We love lists. We love making them, reading them, crossing things off of them. Each issue of Street starts with a story list and ends with a production checklist. My MacBook desktop is littered with virtual post-its filled with to do lists. I’m a sucker for Pitchfork’s 100 Best Tracks lists and Mr. Blackwell’s lists and really any list that takes a great deal (or even a small deal) of information and organizes it into neat bulleted columns.
In Kirby Ferguson’s brilliant YouTube video entitled “Americans Love Lists,” he breaks down the top three Great American Lists (1. Constitution, 2. Bill of Rights, 3. Civil Rights Act). And he posits that we need more lists: lists of lists, lists within lists, lists of lists of lists within lists of lists… with an index, which is a list. Maybe I wouldn’t go quite that far, but there is just something so satisfying about a really good list. How else would we know what was up?
We love Penn almost as much as we love lists. Enter: Best of Penn. In the past couple of weeks, over 1000 (!) of you filled out our survey, letting us know who should top the list of Penn-related awesomeness. I applaud your love of the Green, Transit and Beige, and you’ve convinced me to precede Blarney Quizzo Tuesdays with Millcreek Mondays. Plus, it seems we all agree the world is a better place sans Juicy Campus.
We’ve gone a step further in an effort to drop some more “Best of” knowledge in this week’s supersized issue. Food & Drink lets you know where you should go for your midterm-fueled caffeine cravings (pg. 9), while Music hooks you up with the best song to have sex in Van Pelt to (pg. 11). Guides reminds us there is a world beyond our bubble in their clever Best of Not Penn feature (pg. 22).
Maybe we’ve even inspired you to come up with your own lists, McSweeney’s-style. In that case, may the list-making force be with you.
2. Just wanna be with you, Julia
