TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2016
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FIGHTING Tarka, Bobby’s Burger Palace face health violations From Nov. 9-21, city officials inspected over 500 restaurants REBECCA TAN Staff Reporter
From mouse droppings to moldy onions, Tarka Restaurant at 3801 Chestnut Street received a dozen health violations this November. The restaurant, which serves Pakistani, Indo-Chinese and Japanese food, was among ten establishments instructed by the Philadelphia Department of Health to “discontinue food operations immediately” due to “imminent health hazards.” After sanctioned closures on Nov. 7 and Nov. 10, the restaurant was allowed to re-open on Nov. 16. From Nov. 9-21, the DOH inspected nearly 500 restaurants, delis and other eateries, Philly.com reported. After three inspections of Tarka, the DOH registered 12 health violations at the establishment. Speaking over the phone to the Daily Pennsylvanian, Tarka’s manager Sultan Bhuiyan SEE VIOLATIONS PAGE 5
Q&A WITH THE STATESMAN PAGE 2
LOVE IN THE CITY OF BROTHERLY
District Attorney task force to work across six city zones
And the realities of both college and life are such that they cannot be encompassed in the one word — ‘Good.’ “
NICOLE RUBIN Staff Reporter
In the face of various racially-driven incidents of hate in Philadelphia, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams has created a new task force within the city to deal specifically with hate crimes, or as it is termed in the
legal code of Pennsylvania, “ethnic intimidation.” Cameron Kline, Communications Director and Spokesman for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, said the task force will work across six zones in the city broken up by police district, with Penn being in the southwest zone. In each zone, there will be an Assistant District Attorney specifically assigned to prosecute cases that fall into their zone. The statement released by Williams, Police
Commissioner Richard Ross and City Solicitor Sozi Pedro Tulante, said that during this period of “collective unrest, we also remind Philadelphians that violence of damage of property will not be tolerated.” It also states that, “regardless of whether these actions are committed in the name of the President-elect or in opposition to him,” they do not belong in the City of Brotherly Love. SEE CRIMES PAGE 5
- Emily Hoeven PAGE 4
BRING ON THE CHAMPS
Nearby colleges confront election result Penn was shaken, but local schools reacted differently KATHLEEN HARWOOD Staff Reporter
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Results of the election have sparked a variety of reactions and shifted the political climate on many different college campuses.
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1968 Wharton graduate and President-elect Donald Trump’s surprise victory sparked mostly disappointment and conf lict on Penn’s campus — but other nearby college campuses didn’t necessarily have the same reaction. At Penn, on the Wednesday following the election, some professors cancelled classes and postponed exams, and in a meeting with administrators, students were visibly upset over Trump’s win. That Friday, freshman students of color were unwillingly added to a GroupMe filled with racist messages, prompting protests and a solidarity march. At nearby Lafayette College, the campus was divided; many
students felt frightened by the results while others were celebrating. Louise Olson, a sophomore studying psychology, said that she was surprised by the visible division among her peers. “There were students who went out of their way to disrupt peaceful and silent protests,” she said. “A friend of mine who openly supported Hillary Clinton had drinks poured on her and the phrase ‘build a wall” screamed at her when she went out to a bar later that week. The strong, almost violent, support for Donald Trump and the lack of respect towards students with different opinions displayed on campus was really just shocking to me.” Olson described the atmosphere on Lafayette’s campus as generally “scary” but added that many of her friends who voted for SEE ELECTION PAGE 5
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The Statesman offers insight into political climate The publication is a place for conservative voices LEONARD EISEN Staff Reporter
In light of the sweeping Republican victory in both the White House and Congress, The Daily Pennsylvanian sat down last week with writers at the conservative student news publication, The Statesman, in order to talk politics. College junior Maria Biery is the editor-in-chief at The Statesman. Eric Hoover, a sophomore in Wharton, doubles as the finance director and editorial editor. Wharton sophomore Adam Sherman and College freshman Daniel Tancredi are both writers for the publication. DP: Does The Statesman have an editorial opinion of Trump? Biery: No, because everybody in our group has a very distinct opinion on [him]. There are some people who love Donald Trump in our group. There are some people who can’t stand [him]… So we can’t take that position as an editorial board to attempt to speak for everybody.
DP: What has it been like as a conservative publication reporting on the election and on the campus response? Tancredi: I think it’s important, since we are representing such a minority on campus, to stick largely to the facts and simply report what happens and let people take their own sides of things. This is definitely a tense time.
DP: Where do you think that tension comes from? Hoover: Conservatives on college campuses, kind of by definition, have to walk on egg shells, [because] some conservative opinions are deemed offensive — for example, being against illegal immigration. Sherman: I see it more with individuals shutting down conversation amongst the University… people putting up barriers to conversation rather than actually engaging. Hoover: When you have a culture around campus that kind of prohibits certain viewpoints either directly or indirectly…everyone is expected to think the same way, and people who do think a different way are scared to come out and voice their
opinions. DP: Do you think the manner in which the media covered the election, focusing so much on the things that Trump said, may have actually helped him win? Tancredi: Almost every time he would speak, he would talk about how he’s an outsider… [and when] inside groups, like the media, the government, like Hollywood, all came out against him, that says look, he really is not a part of these groups – they hate him. Sherman: Trump really fed on this movement for, as Obama called it, change. Obama ran on change; Trump ran on change. And it’s this insatiable appetite for change in America that has been fueling our elections for the past decade or so. DP: What do you view as the goal of The Statesman? Biery: We want to open up discourse again… we really think that Penn needs that… we are going to be some of the leaders in this world, and if we can’t sit down and have a civil discussion with each other, how can we expect to have any kind of
BONNIE MENDELSON | CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Members of the Penn conservative publication, The Statesman, shared their thoughts on the aftermath of the election and the current political climate.
compromise? Hoover: We also want to expose people, with our editorials, to views that they wouldn’t
see otherwise. And give courage to other conservatives on campus that might be just silent about
their beliefs. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Politics, basketball and Christmas carols: events at Penn this week Campus features fun events as the semester closes TOM NOWLAN & ELLIE SCHROEDER News Editor-elect & Assignments Editor
Penn Men’s Basketball vs. Villanova Tuesday, 7 p.m., The Palestra The Quakers couldn’t have chosen a tougher opponent for their 2016-17 home opener: The Villanova Wildcats are the defending NCAA champions, winning in the March Madness final last spring on a buzzer-beating three-pointer. Ranked No. 2 in the USA Today polls, ‘Nova is sure to provide an even tougher game than a typical Big 5 battle. Penn Democrats present: Politico Editor-at-large Peter Canellos Wednesday, 7 p.m., Huntsman 218
Don’t know what to make of the 2016 election? Peter Canellos, the editor-at-large of Politico and a 1984 College and Daily Pennsylvanian alumnus, will be a guest of the Penn Democrats as he attempts to parse through the election results. Previously the Boston Globe’s metro editor and even featured as a character in the movie “Spotlight,” Canellos is one of the leading voices in political media today. Want to ask him a question? Send it to communications@penndems.org! Authors@Wharton presents Angela Duckworth Wednesday 5:30-6:30 p.m.; Harrison Auditorium in the Penn Museum, By now you’ve probably heard of “grit” — a mysterious quality that Duckworth says is the key to success — but what exactly is it and how can you achieve it? Come hear from Duckworth, a professor in Penn’s psychology
Hall For the first time in human history, the majority of the world’s population lives in urban areas. Professor Frederick Steiner, the dean of the School of Design, will discuss what this reality means for the future of architecture, particularly as it pertains to sustainable practices. Steiner came to Penn this February after 15 years at the University of Texas.
FIRST LAST | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
As the semester comes to a close, there are several events to look forward to: the Quakers face Villanova, Penn Dems brings a speaker to campus and the Glee Club performs a holiday concert.
department, as she discusses her book “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance” as part
of the Authors@Wharton series. Entrance is free, but be sure to reserve a spot in advance online.
Sustainable Design Wednesday, 6 p.m.; Meyerson
Penn Glee Club Holiday Concert Saturday, 2 p.m.; Morris Arboretum Get off campus to the quaint confines of Morris Arboretum to hear the yuletide tunes of Penn’s oldest performing arts group. The concert is free with admission to the arboretum. The 155-year-old chorus will perform a diverse range of holiday songs while attendees sample cookies and hot cocoa.
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NEWS 3
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2016
Three int’l students spend Thanksgiving in the U.S.
Stein recount of Pennsylvania votes faces hurdles
Student spend Thanksgiving in NYC and Phila.
The Green Party has filed for a recount in Wis.
HYUN JIN CHA Contributing Reporter
For many Penn students, Thanksgiving break means going back home to reunite with family, catch up on sleep and feast on turkey. But for many international students, the four-day break isn’t long enough for them to fly back home. Here’s what three international Penn students did over Thanksgiving break, from sharing an air mattress in New York to tagging along to a friend’s Thanksgiving dinner. Jennifer Qiu Wharton freshman Jennifer Qiu hails from Hong Kong, which is 15 hours away by flight. Went to: New York City Stayed at: A friend’s house in Long Island Ate on Thanksgiving: Turkey,
but with traditional Chinese dishes like rice and noodles Did: Shopped on Black Friday, visited SoHo, Central Park, watched movies and sang karaoke. But she was alone Wednesday night in her New College House suite. Highlight of Thanksgiving Break: Spending time with friend and friend’s family — it was nice to feel at home. Karen Zhang Karen is a freshman studying Visual Studies in the College. She was born in Houston, but her immediate family lives in Shanghai, China. Instead of flying over to her grandmother’s house in Houston, she chose an alternative plan. Went to: New York City Stayed at: Friend’s dorm room in NYU Ate on Thanksgiving: Hot Pot for brunch and Korean BBQ for dinner Did: Reunited with high school friends, watched Moana and
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them…again, ate lots of food at nice restaurants and went shopping. She met Qiu coincidentally in Soho! Highlight of Thanksgiving Break: Hot pot — about nine to ten high school friends were there, so it was a nice reunion. Jia Wei Teo Wharton freshman Jia Wei Teo is from Malaysia and is pursuing a concentration in Actuarial Science. Went to: Philadelphia Stayed at: Friend’s house Ate on Thanksgiving: classic Chinese-American fusion — turkey and Chinese food at friend’s house. Did: Went to a Harry Potterthemed birthday party Wednesday night and had Thanksgiving dinner at a friend’s house. But she was alone in her New College House dorm Friday night. Highlight of Thanksgiving Break: The Harry Potter-themed birthday party
CHRIS MOUNTANOS Social Media Staffer
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein’s efforts to recount votes in Pennsylvania would bring significantly more challenges than in the other two states where she is pursuing a recount, Wisconsin and Michigan, according to CBS News. Pennsylvania is the only state where candidates cannot initiate a direct recount request themselves. They have a few options available to them, including the courts. Lawrence Otter, a Pennsylvania attorney representing Stein’s campaign, told The Philadelphia Inquirer he planned to file suit in Commonwealth Court on Monday calling for a statewide recount. The suit was filed later in the day. “Petitioners have grave concerns about the integrity of electronic voting machines used in their districts,” the suit stated, according to the Inquirer. Otter is the same attorney who represented Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s campaign when the former Republican presidential candidate was nearly ousted from the statewide ballot for the April 26 Republican primary. A lawsuit filed by College junior Nathaniel Rome alleged that Kasich did not have the requisite amount of signatures to be on the ballot. Rome ultimately dropped the suit. Stein has already successfully
COURTESY OF GAGE SKIDMORE
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein may face greater hurdles for a voter recount in Pennsylvania than elsewhere.
sought a recount in Wisconsin. P resident- elect Dona ld Trump, in a series of tweets sent over the weekend, claimed without evidence that “millions of people” voted illegally in the presidential election. There is no evidence of election fraud, Pennsylvania Secretary of State Pedro Cortes, a Democrat, told the Inquirer. In a video posted on Sunday, Stein said she will start a voter-initiated recount in Pennsylvania, a process she described as as “especially complicated.”
A statewide recount in Pennsylvania will be issued if at least three voters per election district submit affidavits. According to Citizens for Election Integrity, there were 9,175 election districts in Pennsylvania as of June 2015, meaning that 27,000 voters are needed for this to happen. It seems unlikely that Stein can produce a recount in Pennsylvania and even more unlikely that a statewide recount will allow Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to surpass Trump’s 70,638 vote lead in Pennsylvania.
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LUCIA HUO | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Wharton freshman Jennifer Qiu, College freshman Karen Zhang and Wharton freshman Jia Wei Teo explain what they did over Thanksgiving break instead of taking their long flights home.
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OPINION It’s complicated GROWING PAINS | Or, my 10-minute response to the question “How’s school going?”
TUESDAY NOVEMBER 29, 2016 VOL. CXXXII, NO. 114 132nd Year of Publication COLIN HENDERSON President LAUREN FEINER Editor-in-Chief ANDREW FISCHER Director of Online Projects ISABEL KIM Opinion Editor JESSICA MCDOWELL Enterprise Editor DAN SPINELLI City News Editor CAROLINE SIMON Campus News Editor ELLIE SCHROEDER Assignments Editor LUCIEN WANG Copy Editor SUNNY CHEN Copy Editor NICK BUCHTA Senior Sports Editor TOM NOWLAN Sports Editor WILL SNOW Sports Editor
“So how’s school going?” After the hellos and howare-yous, those are probably the first words you hear from everybody you see when you go home for break. The automatic response to this question is “Good! Everything’s going well. Classes are hard, you know, but everything’s good.” This is my standard reply whenever I run into someone from high school at the grocery store or see a neighbor on the street. After all, these are not ideal locations for going into a long speech about the ups and downs of college and exposing your personal feelings. Nor do your acquaintances from high school or your neighbor probably want to know all the intricacies and intimacies of your experience. The “how’s school going” question is one that can be satisfied by a surface-level answer — “Good” — and as such, a deeper and more nuanced reply can often seem out of place. I often hesitate when
asked this question because I don’t know how I should answer. Part of me wants to say what they most likely want to hear. “Good” is simple and clean and understandable. It means that you’re having a good time. It means that your college experience is everything that your Facebook album and Instagram posts say it is and more. It means you’ve made close friends, are doing well in your classes and are involved in meaningful activities. Yet the standard reply of “Good” always feels inadequate — evasive — to me whenever I use it. Because the truth is, my college experience has not always been good. I have had some of the most difficult periods of my life in college. I didn’t always feel like I had a place at Penn. It took me a while to make close friends here, people whom I trust and who understand me like my friends from home do. There were days when I questioned if I’d made the right choice in coming to a
school across the country from my family. There were days when I felt so much anxiety I was afraid I’d stop functioning both academically and socially. In short, my college experience —
self spouting off an answer similar to what is written above. There were 11 family members sitting around the table, and I was very conscious of the fact that all of them were looking at
And the realities of both college and life are such that they cannot be encompassed in the one word — ‘Good.’”
my Penn experience — has given me both gifts and baggage. And to ignore the baggage — to gloss over it when my friends and relatives ask me about school — somehow feels wrong. At my family’s Thanksgiving dinner this year, my uncle asked me how I’ve liked Penn thus far, if I felt like I’d made the right choice in going there. I took a breath and then found my-
and listening to me. I was afraid of sounding ungrateful, or cynical, or jaded or appearing anything other than 100 percent happy. But when I finished talking, my cousin said, “Emily, you know these feelings are perfectly natural,” and my uncle said, “I don’t doubt that you’ve become a stronger person because of all of these things.” It occurred to me then
that the response I had just given my family was not any more disappointing than the reply “Good, everything’s going great” — that, in fact, no one had been expecting me to say that everything was great all the time, because they too had gone through college, had gone through life. And the realities of both college and life are such that they cannot be encompassed in the one word — “Good.” This is a selfevident truth. However, it is a truth that we need to constantly remind ourselves of. It is a truth that we need to allow ourselves to experience — give ourselves permission to feel. Obviously, this doesn’t mean you have to bare your soul to every person who asks you how you’re doing or how school is going. But what it does mean is that when we give ourselves space to admit that things aren’t going perfectly — when we begin to view the roadblocks and difficulties in our lives not as things that we ought to avoid
EMILY HOEVEN speaking about, but rather as things that we can learn from and which allow us to form bonds with other people — we get one step closer to conquering those roadblocks and difficulties. And we get one step closer to understanding that no one expects us to show up to every social gathering with only giant smiles on our faces and immaculate stories to tell. EMILY HOEVEN is a College junior from Fremont, Calif., studying English. Her email address is ehoeven@ sas.upenn.edu. “Growing Pains” usually appear s e v e r y o t h e r Tu e s d a y.
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LETTERS Have your own opinion? Send your letter to the editor or guest column to letters@thedp.com. Unsigned editorials appearing on this page represent the opinion of The Daily Pennsylvanian as determined by the majority of the Editorial Board. All other columns, letters and artwork represent the opinion of their authors and are not necessarily representative of the DP’s position.
SHUN SAKAI is a College senior from Chestnut Hill, Mass. His email is ssakai@sas.upenn.edu.
The confidence game AANARCHY | After election season, Penn’s left has to look to direct action to make change First, I’d like to acknowledge that I was wrong. About a month ago, I published a column about what I called the lazy voting epidemic. People use gut-checks, self-identification and emotional appeals to dictate their vote — and that can cause real problems when it comes to the outcome of emotionally charged elections. I think I identified a valid issue there. What I got wrong was the nature of that issue and its implications. Fundamentally, a gut-check isn’t some sort of malicious moral failure — it’s a heuristic. It’s not something we can eliminate, but it is something we can work around. I want to run through something I call the confidence game. This thought experiment poses a simple question: How much information does one have to know to be mostly confident about a stance on a realworld issue? The example I like to point to is the economy. Economics is an incredibly complex discipline, and understanding economic policy requires an enor-
mous amount of information about the function of markets, international trade, monetary policy and human behavior. Well-respected economists with decades of experience diverge massively on the merit of relatively simple pieces of policy, and consensus in the field is much rarer than, say, in most of the physical and natural sciences. Now, say you’re a voter trying to decide on whether Donald Trump weakening trade agreements will improve your job prospects and wages. How much do you have to know? First, you have to know about the effects that import and export tariffs have on labor markets. You have to know about the structure of various world economies — are trade deals causing unemployment in your industry, or are more fundamental shifts in the global economy to blame? On top of all that, to effectively parse this information you probably need some sort of working knowledge of modern history and research in the social sciences. The homework quickly begins
to pile up. If you’re a college-educated professional with a lot of free time, there’s a good chance you already have the background information needed to make this kind of decision efficiently. But if your public education
lives and limited resources — doing this kind of research rigorously just isn’t feasible. In this light, “gut voting” seems a lot more reasonable. Without a comprehensive body of facts, all a voter is left with is intuition and trust of a candi-
Without a comprehensive body of facts, all a voter is left with is intuition and trust of a candidate’s public persona.” system was underfunded and neglected, and you didn’t have the wealth to go to college, this amount of research starts to look like an unreasonable task. Now, take this stack of required reading and multiply it for each major issue in modern politics. Environmental science, foreign relations and even systemic racism must be understood through complicated webs of scholarship and history. Most Americans have busy
date’s public persona. All of us use these kinds of heuristics in our daily lives to navigate problems with limited information. Whether we’re deciding on dinner plans or choosing career paths, we tend to follow the lead of people we trust and the direction of our intuition. It’s basic human nature to tap into these kind of tools when the facts are limited. It’s a problem that can’t be avoided unless you rewrite the human genome.
This issue isn’t exactly new, and solutions for these sorts of problems have been proposed in the past. One of the most interesting is sortition: the idea that a small, representative portion of a population can be randomly selected to make political decisions. Voters are given more time and information to sort out issues of policy. This system would almost function like jury duty for legislation. Now, creating this would involve quite a bit of governmental restructuring, so we’re probably not going to see it implemented on a wide scale anytime soon. Still, we can push for it in local government, and starting a conversation about the structure of our democracy can only be a good thing. A more immediate solution is for us to try and use better heuristics. We have to accept that sometimes we won’t have the information to make a fully informed decision, so we have to be aware of our biases and heed the ones that tend to work for us, rather than against us. When we turn to personal
AARON COOPER experiences to inform us, let’s prioritize the marginalized people that may have less access to the public eye. When we trust the judgements of experts, let’s weigh nerdy, perhaps unattractive experience over slick, sexy rhetoric. And most of all, when we follow our emotions, let’s pick empathy over fear and bitterness. Of course, our awareness of the problem isn’t going to be enough to solve it. But it’s an important start. AARON COOPER is a College freshman from Morristown, N.J., studying cognitive science. His email address is aacooper@sas.upenn. edu. “Aanarchy” usually appears every other Tuesday.
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CRIMES >> PAGE 1
This month, a Penn grad’s car was keyed with a threaten i ng ph r a se i n Sout h Philadelphia and two swastikas were found painted on a building. Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush said that the D.A.’s office already has several specialized areas, so “adding one specifically for hate crimes is a good idea in that we are starting to see more of this behavior across the country.” Especially in the wake of the racist GroupMe incident that occurred on campus — in which freshman students of color were added to a group called “Mud Men” and invited to a “daily lynching” — this task force could prove to be useful. Rush said of the GroupMe incident, “ from President [Amy] Gutmann down, we are standing as one with the
ELECTION >> PAGE 1
Trump were willing to engage in polite discussion about their differing beliefs. At Swarthmore College, students and administrators emphasized open discussion following the election . Swarthmore junior Joaquin Delmar said that when several swastikas were found in gender-neutral bathroom stalls, the entire campus was appalled, on both sides of the
NEWS 5
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2016
affected community, responding with them as a university.” But in the case of the GroupMe incident, the Federal Bureau of Investigation took action because it was an interstate issue. The D.A.’s office still reached out to Penn to offer any assistance needed. Ethnic intimidation, which is another legal term for hate crimes, is the statute under which a suspect is charged. It is an overt action coupled with targeting an individual of a group which falls under the statue, meaning that it must be charged in connection with another violation. According to Rush, the preachers on Locust Walk fall under freedom of speech because they are not targeting a specific individual, but staying in one place talking to a group. If a person were to follow an African-American individual, Rush gave as an example, and hit him with a bible, they would be charged
with assault and ethnic intimidation. Unfortunately, sexual orientation is not included under the ethnic intimidation statute. Kline said there was no specific incident which triggered the formation of this task force, but that they have seen instances of graffiti and an increase in those activities within the community recently. “We want to be prepared,” Kline said. “We want to make sure that we are ready to go and prepared just in case.” Rush said that paying attention to hate crimes on any level, not just from the District Attorney but across the nation, is good for the people who are targeted because they can feel support from law enforcement. “It is good not just from the criminal justice perspective, but that we stand by the individuals emotionally as well,” Rush said.
political spectrum. The reaction to the results was not quite as dramatic at larger Lehigh University, only a twenty-minute drive from Lafayette College. The student body is politically diverse, but the campus maintained an overall focus on making sure everyone felt comfortable, according to one student. Lafayette sophomore Caroline Weisstuch said that while she doesn’t think Lehigh is a very political campus, the reaction following the results
was appropriate. After Election Day, students organized a silent rally to show support for minority students and a march that included faculty, staff and students. She added that students who supported Trump felt comfortable wearing their iconic red hats without comment from peers. “We were never going to burn things or protest wildly in the streets,” she said. “I did see the campus come together in a way that I never had before.”
VIOLATIONS >> PAGE 1
said, “We have done a lot. These are not big violations, we have covered everything.” However, a DOH food facility inspection report dated Nov. 16 categorized seven of these violations as serious. They include visible evidence of rodent and insect activity in the kitchen area and raw chicken that was kept above the required temperature. Five of eight reviews of the restaurant on Google include complaints about the cleanliness of the food. “We’ve changed a lot of stuff,” Tarka’s manager Bhuiyan said to Philly.com. “We have a new floor, new carpet, we hired new people and had a big cleaning. Everything is new. We are trying to change.”
MEGAN JONES | CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Tarka Restaurant and Bobby’s Burger Palace have all been recently slapped with health violations.
Speaking to the DP, Bhuiya n denied giving these comments to Philly.com or any publication. A not her rest au r a nt i n University City that was investigated by the DOH this November is Bobby’s Burger Palace at 3925 Walnut Street.
The DOH report on the establishment cited four health violations and required representatives from the restaurant to attend a hearing at the Court of Common Pleas on Nov. 22. The staff at Bobby’s Burger Palace declined to comment for this article.
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play in int’l tournaments
DAVID FIGURELLI Sports Reporter
Championships are won in the offseason — so goes the age-old cliche. This saying holds true for the members of Penn squash, but there’s another more accurate saying for what they do in the offseason: championships are won all over the world. Just as it does with other sports, the offseason presents an extended opportunity for squash players to hone their craft and improve specific aspects of their game, be it fitness, technique or movement. What gives the squash offseason a twist, however, is that the players are from a variety of different countries, meaning that the players on the team are returning home and playing all over the world when they’re not playing in the college league, whether it be training with their youth coaches or playing on the professional circuit against players well beyond collegeage. “ T here’s not h ing rea lly
formal in our sport, like a summer league or something like that,� women’s coach Jack Wyant said. “The reality is, for our players, both male and female, there aren’t many cities in the world where they’re going to get a ton of competition. It’s not like basketball where all the college kids might go back to their hometowns and all play in the same gym or at place like Rucker Park in New York or wherever. “One of the great things about the players who go home for the summer, however, is that they get to reconnect with their youth coaches who generally were the ones who brought them up and taught them how to play game, so the more input they’re getting from those coaches the better off we’ll be.� For example, sophomore Rowaida Attia returned to her home in Egypt for the summer and underwent an intense training regimen under the guidance of her youth coach, sometimes practicing twice a day to improve her fitness while also playing games against other players to maintain her form. And while she didn’t train with any of them this summer, she knows there are other
players from Egypt she used to play with who came back and trained just like she did. “When we played Trinity, I played against an Egyptian girl who I used to play against in literally every tournament we played in, so I was familiar with her game and everything, and it motivates me to be better,� Attia said. For other players, formal competition is a staple of their offseason training, taking them all over the world in pursuit of the best competition they can find. “What our sport does have is a bunch of tournaments all over the world,� Wyant said. “If our student-athletes can find their way to tournaments, if they can try to qualify for a professional tournament, a lot of them will do that. A lot of the incoming freshmen play for their national teams in world juniors tournaments, and those normally take place in the summer.� One player who had an especially active offseason was junior Marie Stephan, who traveled all over the world to train with and compete against some of the world’s top squash talent. Before returning to her home country France to train with the
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1 2 5 6 7 4 4 6 6 8 4 1 5 7 2 9 8 The 5 4 New 7York8Times Syndication 9 Sales Corporation 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 Information Call: 1-800-972-3550 Tuesday, November 29, 2016 2 For5ForRelease Š Puzzles provided by sudokusolver.com
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30 State-of-the-art electronically 32 Cradled 34 Mata ___ (spy) 35 Offer at a pub ‌ as suggested by this puzzle’s shaded squares 40 Cock-a-doodledoo 41 Dentist’s focus 42 Coal-rich German region 44 Like Cheerios cereal 46 “Facilities,â€? informally 47 Suit material 48 Device that keeps a ship’s compass level 50 “O Romeo, Romeo!â€? crier 51 SSW’s opposite 52 & 54 Tavern total 55 Lead-in to fix, appropriately 56 Put ___ on (limit)
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DOWN 1 Opposites of births 2 “That is SO incredible!� 3 Geological layers 4 Gait faster than a walk 5 Tree with medicinal uses 6 Birds near the shore 7 Detailed blowup on a map 8 Longtime Federer ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE adversary C U S P S J A I L S A T M 9 Personal identifier, for A T E A M E N V O I L O U short N E W P O R T N E W S G P S O R E K A L E J O S E 10 Subj. of interest for the Green N O R I E G A C H A I R E D Party D R U G T R A F F I C R I A L W E L T T R I 11 Move to action U N D E R T H E W E A T H E R 12 Tile adhesive M A O B I E R E M T S 13 When repeated, cry to an S P O I L S P O R T S honoree D E T E S T S L E A T H E R A C I D O D I N I M O 21 Place for wheeling and R O O M O R N I N G S H O W dealing? C N N E L I T E O R A T E 22 Go over and over Y D S L E G O S S A T E D again
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NEWYORKTIMESCROSSWORDPUZZLE Edited by Will Shortz Crossword ACROSS 1 Common name for a cowboy 6 Winner’s cry in a card game 9 Leaky parts of an old tent, often 14 ___ nous 15 A, in AsunciĂłn 16 Dustup 17 Hidden symbol between the “Eâ€? and “xâ€? in the FedEx logo 18 Drug for Timothy Leary 19 End of a lasso 20 Nipple 21 Cloudless 23 Elizabethan stringed instrument 24 Fedora or fez 25 Final part of a relay 27 [their error, not mine] 28 Actor Christian of “Mr. Robotâ€?
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36 Soup kitchen offerings 37 Teachers’ org. 38 Tuliplike flower whose name means “butterfly� in Spanish 39 Most ready to get started 40 Related linguistically 43 Examination do-overs 45 Arrest
‘NOVA
stretches, and although it may be hard to work it out against possibly the best team in the country, we are excited for the challenge,� Donahue said. The matchup with Villanova is more significant than just another game for the Quakers. The Big 5 rivalry between the two schools dates back to its inception in 1955 and takes on an added intensity as the Big 5 includes the defending national champ. For the lone senior on the team, Matt Howard will be playing his final season opener at the Palestra. The Villanova matchup, however, doesn’t change his mindset. “It feels good to be back at home. Our mindset is the same,� he said. “We want to come out and play confident. Every Big 5 game is important, and each game has a different feel to it. It’s definitely special to be coming out here for the final home opener, but I don’t want to think about it too much
and just focus on the game. � Donahue chose to place a little more significance on the history between the two teams and the fact that the Wildcats brought home a title last season. “There is only one national champion, and what I always say is part of what makes Penn special, and different than the other Ivies, you get to play the Big 5 schools, including a national champion, which just doesn’t happen. We are aware of the Big 5 and its history, and it’s a reason why a lot of guys came here to play.� From the flashes of brilliant play to the chance to see the defending national champions, the atmosphere for Penn’s home opener Tuesday night should be a raucous one. The Quakers will need a special performance to hand Nova its first loss, but regardless of the outcome, it will be a special night for Penn basketball.
said. “We try to get better, and I think our defense has played well at times, our offense has played well at times, and we have come together as a team. Hopefully we continue to get better in January, in February, and are playing our best at the conference tournament.� This early in the season, the inconsistent play isn’t all that unexpected or surprising, but it is something that Donahue wants to see fixed as the season moves forward. They know they will need to maintain their highest level for all 40 minutes if they want to compete with Villanova on Tuesday night. “We’re excited to play in front of our own fans but even more important, play better, try to improve. We’ve played well in stretches and played poorly in
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currently ranked No. 133 by the World Squash Association. After her time with the French national team, Stephan also traveled to Kiev, Ukraine, to compete in the Ukrainian
ALEX FISHER | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Many Penn squash athletes like junior Marie Stephan competed across the globe during their offseason, playing against the best.
>> PAGE 8
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national team in Paris, Stephan traveled Calgary, Canada, in March and Richmond, Va., in April to play in tournaments as part of the Professional Squash Association World Tour. She is
Cup, where she reached the quarter-final round of the competition. Most recently, Stephan traveled to Toronto just last month to compete in the Granite Open. Stephan has even won a championship on the world tour before, winning the Montreal Open in March 2015, defeating fellow Quaker Melissa Alves in the final. Some of the same players that Stephan faces in the college league are players that she faces on the world tour too. “A couple of the girls on the Trinity team play in the world tournaments too, I actually played one of them in a tournament in the past, and I think a couple of the girls on the Harvard team as well are playing on the world circuit. I see them a little bit more, so it’s nice to know what’s coming when I play them here in the college league,� Stephan said. While there are plenty of lessons to learn and titles to pursue on the world stage, the Penn squash team will hope that all of these different experiences will allow them to finally bring home a national championship in the college league right here to University City.
47 Teacher who may get no respect, informally 49 Tibetan holy men 50 Brief excursion 53 Completely focused 54 Biblical pronoun 57 Polling fig. 59 ___-Magnon 60 “Wait Wait ‌ Don’t Tell Me!â€? airer
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SPORTS 7
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2016
Swimmer competes for both Penn and Hong Kong in November
SWIM & DIVE | Rookie
Sun enjoys adventures TYLER SHEVIN Sports Reporter
Penn freshman Kristen Sun is swimming her heart out on both ends of the Pacific. Sun represented Hong Kong, her home country, in the 2016 Asian Championships in Tokyo from Nov. 17-20 this year, swimming in two competitions. In the 50-meter breaststroke, she finished in tenth place with a time of 34.14 seconds while taking 12th in the 200 breast with a time of 2:44.84. “Overall, I think it was a wonderful experience because I got to swim and meet a lot of Olympic swimmers, and a few of them were actually Olympic medalists as well,” she said. “So, I think I was able to learn
a lot at the competition.” Sun already had previous experience in inter national competition, formerly swimming for Hong Kong at the first National Youth Games. “At the youth games, I was with a lot of swimmers of my age. But at the Asian Championships, I was with a lot of the Hong Kong swimmers who are full time swimmers, some of them were in the Olympics, and some of them went to the states for university,” Sun added. Sun took full advantage of the opportunity to meet and interact with swimmers who have faced similar athletic and cultural changes of moving to the United States to swim as a student. She received advice from Hong Kong swimmers from universities such as the UC-Berkeley and the University of Michigan. “I was able to learn a lot from the swimmers as well,
because I was able to ask them about their experience in college.” Sun is enjoying her time as a freshman swimmer at Penn, adjusting to a new training routine, teammates, and coaches. “As a freshman, I really like the team. The team is really spirited, and really close as a team as well. The team is wonderful; there are a lot of positive vibes. Compared to the team in Hong Kong, I think that the swimmers here are a lot more positive about training,” Sun said. She has looked to leadership and guidance from older swimmers. “The captains are really positive about training. We have a set of team rules and one of them is, ‘No negative vibes in the pool.’... It really helped me get through training sometimes when it gets super hard,” Sun added.
ANANYA CHANDRA | PHOTO MANAGER ELECT
Penn swimming rookie Kristen Sun had an adventurous November in the pool, competing in the breaststroke both for Penn and for the Hong Kong national team at the Asian Championships in Tokyo.
Death, Taxes, and Tony Romo Injuries
Sports tell stories that matter beyond the sports themselves ZACK DIGREGORIO
As my football life has progressed and my knowledge of football has grown, Brett Favre’s story has been one I’ve come to identify with. He had more fun playing the game than anyone, which I’ve always had great admiration for. His relationship with his dad was deeply tied to football; his dad was his coach in high school, just like my dad was my high school football coach. Those ties struck a chord with me in watching his game on December 22nd, 2003. On Sunday, Favre’s father passed away from a stroke and the next day, on Monday Night Football, Favre had the best game of his life. Throwing for 399 yards and 4 TDs, with eyes visibly filled with tears and grief all over his face before the game, Favre gave us all something to cheer for, and, more importantly, something to believe in.
Sports allow us to deal in hardships that are manufactured, proxies for our tests. That is not to say they don’t matter; they are, however, something we choose to challenge ourselves with. That challenge is ultimately met with passion, as no great challenge was ever conquered without passion, and that gives us a story: it gives us conflict. Not everyone has played sports, but everyone has faced some sort of conflict in their life: something standing in between what they are and what they want to be. What has always amazed me when walking down a busy street, onto the subway, or even into an elevator full of people, is the lifetimes’ worth of experiences, trials, conquests, and defeats contained in such a small area. In life, these victories and defeats get messy. Sometimes the winner is unclear, or maybe there is no winner. But sports make it easy. The team and the players want to win a game or a championship. We get points to sort out the winners and losers, records to see who wins a lot and who
loses a lot, and to see that Jeff Fisher is 7-9 again. We keep our own records in our heads (my record is 18-6,293, in case you were wondering), and it’s easy to harp on the losses. The losses haunt us, because we are human. We are not “only human,” as the cliché might suggest. The “only” is meant as a pejorative knock on humanity’s inherent flaws. The cliche suggests that what Eric LeGrand does for every life he touches, whether with his presence or his advocacy, is “only human.” It suggests that there is something flawed about Jason McElwain, the autistic high school basketball player who, despite air-balling his first shot in a real game in 2006, went on to score 20 points in the game and hit six three’s. Terry Fox “only” ran across Canada on one leg in 1980 to raise money for cancer research. Sports prove to us that there is nothing “only” about being human, it is our greatest strength. Sports remind us that we are all human and capable of conquering whatever opposition we face, as long as we have
Columnist Zack DiGregorio argues that much of the value of sports is in the storytelling that goes beyond the game itself.
life changed forever Oct. 16, 2010 at MetLife Stadium, but he made a conscious decision to not be known for his disability, but for his indomitable will and with a passion for life that is truly unmatched — even when nothing was expected of him. Life is one big team game. Sports are a bunch of little, easy games, to remind us that underdogs win, passion matters and that losing isn’t permanent — you just try to win the next one. They reveal the side of our humanity that doesn’t suggest we are “only human,” but that our humanity is our greatest asset, and, when used collectively, can be used to achieve incredible feats.
the passion and the enthusiasm to do so. In 1980, because of what a group of college kids did in a hockey rink in Lake Placid, we all believed in
ZACK DiGREGORIO is a College senior from Princeton, N.J. and is s quarterback on Penn sprint football. He can be reached at dpsports@thedp.com.
ANANYA CHANDRA | PHOTO MANAGER ELECT
miracles. After Mo’Ne Davis’s run in the Little League World Series, Little Leagues across the country saw a 25% increase in female participation the next year. Eric LeGrand’s
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NONSTOP NATIONALS
One Penn swimming freshman just competed across the world for the Hong Kong national team
Championships are won in the offseason — literally, for many Penn squash players
>> SEE PAGE 7
>> SEE PAGE 6
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2016
Silpe, ’Nova’s Brunson train together
M. HOOPS | Quakers’ point guard spent
offseason in South Jersey with Wildcat
YOSEF WEITZMAN Sports Reporter
TONIGHT
No. 2 VILLANOVA (6-0) 7 p.m.
The Palestra
M. HOOPS | Quakers host national champs MATT FINE Associate Sports Editor
ALEX FISHER | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
hen Kris Jenkins hit a buzzerbeating three to defeat North Carolina and give Villanova the NCAA national championship, the entire city of Philadelphia celebrated. Fast forward eight months, and the Wildcats are 6-0, ranked No. 2 in the country and playing like a team poised for another title run. On Tuesday night, Penn basketball will take on the defending champions and Big 5 rival at the Palestra for the Quakers’ home opener.
The Red and Blue (2-2) come into the game after playing their first four games on the road, including a tough test against a very talented Miami team. This past Saturday the Quakers fell to Navy in a game that represented their inconsistent play through their opening few contests. After going down 10 at the end of the first half, Penn went on a 20-6 run to start the second half. However, with under six minutes left to play, the Red and Blue went ice cold, failing to register a single
point as the Midshipmen came back to win. The early challenges have been useful for the Quakers as they continue to prepare for Villanova and the start of Ivy League play. “I think it’s been a good schedule for us. Basically it has been a long, extended training camp playing together in adverse conditions,” Penn coach Steve Donahue SEE ‘NOVA PAGE 6
When Penn and Villanova face off on Tuesday, most eyes will be watching the scoreboard to see if the Quakers can somehow compete with the defending national champions. The folks over at Nexxt Level Sports, however, will be much more concerned with the game’s point guard play. That’s because not only did Nexxt Level train Penn sophomore point guard Jake Silpe, but they also worked with Villanova’s sophomore point guard Jalen Brunson. In fact, the two New Jersey natives met regularly for workout sessions over the summer at Nexxt Level’s training facility in South Jersey. Silpe and Brunson both did extensive training on their own, but the two agree that their joint sessions were critical components of their offseason training. “He’s a great player-- he’s very strong, very quick, just a smart basketball player,” Brunson added. “He’s a tough guard. When you play him defensively, you’ve just got to be ready for anything.” While their trainer at Nexxt Level, Marcus Bullock, would usually start Silpe and Brunson with skill work and shooting, a video posted on Nexxt Level’s Facebook page in July showed the two players battling in various one on one situations. “What most people saw in the video was the one on one battles we had, and that was kind of their doing,” Bullock said. “They really wanted to do it.” The competitiveness of Silpe and Brunson is something that has also impressed Penn coach Steve Donahue. “They’re totally different as players, but I think their similarities are they both want to win really bad,” Donahue said. “I think they both compete, they both work extremely hard, make their teammates better. Those are the things that I think Jalen brings to their team and Jake brings to our team. But for all the hard work Silpe and Brunson put into together during the summer, their seasons have gone in quite different directions so far. With a whole new crop of backcourt talent joining the Red and Blue this year, Silpe has struggled to carve out a role for himself, averaging only five minutes per game. Over on the Main Line, however, Brunson has started all six games for the #2 ranked Wildcats, averaging 12 points a game and establishing himself as a potent offensive threat. Regardless of how their seasons have gone, the two will definitely enjoy the opportunity to play together on such a large stage. Though Brunson played his high school basketball in Illinois, both players grew up in Cherry Hill, New Jersey and have known each other since they were five. The two played together frequently growing up and have continued to stay in touch all these years later. As close as they are with each other, this game will still just be business as usual for Silpe and Brunson. This game being the Big 5 opener, the stakes are very high for both teams. The Wildcats need to take care of business to stay at the top of the rankings, and there is no telling how much a victory over the defending national champions would mean for a Penn team that hasn’t made the NCAA tournament since 2007. Needless to say, don’t expect Silpe and Brunson to take it easy on each other come game time. “Even though we’re playing a mutual friend, he’s on the opposite side,” Brunson said. “So we’re just going to have to, you know, not be friends for this game.”
Villanova offers chance for Penn to make a statement TOMMY ROTHMAN
Back in my freshman year (which indeed calls for the past tense, I swear), Penn basketball hosted Villanova at the Palestra. The game was nationally televised and the Palestra was full, and I was just a couple rows off the court after dropping $30 on a VIP season ticket package sponsored by Penn Dental that nobody else seemed to know about. I was excited to see my school that wasn’t on the basketball scene play — host, even — a team that was very much on the national scene. And a bunch of people I knew were going to the game. Who cared if we were going to get crushed. It was going to be fun. Or at least, it was going to be cool. It was going to seem, for
one night, like Penn basketball mattered. Well, we didn’t get crushed. We hung with Nova until late into the second half. It unraveled for Penn after one of the media timeouts. I know this because during that media timeout, I got to participate in an on-court contest. They dressed me and another student in Dunkin’ Donuts coffee cup costumes, and we had to race down the court, hit a layup, race back down, and hit another layup. The second-place prize was a $5 Dunkin’ gift card. I don’t know what the firstplace prize was, because I didn’t win. I dribbled the ball fine and hit both my layups, but the other guy was just a bit faster. I didn’t win, but it was a respectable performance in front of a big crowd of people who, for the most part, didn’t know me. And that’s exactly what I need to see out of Penn
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basketball on Tuesday night against Villanova at the Palestra. It’s our home opener, we’re playing the defending national champions (not Ivy, not FCS, but NATIONAL) and there’s a “Fan Fest” before the game. People will be there. And many of those people don’t really know or care about Penn basketball, yet. And we’re going to lose. Not definitely, of course. The game hasn’t been played. But we’re going to lose. Anything can happen, but “anything can happen” is more viable as an argument for why we might make it a decent game like we did my freshman year, instead of getting absolutely destroyed. So the question is, will we see a respectable showing from Penn basketball, resembling the solid effort the team put in against Miami recently? I sure hope so. This game matters. Not because I want to be
DP FILE PHOTO
At the Palestra two years ago, Penn basketball took Villanova down to the wire. They have a chance to make a statement again on Tuesday.
tricked into thinking my school might be on its way to a miraculous victory like I was for a few
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minutes as a freshman before I donned that fateful cup. Not because the game counts in the
Ivy standings, or because both teams enter the game with a real chance to win said game. But because for Penn’s basketball team to become relevant on Penn’s campus, the only reason for coming to, staying at, and remembering the game can’t be Penn’s opponent. Plenty of people will be at the Palestra for the first time Tuesday night. You only get one chance to make a first impression, and if the home team isn’t worth their salt, the reality is that, for many, the Red and Blue won’t get a chance at a second impression. Penn kids are smart. If all the entertainment on Tuesday night is provided by the Wildcats, a lot of students will realize, Villanova is just 20 minutes away. TOMMY ROTHMAN is a College junior from New York City and is a sports editor for The Daily Pennsylvanian. He can be reached at dpsports@thedp.com. CONTACT US: 215-422-4640