Crepes vs. Steaks

It’s a question I consider on those days I forget to pack my lunch. To head over toward Tyler for the Creperie’s chicken with feta or to wander toward Anderson for Richie’s cheesesteaks?

And, this year, there’s a few new additions to the food choices on campus: The ever-popular warm cookie truck, the new and improved Sexy Green Truck, fruit salad trucks that seem to be popping up on every corner.

You, too, can experience the joys of Temple food trucks at this year’s Homecoming and Parents’ Weekend. On Friday, October 16 from 4:30 to 7:00 PM, vendors across campus will remain open for a Taste of Temple and will offer specials to Temple alumni and families. Check out the list of participants at myowlspace.com/tasteoftemple.

One hint from a Temple foodie: Get to the Insomnia cookie truck early before they run out of gooey M&M deliciousness.

Going Nuts for Temple Football

We’re going nuts in Owl Country! Our own Elijah “Peanut” Joseph not only led Temple to victory against Buffalo last Saturday but also was named the MAC defensive player of the week.

The Owls head to Eastern Michigan this weekend.  If you’re stuck in Philly (like me), you can catch the game on WHAT 1340 AM.

Addressing Philly’s stormwater issues

Today’s Philadelphia Inquirer included a Page 1 story about the city’s plans to deal with stormwater over the next two decades. Currently, whenever it rains, the volume overwhelms the city’s infrastructure, and both the storm runoff and untreated sewage flow straight into the Delaware, the Schuylkill and other creeks and rivers. A major culprit is impervious surface (such as sidewalks, rooftops, roads and parking lots, where water can’t enter the ground).

Temple wasn’t mentioned in the story, but this is an area  that faculty researchers are actively engaged in improving, locally and nationally. The  cover story of the current Temple Review — which arrived in homes in early September — is  about the  Civil and Environmental Engineering Department‘s work in this area. The article, “Physicians for the Planet,”  talks about the department’s development of new water treatment methods (such as using ultrasound to destroy minute contaminants) and the kinds of porous surfaces mentioned in the Inquirer article (one called PlastiSoil uses recycled plastic bottles to strengthen the ground beneath asphalt and pavement).

The Center for Sustainable Communities, which is part of the (newly named) School of Environmental Design, also is working on solutions and strategies for stormwater management. A story in the fall 2008 issue of the Temple Review (PDF), “Mapping out a Future We Can Live With” (page 24) talks about the CDC’s work in sustainable land use and floodplain mapping (FEMA adopted the maps Temple researchers generated).

Fantastic recent media coverage about changes in North Philly

Philadelphians have been seeing Temple’s name in the news a lot lately! On Sept. 8, the Daily News published “North to the future” about the “explosion of building activity that is changing the face of a section of the city once considered blighted and unsafe” — including The Edge on Main Campus and the new School of Medicine building at the Health Sciences Center. The reporter, Valerie Russ, says Temple’s place as an “anchor institution” has “driven much of the development — but not all of it.”

It’s true that the area has changed a lot over the past decade; today, more than 12,000 students live on or around Main Campus, and there’s activity day and night. The Pearl movie theater opened beside Main Campus a couple of years ago, and a Fresh Grocer is being built in the Progress Plaza across the street from it. Restaurants have been opening, two 7-11 stores are open 24 hours… Alumni who haven’t been back for a while should come just look around — it’s incredible.

The next day, The Philadelphia Inquirer ran “Temple president’s plan for the decade,” about President Ann Weaver Hart’s  plan to make Broad Street the focal point of Main Campus by 2020. The plan is ambitious: Build a new library on Broad Street and create a large green space in the center of campus. A follow-up  editorial and commentary each heralded the plan as great for Philadelphia.

A little-known fact about all this growth: Most of Temple’s building projects — the Tyler School of Art, Alter Hall, the Student Center — have been within its existing campus footprint. Most of the surrounding change — Avenue North, University Village, Progress Plaza — is private investment.

Room at the Top

This week, I received an e-mail from Jack Crawford, SBM ’68, who wrote to request a Temple flag or banner. Why? He’s climbing Mt. Aconcagua in Argentina. At 22,800 feet, it is the highest peak in both the Andes and the Southern Hemisphere. When Crawford finishes the climb, he plans to take a picture of himself holding a Temple flag. Will it be the highest a Temple flag has ever flown? The Temple University Bookstore in the Howard Gittis Student Center (13th Street between Montgomery and Cecil B. Moore avenues) has just about anything you can imagine with a Temple “T”, including flags and banners.

And the Nominees Are

Both Ross Katz, SCT ’93, and Christopher Manley, SCT ’94, were nominated for 2009 Emmy Awards. Katz, who was nominated in the “Outstanding Director” category, directed Taking Chance for HBO Films. Manley was recognized for the AMC series Mad Men in the “Outstanding Cinematography for a One-Hour Series” category.

Name that Tome

English major Addison Braendel, CLA ’87, went on to earn his law degree at the University of Chicago. But it was his knowledge of literature that led to his development of the board game It was a Dark and Stormy Night, a game that challenges players to identify a book title or author based on the work’s opening lines. In 2009, ABC7 in Chicago included Braendel and his wife, Catherine, on a television segment that featured “Chicago Inventors.”

Change of a Dress

Would you dare to tell Clint Eastwood he needed to change? Lynda Foote, SCT ’84¸ has done so more than once. As costume supervisor for nearly 40 Hollywood films, including The Good German; Good Night, and Good Luck; Mystic River; and Million Dollar Baby, she has worked with actors such as Eastwood, George Clooney, Hilary Swank and Sean Penn.

TYLand

Rene Smith, TYL ’02, has established herself in New York City art circles, and has earned the offbeat honor of her work appearing on the TV series Gossip Girl. In September, she also had a solo show in Thailand while serving as a visiting lecturer in painting at Chaing Mai University, located outside of Bangkok. To document her experience, she created Painting in Thailand, a blog that is replete with photos of her workspaces, paintings and exhibit, as well as her excursions.

Radio Days

When Lisa Spahr, CLA ’97, discovered messages from shortwave radio users that alerted her family to her grandfather’s capture during World War II, she was determined to track down those who had helped her family. Now, she has published WWII Radio Heroes: Letters of Compassion, a book about how shortwave radio was used during the war and her family’s personal story.