Sandy Smith

More than a half century of breeding, exhibiting and judging show dogs has finally brought M. Josephine Deubler to this: She will determine exactly who is top dog this year.

The fish almost got away.

Baltimore native Shireen Shantosham (C '00) thought it would be a good idea to return to her parents' homeland of India so she could learn about the culture and language. She ended up learning a good deal more, thanks to a brief encounter with Mother Teresa, whose recent death was mourned around the world.

PHILADELPHIA --- Scientists from the University of Pennsylvania and the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia have discovered dramatic new evidence of how arms and legs developed from the fins of ancient fish. The evidence was discovered in a rock found in a pile of boulders lying along a busy highway in north-central Pennsylvania.

Even though he is walking through our biggest cultural minefield, Herman Beavers, director of Penn's Afro-American Studies Program, is calm, soft-spoken, and, as he puts it, "a pretty straightforward guy." Beavers, you see, has made it his scholarly business to examine how we explain and define what it means to be black and male in America.

My interview with Herman Beavers was one of those occasions when I wished I had used a tape recorder, for not long after it began, it turned into a conversation that ranged from the cultural to the personal, with Beavers often drawing connections between our individual background and experiences and the issues he explores in his work.

The "Spruce Hill Community Renewal Plan," a blueprint for the future of the neighborhood adjacent to the University of Pennsylvania, has received the Pennsylvania Planning Association's (PPA) top award for "comprehensive planning by a small community."

There are no borders in cyberspace, no armed guards to check your papers as you pass from one computer to another. Which is why people seeking to bridge divisions between peoples and reunite divided lands have taken to promoting their efforts on the Internet.