Heather A. Davis

Don’t feel left out. Though it’s true that most of the shows in the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe (through Sept. 18) take place in Old City, this year several are taking up residence here in University City.

If you’re looking for a substantial late-night bite or need a loaf of fresh rosemary and olive oil bread to go with dinner, life in University City just got a little easier. Four new eateries around 40th Street have opened their doors for business, with tempting offerings from artisan breads to made-to-order burritos, homemade spinach pie to grilled salmon burgers.

    Included in this special report:

For Robert Schuyler and his students, one town’s trash is their archaeological treasure. Associate Curator of Penn Museum’s Historical Archaeology section, Schuyler has been working with his students for the last three years to unearth garbage from the not-so-distant past.

  Included in this special report:

Whatever your pleasure—sci fi or fantasy novels, modern or 18th-century poetry—Jennifer Snead thinks you should read it. And if you’re an undergraduate who wants to start a literary magazine, run a tutoring project or host a reading with a favorite poet, she thinks you should do that, too.

As Andrew Exum C’00 told a Penn Bookstore crowd June 14, midway through his Penn career, he faced a hard decision. “I was told, ‘You can just muddle through or you can be a leader.’ ” Then part of Penn’s ROTC program, Exum opted for the latter, joining the infantry after graduation and serving as platoon leader in operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.

Penn faculty and staff who want to call West Philadelphia home can still rely on their friendly neighborhood employer for a helping hand. Thanks to the Enhanced Mortgage Program—open to all Penn and Health System employees—buyers who purchase homes within a defined area of West Philly can obtain a forgivable loan of $7,500 from the Office of Community Housing.

When David Gilman Romano Gr’81 attends this summer’s Olympic Games in Athens, he’ll watch the track and field events with particular interest. A track coach and runner who competed at the University of Oregon with legend Steve Prefontane, Romano is also a leading expert on ancient athletics and the Olympic Games.

The convergence of tools, money and technology make this the most important period of scientific discovery since the Renaissance, said writer and journalist Stephen S. Hall in a talk at The Wistar Institute on May 4.