"Our customers used to want a big shopping bag with our label on it to carry around after their purchase. But now, they just want a simple brown bag," pronounced Roxanne Paschall, Senior Director of Merchandising of Bottega Veneta. "It's like they don't want to flaunt their wealth anymore," she said.

Last Thursday, President Obama hosted a small town hall in which he fielded a variety of questions submitted and voted on by an online audience. One of the most popular questions posed was whether decriminalizing marijuana might help the economy by creating a new source of tax revenue.

FlingSafe application deadline Friday Applications to volunteer for the Social Planning and Events Committee's FlingSafe are due April 3 at 12 a.m. Created four years ago, FlingSafe is a student-run program that encourages safe decisions throughout the weekend of SPEC's Spring Fling.

Students on campus may have noticed the river of Greek-lettered hats meandering between classes. Under the hats are fraternity brothers and sorority sisters celebrating Day One of the five-day fiesta known as Greek Weekend. The Weekend, now in its 11th year at Penn, marks an extended celebration of Greek unity and community service and features six events over the course of the weekend.

We've all been told to stop and smell the roses - but this is Penn. We don't stop for anything. I get annoyed if someone breaks to tie his shoes on a busy Locust walk. I don't even know what I would do if I saw a student stopping to sniff the daffodils in front of Huntsman Hall.

Penn softball is anxious. Anxious to notch a few more marks in its win column. After suffering two disappointing defeats to Harvard on Monday, the Quakers (5-17-1, 1-3 Ivy) will look to rebound when they make the short trip to La Salle (3-13) today for an afternoon doubleheader beginning at 3 p.

Black emergency-room patients are likely to wait about an hour longer than other patients to be transferred to a regular hospital bed, according to a recent study by researchers in the School of Medicine. The study, which drew from data from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey - a nationwide sample of emergency-room visits across the country - also found that critically ill black patients waited approximately an hour longer than other patients to be transferred out of intensive-care units.

Wharton Dean Tom Robertson announced the appointments of three key positions to Wharton's Executive Boards on March 25: Scott Wieler, '87 Wharton Graduate alumnus, William Lawrence, '83 Wharton alumnus and Sebastian Escarrer Jaume, '93 Wharton Graduate alumnus.

In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Wife of Bath's Tale, a knight has to atone for his crime by traveling across medieval England to discover what it is that women want most. But what answers will he get when he encounters a host of modern characters, from Virginia Woolf to Sigmund Freud? Their responses will be revealed in the comic opera The Loathly Lady, premiering at 7:30 p.

As builders working on the new Music Building yesterday were ready to add the final beam to the roof, University officials hosted a traditional "topping-off" ceremony to honor their work over the past eight months. The newly renovated building, which is on schedule for completion by the end of 2009, will include 15 offices and three classrooms in addition to two recording studios, practice rooms and a computer lab.

Penn began the seventh inning trailing the Delaware Blue Hens 4-3, with Delaware's bottom three hitters coming to the plate. Freshman pitcher Chris McNulty walked the seventh-place hitter, gave up a double to the eighth, walked the ninth and the first, and then gave up a grand slam to Delaware's Ryan Cuneo.

The Undergraduate Assembly looked to implement tangible change this past Sunday as many members are currently up for re-election by their peers. Most notably, the UA passed their New Student Orientation Night-Time Activities Proposal, an initiative the assembly has pursued since passing the "NSO Fraternity Safety Proposal" last fall.

Tradition is the name of the game here at Penn, but we should realize that the best traditions are those that maintain their heritage while being relevant in the present. This year, more than ever, it was clear to us that Hey Day had to be carried out with an openness to change.

Joan Didion's National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Year of Magical Thinking, speaks of the difficulties of coming to terms with the death of one's loved ones. As part of the yearly Fellows program at the Kelly Writers House, Didion read excerpts from her latest nonfiction novel, which details an account of the year following her husband's death.

Although interest in Arabic language programs is increasing around the country, the number of U.S. students opting to study in Arab countries still remains relatively low, according to a report issued by the Institute of International Education. The challenges that prevent U.

Opponents to the proposed Philadelphia casinos are up in arms about Mayor Michael Nutter's recent statement that the City will create "no barriers" to their development. But the Mayor's Office maintains that legally, there is no other choice.

The ever-looming danger of phoning an ex, a boss or any of the several people in their phone books most people would not call sober only increases with their level of intoxication. The release of two iPhone applications that allow users to block themselves from calling certain contacts for a set amount of time will help remove the potential repercussions of drunk dialing.