Toby Hicks

Gong Xi Fa Cai! That's Happy Chinese New Year, to you. The Year of the Rat - also known as the Chinese year 4706 - began on Feb. 7, and residents of Chinatown in Philadelphia spent two weeks ringing in the new year in style. Chinese New Year is the most important of traditional Chinese holidays and is accompanied by parades, feasts and family reunions.

Originally opened in 1773, City Tavern has proudly upheld the time-honored techniques of 18th century American chefs. Every dish offered on their menu has a unique story behind it. My guest and I began to order our appetizers and our server came to life from being a formal colonial servant to animatedly telling us the story behind each dish: How W.

Cuba is a country of color, Castro and cigars. The better two of these three are represented at Cuba Libre restaurant. Enter Cuba Libre on any weekend night and you will find a bustling crowd clamoring to get a table. I would recommend reservations, unless you desire to wait for a few hours before eating.

The artistic morsels at Gayle fuse exotic tastes with a playful sense of humor. Throughout the experience, chef Daniel Stern takes great pains to make the meal memorable. Tucked away just off of South Street, Gayle offers quality homemade cuisine that will stir the Oliver Twist question within: "Please miss, may I have some more?" After arriving at the restaurant my guest and I were shown to one of the two window tables.

A student committee has chosen either Google or Microsoft to serve as the new host for Penn Webmail - but they're not saying which one. The students on the Computing Advisory Board are keeping mum because their decision has yet to clear with University administrators.

If you're afraid drunken Facebook photos and scandalous YouTube footage will scare employers away, here's a site that says it will come to your rescue. ReputationDefender.com, co-founded in the spring by 2004 Penn alumnus Ross Chanin, is an online service that searches the Internet for references to its clients.

Abbie Feinberg (white shirt) and other members of the Amorphous Jugglers practice their fire- juggling techniques on College Green near Van Pelt Library on Saturday.

University officials still haven't decided which company, Microsoft Corp. or Google Inc., will replace Penn's current Webmail service. Officials said earlier this year that they would select a company to host all undergraduate e-mail accounts by about this time, at the latest.

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.

Philadelphia's three Tower Records stores will soon shut down due to lack of revenue, but students say they won't notice the absence of the once-landmark stores. Tower Records stores across the country, about 100 locations listed on the chain's Web site, are closing due to bankruptcy, a probable byproduct, experts say, of increased online music sales.