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For most freshmen, NSO is a time to travel in hall-sized groups, stumble down Spruce, drink too much jungle juice and figure out the stereotypes that define each fraternity house (and to figure out how to pronounce Greek lettering). But that is obviously not the way everyone envisions spending their first nights away from home, and the Undergraduate Assembly is right to acknowledge this fact through their creation of late-night alternatives.

When former Penn Economics professor Rafael Robb murdered his wife in December 2006, the entire city of Philadelphia followed the police investigation, the arrest and the court case in disbelief. And when Philadelphia Inquirer staff writer Rose Ciotta releases her first book Cruel Games: A Brilliant Professor, A Loving Mother, A Brutal Murder today, those who followed the headlines can read about the case from a new angle.

Let's start out with a couple of riddles. What has thousands of wings but has never flown once?

If there was a turning point in the women's basketball season, it was probably the turning of the calendar from 2008 to 2009. On Dec. 31, the Quakers (3-14, 0-3 Ivy) defeated St. Francis for their third win in four games. Since then, Penn has lost seven straight, including three in the Ivy League.

For over a year now, a quiet but heated dispute has been taking place literally on the periphery of campus: On one side, Penn and its partners are trying to clear the way for a hotel development at 40th and Pine streets; on the other, a committed group of neighborhood activists are saying "not in our backyard.

For Colia Clark, coins jingling in a change purse symbolized the relationship between economics and governmental policy. Clark, a representative of the National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations and one of four speakers in a discussion this Saturday in the Bodek Lounge of Houston Hall, waved her coin purse in the air to illustrate a main point of the event: the interconnectedness of the global economy and American foreign policy.

Hanover, N.H., - Wow, what an exciting weekend. In my five-plus semesters here at Penn, I have gone to all but two of the men's basketball Ivy League road games as part of the Penn Band. And in no single weekend have two games been as close and intense as the two I witnessed this weekend in New England.

The seniors on the Penn women's tennis team went to Norfolk, Va., Saturday looking for a sweep. The Red and Blue had beaten Old Dominion three years in a row. Saturday, though, the tables turned. In their first match of the year, the Quakers fell to the Monarchs, 7-0.

Women's basketball coach Pat Knapp's scouting report warned that Harvard sophomore Christine Matera was a deadly shooter, but going into Friday's game against Penn she had shot only 15-for-63 from behind the arc, a 23.8 percent clip. Matera found her shooting stroke against the Quakers, as she shot 5-for-5 on three-pointers, several of them from well behind the line.

In Penn's College Houses, Resident Advisors coordinate ice-breaking games for students, but mavericks, the Radian's equivalent of RAs, get the party started for their residents. Last Friday, the Radian's inhabitants had the chance to start their night on the 11th floor club room at a Radian-sponsored "pregame."

Over 13 million e-mail addresses are part of a listserve that could change America - or at least, that's what President Barack Obama hopes. Obama announced on Jan. 17 that his grassroots campaign network will be transformed into Organizing for America, offering volunteers the opportunity to improve their communities and support policy in Washington.

Alicia Puglionesi is an College senior from Havertown, Pa. Her e-mail address is puglionesi@dailypennsylvanian.com.

Before being considered the next Jackie O., Michelle O. was a senior at Princeton, and like countless before and since her, she wrote a senior thesis. The university's Web site proudly states that the thesis is "quintessentially Princeton" and claims it to develop "mental discipline" and "the skills of analysis, synthesis and clear writing.

Temple University students may not have insomnia, but beginning next week they will have Insomnia Cookies.

The Philadelphia Police Department recently increased the number of targeted police districts from nine to 12, which will include heavier patrolling just north of Penn's campus. Despite the city's budget problems, the 16th, 23rd and 24th districts were added to the list of high-crime areas slated for extra focus in response to spikes in violent crimes.

Penn senior 141-pound wrestler Rick Rappo takes a very zen approach to dealing with crunch-time pressure. He seemed totally focused and undaunted in tackling his enormous task in an 18-16 home upset by the Quakers (8-5, 3-0 EIWA) over No. 21 Hofstra (7-4, 4-1 CAA) on Saturday.