Dave Anderson is a College senior from Denver. His e-mail address is anderson@dailypennsylvanian.com.

As the controversy over a student's suicide-bomber Halloween costume continues to turn heads around the world, both the student and University officials are rushing to do damage control.

Actor Kal Penn is best known for playing a pot-smoking medical genius, but he showed a serious side when he came to Penn last night. Penn, who played Kumar in the movie Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, took the podium before an enthusiastic sell-out crowd in Bodek Lounge.

So many great classes are listed in the course register but are never actually offered in the timetable.

As the weather has gotten colder, the field hockey team has only gotten hotter. Penn (9-7, 4-2 Ivy) will carry its six-game winning streak into New Jersey tonight for its season finale against arch rival Princeton (10-6, 6-0). The Quakers have not lost in over a month, when a 2-1 defeat to Dartmouth effectively ended their Ivy League title hopes.

For four years, senior Mike Loguidice has quarterbacked the Quakers. At 7 p.m. tonight, he will walk onto Franklin Field for the last time in Penn's sprint football match against Princeton (0-5). "As long as we win, that's the only way you want to go out," Loguidice said.

When the Quakers head to Princeton tomorrow, don't expect the atmosphere on the field to be warm and fuzzy. "They're Princeton, so we don't like them," Penn forward Molly Weir said. "There's always this tension, and it makes us want to beat them even more.

West Philadelphia resident Solange Chadda took her crusade to get on the Senate ballot to court yesterday morning - only to be shot down by the judge after her lawyer failed to show up. But Chadda said she's not willing to give up the fight, even if that means taking her case to the U.

Several days from now, millions of Americans will participate in one of the nation's greatest traditions: midterm elections. With all of the focus on the big day, we thought now would be an appropriate time to jump on the political bandwagon. As a matter of fact, it seems our friends over in New Jersey have some pretty big races going on now.

Did you sleep with someone you shouldn't have last weekend? For people who are worried about sexually transmitted diseases, a new service called SxCheck.com offers a confidential online testing service, though it comes with a hefty price tag, and some aren't sure that it's a real substitute for more standard ways of getting tested.

At age 21, Chaka Fattah decided to run for city commissioner. He lost the election, but his perspective changed, he said. "I was still energized by the whole process," he said. "I couldn't wait to run again." Fattah, now a six-term Democratic member of Congress and potential candidate for Philadelphia mayor, discussed the impact of political participation on the Philadelphia community last night.

For Penn's lawns, when it rains, it pours. Even during the heaviest downpours, the University sprinkler system is in full operation - saturating grass that has already been watered by the elements.

Want to block traffic for a good cause this Sunday? Sign up for the AmeriHealth Ben Franklin Bridge Challenge and run or walk across the bridge, which spans the Delaware River. The event benefits the Larc School - a special education school in South Jersey for students with moderate to severe disabilities.

If the battle for control of Congress weren't reason enough for Penn students to flock to the polls for this Tuesday's congressional midterms, here's another: The outcome of the election could significantly affect how they pay for college. Two of the major issues on the table are Pell Grant and Stafford Loan funding for students.

Tim Strickland shocked the Penn faithful last year, picking off quarterback Pat McDermott twice and helping Princeton end almost a decade of football frustration against the Quakers in a 30-13 win. But the 6-foot-1, 190-pound strong safety's performance was no surprise to opposing coaches, who have watched Strickland wreak havoc on Ivy defenses from the moment of his arrival in Old Nassau.

For those looking to celebrate diversity or champion a cause, Penn's calendar offers no shortage of opportunities: This week is Asian Pacific American Heritage Week, two weeks ago was Breast Cancer Awareness Week and next week marks both Unity Week and Muslim Awareness Week - and many more are coming.

Author Joyce Carol Oates says she is always thinking about writing, even when she goes running. "Running is much easier than life," she said. Oates, a National Book Award winner, gave a book reading at the Penn Bookstore yesterday evening. Oates presented her two new books, After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away and Black Girl/White Girl, to a fairly large audience made up of students, aspiring writers and admirers.