Friday's closing of the elevator to students for the rest of the school year caught a lot of people by surprise, including Nancy Tang. "There's a bigger picture that we need to look at because this isn't just about the elevator," she writes. "It's really about communication between us and our administration. Someone needs to speak up for the student body and mediate between the two."

With "New Moon" opening in theaters Friday, there's no escaping the hype about Bella Swan and Edward Cullen. And that's just fine with Eleni Yannelis. "The original 'Twilight' novel made the New York Times' Best Sellers list, so I am not alone in my fascination with a teenage girl and her undead love interest who happens to be a 'vegetarian' vampire who sparkles in sunlight."

Jenny Cooke has never really thought of herself as an irritable person. But certain things are guaranteed to make her blood boil. Check inside for Jenny's top 10 pet peeves. From head patters to people who don't smile back to door dawdlers to people who consider chess a sport — you name it, Jenny's had it with these characters.

Maritza Mestre has been swimming as far back as she can remember. Her experience hasn't always been the most pleasant, though. As her final high school season draws to a close, Mestre reflects on why she's stayed with swimming for so long, despite the negatives.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, scheduled to open in Orlando in the spring of 2010, is just the latest example of Pottermania. "I have to say that I am really surprised and confused by all of this," writes Revathi Maturi. "It's one thing to love a book and be a fan, but it's another to spend time on sites where you pretend that you actually go to Hogwarts."

When going to a store to find a Halloween costume this year, customers were immediately assaulted by outfits sporting names like "Pocohottie" and "Cottontail Cutie." These costumes were not just taking up shelf space, girls were flocking to buy them. Jenny Cooke has a few thoughts on why girls insist on encouraging frostbite on Halloween.

While driving in town recently, Will Fernandez passed a billboard touting the benefits of "Vitamin D from the Sun and Tanning Beds." If the billboard was to be believed, using a tanning bed could help reduce the risk of breast cancer. This struck Fernandez as odd — most likely a manipulation of legitimate research on the benefits of Vitamin D. So he looked into the matter a bit further.

Halloween has caught Maritza Mestre by surprise this year. "This has never happened to me," she writes. "Usually I have put tons of thought into costumes and my plans for the night." So what happened? After a little thought, she realized it all had to do with the tunnel vision specific to senior year: college.

"Freakonomics," in case you happen to be unaware, is a medium-length infusion of quirky, "un-normal" microeconomics topics and more-than-merely-readable nonfiction writing. The sequel, "SuperFreakonomics," has been out for almost a week, and somehow Diana Liu hasn't gotten her hands on a copy yet. She'd better start trying.

Six years ago, the day before Katy Metcalf turned 10, singer-songwriter Elliott Smith died. "Elliott was my hero," she writes. "I wanted to be him when I grew up … not a rock star, but a something better. I can't even describe it, but his death had a profound effect on my life. Not that day, maybe not that year. But the more I've matured, the more I appreciate his music, and the more I miss him."

What do you as Uni students think can or should be done about this problem? Do teachers and parents have the obligation to step in when they see bullying happening? Will there ever be effective state or federal legislation? Kelly Mover sees hope in the programs offered by San Francisco-based No Bully.

As Nikita Dutta says, the sheer goofiness is half the fun of fortune cookies! And, let's not forget they come with a handy set of your lucky numbers and a brief lesson in Chinese on the back. Oh yeah, and there's the actual cookie, too.

When Nancy Tang went to Shanghai a year ago, she was the very model of an overachieving student. But she returned to Uni a different person: "I had devoted so much energy to my perfect grades and extensive résumé, and yet they really didn't set me apart. I had shaped myself into the image of all other typical overachievers."

Chicago's fate has been decided. Rio de Janeiro was awarded the XXXI Olympiad on Friday over three competitors, including the Windy City. Chris Yoder ponders what an Olympic Games in Chicago would have been like, and instead of asking what's ahead, he's left to wonder: "What if?"

When Mohammad Jaber reads news stories from corporate-funded media such as CNN, he sees many biases regarding the Middle East, especially Palestine, resulting in distorted information and the omission of the Palestinian perspective on the conflict with Israel.