University Building: The Cathedral of Learning

Also touted as the “best place to… University Building: The Cathedral of Learning

Also touted as the “best place to hook up,” the Cathedral of Learning satisfies a diverse set of needs. Hungry? Cathedral Cafe offers cuisine that makes Eddie’s patrons jealous. Want to work out? Find the steps and visit the University Honors College on the 36th floor. Need a place to study? The Cathedral Commons has very long tables. Need a place to hook up? I’ll let you discover the quiet nooks and crannies of the Cathedral for yourself.

Runner-up: William Pitt Union, Posvar Hall (tied)

—Keaton Carr, Assistant Photo Editor

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Place to Escape to: Schenley Park

The new addition to Schenley Park leaves nothing to be desired if you are looking to escape from the commotion of campus life. Free jazz, movies on Flagstaff Hill, Phipps Conservatory and ice skating make it easy for you and that special someone time to grow better acquainted in the fourth-largest inner-city park on the Eastern seaboard.

Runner-up: Hillman Library

—Keaton Carr, Assistant Photo Editor

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Best Place to Study: Hillman Library

If there’s a choice between studying in comfort and just plain studying, go with the lesser of two evils. When it comes to crunch time, there’s no place like Hillman. With its 24-hour policy during finals week, you can trudge pajama-clad down its entryway to seek out your very own nook. Cutely named computers are tucked into every corner, and there’s always the computer lab for your printing needs. If staring at books grows tiresome, check out the art collections, or peruse the plethora of coffees and pastries in the monument to academic punning, the “Cup and Chaucer.”

Runner-up: Cathedral of Learning

—Kristen DiLemmo, A’E Editor

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Best Place to Hook Up: The Cathedral

It’s very likely that intelligent students chose this location because of its sheer size. With 42 floors of phallic enjoyment, the Cathedral of Learning has plenty of nooks and crannies to explore the more private nooks and crannies of your special someone.

The Cathedral in this regard is much like a giant maze, except that instead of a Minotaur in the center there is instead — sex. And instead of ending with cheese, it probably ends with something far more enjoyable.

So head on over to the largest and tallest of Pitt buildings, grab that significant other and hope that the time it takes to reach the 36th floor of the building gives you enough time to (ahem) get the job done.

If that’s not a viable option, there is always the runner-up: my bed.

Runner up: My bed

—Andy Medici, News Editor

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Best Place to do Laundry: Towers

The smell of fabric softener, 55 washers and 55 dryers greet you when you enter Litchfield Towers’ laundry facility. Convenience is key, as this accommodating laundry room is located in the high traffic Towers lobby. Don’t be aggravated, though, that prices have jumped 25 percent in the past year if you still use quarters. Rather, look at the price increase as an opportunity to invest in the University’s newly announced $2 billion fund-raising campaign.

Runner-up: Relax-n-Wash

—Keaton Carr, Assistant Photo Editor

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Best Break-Up Spot: Towers Lobby

Nothing says “I don’t love you” quite like the Towers lobby. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been with your boyfriend or girlfriend for three years or three days, “The Lob” provides a convenient public atmosphere to sever the relationship without a scene before you get some coffee and sign your new friend into Towers. The Union and the Internet were tied for second. We can still be friends, but I g2g.

Runner-up: William Pitt Union, the Internet (tied)

—Keaton Carr, Assistant Photo Editor

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Best place to talk a walk: Schenley Park

With lots of sidewalks, paths and places to explore, why wouldn’t you want to go for a walk in Schenley Park on a nice day? It’s incredibly close to Oakland, and it’s usually cleaner. If the city is getting to be too much for you, escaping to the park to spend a little time with nature might be just what you need.

The park’s several playgrounds are fun to go to with friends at any time of the year, as is Phipps Conservatory, which is free with a valid Pitt ID. The swimming pool and free movies on Flagstaff Hill are great summer entertainment, and the ice skating rink provides a good time in the winter; all are well within walking distance of campus and the rest of Oakland. Grab your dog, your sweetie, your friends, your iPod or just yourself and head over to Schenley Park for nature and fun.

Runner-up: Shadyside

—Anna Kissell, Copy Chief

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Best Place to Take a Nap: Bed

Curl up with your favorite blanket or stuffed animal because “your bed” is the best place to take a nap. Don’t get too comfortable, though, or your old familiar friend may cause you to sleep through class. “Another person’s bed” is an obvious alternative, but rule out sex, because it’s just too crowded to be comfortable.

Runner-up: Cathedral Lawn

—Keaton Carr, Assistant Photo Editor

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Best Place to Smoke: The Ashtray

Well, doubtless a lot of thought went into choosing the Ashtray as the best place to smoke. I assume it was not so much the name as it was — fine, it was definitely the name. After all, there is nothing quite like taking a smoke outside of the Towers and realizing that you are a few inches taller.

Why? It’s because you are standing on top of decades of cigarette butts from past students. Step outside (also the runner-up) to the Ashtray, and light up a cool cigarette. Remember, no one smokes because they think it’s cool. They smoke because cigarettes are cool and refreshing.

And so is the Ashtray.

Runner-up: Outside

—Andy Medici, News Editor

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Best Place to Play Pool: William Pitt Union

The best place to play pool is in the basement of the William Pitt Union, next to Schenley Cafe. The room off to the side of the eatery offers scores of pool tables, arcade games and even ping-pong tables. The pool tables are available during regular business hours for the William Pitt Union.

Runner-up: Shootz Cafe

—Jared Trent Stonesifer, Assistant News Editor

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Best Residence Hall: Amos Hall

When it comes to residence life at Pitt, it’s good to be greek, and it’s good to be a girl. Home to 153 women in nine sororities, Amos Hall gives its residents all the little luxuries of life, with amenities such as kitchens, bathrooms and a chapter room on every floor, penthouse laundry facilities, a first-floor PNC bank branch with an ATM and a fitness center. If that’s not enough, Amos Hall’s location, in the heart of the Schenley Quadrangle, is a short walk from most of the campus classrooms and Oakland amusements.

What else could a gal want?

Runner-up: Pennsylvania Hall

—Erin Green, Assistant Opinions Editor

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Best Place to Get Arrested: Towers Lobby

We’ve all seen it in The Pitt News police blotter before:

2:32 a.m. — Police cited (your drunken ass) for underage drinking at Litchfield Tower A, which is why Towers Lobby was voted as the most likely place to get arrested. It stands to reason that any police officer would stand in the place where all freshman trains must return.

It’s like shooting fish in a really small barrel — with dynamite.

Much like a salmon run, students must eventually return to their home to … spawn. The police, like traditional fishermen, cast wide nets to make sure that they catch the largest amount possible.

But don’t think that the William Pitt Union or Forbes Avenue are any safer; they were voted runner-up for much the same reasons.

Runners-up: Forbes Avenue, Union (tie)

—Andy Medici, News Editor

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Best Place to Wake Up: In My Bed

After a long night of partying, it could be hard to recall many of the night’s events. Why would you want to wake up in the bed of some hot guy or girl the next morning when you could wake up in your own?

Whether you’ve dressed your sleeping throne with satin sheets or cotton, there’s nothing like the comfort of that familiar mattress you’ve grown to love.

Let’s be honest here. That baby’s been there for you more than any boyfriend or girlfriend ever could: He fits you perfectly. He gives you a pillow to cry on. He wraps his warmth around you when you’re cold (and since the gas bill gets expensive, you’re going to need it!).

So face it. That hot hook-up’s bed might be fun once in a while, but at the end of the night, there’s no place like your own.

Runner-up: In a girl’s bed

—Sarah Kaufman, Assistant Copy Chief

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Best Street to Live On: Atwood Street

Can you honestly say that you’re surprised? Did you think that Meyran, Bates or Semple could even come close?

With cheap student housing and nearby restaurants that feature foods from Italy, Mexico and most parts of Asia, Atwood Street was the obvious choice for this category. On a weekend night, a party is never more than a few houses away. Actually, make that on most any night.

So, maybe there is the occasional shooting or robbery at gunpoint, but no neighborhood is perfect. Would you really let that stop you from getting a prime slice of college life right down the street from all the coolest kids?

Runner-up: Semple Street

—Tim Stienstraw, Assistant News Editor

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Best Museum: Carnegie Museum

The Carnegie Museums of Natural History and Art are easily the oldest and most famous of the Pittsburgh museums. Conveniently located on Forbes Avenue in Oakland, these museums offer an easy and inexpensive — admission is free with a Pitt ID — way for students to indulge themselves in a little culture. Visitors to the museums can marvel at the size of prehistoric dinosaur bones (although this exhibit is currently being renovated) and come face to face with the works of master artists (check out the Rembrandt exhibition — in Pittsburgh until February) all in one day.

Runner-up: Andy Warhol Museum

—Erin Green, Assistant Opinions Editor

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Best Music Venue: Mr. Small’s

Transportation issues aside, Mr. Small’s has been voted this year’s best music venue.

Located in an adaptively reused church in Millvale, Mr. Small’s serves as both a music venue and a recording studio. Even though its patronage includes a large number of Pitt students and other assorted Oaklanders, no bus route travels directly from Oakland to Millvale, a small town on the opposite side of the river from Lawrenceville. Even with transfers, the last buses back to town stop running well before most concerts end.

Regardless of logistical problems, the favorites of college radio, indie rock and hip-hop who perform there have students sharing taxis and becoming especially close with their friends who have cars in the weeks leading up to concerts, all for a round-trip to Mr. Small’s.

Runner-up: Post-Gazette Pavilion

—Andrew Macurak, Staff Writer

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Best spring break: Cancun

Cancun: Mecca for all spring-breaking college students. This Mexican oasis of pleasure has all the amenities of a cosmopolitan city: Senor Frog’s, tequila flowing like the waters of the Allegheny and, dare I say it — the all-inclusive resorts. Where else can you find a dueling piano bar that has managed to work a wet T-shirt contest into the act? Yes, my friends, Cancun. The juxtaposition of the turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea with the strobe lights of Coco Bongo’s overwhelms the senses. And if that’s not enough to tempt you, Cancun — also known as the little Hollywood of Mexico — has been launching the careers of many young co-eds into the adult entertainment industry for years.

Runner-up: Home

—Sarah Bingler, Opinions Editor

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Best Place to Study Abroad: Italy

As if Gli Azzurri winning the 2006 FIFA World Cup isn’t reason enough to travel across the Atlantic to spend some time visiting “The Boot,” here are a few more: Brunelleschi’s Dome, tiramisu, Milan Fashion Week, Sophia Loren, ancient Roman architecture, cannolis, the Sistine Chapel, skiing the Alps, the Pope, the Festival of San Remo, Federico Fellini, Benito Mussolini, Carnevale, gondolas in Venice, Dante Alighieri, Vespas, the University of Bologna … have cannolis been mentioned already? A dynamic culture juxtaposed between its grand ancient history and the pressing needs of a modern European power, Italy offers an experience as rich and diverse as its many regions. Study for a whole semester in an affiliated program, matriculated as a student in one of the country’s top-notch universities, or spend just the summer with the Pitt-in-Italy crew perusing the island of Sicily — either way, you can eat, drink and be merry learning how to live la dolce vita, Italian style.

Runner-up: England

—Colleen Seidel, Copy Editor