While most families veg out on the couch after thanksgiving dinner, my relatives were making the most of the holiday gathering–spending two hours taking the family picture.

It was a true multi-generational affair - Grammie was there, all the uncles and the aunts, the cousins, the step-cousins and the newly-wedded bride of the oldest cousin. With all in attendance, it was absolutely essential that a new set of family photos be commissioned.

Hundreds of shots were taken in front of the fireplace. There was the cousins shot, the female cousins shot, the male cousins shot, all the cousins with Grammie, all the cousins with the cat, the shot of Grammie and her three grown children, one of just the grownups, a picture of just Grammie, only to name a few. This anthology preceded the infamous group shot.

Year after year, the group shot is always the pinnacle of the photo shoot. It takes half an hour to assemble, rearrange, push up, pull down and settle the fifteen family members into a “frameable” order. Then, cousin Jessie must hit the self-timer button and scurry to cram in the picture, while everyone stands motionless, waiting a good fifteen seconds and donning his or her cheesiest grin. A blue ribbon winning picture is sure to result.

Why bother taking all that time with the family snapshot? it’s greeting card season, people! Don your best smiles and pose with your annoying brother and sister. You know that family print will be sent to every Tom, Dick and Harry your parents have ever met. Maybe you are lucky enough to be a member of one of those families that types up an update about everything that has happened to you in the year 2006. I know I am.

So while you were lounging on the couch in a turkey coma, my family was busy working off their ten pound dinner with the never-ending photo shoot, all in the effort to insure that our holiday greeting will be the merriest.

Bloggers took credit (with some accuracy) for the downfall of Dan Rather and the death of John Kerry’s political future for his troop-goading. In the last few years there have been countless articles about the future impacts of blogging on journalism, business, medicine, politics, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness–you name it, bloggers have claimed they’ll change it.

So, take this with a grain of salt, but I think that President Gutmann should start her own blog.

It makes perfect sense: Gutmann’s infamous Halloween party showed that the few, spontaneous interactions she has with students each year can cause a lot of damage. It is obvious to anyone who has ever sat through convocation or graduation that it was Gutmann’s considerable academic and fundraising skills rather than her oratory mojo that got her the gig at Penn.

Blogs play to Gutmann’s strength as a writer. It’s also an interactive medium familiar to students and doesn’t require the time commitment of a physical forum. Since Gutmann’s image affects her and Penn, the Penn PR machine can vet any posts for blow up potential before they are posted.

And all the cool kids are doing it. The New York Times printed an article last week about several presidents who have successful blogs. My favorite: “Bob’s Blog” by Robert Caret of Towson University. Those sunglasses are priceless.

The corner of 33rd Street and Locust is one of the most dangerous spots on campus. It is an accident waiting to happen for the following reasons:

1. Motorists do not slow down at the curve or crosswalk, even though there is a blinking yellow light, two large cross walks and a pedestrian crossing sign .

2. Work trucks (presumably working on University buildings) often block the view of the yellow lights from drivers.

3. One of the blinking yellow lights is non-functioning.

I’ve had many close calls on this corner, and I’m sure others have too.

A flashing yellow light means that the motorist should slow down and watch for pedestrians. This clearly doesn’t happen at the corner of 33rd and Locust. In fact, vehicles go much faster than is safe to barrel around a curve. To prevent chaos–or an accident–the city must install flashing red lights, stop signs or a fully functioning traffic light .

The video below speaks for itself:

Lee Jin-Man/AP

Apparently, the Wharton tools were right all along: money does buy happiness.

At least That’s what a growing body of scholarship on the relationship between money and happiness might suggest.

A recent AP article focused on the trend and presented a few of the area’s seminal works. The research that has recently garnered the most attention comes from Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in England. Oswald studied a group of Britons who won between $20,000 and $250,000 in the lottery and determined that their happiness levels on a 36-point scale rose a full point from two years before the win until two years after.

Daniel Kaheneman, a Princeton economist and Nobel Prize winner, has also completed similar work with more mixed results. People in the high-income bracket were found to be almost twice as likely to call themselves “very happy” as people from the lowest. However, the difference between people who made $90,000 and those who made between $50,000 and $89,000 was only 1 percentage point.

Rush Limbaugh, who apparently subscribes to the same RSS-feed as I and reported on the same article on his radio show, remains a Big, Fat Idiot. He takes this evidence as proof that money does buy happiness, a conclusion he has come to on his own based on two damning pieces of evidence: that people want money and that people who have money would not be willing to forfeit it.

Aspiring toward a Cribs lifestyle does not mean that people would be any happier if they had money, but only that they think they would. Perhaps if they were watching VH1’s Behind the Music instead of Cribs they would realize that many of the celebrities on the screen are struggling with drug problems, mental illnesses or unhealthy relationships.

As the stories of MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice and other classic Behind the Music subjects show, many of the people whose fortunes we covet often squander it all and be worse of than before. Maybe if Oswald checks in with his lottery winners another two years from now, they will be telling a different story.

As for rich-but-miserable people who still wouldn’t be willing to let go of their money, this proves nothing except that many rich people are stubborn and afraid of giving up what they thought they wanted.

The one valid point on the money-buys-happiness side of the debate comes from Kaheneman’s comparison between the highest and lowest income brackets. As one of the callers to Limbaugh’s show stated, “Money itself doesn’t bring happiness, but the lack of money brings misery.”

The intense difficulty of living paycheck to paycheck causes a host of problems that make people less satisfied with their lives. To conclude from this that the more money one has the happier he will be is completely false.

Money does not buy happiness. And if Rush Limbaugh is any indication, it also can’t buy you a clue.

Check back later for more from The Spin

Passing notes in grade school was always fun until the teacher intercepted them. But technology has provided us with a newer more sophisticated technique: text messaging.

Diverted eyes and twiddling fingers underneath desks is a dead giveaway for students, but what seems blatantly obvious to us consistently slides by professors.

“Text messaging is a good way to communicate without interrupting the class,” said College sophomore Amr Refaat. “But I think it’s underutilized in the U.S. compared to the rest of the world, especially Europe.

“During those long lectures, I do it occasionally,” said College sophomore Victoria Wilbur. “Whether it’s about meeting a friend for lunch after class or other things that come up, it provides for distraction.”

Texting is the AIM of the classroom- a nice breather between note-taking and raising your hand for those coveted participation points.

But it’s not all fun and games. Text messaging has fostered sophisticated cheating schemes. In response, administers of standardized tests have increased monitoring efforts to ensure cell phones are not used.

It’s a double-edged sword. Cell phones have a fun side and another that poses an array of ways to thwart honest academic achievement.

Check back later today for more from The Spin, including Amruta Godbole on money buying joy and Caroline Pearsall on the virtues of the family portrait.

Mayor John Street’s brother, Milton Street, was indicted yesterday on charges of
corruption and tax fraud. He allegedly exploited his position as the Mayor’s brother to charge millions in “consulting” fees.

While this doesn’t surprise me at all, I am gritting my teeth waiting for the current mayoral
candidates to denounce this corruption and finally sever ties with Mayor Street.

For instance, Michael Nutter has shut-out John Street, citing his poor record in managing Philadelphia. Other mayoral candidates should follow suit. Considering that
candidates Jonathan Saidel and Chaka Fattah count Mayor Street as one
of their allies, it will be interesting to see how they pledge to serve at the helm of this city without denouncing the heinous actions that have taken place on John Street’s watch.

Why can’t Saidel act like he did in 1994 when he ripped Mayor
Street apart?

Maybe there is a backdoor trade
in the works where Fattah tries to become Mayor while John Street runs
for the House of Representatives?

Regardless, all that I am asking for is that the candidates distance themselves from
Mayor Street. They should try to win this election on their own merits and ideas. Having the backing of a corrupt politican is not what Philadelphians
deserve.

(4wordathome.com)

Some e-mails are easier to write than others.

Friends and family rarely get a formal salutation, and usually end with “xoxo, Liz.” E-mail to a classmate usually starts with “Hi” and ends with “-Liz”. If I’m lucky enough to have a vacation or holiday coming up, I’ll finish with a “Have a great Thanksgiving! Liz” and be done with it.

As the recipients get more formal, it gets more complicated. If I’m e-mailing a professor, I need a salutation. But which one? “Hi” seems too informal, but “Hello” sounds like I have no idea who they are. And “Dear” sounds like I’m about to invite them to my 8th birthday party. I also have to figure out what to call them. If they have a PhD, will they be offended if I call them “Professor” instead of “Doctor”? Then I can’t remember if they have a PhD or not, so I have to stalk the department’s Web site to find their CV.

Three hours after clicking “Compose Mail,” I can write the e-mail. But how do I sign it? I know I should use my full name, but deciding what phrase to put is problematic. “Best” seems stuffy, “xoxo” is clearly out of the question and just signing my name sounds too informal. I generally end up using “Thanks!” because by then it’s midnight and I still haven’t cracked a book because I’ve spent all night writing this stupid e-mail.

And this problem doesn’t just plague college students. According to Monday’s New York Times, the problem of how to sign e-mails has become a problem in the business world as well.

While the article doesn’t provide the one final answer, it has a few clues that can help us all devote a little less time to composing e-mail signatures.

Judith Kallos, creator of NetManners.com, told the Times that the best approach is to adhere to the “highest degree of formality until the other person indicates otherwise.”

So there is no right answer. Try to be as formal as you can without sounding like you’re writing to your Congressman (unless you are). And under absolutely no circumstances are you to sign an e-mail to someone with whom you’ve just had a first date with “best.”

Thanks/Sincerely/Best/xoxo/

On Sunday, I rode New Jersey Transit and SEPTA back to school from New
York, taking the more thrifty alternative to Amtrak. As should be
expected for Thanksgiving weekend, the train was packed. After changing trains at Trenton from New Jersey Transit to SEPTA, my friend Katie and
I were squished into a seat by a third “seat partner”.

But then I noticed that, while some of us were struggling for oxygen, other riders had all the space in the world. This is because many passengers were obese and felt it was their right, their honor and their privilege not to share their seat with anyone.

A few years ago, Southwest Airlines caused quite a
storm with their policy of forcing overweight passengers to purchase a second seat.

This is a great idea and should be implemented on public trains.
It encourages weight loss and, though I’m certainly no twiggy myself,
I certainly don’t think it is fair for some people to sit in utter
discomfort while other people pay the same price for much more space.

Maybe all of this is on my mind because my dad recently purged our
house of products with trans-fats. All of my favorite snacks were
gone when I arrived home for the holidays. But I think we all want to live
long, healthy lives, so why not give it a shot?

(gophilla.com)

As I visit different cities before accepting a job offer, one location remains glaringly out of contention: Philadelphia.

It’s not that I don’t like Philadelphia. I routinely sing the city’s praises to friends and family at home (admittedly, this is easy to do when home is in Ohio). And it’s not that I refuse to consider any opportunity outside New York. I am equally willing to relocate to Boston, Chicago or almost any other major city. Unfortunately, when I think of Philly, I can’t help thinking of it as a great place to go to college, but one that I’m more than ready to move on from.

According to a 2004 study by the Knowledge Industry Partnership, 71 percent of non-native college students will also leave Philadelphia after graduation (compared to 42 percent in Boston). While a solid 86 percent of Philly locals do remain in the city, public perception of an area depends on its ability to attract outsiders.

A recent New York Times article chronicled the efforts of various cities to please twenty-somethings, a group now coveted as a replacement for retiring Baby Boomers. While Philadelphia has taken similar measures–from internships and free concert tickets to the heralded program, “Stay Invent the Future”–the city has not made much progress.

As far as Penn students are concerned, Career Services’ survey for the College class of 2005 revealed that only 71 out of 620 of respondents, or about 11 percent, stayed in Philly after graduation.

Chrissy Royer, who graduated from the College in 2003, is one of those who stayed. She speculates that many of her peers never got to know the city’s best parts. “If I could only live in University City, I wouldn’t live in Philly,” she said. “When we graduated we liked it but we didn’t love it like we do know.”

Since graduation, Chrissy has found Philadelphia so wonderful that she has at times commuted to Baltimore and DC to keep an apartment here. She suggests that other students might discover a similar affinity if they took time from their admittedly busy schedules to engage with the city.

While a lack of appropriate jobs might be one reason that students leave, it is not the main reason. Anecdotally, Chrissy could not think of a single friend who tried to look for a job in Philly and couldn’t find one. And Philadelphia jobs are probably not as scarce as some believe.

The city’s efforts to get its students to stick around should therefore be focused not on employment but on culture and lifestyle. Perhaps Philadelphia isn’t for everyone, but students who are truly integrated into the city have a much better idea of whether it might be.

I can’t say whether I’d be weighing different options if I had taken this advice. For those still unsure of where they will be after graduation though, it certainly can’t hurt to be better informed. Whether you ultimately decide to stay or not, at least give Philly a chance.

The Daily Pennsylvanian (along with its staff) has gone on break for Thanksgiving. Publication of the DP will resume on Tuesday, November 28. The Spin will also resume posting next Tuesday.

As always, we welcome your questions and comments about The Spin. Feel free to e-mail any feedback to me at Obenzinger (at) dailypennsylvanian.com.

On behalf of The Spin, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Also, because the DP staff will be away, there will likely be an accumulation of spam-bots filling our comments section. We are continually working on improved filters to eliminate these ad-bots. However, they continue to get more sophisticated with each new filter that we create. I apologize in advance for any comment-spam that may appear here over the next week.

Oh, and to the spam-bot makers: No, I will not be purchasing your Cialis, Viagra, hair replacement, mail-order brides, “real” absinthe or Brazilian/Thai “odysseys”. No one here will. Please go away.

Happy Thanksgiving, folks!