Stephen Starr got it all wrong.

For those that have never ventured farther west than Qdoba and Allegro's, West Philadelphia has a stigma attached to it that breeds images of desolate paths and constant danger.

With only breakfast and lunch hours and an entrance snugly fit between two larger buildings, La Cigale is easy to overlook.

Behold - the power of cheese.

It's restaurants like Amada that make the trip to Old City worthwhile.

Literally translated as "white flower," Shiroi Hana offers straight-from-the ocean freshness and a tranquil ambience that will make you forget that you're sitting in the heart of Philadelphia's busiest district.

Division of Public Safety initiatives to cut crime on campus may be paying off. Total crime for September in Penn's patrol zone is down 18 percent between 2005 and 2006. While there were 114 incidents of crime around Penn - ranging from assault to bicycle theft - in September last year, there were 93 offenses, all of them considered relatively minor by safety officials, in the same month this year.

My companion to Portofino wanted to order fettuccine alfredo, but the chef, Giuseppe Falconio, wouldn't let him. Sitting at our table, Falconio shook his head at my friend's lack of mealtimes ambition.

As students shuffled into Bodek Lounge yesterday to watch God and Allah Need to Talk, they were handed brochures that posed a single question on their covers. "God is always talking to us," it read. "But are we talking to one another?" Nearly 50 students and community members gathered last night to discuss that question, listening to remarks by student religious groups, University Chaplain William Gipson and journalist Ruth Broyde-Sharone, who produced the film.

In the metaphorical game of dodgeball, Penn just may be the fat kid sitting on the sidelines.

The number of black students on Penn's campus would significantly decline if the University were to end affirmative action in the next 25 years, a new study predicts. Economists from the University of Virginia and Princeton University projected that without the program in place, significantly fewer black students would attend college.

This is a takeout campus, not a restaurant campus. We've got Qdoba, the Greek Lady and food trucks galore.

Both Cuban and American, Achy Obejas says she still has a firm sense of identity. And countries, as well as people, need to reconcile contradicting images of themselves, she says. The writer spoke yesterday afternoon at the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center in the Carriage House about identity and its implications in society.

Yesterday was the last day for voter registration in Pennsylvania, and Penn groups will soon see whether their efforts to bolster the student electorate paid off. While an official count is not yet available, elections experts say that voter registration is generally up in Philadelphia, but not as significantly as during a presidential election year.

Former Penn Anthropology professor Arjun Appadurai challenged America's top research universities to redefine themselves yesterday. The past three decades have brought a knowledge explosion, Appadurai said, and that revolution and its digitization have diluted the university's role as a place for research.

Dim-sum is unlike any eating experience you have at a typical restaurant, a chaotic yet gratifying experience.

Maybe it's the lucky number. Or maybe it's the all-natural ingredients. Maybe it's the skill of chef/owner Michael O'Halloran.