For people who participate in on-campus recruiting, September and October stand out as one of the most stressful months of their undergraduate education. It's that time of year when dinner means stuffing your face with hors d'oeuvres at company presentations, when you can't go out on a Friday night because you're stuck in the library writing cover letters until midnight, when the only reading you have time for is Vault and interview prep guides.

Jannie Blackwell never thought she'd end up in city government. "I always wanted to be a schoolteacher," said Blackwell, who quit teaching in 1976 and has represented Penn's district on City Council for the past 15 years. "Had I not met my husband, I would never have gone into politics.

The number of rapes reported on or near campus went way up last year, and some officials are pleased about it.

This summer, while talking to some musician friends about their struggle to get noticed, Andrew Kortina thought he might have a way to help them. Kortina's online music company, PhilaFunk, has now been in business for two months. It has about 400 registered users from 37 states and 14 countries around the world.

Earlier this week, after Mayor John Street signed the long-awaited smoking ban, The Daily Pennsylvanian expressed worry because "the bill will have no teeth until the administration begins enforcing it." Well, worry no longer. The Philadelphia Daily News reported this weekend that the city will begin to enforce the ban immediately.

Unlike his counterpart in Philadelphia, Jack Siedlecki may not have had many tough decisions to make before his Yale squad kicked off the 2006 season. Matt Polhemus came in as the clear starter at quarterback, Mike McLeod returned as a proven threat at running back, and the entire offensive line emerged from graduation unscathed.

When former MarBar manager Bob Hanna packed his bags and took over 2 Goodfella's a block away, he got a lot of his former employees to follow him.

As we speak, American scientists are packing their bags and moving to Singapore.

If there were any doubts about the intensity of the cross-town rivalry developing between Penn and Villanova, last night's game should have silenced them.

China Okasi, a Penn Graduate School of Education alumna, was always the one friends and family turned to for help with an essay, whether by knocking on her dorm-room door or meeting for a tutoring session at the Weingarten Learning Resources Center in Stouffer Commons.

Alicia Puglionesi is a College sophomore from Havertown, Pa.

A little more than a year ago, America paused. People stopped, however briefly, and paid attention to the news.

After beating Rutgers by a combined score of 7-0 in the last two years, Penn junior Meghan Rose found out yesterday that a third victory against the Scarlet Knights would not come with such a lopsided score - if at all. That lightbulb likely went off even before the field hockey team found itself headed into overtime when the frustrated Quakers found itself tied 1-1 with its unspectacular opponents - despite nearly outshooting them by double digits.

It's one of the most valuable and unique pieces in Penn's art collection, but chances are you've never even heard of it, let alone noticed it tucked away in a corner of Van Pelt Library's first floor. Penn's Rittenhouse Orrery is a model of the solar system, complete with accurately moving planets, and is as precise as was possible in the late 18th century, according to Bob Koch, a retired astronomy professor who has researched the orrery.

"Ready. Set. Vote." This is the catchphrase of Pennsylvania's instructional voting video, produced by the state government in an effort to minimize woes at state voting booths Nov. 7. In May's primary, 200 machines jammed, leaving voters at certain sites with only one machine to use, Chris Sheridan, public-policy director for the Philadelphia political watchdog group Committee of Seventy, said.

Despite losing the battles of possession time and shots on goal, Harvard women's soccer managed to continue its dominance over Penn. The previously winless Crimson (1-6-1, 1-0 Ivy) improved to 12-2-2 all-time versus their Ivy rivals, escaping Rhodes Field with a 2-1 victory yesterday afternoon.