Campus News Editor Dina Bass

When asked about the incoming campus news editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian, her parents, friends and boyfriend all asked for some extra time so they could think of what to say. "We don't know any cute stories about her," her father, Harry Bass, said on behalf of her mother Harriet. "I'm sure there are some." Her boyfriend, College junior Jon Kaufthal, had to call back twice before he could come up with anything. Her roommate, College junior Rachel Rydzinski, offered nothing. Everyone who knows the long-time DP beat reporter agreed on one thing -- she talks too much. "She can't stop talking," said College junior Yoni Slonim, a former DP columnist. "You can cut your hair and shower and shave, and she'll still be there talking." There were, however, no juicy stories about her. Nothing exciting behind how she met Kaufthal. Mutual friends introduced them while they studied in Israel together for a year after graduating high school, and since their first week at Penn they've been dating. There's no reason for people not to find great things to say about Bass. A hard-working reporter, she covered four beats at the DP and has interned at the Washington bureau of The Los Angeles Times, where she covered pressing issues like cereal prices. It's just that no one seemed to be able to think of anything right off the top of their heads. With a little prodding, though, some things did surface about the New York City native. She apparently gave Kaufthal a copy of the Kama Sutra, the Indian sex manual, according to her friend Debra Kaplan, a first-year History graduate student. In light of this, Kaufthal's information proved interesting. "She can put her legs behind her head," he said. A friend once described her to another friend as closely resembling Elvira, the self-proclaimed "Mistress of the Night." And she has a discerning taste in, of all things, fine microbrews. "Dina drinks a lot," Kaplan said. "She thinks she's a guy. She needs to try every beer on the planet." "She's Norm, from Cheers, without the fat," Slonim chimed in. If only she can stop talking long enough to let her reporters get a few words in edgewise, Bass ought to have the campus news department of the DP in fine hands next year.