Previous issue's Profiles | Mar/Apr Contents | Gazette home

Scrambling to Machu Picchu Biking, hiking, and rafting through the Peruvian Andes added up to one breathtaking experience for the Gazette’s senior editor, who was previewing the trip for Penn alumni. Continued...

CLASS OF ’92 Four Weddings and a Hit TV Series Four couples planning their wedding ceremonies agree to have their experiences taped, and the result is much more than a tulle-wrapped fantasy: We find out what happens when two lovebirds cut Aunt Hilda from the guest list; when another couple worries about how to pay for the reception; and when a groom’s mother refuses to acknowledge her son’s sexuality—or his new union. It’s the real world of Gay Weddings. Continued...

CLASS OF ’99 News—and Group-Therapy—for Ivy Basketball Fans It is hard to believe that after the dot-com boom of the late nineties, which saw the number of Internet Web sites grow faster than the line at Abner’s after the Penn men’s basketball team scores over 100 points, there were still certain topics in the world that did not have adequate Web coverage. But in October 2000, Jake Wilson C’99 had to scour the Web to find information on Ivy League basketball that was more extensive than the paragraph or so each school received in national college basketball preview magazines. The Scranton, Iowa, native thirsted for information on Penn and its opponents heading into the new season—objective information, not the more promotional pieces put out by the schools and the league themselves. Continued...

CLASS OF ’86 Unspoiled by Fame In the summer of 1812, William Webb, the first captain of the schooner Fame, set sail from Salem, Massachusetts, hoping to strike it rich as a plundering privateer. With war against Britain newly erupted, Webb and his crew of working-class investors purchased Fame as a warship, since using it for trade in silks and tea from Asia meant almost certain capture in wartime. Now fighters themselves, they sailed to Maine in search of enemy merchant ships. And with unbelievable luck, they chanced upon two British vessels within days of setting out, captured them, and brought home 10 times the price of Fame in spoils. Continued...

Previous issue's Profiles | Mar/Apr Contents | Gazette home