Ok, the tag line is a little kitschy, but regardless, check out Urban Fare this Thursday at Gaston Hall (8:00-10:00 pm). Now in its eighth iteration, the fare provides a much needed venue at Georgetown for Hip Hop Dance, Spoken Word Poetry, Emcees and R&B and Rap vocalists. If that’s not reason enough to go, it’s also for a good cause; proceeds go to college-bound seniors at the Duke Ellington School for the Performing Arts. Buy tickets in advance ($6) or at the door ($8).

As if you needed an excuse to see Groove Theory.

-Madeline Reidy, Leisure Editor

Georgetown got a middling rating on environmental sustainability, but at least we’re doing one thing right: cafeteria food? PETA has added Georgetown to its list of the most vegetarian friendly colleges. The school’s also been entered in the voting to decide the most vegetarian friendly college of them all. And it’s all because of those sinister tofu cubes:

Some smart dishes featured on campus include vegan wild-mushroom and barley ragout, tofu stir-fry with orange-ginger sauce, and vegan rosemary polenta with broccoli rabe.

To be sure, the seasoned fries are delicious. But how many of those can you eat before you back gain the weight you became a vegetarian to lose?

Via Degenerate and Collegiate, who writes for the Voice and is less thrilled about Leo’s than PETA is.
-Will Sommer, blog editor

When Georgetown environmental group EcoAction sent out an email Wednesday asking people on their email list to steal apples from Leo’s for a booth at the UNICEF carnival, it must’ve seemed harmless. Who hasn’t taken cookies home for later, or brought Tupperware in a backpack for larger-scale larceny? Two people EcoAction CC’d disagreed–an Aramark representative and Margie Bryant, Vice President of Auxiliary Services, the department in charge of Leo’s. Internet drama ensued!

Margie hit “reply all” and ripped EcoAction, saying they weren’t making friends in the administration (does this mean no more LCD screens?).

Tripti Bhattacharya (SFS ‘10), EcoAction’s president, said it was “just a misunderstanding.” But the emails make clear that neither Bryant or EcoAction are confused about their positions (anti- and pro-apple theft, respectively). When I mentioned to Bhattacharya that I had seen the emails, she just said “Oh” and there was a long pause. Bryant didn’t respond in time for this post.

In the end EcoAction got the apples from Georgetown’s other fruit monger, Mission Three, and the UNICEF booth was saved. But will EcoAction ever get to hawk their environment petitions in Leo’s again?
Emails and commentary after the jump.

(more…)

A conversation about whether the state song of New Jersey was really “about having sex on a motorcycle” led to the discovery of this, Maryland’s state song. And what a song it is. (And what a state she was…)

Here’s a taste:

She breathes! she burns! she’ll come! she’ll come!
Maryland! My Maryland!

Read on. Sexy and John Caroll-related parts are bolded for your pleasure.

(more…)

The good folks at the Sustainable Endowments Institute must have missed the Voice’s article this week about how GUSA, EcoAction, and the Corp are painting the campus green. At least, that might explain the B- Georgetown got in the SEI’s 2008 College Sustainability Report Card. Take heart, though. Georgetown students might cringe at the idea of getting a B- on anything, but it’s not all bad in this case.

The good news: In the category breakdowns, we received an A in Investment Priorities. Also, Georgetown’s grade was a bump up from last year’s. Though it’s only slightly higher than the average grade of a C+, it’s a whole lot higher than the D+ that both GWU and American received and Howard’s F.

The bad news: That being said, where would Georgetown be if we only defined success as being better than GWU and American? Georgetown was behind all of the Ivies, except for Princeton, which also received a B-. And we received an F for Endowment Transparency and C’s in Climate Change & Energy and Shareholder Engagement.

Georgetown’s report is viewable here and the entire report card is here.

- Sam Sweeney, senior writer

One entry in Georgetown Washington University’s crime log this week, via the GW Hatchet, stood out.

Lewd Obscene Acts

10/15/07 - Marvin Center - 8:35 p.m. - case closed

UPD officers responded to an anonymous tip about a male individual who appeared to be masturbating. Officers approached the student, who claimed he was merely talking on his cell phone. He was cautioned about having his hands down his pants in public and was told to leave the area.

Could “talking on my cellphone” be to GW students what a “wide stance” is to U.S. Senators? I guess even though a $50,000 tuition pays for a lot of things, chilling in public with your hand down your pants isn’t one of them.

- Sam Sweeney, Senior Writer

The top part of a tree trunk split off and struck a woman on 36^th Street between N and Prospect Streets around 1:15 this afternoon. GERMS, the Metropolitan Police Department, DPS and the D.C. Fire Department were on the scene within minutes to tend to the victim, who was immobilized, loaded onto a stretcher and taken off the scene in a D.C. ambulance. She will be treated at George Washington University Hospital, according to Officer Brittingham of MPD. GERMS declined to comment at this time. The accident happened outside the Mortara Center, near Wisemiller’s Deli. More updates as this story develops.

View more photos after the jump.

(more…)

An e-mail sent to residents of Village B sheds some light on the cause of Saturday night’s fire.

Dear Residents of Alumni Square–

I am writing as a Residence Life Staff member on call for the weekend. I would like to alert you about a potential fire safety issue that can be easily clarified. It has come to our attention that some of you may be using the drawer space beneath your oven as storage. Please note that it is actually a broiler space as part of the oven. When using the over, items in there may become extremely hot, melt, and/or catch fire. If you have used this as a drawer in the past, please remove any items being stored there.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact an RA or your Hall Director, Heather Cruz, who will be in touch during the business week.
Thanks and enjoy your weekend.
Christy Anthony
Ass’t Director, Office of Residence Life

This is an important first step. But who will protect Village B students from drying their hair in the bath?
- Sam Sweeney, Senior Writer

If you live in a townhouse, have a car, and don’t have as many parking spots as you’d like, you can get help from an unlikely source—Advisory Neighborhood Commission member Ron Lewis. If you e-mail him and suggest that parking spots with restricted parking have those restrictions lifted, he’ll do what he can as part of his “Parking Lot Treasure Hunt” initiative. With luck, the restrictions will be lifted and you will have opened up another spot in Georgetown.

Even if you can park in front of your townhouse, opening another spot on your street will make your life easier because other cars won’t take your space. With that in mind, you might as well suggest a bunch of spaces, especially considering that Lewis’s other campaign is extending the new party regulations off-campus. Isn’t this a more constructive use of his time?

-Will Sommer, blog editor. Flickr photo from leftymgp.

A kitchen fire in a Village B apartment sent smoke billowing out of the building’s windows but was put out before any major damage occurred, according to fire department officials on the scene.

The fire began in the kitchen of Village B 51 at approximately 9:20 p.m., Village B Resident Assistant Pedro Soto (COL ’08) said as he entered the apartment building shortly before 10 p.m.

The fire department responded quickly, he said, with at least half a dozen fire trucks on the scene. 35 minutes after the fire began, officials had given the all-clear to reenter the building.

A firefighter boarding the last truck to leave the scene said that the fire had already been put out by a fire extinguisher before he arrived.

-Marco Cerna, News Editor. Photo by Emily Voigtlander.