Gl Fridays works up an appetite but doesn’t hit the spot by Roger Burlingame staff writer This weekend I ate at a very famous chain restaurant. Not McDonalds, but TGI Fridays. I’ve never eaten there before, but the commercials made me feel like I was missing the party if I wasn’t at Friday’s. The atmosphere was crazy—an “in your face” style of decorating that you can only find at this sort of chain, where they put more decorations on the wall than there is wall space. The servers, however, have on even more stuff than is on the walls. They all wear tons of pins and assorted knick-knacks, along with a funny hat, which must be a prerequisite for the job. Our server was right over and seemed a little too happy, but can you blame her? Our waitress did a wonderful job, and the service in general was good. The bar was quite large, but had a limited selection of beer and wine. Boston: where nobody knows your name Four of us decided to keep up with available, go back to the old cassettes, true college tradition last weekend Even eight-tracks might be better, and make the prerequisite trek While driving the six or so hours across the country that is lovingly through New York, the following will referred to as: The College Road be heard on the radio: “Come on Trip. So three jprif and a guy ©ver,” 5 Ufries; Be Me,” Lumina last Fric^^nd times. And then Get ready everyone, but you are which probably saved our sanity but about to be clued into some very seriously frightened the older lady in dangerous but liberating J§he Caddy who had to try and drive information. 1-90 is not just the roatf Ivhile four groggy looking college that will take bored students fromicids headbanged vehemently while Station Road to the bright lights' 6f*fcempting to steer, sing, and pass her Peach Street. It can even take %oing 90 mph. Not a pretty sight. Pittsburghers farther than the exit to And if you had your sites set on a 1-79 (which in turn can take you to sundae cone from TCB Y treats at the real cities south of the ghetto known rest stops, jorget about it, cause they as Erie). 1-90 goes <Jf the way% |Sm? hfevEfc open, the east coast. you hearl| . you will reach Boston. We correctly. If you get oh T-90 and 4 stayed in the Back Bay area of the drive east (toward Buffalo, not city, a nice upper crust college town Cleveland), you will eventually hit with really fun streets, shops, and, ocean. Whoohoo! most importantly, bars! We spent the However, be forewarned that while crossing the long and unfortunately boring state of New York, you should be prepared to take CDs with you. If they aren't Students reach out to the community for National Chemistry Week by Jermaine Hardy features co-editor National Chemistry Week is a time honored by the American Chemistry The molecule for TNT now adorns the window of the Studio Theatre. but they did have an Erie micro brew on tap which I enjoyed very much. We started with an appetizer. I tried to pick something different, so when my date and I saw a spinach and feta pizza-dilla, we immediately ordered it, and it may have been the best thing we had that night. It was a quesadilla with pizza sauce for dipping, but the sauce was average, and the quesadilla was better off without it. Spinach and feta cheese are the perfect blend, especially when you throw in a couple more mild cheeses and some tomatoes, which they did. It was an excellent appetizer. For an entrde, my date had the mushrooms steak and mushrooms. That’s really what it’s called, I’m not making that up. If I could have named it, I wouldn’t have called a steakum a steak. If we had realized that it was a steakum we wouldn’t have paid 12 dollars for one. It was the thinnest steak I have ever seen, and it was day wandering around, looking at the sights and trying not to stumble into traffic every time someone honked a horn - every 30 seconds. We cruised up and down the main Society during the first week of November. For the past week, the Erie Sector of the National Chemistry Society hosted various events to make chemistry activities more visible to the public. Co-coordinated by Behrend's own Dr. Tracy Halmi, all the colleges in the Erie area collaborated to sponsor local events. At Behrend, members of the Chemistry Club kicked off National Chemistry Week last Sunday by painting the windows of the science building with a colorful “Chemisty Week” sign. They also decorated the widow of the Studio Theatre with an artificial model 01 the t-n-t molecule Working collaboratively, the colleges of the Erie area recognized National Chemistry Week with three major events in which they performed several chemistry demonstrations. On October 28, students set up tables in the Millceek overcooked. I don’t know if you can cook a steakum rare, but neither did Fridays, so I don’t feel too bad. Oh yes, 1 almost forgot, the steak was served with some tasteless veggies sprinkled with oregano, and a potato dish. I ordered the Jack Daniels shrimp. The shrimp was deep-fried and served with some tasteless veggies sprinkled with oregano, and a potato dish. The Jack Daniels sauce was a very good sweet and sour sauce. It was dark and tasted a little like a Chinese sauce, but the taste of the shrimp was trying to fight its way out of an inch of batter, and it didn’t succeed. It was a very unremarkable experience all in all, and I can hardly wait to not go to Fridays again. We were so disappointed, we couldn’t stay and eat dessert, so we got out as fast as we could. Their appetizer gave me some hope, but the entrees dashed that hope to smithereens. I give TGI Fridays two stars. escapades in the shopping district, we wandered a few Katie Galley (left) and Liz Hayes pose in blocks north to Beacon front of the pub that the Cheers TV Street and home of Cheers, series was based on. a^a Bull and Finch Pub. We made sure we looked like tourists and took about a dozen pictures in front of the sign. This is where the real fun ended, though. We soon learned that no one knew your name in Cheers (even after several minutes of coaxing the bouncer and flashing your driver’s license), and a Rolling Rock draft cost $5 - probably the most disturbing part of the trip. It is just wrong when a mixed drink tourist thoroughfare of Newbury Street on foot while our car racked up $4O in parking fees. The shops along this lane will make you very glad that you have credit cards! Be sure to check out Condom World, a scary, but extremely cool "underground" store along the strip. Nowhere else can you get a beginner’s whips and chains set for Mall to perform different chemistry demonstrations for shoppers. On November 4, these students made a visit to the Children’s Experience Erie Museum and visited 20 community libraries. National Chemistry Week provided The Science Building is all decked out for National Chemistry Week a o : ~, a TGI Fridays located on Upper Peach Street, $12.99! We also went to Prudential Center to shop around some more. While there, we ate dinner at Legal Sea Food, the must go seafood restaurant in Boston. Again, thank God for credit cards, as such establishments aren’t exactly geared to the college budget. The Penn State credit cards scored big time in Beantown. a means for college students to reach out to the community and celebrate the beauty of chemistry. Students of Behrend made a particularly impressive contribution donating 70 community service hours. costs less than beer on tap! However, the Bull and Finch is now short three souvenir beer mugs, so 1 guess we showed them! After drunkenly stumbling around town a little more, and watching the editorial page editor recklessly driving a scooter around FAO Schwartz, we eventually made it back to our car and hotel. We left pretty early in the morning and made our way back through N’Syncville (with an unexpectedly brief but pleasant detour in Pink Floyd City) to arrive home in plenty of time for The X- Files season premiere. And so concluded our trip. Oh yeah, did we mention that the whole point of the trip was to check out Emerson College, the graduate school of our choice? That was pretty fun, too! Liz Hayes COMBA 07 Katie Galley COMBA 06 A.y editors for the Behrend Beacon, Liz Haves and Katie Galley are disqualified from winning the Contest. The five star system is a new addition to Greek life at Behrend by Karl Benacci features co-editor Beginning this semester, Behrend’s fraternities and sorori ties had the option to participate in the Five Star Program. The Five Star Program rewards participat ing chapters for their involvement, cooperation, programming efforts, and other activities. It is designed to recognize the Greek Chapters for their achievement and philan thropy work. The program is a process in which chapters self re port their involvement and activi ties. Chapters are also rewarded for their support of university policies and deadlines. Chapters are evaluated annually in six areas. The Greek Advisor is responsible for these evaluations. It is the responsibility of the chap ter president to ensure that all of the necessary components have been completed and that the nec essary forms, reports, and verifi cation are submitted by the dead lines set by the Office of Student Activities. Each area will be evaluated separately with the pos sibility of receiving commenda tions in the individual area of evaluation. Area commendations will be awarded to those chapters that receive 90% of the total pos sible points in the area of evalua tion. Chapters that receive com mendations in all of the six areas will be awarded Five Star Chap- Hi: \i.) Di m i FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10,2000 Cruisin'A CAsh Contest Rules Any Behrend student can submit a 300-500 word story about a road trip they have taken since the end of the spring 2000 semester. The trip must be more than 150 miles from the original loca tion. A photo must accom pany entry with sufficient proof that the trip was made. Insufficient proof will lessen chances to win contest. If more than one student took part in the road trip, only the student submitting the story is eligible, unless all mem bers send name in with en try. If more than one student name appears on entry, prize will be divided amongst the students who entered. SencJ in entries as soon as pos sible to ensure publication in the Beacon. Only entries ap pearing in the Beacon will be voted on. Beacon members are ineligible and will vote on the winner. ter status. The fraternities that are partak ing in the program are Zeta Beta Tau, Delta Chi, and Sigma Kappa Nu, while Alpha Sigma Alpha is the lone sorority participating in the program. Shawna Pelasky, Coordinator of Greek Life & Student Leadership Programs, introduced the Five Star Program to Behrend’s Greek System. “As I began to review the year and other Greek programs throughout the nation, I felt that we should consider adding a Five Star recognition program to the services we offer. This program is a wonderful way for organizations to register the programs and com munity service they are providing and get rewarded for their vast contributions. This program will also allow students who are inter ested in joining the Greek commu nity additional information about the chapters.” Rewards and incentives have been implemented to motivate the chapters that agreed to participate in the Five Star Program. Each Five Star Chapter will receive a plaque, and the president of the or ganization will be photographed and highlighted in a press release sent to his/her hometown. Chap ters will be recognized in the spring of each academic year for their efforts and accomplishments in the Five Star Evaluation Pro gram.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers