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"Ponderables" Criticized Editor:
Thursday, Jan. 17, 1963 University Daily Kansat
On Jan. 8, the Daily Kansan published a letter criticizing the attitude taken by the paper's sports writer. It was the best thing they ever published. On Jan. 14, an article, "Ponderables," was published which contested the letter and went on to ironically and sarcastically humiliate our cheerleaders. It was nauseating. It began by stating "What the letter's author was complaining about was a 'negative toned sermon' that deprecated the efforts of the KU cheerleading squad to rally the spirit of the school." This is completely wrong. The author of the letter was, perhaps, just a bit angered at the method used by the Daily Kansan's sports writer. He was probably peeved every time a pre-game sports article was published saying that the team was not worth a damn, but our wonderful school spirit would inspire the members to victory-or at least "give 'em a good fight."
... Letters ..
EARLY LAST SUMMER the Daily Kansan began telling the world that KU's football team had lost all its star players; that it did not have a good full-back (or whatever the position was); that the players were "green" and lacking in experience; that it would be hard for them to get used to playing in front of large crowds. And then in the last paragraph or so the rallying KU spirit was called to the rescue. The players knew they weren't worth a damn. They knew that whatever they did depended on the spirit of the crowd. They knew that without the spirit they wouldn't even be able to put up a good fight.
Maybe the author of the letter to the editor on Jan. 8 was disturbed about all the responsibility
the sports writer sloughed off on the rallying fans. It was this, far more than the "deprecated efforts of the KU cheerleading squad," that the author was complaining about.
THE AUTHOR of the letter certainly didn't deserve the sarcastic "trash"—"Ponderables"—that was published on Jan. 14. And if that reeeking article represents the majority of the students' opinions, then perhaps the cheerleaders should "get pouty, pack their uniforms and look for a university that has a student paper with a sports writer who is more cognizant of just. . . . " how much he should run down the school team and nauseate readers with false emotions.
And as for the Daily Kansan starting to "function as an instrument of the student body. . . " better luck next year.
Others have told, or tried to tell, the story of Bunker Hill. This may not be the definitive history of the battle, but it is a scholarly, workmanlike, frequently interesting depiction by an editor of American Heritage.
BOOK REVIEWS
Salina freshman Sam Dreher
THE BATTLE FOR BUNKER HILL, by Richard M. Ketchum (Doubleday, $4.50).
The style and approach that mark American Heritage are quite apparent in this history. Historians, in fact, would call this "popularized history." Ketchum tries to humanize (though he never fabricates) the men and events.
He gives us a vivid look at the chief participants in the battle—Gage, Howe, Clinton and Burgoyne—along with a little scandal to enliven the story. On the American side we receive sketches of Artemes Ward, John Stark, Israel (Old Put) Putnam and Joseph Warren, the intellectual doctor-patriot who died in the battle.
There is a systematic, step-by-step description of what happened, and of what it all meant. What it especially meant, to Ketchum, is that a nation was born on Bunker Hill, when men from Massachusetts fought side by side with men from Connecticut and New Hampshire, and began to learn that their destinies were being welded together in a war that would tear them, eventually, from their own people across the ocean.—CMP
Party Pictures
\* \* \*
Editor:
Thanks to Mr. Middleton for his Jan. 8 reply, "Three Party Pictures," regarding my criticism in "Jayhawker Favoritism." His comment on picture quality is well taken but he still has not answered my question about equality in representation, referring to his section of the Jayhawker. Again I say that I refer to ALL living groups, not just my own, as Mr. Middleton erroneously assumed. Again I assert that we expect to be represented, otherwise we would not bother to submit our pictures. When we do submit pictures, we consider them to be original, humorous, etc., thus we would like to see them in print. We pay our money, assuming that we will be a part of the Jayhawker, and that it will be a part of us. Is this not the reason for a yearbook?
If our money goes mainly for other purposes please let us know. If not, let us be represented. 'Nuf said.
Gerald B. Renyer Topeka senior
To Study or Not ...
Enter STUDENT
STUDENT: To study or not to study: that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outraged professors Or to take arms against final examinations, And by opposing, flunk them anyway. To study and no more to sleep For a whole week; by sleep we end The heartache and the thousand shocks The undergraduates are heir to. 'Tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished.
To study or to sleep;—
To sleep? Perchance to dream! Ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this heavy load,
Must give us pause.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics? Dialectical Materialism?
The Ideological Spectrum? There's the respect
That makes a calamity of the undergrad's life.
For who would beat the whips and scorns of study,
The professor's quirks, those wretched classes,
And a Friday afternoon of grog-guzzling.
Ay, 'tis too late for study now.
Ay, is too late for study now.
The Witches have told me. I'M DOOMED!
Exit Student
Enter WITCHES (chanting over a large black cauldron which contains a sheepskin and a mortar board floating in boiling grog).
WITCHES: Double, double, toil and trouble,
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
All are PLAGUED with mortal fear,
Now that final week is here.
BEN MARSHALL AND BILL SHAKESPEARE
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