A night in “Olde Penn”: To celebrate its 100th anniversary, The Pennsylvania Gazette went back into its archives to pull out some literary gems. An audience of about 200 invited guests for the Gazette’s birthday party at the Inn at Penn Feb. 13 heard Editor John Prendergast (C’80), Senior Editor Sam Hughes, Associate Editor Susan Lonkevich, former editor Marshall Ledger and a host of Penn notables read selections from the mag’s past, all the way back to Vol. 1, No. 1 of Olde Penn, the weekly newsletter that took the name of Ben Franklin’s venerable newspaper in 1918. Among the highlights: History of Art Professor David Brownlee’s imitation of a clueless Business Week reporter interviewing Hill House architect Eero Saarinen, played by Lecturer in Urban Studies George Thomas; Student Voices Project Director Phyllis Kaniss reading her own 1971 lament on the demise of the “Dirty Drug”; longtime Glee Club Music Director Bruce “Monty” Montgomery recounting his interview with Hughes about the club’s 1971 tour of the Soviet Union; and Lolita Jackson (EAS’89), with her first-person tale of escape from the World Trade Center last Sept. 11.

Web winners: Congratulations to Andrew Joseph (C’04), Arts and Sciences graduate student Stephen R. Phillips, Veena Paidipalli (C’97) and prospective student Sunmin Lee. They’re each winners of a $50 American Express gift certificate in the Penn Web Advisory Council’s recently concluded Web survey. And thanks to the more than 2,200 survey participants—your feedback on how you use the Penn Web will help the University build a better Web site.

They’re off and reading: The kindergartners who visited the Freshgrocer recently (Current, Feb. 21) also visited the Penn Bookstore on their campus field trip. The Bookstore is returning the favor by donating books to the Penn-assisted School every month.

Penn in ink: To prep Atlantans for the NCAA Final Four, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution is conducting in its pages a whirlwind tour of college hoops history. The tour stopped Feb. 24 at the Palestra, where Facilities Services Housekeeper Dan Harrell (CGS’00) (“Staff Q&A,” Current, June 1, 2000) maintains the floor. In the early morning, he said, “I’m the only one here, but you can feel the ghosts” of the basketball legends who played on the court. “Every once in a while, you can feel a presence. The history of the place. You do hear other people here.”…Technological advances have changed the old utilitarian license plate into a form of personal and cultural expression. And since Sept. 11, The Christian Science Monitor reported Jan. 30, that expression is increasingly patriotic, with states adding American-flag designs to their custom plate offerings. “A flag on a license plate is a way of constantly renewing our involvement in Sept. 11 and preventing it from falling off,” said Associate Professor of Communication Carolyn Marvin.

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