We’re back!

As you have likely noticed, we have been down for the past few days updating our database to ensure that every Spin reader can get fast, easy access to our content. We have also added a few new features, such as the Google search bar on the right, which allows you to search the blog.

Also, we now have an easy URL to access The Spin: http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/spin/.

Our hiatus gave us an opportunity to review how we can best provide you with informative and entertaining content. Of course, the best way to improve is to solicit feedback. So, I would really love to hear you about what would make reading The Spin more enjoyable.

What kind of content would you like to see? What have we done wrong? What have we done right?

Please e-mail my any comments at Obenzinger@dailypennsylvanian.com. Your feedback will be greatly appreciated.

We should be back up to full steam within the next day.

Welcome back to The Spin!

(smokefreephilly.org)

Whether or not you support the new Philadelphia smoking ban, you might be surprised to know that the law has already taken effect.

On Saturday, the Philadelphia Daily News reported comments by Mayor John Street, who said that the law will be enforced immediately.

Even as a strong supporter of the smoking ban, I can’t help but feel bad for bar and restaurant owners, who were led to believe that they had until New Years to comply with the new law.

Of course, this is Philadelphia, where government rarely makes sense. While the city will begin immediately accepting complaints about violations, Philadelphia will not have an information campaign for businesses and consumers in place until mid-October, as City Solicitor Romulo Diaz Jr. told the Daily News.

Despite my reservations about the early enforcement of the new ban, I am going to really enjoy the new, smoke-free Philadelphia.

Hat tip to Amanda Feldman and Tobacco Awareness at Penn for the information

Bill Clinton put finger-wagging back in style during the 1998 impeachment hearings, when he emphatically insisted, voice and finger in tandem, that he “did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky.”

Clinton had put his right index finger away when he left office to become a placid private citizen. But the euphoria of a power suit and a “Mr. President” salutation on a Sunday morning talk show got the best of Clinton, as that famous digit reared at Chris Wallace on yesterday’s Fox News Sunday.

Clinton, virtually always composed, maintains his posture as one of America’s most astute politicians by talking a good talk, smiling as if on cue and being generally polite to his opponents, even amid prime opportunities to point out their weaknesses. (Remember making friends with George H.W. Bush after Katrina?)

But recently he’s been markedly less doting. Clinton sprung on the offensive upon learning the content of ABC’s Path to 9/11 miniseries and was tenacious as ever in his showdown with Wallace this weekend.

The question that sparked Clinton’s fury asked the former President if he felt he did enough to “connect the dots and really go after al Qaeda.” Clinton pounced on Wallace before he could even finish delivering the question, launching into a ten minute diatribe about how the “right wingers” love to attack him, and “at least I tried,” while the Republicans “had eight months to try, they did not try.” Clinton, beyond pink in the face, called the interview a “conservative hit job.” Wallace later said he felt as though “a mountain was coming down in front of me.” The finger was back in action, and Mr. President made it abundantly clear that he would answer in full.

Make no mistake: this is not the Clinton most prominently on display through the last fourteen years. This is the post-1998 Clinton, who is concerned–paranoid–about his legacy. Whether Sandy Berger knew bin Laden’s precise whereabouts in the lead-up to September 11 may never be truthfully known. But one can note with certainty that Bill Clinton will not have you believe he was outdone by this President, and he sure as hell will not be humiliated by Fox News.

It will be interesting to see how the media will interpret, even dissect the interview bit by bit and to see how it will reverberate in the coming week for him. Not to mention the next six weeks for his party and the coming year for his wife.

The College Alumni Mentoring Series that I keep getting emails for is a complete joke…

Just check out the speakers - they are all involved in finance in some
form or another. Once again, the College is turning into Mini-Wharton.
As if encouraging us at every corner to participate in On-Campus
Recruiting isn’t bad enough, when they bring speakers like these
alums, it really showcases that the College has no infrastructure to
properly help students obtain the careers of their choice.

Try not to be so jaded.

Each fall, Beloit College in Wisconsin releases a “Mindset List” that attempts to convey the worldview of the class currently entering college. For my class, the Class of 2009, the Mindset List includes observations such as “heart-lung transplants have always been available,” “Wayne Gretzky never played for Edmonton,” and “the federal budget has always been more than a trillion dollars.” Every Penn undergrad was born during the Reagan administration, though fortunately was too young to remember any of it.

But aside from these relatively random facts, the List doesn’t really get at what I feel is the most magical truth about our generation: We know more now than has ever been known.

The world is older now than it has ever been. This week, my history professor, Alan Charles Kors, described the philosopher Francis Bacon’s argument that this essentially means that we should not be deceived by the authority of “the ancients,” since in terms of the age of the earth, they were the youth of mankind. We are the experienced ones! We’ve seen it all.

So what do college students today see from where they stand? Question 4B on the Penn application for the class of 2009 asked, “In your opinion, what was the most important moment in history, and why?” It was a short answer, about thirty words. Since admissions information is confidential, I set out to hear what people said (or would have said) to answer the question.

Many sophomores didn’t remember ever even answering the question. With several trillion years of history to choose from, some students I asked couldn’t summon up a single important moment, while others were torn between many. The most popular answer was the birth of Christ. Some people referenced moments in the physical history of the world, such as the Big Bang, or advancements in science and technology, like fire, the wheel and modeling the structure of DNA.

Wharton sophomore Travis Schlegel cited the assassination of archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, which effectively began World War I. On my application, I said that it was when Cain asked God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” One of my friends asserted that it was the invention of caffeinated beverages. The question has since been replaced with the more brown-nosing “Name a Penn professor with whom you would like to study or conduct research and explain why.”

In keeping with the Mindset List, I also asked students what they thought had been the most important moment since they had been alive. Although I’ve heard that September 11th will be my generation’s “where were you” moment, akin to the assassination JFK, surprisingly few students actually brought up September 11 as the most important moment they had lived through. The most frequent response by far was the birth of the internet. Following that was the fall of the Berlin Wall.

So, sure, I never saw the Great One play for Edmonton. But we each have a rink-side seat from which to view all that has come before us, and that’s a lot of greatness to learn from.

We are products of our history, but we can also decide what comes next.

This summer, I was fortunate enough to attend a four-day leadership conference sponsored by Oxfam International and held at the University of Texas. The college students that gathered here flew cross-country on Oxfam’s dollar and formulated strategies to save the world in the relative comfort of a UT dorm (fully equipped with an outdoor pool).

Though we enjoyed having an extended weekend devoted solely to bettering ourselves and our world, we recognized the tremendous privilege that it represented. In fact, many of the policies that we advocated were clearly geared toward the middle-class or upper-class consumer.

Fair trade coffee, for example, asks people to pay a premium for the certainty that every person along the supply chain has earned a living wage. While getting a two dollar cup of Fair Trade brew is certainly preferable to mainstream coffee at an equivalent price, it can never be as economical as Folgers and will never be an option for many Americans.

For activists the question of class is an integral one. Does it take a certain economic comfort to participate? Should requirements of social responsibility vary with privilege? How do we reconcile the class differences between us and those we seek to help?

Commentary about the attendance of a Darfur rally last week got me thinking about these issues once again. Between education, access to media, time and financial security, it’s clear that the factors that enable me to advocate social justice also prevent others from taking the same steps. Although many activists are wary about discussing social class, it is critical to acknowledge that class differences influence who participates, the way people participate and the impact they have.

Concerns about class issues and social activism are not unique to American college students. Supriya RoyChowdhury, an Indian activist, discussed this tension in relation to India’s expanding middle class. The rise of professional, affluent activism in India has apparently led to cautious and less political movements. Affluent activism features “occasional organized voicing of liberal views, or at best using a part of one’s fortune to support welfare activities,” according to RoyChowdhury. “It does not, at any time, entail even the slightest rocking of the apple cart that balances one’s good fortune.”

To compensate for the effects of class status, activists must first identify the ways that they are personally being influenced. This recognition may alternately serve to moderate unrealistic positions or radicalize bland and ineffective policies.

As for those people being left out of current discourses, the key to greater inclusion is education through accessible avenues. If Ivy League universities and New York Times columnists are the only forums for discussion of a particular issue (as is largely true of Fair Trade and even Darfur), most of society will be left out of the debate. The mainstream media has a responsibility to publicize issues of global concern and activists can also do their part to educate the general population.

A lack of time and money will always hinder the political participation of certain segments of society. A lack of education, however, does not have to. We may not all be privileged enough to attend conferences in Texas or rallies in New York, but we can acknowledge that fact and help those without these benefits to have their say as well.

First the new SAT, now no more early decision! Gosh, I’m getting old.

This week, Harvard rocked the world’s college-bound juniors by abolishing its early action program effective fall 2007.

Choice is good! (Penn Application, 2006-2007)

Experts have long debated the merits of early decision programs. Harvard’s move is significant in that it clears the way for other schools to also abolish their early admission programs. Indeed, Princeton followed suit on Monday.

Don’t worry, I’m not suggesting that Penn copy Princeton (ugh). But a little self reflection is always productive. Maybe it’s time for Penn to look at its early decision program.

Should Penn continue its early decision program? Short Answer: yes, at least for now.

Here’s why:

• Penn wants students who want Penn

  We go to a unique school with a unique bundle of opportunities, and an innovative, practical approach to education. Early decision allows students to indicate to the admissions office that they understand Penn’s shtick and that they really want to be at Penn. Also, from a more pragmatic standpoint, accepting kids early decision lowers the admit rate for Penn overall (because all students admitted early come) thereby raising the university’s prestige. Wouldn’t it be nice if we stopped getting confused with Penn State?

• Creating choices is better than eliminating them

  One of the main advantages Harvard cites for eliminating early applications is that doing so allows students to compare financial aid packages. The need to compare packages is certainly a good reason to not apply to early to college. Still, I have a hard time seeing how eliminating choices is in the best interest of anyone.

  Improving the affordability of college is a real issue. Penn’s solution ought not to throw our hands up and let other schools claim talented students because they offer students better financial aid. In other words, if we are trying to accommodate students with financial needs, we should improve our financial aid program so that they can not only afford college, but afford Penn. And all without eliminating options for the rest of the applicant pool.

• All applicants get a better shot if some students apply early

  18,824 students applied to Penn last year. That’s a lot of applications to read. Under the current system, 3,420 (18%) of those applications arrived by November 1st. In all those cases, a decision was made to admit, defer, or reject the student before the tsunami of January 1st applications arrived. Early decision spreads out the workload in the admissions office. It’s the difference between pulling an all-nighter and working ahead on a paper. What yields better decisions?

• Have some pity on the seniors

  Do you remember being a first semester high school senior? Do you know any high school juniors and seniors? My friends at Penn would say that I’m a pretty laid-back girl, but when I was applying to college two years ago I was a certifiable spazz. Many kids spend their whole high school careers scheming how to get into college. The last thing they need is to wait another few months, go to more costly college counselor appointments and retake the SATs, again. But, if a student needs more time to prepare their application (or wants to prolong the torture) they can have it and apply regular decision. Look, everyone’s happy!

My senior year of high school basically began December 10, 2004 at 5:05 pm. Until then I couldn’t focus on enjoying my last year with my friends in the school I had gone to for 13 years because I was so busy figuring out my next step. Maybe there are some kids who can multi-task better than I or for some reason need more time to decide where to apply. That’s fine; Penn has a regular decision program.
As for me, the opportunity to relax, get to know my friends again and learn for the sake of learning rather than grades was invaluable. It is also an opportunity I loathe to deny other students.

you’ve seen them here on campus. They put on their game faces when they step onto Locust Walk and they’re ready to take on the day. But don’t get in the way of these “alpha girls”, because They’re taking over. There are now even books dedicated to this new breed of independent women.

In his new book Alpha Girls, Dan Kindlon, author of Raising Cain, attempts to shed light on the psychology of what he calls this “new American

Alpha girl takeover? (pinellas.k12.fl.us)

girl.” He depicts her as driven, accomplished, academically gifted, athletically talented and socially engaged, as well as confident in who she is and wants to be. Kindlon’s research, along with other contemporaries, portrays an aggressive girl who topples the traditional theories, such as Mary Pipher’s Reviving Ophelia.

Pipher depicts adolescent girls as psychologically disadvantaged compared to their male counterparts. Kindlon asserts that “American girls are by and large outstripping the boys who are their contemporaries in academic terms and in self-esteem levels”–a sharp contrast to the depressed and insecure Ophelia.

While Kindlon’s book stands as an earmark for the female cause, it is not without controversy. Alpha Girls argues that the demeanor of today’s females can be partly attributed to “closer” father-daughter relationships in our society. He argues that such rapports have “a profound impact on the way many girls think and feel, how they interact with the world and what they want and expect from life.” Kindlon explains that fathers “deliberately and unconsciously” pass down to their daughters traditional “male ways of being.”

However, some of Penn’s “alpha girls” don’t seem to agree with Kindlon. “I’d call myself a Daddy’s girl, but I don’t agree,” said Ayeesha Sachedina, a Wharton senior and President of Wharton Women. “Male ‘ways of being” are not necessarily inherently male. There were women in the past who exhibited these qualities. I believe that the reason we see more females demonstrating them today is because it’s more socially accepted.”

“I was equally close to my two parents since I was an only child,” said Amy Gutmann, arguably Penn’s biggest alpha girl. She attributes her success to “both my mother and my father passing down to me a love of learning and a desire to contribute to making the world better. I don’t associate it with either male or female characteristics.”

My female classmates have never taken a back seat to the boys in the classroom. However, I would say that sometimes a girl needs to make a stronger effort to prove herself when she enters a disproportionably male territory. My first encounter to this was when I became the first class of girls admitted to a previously all boys school. It wasn’t until I threw a football with a better spiral than the guys that I was considered one of them.

Maybe it’s the extra obstacles that “alpha girls” need to overcome, whether in gym class or in the working world, that has enabled them to develop a thick skin and be more willing to make sacrifices to achieve their goals–and maybe it makes success that much sweeter.

For once, West Philly food suppliers have gotten something right.

Across the country, thousands of supermarkets are recalling bags of spinach due to an E. coli outbreak which has sickened more than 100 people and resulted in one fatality. The tainted spinach has recently been linked to central California, but the spinach has since been distributed all throughout the country and E.Coli afflictions have erupted in 19 states.

(urbanext.uiuc.edu)

The Food and Drug Administration has urged consumers to refrain from eating any spinach products until further notice and requested sellers to pull all spinach products off the shelves.

Is there any of the tainted spinach in West Philadelphia? The first stop on my spinach search was Fresh Grocer. After weeding my way through carrots, cucumbers, and bagged salads, I discovered that all of the spinach bins had been discarded.

I then made my way to Houston Market and Au Bon Pain. The Houston market salad staff had also rid their premises of all spinach, including their mixed greens, which contained “traces of spinach” Before the E coli outbreak.

I was almost certain I had found some spinach in the pre-made salads at Au Bon Pain. They offer a small selection of salads, including the Sonoma salad (pictured below),

(Caroline Pearsall)

which, according to its label, contains spinach, smoked turkey, gorgonzola, oranges and bacon. I bought the salad to investigate its contents. I soon realized that I was unsuccessful in my bust once again, for upon opening the container, I realized that the spinach had been replaced with Romaine lettuce.

Despite my failure to bust any spinach sellers, I decided to make one last stop at Supreme FoodMarket, a relatively new supermarket on 43rd and Walnut. Looking like some kind of deranged and obsessive salad eater, I ruffled through all the bins of bagged lettuce, where I at last found what I had been looking for–a bag of FreshExpress baby spinach. Trying to be discrete as possible, I began removing my digital camera from my bag in order to obtain proof of the store’s mistake, but I was immediately put to a halt. A deli worker bustled over to see what I was up to. She looked at me strangely and said, “Honey, why you taking pictures of lettuce?”

Unsure of whether or not I should tell her about my mission, I eventually caved in and told her I simply wanted to take a picture of their last bag of spinach. With a quizzical look on her face, she removed the bag from the shelf and walked away to throw it out. Thanks to the deli worker at the Supreme Food Market, West Philadelphia is now entirely spinach free.

My fellow Quakers:

Throughout the course of this semester, I take it as my responsibility–no, my duty–to expose to you injustices wrought by our elected officials and to hold politicians accountable for their corruption, malfeasance and deceit. And no less importantly, their bad hair.

Senator Joseph R. Biden (rushlimbaugh.com)

Now, this last one might not seem like a major offense, just a petty way to pick on someone I disagree with. But I beg to differ. We Americans hold our authorities to the highest of standards and endow them with the mightiest of powers. Sometimes, however, our revered politicians abuse their privilege for vanity. Alas, I give you the ultimate injunction: the combover.

You see, a combover isn’t just a combover: it is a form of deception. If your congressman, senator, state representative or mayor has a combover, he’s lying to you. He wants you to believe that he’s not bald, balding, old or out of touch. He wants you to think he has a lustrous John Edwards-like head of hair. You know, he’s “hip.” Bottom line, he just doesn’t want you to know his hairline and the ozone layer are receding at equal rates.

But it’s not true, nor is it right. In a free moment, I urge you to catch a committee hearing on C-SPAN, where expert camera angles shed light on Washington’s most shining scalps (touche). It is time we put our foot down to such tomfoolery!

Senator Patrick Leahy (Wikipedia.com)

Our first perpetrator in this series: Senator Joseph R. Biden, senior senator from our diminutive state to the south, Delaware.

With such an egregious combover, one can rightfully question Senator Biden’s character. The combover is not just duplicitous; it conveys weakness, or desperation. Moreover, this is the man who had to withdraw from the 1988 presidential race because he plagiarized parts of a speech. Hmm…

Now, there are combover victims lurking in the Democratic and Republican parties. Thus I offer bipartisan examples of those who have embraced baldness. Senator Patrick Leahy, a fellow Democrat from Vermont, just goes bald. And he was told by Vice President Cheney to go f…k himself. For a Democrat, he might as well have been anointed king of the party.

Then there is the most famous post-9/11 combover-cum-shining-star of Rudy Giuliani. Guiliani’s combover plagued him throughout his two terms as mayor of New York City but mercifully went under the scissors after he left office.

Giuliani, before and after the combover (Amazon.com & enterstageright.com)

When he emerged before the Republican National Convention in New York in 2004 with his new ‘do, radio personality Don Imus said he looked “like a rock star.” I’ll bet nobody pushes Rudy around anymore.

And who knows, he might be president someday soon. As Biden vies for the same Pennsylvania Avenue address, he could take some grooming tips from his peers. Step one is admitting you have a problem.