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.