Daily Pennsylvanian columnist Cezary Podkul claimed today that the Penn-Princeton rivalry is “just a myth”.

Whether or not that’s the case, we can be certain that some Rutgers students really wish they could be rivals with Princeton. As reported in today’s Daily Princetonian:

Whig Hall was vandalized with graffiti Sunday night in an apparent attempt by Rutgers students to revive the school’s once-contentious rivalry with Princeton.

Public Safety officers discovered the writing on the western wall of the 113-year-old home to the University’s debating society around midnight during a routine campus patrol.

Scribbled in bright red spray paint, the message read, “WE WANT A GAME 1869 RUTGERS BB2,” a reference to Rutgers’ victory over Princeton in the first-ever intercollegiate football game.

Pining for a re-match of an 1869 football game? Way to keep it classy, Rutgers students.

The ever-wise folks at IvyGate made a good point in the emerging non-story of Facebook’s opening to non-college users:

But when Facebook went public, and another outcry seemed logical … everyone shut up. Where was the flood of skeezy shadeballs without “.edu” email accounts? Our theory: The change never registered because Ivy Leaguers don’t know anyone who didn’t attend college.

IvyGate also found a story in AdWeek about how Facebook is still trying to figure out how to make money from our procrastination habits. (Hint: it involves more advertising)

Still, something in my gut tells me that something is different about this new Facebook.

Why? Because some random person with a Hotmail address claiming to be a high school girl from Maine friended me yesterday morning:

Note: Face and e-mail blocked out in case this happens to be someone using a photo of/impersonating an actual 17 year old girl. Because then I’d be an idiot with a lawsuit on my hands.

The Spin would like to welcome the Crimson into our club of college papers who follow Amy Gutmann’s every move.

Windows at the president’s house were darkened this weekend as Amy Gutmann made a visit to Cambridge, MA. As reported in the Crimson, whose staffers followed her to her hotel, Gutmann was fundraising for Penn and visiting her daughter and son-in-law, who are Harvard grad students.

Of course, Gutmann’s stated reasons were not enough to temper speculation:

Although Gutmann has denied interest in the Harvard presidency, two people close to the Harvard Corporation, the University’s most powerful governing body, said the nine-member presidential search committee is considering her as a candidate.

In addition, the sources said the committee is paying no attention to a candidate’s publicly stated disinterest in the presidency.

Besides the fact that Harvard will consider you for a job that you never applied for, it’s nice to see how much excitement our very own president brings to Cambridge.

How about this, Harvard: if you really want her so much, we’ll trade you Gutmann for your endowment. But she still has to fundraise for us. And you can keep the Boston weather.

You made front page news, Amy! (thecrimson.com)

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

In a New York Times poll released last week, New Yorkers finally talked to pollsters about something they don’t with each other: September 11th.

Nearly a third of New Yorkers think about the September 11th attacks every day, according to the poll (PDF). Another 17% think about the attacks once a week. The other half of New York thinks about them “once in a while.”

9/13/01-Union Square, NYC (Eric Obenzinger)

Despite the fact that we think about it so frequently, New Yorkers rarely talk to anyone about that period in our lives. Even our closest friends and loved ones are subject to this dusty cloud of silence.

I don’t quite know why we don’t talk about it. Part of me thinks that we simply don’t know what to say. Another part thinks that we are embarrassed at how much it has affected how we think.

In our silence, an array of mental “ticks” have evolved. Our lives and our city have become riddled with small triggers that spark a memory, sink our stomachs, fill us with guilt or flood us with anger.

For example: I am terrified of sirens, though I have never told anyone this before. The entire morning of September 11, 2001 was filled with the non-stop wail of sirens rushing downtown past my high school. Time, distance and joining a fire department have not gotten rid of the terror that creeps up my neck whenever I hear a nearby siren.

Many of these mental triggers developed in the year after September 11th, when we thought about the attacks so much that other things were pushed from our minds. Our memories were so sharp that they hurt us.

This September 11th, as on every, we are told to “never forget.”

9/13/01-Union Square, NYC (Eric Obenzinger)

To avoid the sin of forgetting, nearly five years ago I decided to write every memory I had about the attacks. The narrative is 16 single-spaced pages.

When I finished writing this shining example of post traumatic stress, I was proud. Now that it was all written in excruciating detail, I would never have to worry about forgetting.

Several years later, I find myself sometimes wishing that I could forget. Perhaps things would be simpler or easier.

On previous September 11th anniversaries, I used to fulfill the obligation of remembrance by re-reading my 16-page narrative and a few magazine specials.

I am going to ignore all of that this year. Instead, I will look at some of my photographs, a few of which are posted here. You can click on them for larger images. They were taken near my high school on September 13th, 2001, at Union Square Park in Lower Manhattan. My school had just re-opened and I was on my way to class. As I walked out of the subway, the familiar sight of the World Trade Center was replaced with a dense haze. I had watched them burn from the same spot two days before. Now the air smelled of fire.

The park–all 3.6 acres of it–was completely covered with memorials. Stunning, creative, spontaneous and heartbreaking memorials. Yet, unlike our memories, the memorials were eventually carted away.

Still, I would rather remember the memorials. Memorials are more beautiful than memories. That’s why we build them.

Child’s note. 9/13/01-Union Square, NYC (Eric Obenzinger)

Missing posters. 9/13/01-Union Square, NYC (Eric Obenzinger)