Posts filed under ‘State College’
The Return of State Patty’s Day
All you need to know about State Patty’s Day can be found at Peoples Nation, the pricy T-shirt shop on College Avenue. The front third of the store features items custom made for the student-organized holiday: Green necklaces with shot glass pendants, green and white feather boas, green sequined oversized leprechaun hats, and shirts with slogans such as “Sorry I’m Not Sorry: State Patty’s Day 2012.”
On Tuesday morning when I stopped by, two female students were waiting as the cashier rang up 20 green pinnies. The total? $290.40.
“They’re for my friends from out of town,” the girl said to her friend as she reached for her credit card. “I’m so excited they’re going to come up. This is going to be the best State Patty’s ever.”
With the context of everything that has occurred at Penn State since November, I couldn’t help but wonder: Is this really time for the best State Patty’s Day ever? Beginning Friday, thousands of Penn State students—and thousands of visitors—will descend upon the streets, bars, and apartments of State College to, well, party. “It’s just a giant drinking holiday, not much more,” junior Brittany Smith said. “It’s just an excuse to drink all day long.”
The holiday has grown immensely since its inception in 2007. Last year, State College Police made a record 234 criminal arrests—up from 160 in 2010—and fielded a record 480 calls. Close to 11,000 people have joined a Facebook group titled “Official Facebook Page: State Patty’s Day 2012.” With that kind of momentum, State Patty’s Day 2012 is slated to be bigger than ever—right?
Maybe.
The image of Penn State students has been scrutinized (more…)
A Glimpse At ‘The Joe We Know’
The premise was simple: Gather as many of Joe Paterno’s former lettermen as possible in a limited timeframe, get them in front of a camera to share their memories of playing for—and learning from—the legendary coach, and compile them in a film to be presented to Paterno on his 85th birthday.
The filmmakers’ only disappointment was that they didn’t finish it in time for Joe to see it.
Instead, The Joe We Know is a posthumous tribute, an hour-long collection of remembrances by former Nittany Lion football players. Presented last week as a birthday present for Sue Paterno, The Joe We Know was screened Saturday night in State College for an invitation-only audience, most of them former lettermen and their families. Those of us lucky enough to be in the State Theatre were treated to an hour of terrific, high-pitched Joe impersonations, anecdotes that ranged from hilarious to tear-jerking, and countless variations on a theme we’ve heard so often over the past month: former players who credit Joe Paterno’s role in helping them grow from boys to men.
Beyond this one-hour film, The Joe We Know is an ongoing project; the filmmakers hope to continue filming former player thought next spring, with additional footage compiled at thejoeweknow.org. The site is still a work in progress, but you can go there now to check out a handful of short clips. You can also sign up for email updates on the progress of the project, including when it might be made more widely available.
For those in or near Happy Valley, the film will be shown twice Sunday. As of late Saturday night, tickets were still available.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Guaranteed to Cheer You Up
Our former Alumni Association colleague Sara Jones, who now works at Michigan State, passes along a wonderful video that I feel fairly certain you will love.
If you go to the website for the video, you can read a bit more detail about how this guy Chris set up the situation with Danielle. Or you can forget about that and just enjoy the video. Four minutes of pure love.
Tina Hay, editor
Another Unbelievable Day
I took this photo at 3 p.m. today. It’s a bunch of Penn State students gathered on the Old Main lawn to mark 100 days until the 2012 edition of THON, the largest student-run philanthropy in the world. These kids and their countless hours of dedication represent much of what remains great about the University.
It’ll be a monumental challenge in the coming months to remind the world that Penn State is more than what has come out over the past five days.
The latest news—and it remains strange to type—is that in addition to the pending departure of Joe Paterno, who has announced his retirement effective at season’s end, multiple outlets are reporting University president Graham Spanier will soon step down as well. What will tomorrow bring? Not a clue.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Happy PARK(ing) Day
Anyone looking for a parking space Friday in downtown State College will have three fewer options than usual. And for good reason.
Friday is PARK(ing) Day, a loosely connected international event started in 2005, when some artists in San Francisco decided to make a statement about the lack of open public space in American cities. They picked a parking space, filled the meter, laid down a roll of sod, added a tree and a park bench, and voila, a temporary oasis of green squeezed between a couple of parked cars. Since then, the idea has spread internationally to hundreds of cities, one of them being State College. For students from Penn State’s Stuckeman School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, it’s a chance to make a point and get some experience that’s applicable to their future careers.
Starting before sunrise Friday on the first fall-like day of the year (I know because the heat clicked on in my house this morning), students began setting up their “parks” in three downtown parking spots, on South Allen Street, West College Avenue, and East Beaver Avenue. Each project forced the students (more…)
‘Buy Local’ Borne Out by Research
A while back someone called my attention to The 3/50 Project, which aims to support independent brick-and-mortar stores by encouraging you to think of three local stores you’d hate to see go out of business and spend 50 bucks at each one.
For me, the obvious one is Stitch Your Art Out, a wonderful little shop in Pine Grove Mills where I learned to knit last year; where I’ve since taken classes on making hats and mittens and socks; and where I love to browse the shelves and buy yarn I totally don’t need.
Plus, what’s not to love about a shop co-owned by (more…)
It’s Always Creamery Weather — But Especially Right Now
I’m the type of guy who will eat Creamery ice cream outside in late January—I just love it that much. But days like today, when it’s supposed to be 98 in University Park, certainly seem like more ideal ice cream weather. So the timing was perfect this week for Pittsburgh Post-Gazette food writer Rebecca Sodergren to share her personal connection to the Berkey Creamery, as well as some facts even I didn’t know. Like a lot of alumni, I always wondered why the Creamery didn’t make its ice cream more readily available outside State College; the very good reason, as it turns out, is that it doesn’t want to compete with its own graduates.
The piece also features the official Creamery recipe modified for home use. As Sodergren writes, “I didn’t think it tasted exactly like the Creamery’s. But it sure is good.” I imagine I won’t be the only one sampling the real stuff this weekend.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
A Signature Penn State Voice, Gone Too Soon
The Penn State community has lost one of its signature voices. Pat Boland ’91, a fixture in State College radio for two decades, died Tuesday morning after a lengthy battle with cancer.
Pat covered pretty much everything there was to cover on campus and in town, and as co-host of the WRSC morning show, his was the voice many Happy Valley residents woke up to. I met Pat in the mid ’90s while I was a Daily Collegian reporter covering the men’s basketball team; when I returned to town a few years ago, I was glad to see he was still here, running the press-row attendance pool at the Bryce Jordan Center. The radio call-in show he hosted after Penn State football games was a must-listen, often for the unintentional comedy provided by emotional fans. Pat navigated it like the pro that he was.
As of a few weeks ago, Pat’s health had deteriorated to the point that he could no longer carry on his radio duties, and he took a leave of absence. He kept himself busy with physical therapy, reading up on World War I, following his beloved Pittsburgh Pirates, and starting a blog. His final entry, titled “exhaustion,” was posted last Friday; he admitted to being wiped out both by his illness and attempts to combat it, but wrote, “I’ll be back soon.” He was 42.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Rosanne Cash at the State Theatre
One highlight of the Fourth of July weekend for country and folk music fans in the Penn State community was a concert by Rosanne Cash at the State Theatre last night—her first time ever in State College, she said.
The State Theatre, which was a plain-old movie theatre when many Penn State grads were students, underwent a major renovation and reopened as a performing-arts center in 2006. Today, under general manager Harry Zimbler ’90g, it offers a mix of films, local theatre, and concerts by nationally known performers.
Cash with her sideman and husband, John Leventhal.
Cash and her sideman/husband, John Leventhal, played a terrific 90-minute set. The opener was a local bluegrass group called the Allegheny Ridgerunners—its members are Kurt Kroeker ’09; Will Hancock, a faculty member in bioengineering, Celia Millington-Wyckoff ’80g Com, and Keith Miska, a staff member in the Penn State Energy Institute.
I’ve become a fan of Rosanne Cash’s music pretty recently, thanks to her 2009 release The List. The story goes that (more…)
An Unexpected Celebration in Beaver Canyon
My wife and I were about to turn off the TV late Sunday when I saw the news scrolling across the bottom of the screen on ESPN: Osama bin Laden was dead. I watched President Obama’s speech confirming the news on TV, but if I’d opened a window, I might have heard the noise of a celebration downtown.
A scroll through Twitter brought up a number of photos from Penn Staters celebrating the news in downtown State College. The impromptu gathering was centered on Beaver Avenue, and it looks like something those students won’t forget.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
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