I was supposed to be born on Halloween. Instead I was born on Election Day. Maybe if I wasn’t late (as usual) I’d have the same passion for masquerade as I do for politics. But alas, again this year I’m at a loss for a costume.

(familyfun.go.com)

Dressing as a hippie is so middle school and I was an angel last year (well, sort of) and I don’t want to dump a lot of cash on South Street. To solve this conundrum I did some research to find good–and possibly warm–Halloween costumes that you can buy on campus for very little money. Here are some of the best I found:

• Keeping in mind the birthday theme, a birthday cake could be a great costume. You can wear any color, with as much or as little clothing as you like. All you need is a solid color shirt, some sharpies, and maybe some tinsel or ribbon from CVS. And isn’t this little girl (right) cute!
• Dress as one of your friends, preferably a roommate. Everyone has that friend with mad unique style and great clothes. Raid the closet and get a quick lesson on their hair care routine. No preparation is necessary and it’s free!
• Last year two of my good friends were a train. They switched off being the engine and the caboose. It was hysterical! Hit up CVS for some paint and glue and the UPS store for a box. A cautionary note: make sure you like your caboose; you will be attached to them all night.

A word on the origin of Halloween costumes: Celtic people disguised as ghosts to protect themselves from the dead, who were allowed to roam the earth during the proto-Halloween festival of Samhadin. This is also the source of the tradition of drinking excessively on Halloween. You see, these particular Celts lived in the land now known as Ireland and were the ancestors of the modern Irish.

And college students thought we were being original for getting smashed before smashing pumpkins.

If you’ve walked into the Writers House lately, you’ve probably seen them. Photographs hanging from the walls - of third-world poverty and nameless children. Kids in bright shirts sent from the West. And a landscape of rolling hills.

Taken by College alumna Rebecca Sherman, the images capture daily life in Fondwa, Haiti, a poor mountain village 40 miles southwest of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Like much of Haiti, Fondwa suffers from deforestation, a lack of drinking water and virtually no healthcare.

But 18 years ago, a Roman Catholic priest used American donations to help Fondwa form its Association of Peasants. This rural cooperative worked to solve local problems, resulting in the 2004 founding of a university.

The University of Fondwa now enrolls more than 20 students, who learn business, medicine and agriculture. The University employs 15 staff members and owns six computers, which remain on for three hours per night, using gas-powered generators.

It’s a small operation, but one aimed at making a big difference. Because the idea is not merely to educate students, but to empower them to return to their villages and help.

“The philosophy is that they will go back to their home communities to help promote development,” Renate Schneider, the university’s German-born rector, told the Chronicle of Higher Education last year. “You have to do development in the rural areas before you can solve the problems in Port-au-Prince.”

It’s a radical model - and one that American universities should look to when dealing with surrounding communities. Obviously, students at Penn don’t come from ramshackle homes without water. But just as small towns in Haiti could benefit from what Fondwa’s students learn, so too could West Philly benefit from the skills Penn students develop.

Of course, in Fondwa, the university uses donations to pay for all students’ tuitions. Here, where most of us contribute to tuition costs, we feel we have the right to choose how to use our education.

But perhaps, then, we might learn from Fondwa’s professors. Some of them are Americans who elsewhere could earn far more than their current $400 a month. But they don’t go elsewhere.

They stay and they sacrifice and they teach, in the hope that their knowledge will spread to 20 students who’ll each spread it to one home and, ultimately, one village. It may be slow, but it’s a way to pay education forward - to give learning a life of its own - and keep the chain of benefit going.

It would be nice if we could all say the same of own education. Realistically, though, most of don’t share, or even act on, what we learn. I certainly don’t.

But in the next two weeks, at the very least, we can be small links in Fondwa’s chain. Tonight at 6, the Writers House will hold a reception with Sherman. On Nov. 7, the International House will screen a short documentary, “The Road to Fondwa.”

And those photographs I mentioned earlier are for sale - with all proceeds going to the University of Fondwa.

Penn students and The Daily Pennsylvanian are currently on Fall break. The Spin will resume posting on Thursday, October 26th.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions for The Spin, feel free to e-mail me at Obenzinger@dailypennsylvanian.com

See you again on Thursday!

It’s five dollars to enter, and that covers four dances (excluding tips).

Recently, I went to Les Gals on Market Street with some friends. Les Gals is a strip club for men that features pornographic films and “real live girls.”

It was a cool experience, mostly because it was ridiculous. The music was ultra-bizarre in the context of the club (a Dipset remix of the Supremes’ “Wait A Minute Mr Postman”), and the dancers could probably tell that I was, in a sense, kidding.

Watching yourself watch strangers at Les Gals (Photo by the author)

The entire wall behind the stripper pole was mirrored. The last place that you should go for self-reflection is a strip club. Watching yourself watch strangers dance naked in front of you requires more cajones (or less self-consciousness) than I have.

I couldn’t figure out whether I was allowed to enjoy myself in the moment, or whether I should be feeling bad about it. Was I being a good feminist? I didn’t feel guilty, but I felt like I should. Personal politics would be much easier to explain and maintain if everything were hypothetical.

My brand of feminism definitely condones strippers. If a woman wants to expose her body and to make money from the endeavor, that is fine. Everything about the stripper checks out.

However (and this is where it would be easier if people didn’t interact), the role of stripper requires someone to strip for, and that introduces numerous characters that might not check out at all. My guess is that not all customers clap politely and quote Our Bodies, Ourselves. More likely, customers heckle the women, think of them as a collection of gyrating body parts and don’t tip well. The bouncer and the owner are probably not touchy-feely in anything other than the literal sense.

I was endorsing the behaviors and attitudes of the lowest common denominator. No matter my good intentions, I was still culpable, since I was participating in an institution where people are frequently anti-feminist. While I felt like a respectful customer, it wasn’t about what was happening in the moment.

But why couldn’t it be? What’s with the guilt? For starters, why can’t something that seems fun just be fun? And secondly, could the pluses of a woman being proud of her body, able to fully control it and to use it to her economic advantage, outweigh the negatives of the customers? I might have to go back to Les Gals, and think about it some more.

(buycostumes.com)

Every year, I come home on Halloween and proclaim that, “next year, I’m just going as a slut.”

I mean, I might as well. Every girl on campus, myself included, seems to put extraordinary effort into turning a normal costume into something provocative. I could save myself a lot of time by not having to bother pretending to be a nurse.

According to Thursday’s New York Times, the evolution of Halloween into what comedian Carlos Mencia has deemed “Dress Like a Whore Day” extends beyond the college crowd.

Some of the experts interviewed for the Times article viewed this as a step backwards for women. There aren’t nearly as many sexualized costumes for men, and some women complain about the lack of normal costumes available. Deborah Tolman, the director of the Center for Research on Gender and Sexuality at San Francisco State University, also expressed concern that teenage girls are starting to believe that being “sexy” is only for someone else, not themselves.

I’d really love to condemn Halloween for single-handedly undermining the women’s movement. But like most of the girls on campus, I’m not going to deny that dressing a little provocatively can be downright fun. It’s a night to act out a personality other than your own and explore a different side of yourself. My daily uniform consists of t-shirts and jeans. Why shouldn’t I be allowed to branch out a little? It could even be considered a feminist statement for women to express our sexuality so openly.

There are some caveats. If you’re killing yourself trying to make a sexy policewoman costume just because all your friends are doing it, then you’re not making a feminist statement. Ditto for if it makes you so uncomfortable that you spend the entire night with your arms folded in front of your chest. It also doesn’t count as a healthy expression of sexuality if your only aim is to impress boys.

Halloween is a week from Tuesday, and we all know that nighttime at the end of October can be chilly. But if you’re comfortable with it, throw on a corset under your parka and risk frostbite because you’re wearing hot pants when it’s 30 degrees outside. It’s okay, we all know you’re really supposed to be Minnie Mouse.

Around the Ivies is a roundup of news from Ivy League and other top tier schools.

• [ The Dartmouth ]
  Intense drinking at Friday the 13th homecoming and bonfires ends predictably
• [ Harvard Crimson ]
  Harvard students still not happy with academic advisors and each other
• [ Harvard Crimson ]
  Larry Summers on the re-bound
• [ The Cronicle (Duke) ]
  Disaffiliating Duke frat declares independence

Over in Maryland, lieutenant governor and U.S. Senate candidate Michael Steele is turning out to be the mack daddy of endorsements in this election season.

Steele, a Republican, trails his opponent Rep. Ben Cardin in the polls. Still, he has enlisted some interesting - if unlikely - support this fall. His most recent fan to hit the campaign trail is none other than Mike Tyson, the outlawed boxer famous for a stunningly painful face tattoo and chomping off a piece of Evander Holyfield’s ear.

Michael Steele (Sacramento Bee)

Tyson’s support comes after music mogul Russell Simmons campaigned for Steele last month and on the heels of boxing promoter Don King’s stumping for Steele in Maryland the other day. Tyson reportedly wore a Steele campaign shirt while promoting his “Mike Tyson’s World Tour” in Ohio.

This may sound like a cheap ploy to lure black voters away from the Democrats. It turns out, however, that Tyson is Steele’s former brother-in-law. Tyson was married to Steele’s sister Monica Turner for five years before they divorced in 2003.

Steele’s people insist Tyson isn’t involved in the campaign. But Steele told the New York Times Magazine earlier this year that he would welcome Tyson’s help “in a heartbeat.”

Steele is widely recognized as an attractive candidate. But his “Scarlet R” in a blue state makes winning the open Senate seat an uphill battle. If he loses, maybe next time he can solicit T.O. on the stump?

For many Penn students, the phrase “Holiday Season” conjures images of snowballs and Santa Claus. Yet much of the world celebrates its most important festivals this month.

While the efforts of Hillel during the High Holidays are prominent on campus, other religious groups are also helping students maintain their culture and religion away from home.

Yesterday, the Hindu Students Council and Young Jains of America (HSC/YJA) held a puja, or religious ceremony, for Diwali. Officially beginning on the 21st this year, Diwali is one of the most important Hindu holidays and often induces homesickness for those separated from family for the first time.

Diwali at Penn

Rita Bagai, the Public Relations chair of HSC/YJA said that the annual Diwali puja provides an outlet for students to practice religion and find community here at Penn. The packed room in Houston Hall, filled with 300 voices chanting after a Hindu priest, was a testament to the event’s great need.

As this Monday marks Eid al Fitr and the end of Ramadan, the Muslim Students Association has filled the month of fasting with meals and prayer services.

Samir Malik particularly enjoyed this past weekend’s Fast-A-Thon, an event that allowed students to “share beliefs with those of different faiths and to hone in on the similarities.”

The inclusive nature of both groups’ events is critical to their success. These holidays can create a feeling of displacement even for the non-religious. Students of all backgrounds should have the means to create new traditions to supplement the ones they’ve left behind.

“Happy Holidays” to those celebrating this week. And to those feeling homesick: Utilize these resources to help create a home away from home.

What do you do between classes?

If you’re anything like my roommates after three hours of intense Wharton, there’s nothing like watching funny TV. VH1 is a favorite, particularly with their Most Awesomely Bad Songs Ever. The show meshed with this week’s entertainment news when Russ Heller set a new world record for listening to Jefferson Starship’s “We Built This City” more than 324 times in one day.

“We Built This City” (musicobsession.com)

The song recently topped Blender music magazine’s “50 Worst Songs Ever!” chart for the second consecutive year. Other songs included Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sounds of Silence,” The Beatle’s “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” and Bobby McFerrin’s “don’t Worry Be Happy.’

What is ironic about Blender’s, VH1’s and CNN’s “worst song” lists is that their songs topped the Billboard Chart at some point. In fact, all of the artists featured on Blender’s “worst” rankings are household names. Many are also Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees. It would make more sense if the publication had titled the list “The Worst Songs from the Best.” ABC News had the right idea when it described the magazine as rating the “50 Worst Hit Songs.”

The “worst” lists pose a paradox: they would loose their mass appeal if the songs were not so recognizable. Still, they have become a type of pop culture tradition. Just as watching SNL and mocking outdated fashion provides for a good laugh, there is an inherent comedic element to the Blender charts.

But what makes these songs horrible? Is the “The Sounds of Silence” too didactic in its poetic message? Is “My Heart Will Go On” too sappy and overplayed? And does the playful nature of “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” negate its catchiness? Or are they all similar in that you love them the first five times you hear them, like them the tenth time and can’t stand them by the fiftieth?

Since this is an interactive column, I would love to hear what readers think makes such widely-known songs “the worst.” Please post your own thoughts!

There is a difference between real time and how we perceive time (a watched pot will not boil, after all). Every night when I look at the work I need to do, I compound so much time that I convince myself that I need to apply to law school and re-mortgage my house by the end of the week.

When you are young, you think to yourself, “I don’t have enough time.” In about fifty years you’re going to be sitting at home wondering, “What am I going to do with all this time on my hands?” You’ll wonder what the big rush was. Right now, every minute seems precious.

It Only Takes A Minute to Change Your Life!, written in 1977 by Willie Jolley, promises, “a motivational and inspirational revolution that will show you how to release the power within you.” I don’t know what Mr. Jolley suggests, but there are a lot of ways to kill your time. Just look how much you could be getting done instead procrastinating:

It only takes a minute to prevent child abuse in California, apparently, and also to donate money to breast cancer. It only takes a minute to install the Patio Door with 4-Way Cat Flap, and you can even take it with you when you move! And it only takes a second to die, of course, if you’re lucky. It only takes a moment on the lips to be forever on the hips, but it takes three minutes a day to get rock hard abs.

I’ve found different doom-and-gloom stats on this, but smoking a cigarette may take eight, 10, 13, or 20 minutes off of your life. However, my friends who smoke say that it only takes about fifteen seconds, and that if you’re smoking a cigarette that burns faster, you have those fifteen seconds to play with, anyway.

For each minute of anaerobic activity, you prolong your life by one minute. Welcome to eternity, Sisyphus.

Of course, I’m not suggesting that you do any of these things. That’s not the point. There is no need to fix your life (or your cat flap) in sixty seconds. there’s still time left. Try to use it a little more joyously.