OPINION
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN WWW.KANSAN.COM TUESDAY NOVEMBER 6 2007 PAGE 54
Gentry: A lawsuit brings down Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2007
BITS O'WISDOM
PAGE 5A
A tribute to Professor Wallace Johnson An inspiring, memorable teacher will be missed by all who knew him
Imagine, if you will, the following scenario: A crowd consisting of 200 college students piles into a fairly large lecture hall late in the afternoon. When their class is supposed to start, the door opens and an old man ambles in, walks down the steps and does not seem to mind, or even notice, for that matter, the people all around him.
This kind of situation played out in front of my eyes a few times a week during the fall semester of my sophomore year at KU, I, and evidently everyone else who ever took Myths, Legends and Folk Belief of East Asia, would spend the rest of the year raving about not only the class, but also about that old man who would casually walk in and give us a taste of his encyclopedic knowledge of the various cultures of that part of the world.
Eventually, he makes his way to the front of the class, where he sits down at a desk, puts up his feet and looks like he is ready to take a refreshing nap. The catch here is that he stays awake, and he talks. And when he talks, with a southern accent that some people will liken to Foghorn Leghorn, it is, of all things, a story about a Japanese woman being plagued by a kitsune, a mythical fox which brings bad luck upon all those that it follows.
Prof. Wallace Johnson did not have any gimmick to his lectures. He didn't have a running joke, or some noticeable tic that people could snicker at. He just talked, and he did it well. Whatever the subject, whether it be the tortured love of Izanami and Izanagi, or how the world as we know it is actually the body of a dead giant, or even the events of a Korean séance, it came as naturally to Prof. Johnson as football statistics to Al Michaels. When he lectured, it was like your grandfather was telling stories about his youth.
I write this because, as many know by now, Prof. Johnson, who introduced himself to both classes of his that I took that year as "Wally," passed away recently. Reportedly, he had a heart attack and collapsed on his way to the Merc to pick up a copy of the New York Times. Yes, he died getting a newspaper from the natural foods market. If there is a more KU way to go out, I don't want to know about it.
It was not just the East Asian Languages and Cultures department that lost something special that day, it was all of KU. Such talent in any field, let alone that of a college professor, is a rare thing indeed, and all who got to listen to Wally Johnson knew what a treat they were getting when he taught them.
I feel bad for everyone who is going to take one of the classes he once taught in the future. The course material will still be as interesting as it ever was, but there will not be that one special factor which could captivate people week-in and week-out that there once was.
So, sadly, all who were fortunate enough to take one of Prof. Johnson's classes can now only fondly remember both the fun moments, such as when he presented his theory that the long drought the KU football team had been suffering up to that point was due to the poor chi flow to Memorial Stadium, and the genuinely academic, like his ability to recount the creation stories of at least three East Asian nations by heart, within a 50-minute class period per story. No matter what, he always hold the entire class's attention from start to finish.
Prof. Johnson will be missed greatly by those of us who heard him speak, and by the entire University, which was benefited for many years by his unforgettable presence.
Cohen is a Topeka junior in journalism and English.
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That White Owl guy is going to be the ruin of this University.
E's was shot again. There's another bullet hole in the window.
When we win the National Championship, how many football players will it take to put Mangino up on their shoulders?
Mother Nature, stop teasing me with this back and forth cold weather. Decide! Decide now!
76-39? I didn't think we played Nebraska until January.
down over the weekend, because I didn't see one commercial.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Pizza Street must have closed
Is it too early to start calling the Free for All about who we're voting for for president?
I'm sorry, but the princess is in another castle.
I think the KU football team should be tested for steroids!
And I'm spent.
Colorado ticketing policy unreasonable Fans are unable to purchase single-game tickets to the Kansas game in February
Saturday, Feb. 2, the KU men's basketball team will travel to Boulder
will travel to Boulder, Col., to take on the Colorado Buffaloos. When it comes to fan attendance, however, it might be hard to spot someone in blue. Colorado's ticketing policy for the KU game demands a boycott.
Colorado is not selling single-game tickets to the KU game this year. Instead, fans wishing to purchase tickets must do so using the U Pickem' Pack. The package, which includes the KU game as well as any two others (including conference games), comes out to $72.50 ($20 per game, plus $3.50 per game in fees and a $2 package order charge). No other Big 12 game is subject to these limitations.
KU fans living in Colorado or western Kansas aren't always able to make the trip into
Lawrence to see men's basketball games at Allen Fieldhouse. Their only opportunity to see a basketball game this season might be traveling to Boulder. As a reward for their loyalty, they're made to see two games they probably don't care about, or pay three times the usual ticket price, depending on what they do with the other two tickets in the pack. They could always sell the two tickets, but then again, Colorado basketball isn't exactly a big draw.
Therein lies the motive for the bundling. KU basketball is a big draw, and fans travel well.The Colorado ticketing program will have one of two outcomes: Diehard KU fans will go ahead and purchase the pack, providing financial and possibly attendance support to two meaningless games, or many fans will decline to purchase any tickets at all. This doesn't help Colorado's
program financially, but it might ensure a more friendly home crowd at the game.
It is troubling that Colorado's athletics department would use KU's notoriety and its fans' dedication to make money. The basketball program has worked hard to establish one of the best teams in the nation, and in return, this recognition is exploited. With no other conference team would this program work.
The ideal solution would be for Colorado to have its own outstanding basketball program, negating the need to piggyback on a successful team. Fans should want to purchase non-KU game tickets because they love seeing the Buffalooes play, not because it's the only way to see a better team. This practice is insulting not only to KU, but also to the Colorado men's basketball team. It insinuates
that they're not good enough to draw fans on their own. While it may be true, it doesn't help the Buffaloes' morale.
Colorado's ticketing policies are their own. It is their prerogative to distribute tickets as they see fit, but it is not KU fans' obligation to give in to it. If fans quake and purchase the U Pickem' Pack, it sends the message that this ticketing practice is a success. It will likely stay in place year after year, and Colorado will continue to make money off of KU's achievement.
Until Colorado reinstitutes a fair ticketing policy, fans should refuse to buy the U Pickem' Pack. Unfortunately, there might be more black and gold in the stands in Boulder come February.
KU will probably win anyway.
DRAWING BOARD
MAX RINKEL
NICE AND ACCURATE PROPHECIES
Gender equality works both ways
In the war of the roses, men are taught to treat women with kid gloves, which doesn't do either sex any favor.
BENJAMIN R. SMITH
It's like my masculinity is a handicap. I hear one thing but I know I'm not getting the whole message.
good marriage and a couple sons who, they knew, would grow up to be really awesome (public approval rating still pending).
I swear, women are wonderful most of the time, but there comes the eventual argument that makes me want to move to Scotland so I can be closer to Johnnie Walker.
My brother and I were taught the feminist values mixed in with our general helping of everyday morality.
When I was a little boy, my mother was an 80s feminist. She had a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from a good college. Aside from working full-time and raking in the dough, she and her husband had a
Of course my favorite lesson occurred when the little girl from across the street hauled off and snacked me right across the face because she'd seen a girl do it to a boy in a movie. My mother grabbed my hand, poised as it was in retaliatory action, just in time and said, "Gentlemen don't hit!"
So, ladies, in that moment it was made clear to me that if, in the future, men and women have become militarily opposed and both factions are on opposite sides of the battlefield (innie's on one side, outies on the other) you will have the option
of first strike and we will have to just quietly awaiting our own annihilation.
Now, forgive me for being logical, but I'm sick of this.
I'm sick of that old joke, "If a man speaks in the forest and a woman is not there to hear him, is he still wrong?" I'm sick of keeping my head down and hoping for the best. As a man I morally support equality on all fronts. Women, homosexuals, blacks, Palestinians, Israelis, Russians, Venusians—all of us should really have a cookout and hug. But it's getting so that when I have a legitimate grievance and ensuing argument with the opposite sex, I'm not allowed to win on the basis that I am a man and therefore habitually wrong.
To generalize is dangerous. I have won arguments with women. But damn it, they are the first to pipe up and say something along the lines of, "Well of course he won, he's so pig-headed."
The fact that I can't hit a girl back is fine with me. I'm a pacifist, now. I circumvented my reliance on animal justice in the 7th grade when I nearly injured a boy for pushing me too far.
I don't mind if a woman wins her arguments fair and square. Power to her! But the girl who holds up her hand and says, "Well, you'll never understand because you're a man." That's a real sign that I'm talking to a very nice, pretty, opinionated, lazy person who would be reasonable if only they had some sort of respect for how much effort it sometimes takes guys like me to keep from leaping across the table and forgetting that rule mom taught us so long ago "Gentlemen don't hit!"
Smith is a Rose Hill graduate student in English.
Erick R. Schmidt, editor
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The Editorial Board
Erick R. Schmidt, Eric Jorgensen,
Darla Slipe, Kelsey Hayes, Bryan
Dykman, Brandon T. Minister, Angelique
McNaughton and Benjamin R. Smith