simply have to be an Penn Undergrad. If anyone is interested, please let me know.
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Cultural critic John Leonard died last week. One of the requirements of being a Street editor is being totally and irrevocably obsessed with New York Magazine, and Leonard was NYMag’s TV critic, so we were greatly saddened to hear of his death. The following e-mail just came in over the Kelly Writers House listserv via its director Al Filreis, and it details the year Leonard spent teaching creative writing at Penn:
I’m sure you’ve seen the news that John Leonard died last week. Did you know that he had a connection to Penn? In the 1980-1981 school year he taught a creative writing class at Penn for undergraduates.
At that time, Penn had few outlets for writers in general and almost none for fiction writing. Having a well known essayist, book critic and novelist come to campus to teach undergraduates created a lot of excitement in Bennett Hall.
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What happens when you google Google? This.
Understandably, banks have lost some of their luster as the most prestigious and douchebag-esque thing to do after graduation. What’s taken their place? Oh, just this search engine thing, Google. Oh, you’ve heard of it? You were one of the bazillions of people who submitted your resume?
Hmmph. Us too. Check out the cease and desist letter Career Services sent out to all Seniors in the College:
Please note, the Google Initiatives in Africa session scheduled for tomorrow is now CLOSED and they are no longer accepting resumes.
This event is by invitation only.
While Google appreciates the large number of students who are interested in this initiative, ONLY STUDENTS WHO RECEIVE AN EMAIL CONFIRMATION from Andrea Powers WILL BE ADMITTED TO THE EVENT.
Everyone knows the best way to spread an unsubstantiated rumor is through shameless listserv blitzing. At 34th Street, we’re all for rumormongering–when some gossip hits your inbox, by all means, hit forward. But right now we would like to call to your attention some flagrant examples of listserv abuse.
We hate to say it, because they are very kind people and they do a lot of great stuff on campus, but we think the Kelly Writers House Hub e-mail list might be the single greatest affront to inboxes at Penn. As we speak, the hub is taking on summer reading. There are probably about 900 people on the hub list, and each and every one one of them has had to read the summer reading recommendations of the dozen or so hub members who chose to respond to the e-mail individually. We want to stay on the listserv, because sometimes they send out notices we are genuinely interested in, but goshdarnit, haven’t they heard of a forum or something? Must all of us be subjected to some sophomore’s declaration of love for Ayn Rand?
So in conclusion, listservs are for spreading gossip and lies, not for having some sort of pleasant discussion. Post your nominations for Worst Listserv at Penn in the comments.
