Cuisine from a cart

By Sonia Dasgupta

It’s a rainy Wednesday around noon and steam billows from a silver hot dog stand on Main Street. As Bennie Dollard cooks up a cheese steak for one of his regular customers, Sam Wyatt, they talk about his week.

“How’s your leg?” Bennie says.

“It’s ok, not as bad as Monday,” Wyatt says.

“My mom always says when it rains, the little aches you have come out,” Bennie says.

Wyatt, an employee of the university’s honors program, discovered Bennie’s stand in mid-July and now comes once or twice per week. He says he knows what a good cheese steak should taste like because he is from the suburbs of Philadelphia and he says Bennie’s are great.

“It’s the smell, the grill,” he says. “There’s a flavor that comes from charring meat that doesn’t come from anywhere else.”

The stand located right in front of the National 5 & 10 not only has the simple hot dog, but also an array of sandwiches from kielbasa and sausage to various Caribbean-influenced offerings. Bennie also sells breakfast sandwiches and his best seller is “The Hustler” — philly steak, two eggs, sautéed onions, hash browns and cheese.

Ashley who?

By Ashley Duran

Imagine being named after a “refined, exotic, oriental and floral” fragrance called …Raffinée.

That’s right. It was my dad’s idea. Thankfully my mom was opposed to the name and was a Dynasty fan in 1985, while she was pregnant. My middle name, Desireé, which sounds suspiciously similar to Rafineé, was already decided. The character of Lady Ashley Mitchell, played by Ali MacGraw, caught my mom’s attention.

“What about Ashley?” she asked my dad. “Ashley Desireé.”

At the time my mom didn’t realize that I would later be ridiculed because she decided to give me names with initials spelling out “A.D.D.” or attention deficit disorder. She also swears the name Ashley wasn’t popular around the time I was born.

Obviously everyone else’s parents had the same thoughts. According to the Social Security Administration, there were 46,982 Ashley’s born in the United States in 1985, making it the second most popular girls’ name.

Untraditional traditions

By Jena Levy

Sophomore Sarah Lipman has a very special Thanksgiving tradition that resulted of an incident that was not so special.

Her parents grew up with two different religious backgrounds. Her mother is Catholic and her father is Jewish, and the two families do not get along.

When she was 7 years old, her uncle, her mother’s brother, did not invite their family to Thanksgiving dinner. Her father thought it was his fault they weren’t invited so to cheer him up, her mother made his favorite meal: lobster and crab cakes, Lipman says.

Tofu? No thank you

By Michael LoRé

As I entered my apartment at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, it hit me like a sack of bricks.

The smell of eggplant, garlic bread and tomato sauce stung my nostrils as I started to salivate like a dog staring at a bone.

As my roommates gathered around the table to indulge in the homemade eggplant parmigiana, I made my way toward the refrigerator to take out my dinner. I opened the package, doused the wet, white block in barbeque sauce and slabbed the $1.99 hunk of tofu on my George Foreman grill.

Beginning the day before, I attempted to go vegan for the week. Going vegan was going to be a big lifestyle change for me, since I am 100% carnivore.

Shopping cart shortage

By Miju Kim

“Beepbeepbeep. Emergency. Emergency. Do not use elevators. Do not use elevators. Use stairs to evacuate. Beepbeepbeep. Emergency Emergency…”

The annoying fire alarm rang again, forcing my eyes open.

I was awfully exhausted to get myself out of bed but I could not take the piercing alarm sound anymore. It was about to drive me crazy.

Rubbing the cobwebs out of my eyes, I looked at a clock on the wall. God…it was 4:30 a.m. Must be some stupid moron smoking a cigarette or pot in the room that made the alarm go off.

BUT, rules are the rules. I had to follow the campus orders. What if it was a real fire? I got dressed and evacuate my room.

Going down from the thirteenth floor of the Christiana East Towers, I saw five shopping carts dumped in the stairwell. They all are from the supermarket, Superfresh. Many other residents and I had a hard time going down since they were blocking our way. Later, it turned out that it was not a real fire.

Virtual Vacation

By Amanda Vasilikos

A yellow beach towel is being held in front of virtual me as the beach begins to take shape on my computer screen.  The last few palm trees develop on the horizon against the evening sky, which has recently changed to a pinkish orange color.  No, I’m not dreaming.  I am in Virtual Laguna Beach.

Just a few months ago MTV Networks, along with Makena Technologies, created a 3D world for fans of the hit series “Laguna Beach.”  Virtual Laguna Beach is an online community in which viewers become 3D versions of themselves, or “avatars.” From there, fans live in an environment that is almost identical to Laguna Beach, Calif.

Through the free program, fans are able to shop, attend official events and even catch in-world appearances from Laguna Beach cast members.

Going gray? Fear not

By Kristin Vorce

The first time I noticed it, I thought my eyes were deceiving me. I squinted and drew my head to the mirror for a closer inspection. My jaw dropped — the verdict was undeniable.

I was 18 years old and I had a gray hair.

Two years later, however, I realize I’m not alone. Whether or not they cover it up, a number of college students have, as a friend of mine calls it, “a little sparkle.” Ms. Pressey, an instructor at a hair design school in Newark, estimates that for every 20 university students who walk into her salon, five have strands of gray hair.

TV journalist Anderson Cooper has written an essay, “Going Gray” on CNN’s Web site about the trials of graying at age 20.

“Going gray is like ejaculation,” he writes. “You know it can happen prematurely, but when it actually does, it’s a total shock.”

Klondike Kate’s: a rich history

By Sarah Lipman

Customers patiently wait in line outside to get their hands on the best wings and nachos in Newark. Waiters and hostesses hustle throughout the dimly lit saloon-style restaurant in step with the music playing overhead, tending to the heavy flow of customers. The bartender pours a regular another drink as she spends yet another night at Klondike Kate’s trying to make it on the restaurant’s brass “Wall of Foam.”

All of this seems routine, as if it has been going on forever. However, Kate’s was not always a restaurant and bar for community members and university students to relax in after a tough week of work and classes.

Klondike Kate’s is one of the oldest business locations on Main Street. It has been open for more than 242 years, revamping itself for many different forms of entertainment.

Digging for gold

By Adam Asher

It’s late on Saturday afternoon and I’m cuddled up with my girlfriend as we watch a movie. We’ve fallen into our favorite positions, her head on my shoulder and my arm around her, her legs over mine, and a bowl of popcorn in her lap. I could not possibly be more comfortable.

Suddenly, panic strikes. I’ve got an itch in my nose! Not on my nose, in it.

We haven’t been dating for that long so I don’t know if I’m allowed to pick my nose in front of her. That’s a big step. I know I can burp, I definitely can’t fart, so I suppose picking my nose lies somewhere in between.

She turns her head for a second.

I go for it.

Phew! That was satisfying.

As I discretely rub my finger on my jeans, I begin to wonder what’s so gross about picking your nose anyway. It seems like a perfectly natural response. Something is annoying (a dried up booger), so I take care of it (by jabbing it with my index finger). And it’s not like I’m the only one who does it.

Welcome back, Spandex! We missed you?

By Chloe Gallo

In the 1980s, females wore spandex with their leg warmers and sneakers. Today they wear leggings and with their UGG boots. Although 25 years has passed, the only difference in females’ choice of pants is that in the 1980s they labeled them spandex and today we say “leggings.” Whether you call them spandex, leggings, stirrups, footless tights, or even stretch pants, they all are the same thing: tight pants that contour every inch of your leg.

Spandex pants are back in style but with variation. The once fluorescent, Lycra of the 1980s used by people who wanted to keep fit, has shifted gears to in terms of color, material, and purpose.

“I don’t think the leggings I wear from Abercrombie are even close to the tacky ones my mom wore,” says senior Victoria Kloss.

The birth of this fashion came about in the mid 1950s when it was worn by lean dancers and other athletic women at this time. The trend then resurfaced in the beloved 1980s for the same exercise purposes creating what was called the Spandex Revolution.