'Big Mouth' leads beatties

When Stephanie Desmon was six, she danced Swan Lake at the Met. At seven, she won the U.S. Open and got the World Championship gold in women's downhill skiing. That same year she also performed oboe and piano solos for the mayor of Buffalo. Well, she tried anyway. As a child prodigy (not), Desmon tried her hand at all sorts of talent-requiring activities in fact. "She liked to try everything," Desmon's mom Janet said this week. "But she was good at absolutely nothing." Ah, but that was then. Now, the incoming assistant managing editor has made her way up the ranks of The Daily Pennsylvanian to oversee 20 beat reporters and sit on the paper's mightily stress-causing executive board. Oh and how it suits her. High school and college friends alike say they are not surprised with Desmon's rise to power at the newspaper. They describe the fluffy-headed History major as a natural organizer who always seems very together -- except in the bedroom. "Stephanie is definitely a slob," explains housemate Karen Krigsman, adding that the floor to Desmon's bedroom is an almost scary thing of the past. More than anything else, the thin, small-footed Chi Omega sister is known for her "big mouth." She can out-talk and out-socialize everyone who knows her, and, when needed, she can shout her way out of anything. While her mom claims Desmon has outgrown the slobbery habit of sticking her tongue out at everyone, the new editor does have another oral fixation: rumor has it, she can fit her entire fist in her mouth. (who says Desmon's good at nothing?) "I have witnessed that," says incoming Managing Editor and boyfriend of 10 months Scott Calvert. Calvert also sheepishly notes that Desmon has "sound effects for everything." "I like to hear her shriek," he says. "That's true," Desmon wistfully acknowledges, adding that she can do it "even in the most public places." To Desmon's claims that she "is very innocent," friends simply giggle. They hedge and say she spends most of her time with Calvert, but that there is definitely something crazy lurking beneath her small frame. And since they never see her anyway, she could be doing anything. Desmon (known to those in the know as Stephee, Steph-a-roo-roo, and Desdemona) brings a perpetually perkiness to her new position at the DP. She says she feels like a "Mom" to her young reporters. The "wonderfully unique" new editor hails from Buffalo, NY, where friends fondly think of her for her hair, her hazardous driving and her raging sports mania, which extends to every professional Buffalo sports team and now -- just for Calvert's sake -- the Baltimore Orioles. (how cute.) For the future, Desmon has few but mighty aspirations. Next week, she wants to go to the Superbowl with Dad. Once upon a time, she wanted to be President of the United States, but now she doesn't like helicopters. And once she wanted to be a princess. Now, she simply wants to be "happy somewhere."

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