people
Like car, like driver
Many cars in Lawrence have bumper stickers. Many cars have too many.
Many cars in Lawrence have rust. Many, not surprisingly, also have wood paneling.
Then there are the weird cars. Not weird —
And there aren't too many of those.
distinct.
But they are the cars people look at twice. Most people either laugh, honk, stare or just plain avoid them.
And their drivers wouldn't want it any other way. Their cars are not this way by accident.
Many car owners in Lawrence can boast that their car has its own personality. These drivers have cars with attitudes.
Below are profiles of a few Lawrence car owners who know that when they sit behind the wheel, they drive something special. And they are proud that it is not because of excess rust or bumper stickers.
By Brian James Kansan staff writer
Brit Schiesser, former KU student, Lawrence
Design. Flames on front, spreading out to the side
What is the history behind the vehicle? "I just bought it last week from a friend of mine. He had painted it black, then suggested he put some flames on the front."
What reaction do people have of the truck? "They probably say, 'Wow, that's neat. Better not run into it, though.'"
Why? "I don't really know. I thought it would look cool. I have some more plans for this thing. I want to slap my band's logo, O.L.G. (One Leg Grusome), on the hood. Pretty soon I want to paint the back end a nice tartan plaid."
Why plaid? "In the winter I wear a lot of plaid. And I've never seen a car before, have you?"
What's the best part of the truck? "Our band can make one trip with all of our stuff now, instead of making three trips to play."
The worst part? 'It's more rusty than what I thought.' One word or phrase to describe it: "Yes, it does run."
■ Paul Horvath, Lawrence resident, and children, ages 9,7,5,2.
Car make and model:"76 Nissan pickup
Design: Originally royal blue. Spray-paint from 50 cans now covers it.
History of vehicle: 'The pain job's been on there for the last two months. Eight children helped paint the car.熊
Why did you let them paint your pickup? "Call it a Saturday afternoon project for them. It just shows what children's productive energy and 50 cans of paint can do when pushed in the right direction."
What was your reaction? "I said I didn't intend on leavening it on for very long, but Michael, my 5-year-old, said, 'What, don't you like our job?' I thought it was great what they did. I hope people get a smile or a laugh out of it."
Best part of the truck? "There's a shark on the fender
hat they did. Everything else is pretty nondescript."
One word or phrase describing the truck? "Awe
some. My 2-year-old, Alex, calls it that."
Samantha Steeves, Lawrence sophomore
Car make and model: 73 Volkswagen bus.
Design: White on top, orange on bottom. Painted-on flowers line the windows, and a mural of a rainbow with water trickling down decorates the driver's side. A few concert stickers appear on the back windows next to a "For Sale" sign.
History behind the car?" I had to choose a project to do for a high school art class final. So I chose to paint the bus. Over the four years I've had this, more stuff has gotten put on, like stickers from some dead concerts I've been to."
What reaction do people have of the bus? "I think people are happy when they see a car like this. It makes them laugh a little. My friends like it because I took out the back seats and put in a loft so everyone has more space."
Favorite comment you have gotten? "One police officer in Atlanta said this bus was some kind of a trap and that I'm setting myself up for trouble sometime."
What is your favorite part? "That people feel comfortable riding ground in it. I've never really had a bad time in this bus."
Then why the "For Sale" signs? "I have two cars, the bus and a Honda. As much as I've enjoyed the bus, I have to go with the Honda because it's more reliable."
See CARS. Page 10.
Surplus bowling balls from Kmart selling at Jaybowl at cut-rate prices
Sale gives bowlers an edge
Kansan staff writer
By Sara Bennett
Deep in the heart of the Kansas Union, a sale is taking place that may have KU bowlers measuring their hands and assessing their grIPS. Until this summer, many could not afford the luxury of owning their own bowling ball.
But now, the Jaybowl is rolling out bowling balls for as little as $10.
According to Mike Fine, recreation coordinator to the Kansas and Burge unions, the Jaybowl received about 65 Ebonite bowling balls from Kmart when the store switched to Brunswick wick balls. The Jaybowl is selling them for $10, with a $15 drilling charge. Fine said that after six months of the sale, only 20 balls remain unsold. Fine estimates it could take four months for all the balls to sell.
"We got a good deal," he said. "It's not real profitable, but it's allowed some people who previously couldn't afford a ball the chance to own one."
Bowling balls are serious business to those who love the sport in which people wear shoes worn by people they've never met. As any avid bowler will attest, there's more to
bowling balls than three holes and a shiny finish.
House balls, those balls provided by the lane to the general public, are made to standard specifications. A custom ball, on the other hand, is personalized to fit a bowler's grip, finger size and throwing style. Jaybowl makes balls to order and can also engrave them.
Contrary to popular belief, bowling balls are not solid. Weight blocks help the ball keep its shape, and the relation of the finger holes to the weight block influences the way the ball can be thrown.
But bowling balls have a whimsical side as well. Fine said physics students use bowling balls to test gravity, and last year architecture students used them to make a sculpture for a class project. Paint one a delicate shade of mauve, stick some dried flowers in the finger holes, and a bowling ball becomes a lovely vase. Amusing, if destructive, pastimes might be to roll a bowling ball down the stairs or set up a makeshift alley in your own home.
"It gives you a little better feel," said Shaun Tate, Lawrence sophomore. "It's a little easier to throw because it's built for you rather than for the masses. Plus, you're the only one who throws it."
Or, just bowl with it and enjoy that special pride and extra edge that comes with having a custom ball.
Don Glasscock, Overland Park graduate student and member of the KU bowling team, said he'll never go back
Loyce Smith, Junction city senior, prepares to drill new holes into a bowling bowl.
to house balls now that he has his own.
"I have several, actually," he said. "For different lane conditions, you need different weight blocks."
Fine said the Jaybowlsells an average of 100 balls a year, some for as much as $150. But now is the time to get a good bowling ball dirt cheap.
"People seem to enjoy bowling with their own equipment." he said.
And for the true enthusiast, the Jaybowl sells $5 pins,
too.
Spitting is appropriate at Klingon camp
RED LAKE FALLS, Minn. — A dozen or so fervent fans of "Star Trek" may truly have reached the final frontier of Trekkiedo: A two-week language camp devoted to the study of *thlngan*, the Klingon language.
Klingon camp
FROM THE KANSAN FILE
For Trekkies, little explanation is needed. Klingons are the warlike, alien adversaries of the crew of the starship Enterprise. Those in other orbits, however, might be tempted to ask how to say, in Kingon, "Get a life."
"That's not fair. We have a life," said camp organizer Glen Proechel. "It think a little bit more creative hobby than going bowling or going fishing for the weekend."
"It's absolutely astounding how many Mother's Day cards we get from folks who don't have the address of their mom," said Helen Grant, who has worked at the Philadelphia dead-letter office. "We open it, and it says: 'Happy Mother's Day, Cindy.' We have it to discard it."
The camp also captures the essence of the cruel Klingon race. As the inventor of Klingon, Marc Okrand, said on the audio cassette "Conversational Klingon," "Spitting is quite appropriate."
Mom?
Sowhat is it?
"Just because a painting has squiggy lines doesn't mean it's art. But it doesn't mean it isn't art either."
Guard at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C.
Just breathe
"Thank God you're here, and I'd like to have a cigarette," said Harvey Weinstein, in New York, as he was being filthy, exhausted and shaken from a 14-foot deep pit where he'd been kept while kidnappers extorted $3 million from his family.
Elaine Slav
PEOPLE
Too clean Tommy
Cruise and Brad Pitt have been miscast to play the lead roles in the film version of her best-selling novel
Tom Cruise is too "Mom and apple pie" to be cast as a French-speaking, semi-androgynous vampire from the 19th century, says author Anne Rice.
"Interview with the Vampire," she says.
interview with the Vampire," she says.
"It's like casting Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer in the movie," the author told the Los Angeles Times.
Cruise "is no more my Vampire Lestat than Edward G. Robinson is Rhetter Butler.
-Compiled from The Associated Press
"Batboy" nabbed by FBI
After a 29-state reign of terror, the "bat boy," a half-boy, half-bat beast, was reportedly captured by the FBI last month.
The FBI was able to apprehend the creature when he stranded himself on the roof of a Mississippi home caught in the Flood of '93. Troops reportedly down and plucked the beast directly from the roof, just before floodwaters overcame the structure.
The capture of the beast ended his escape from a research institute. He survived by eating small animals and digging through the trash.
Sightings were reported across 29 states from neighbors worried that the creature would eat their cats and dogs.
The World Weekly News
People and places at the University of Kansas.
calendar
The first of seven Hallmark Symposiums on visual communication will be at
LECTURES AND SEMINARS
EXHIBITIONS
the next generation symposiums on visual communication will be at 6 p.m. Monday in the Spencer Museum of Art auditorium. Guest lecturers will be Barry Fitzgerald, assistant professor of graphic design and former illustrator and designer from The Detroit News; Patrick Dooley, assistant professor of graphic design and former owner of a design studio in Los Angeles, and Chris North, assistant professor and former owner of a design studio in Overland Park.
"Canyon Revisited: Rephotographing the 1923 Grand Canyon Expeditions," will be on display until Sept. 26 in the Museum of Natural History.
Posters will be sold until Aug. 27 in Kansas Union Gallery.
CONCERTS
Melanie Moll, an organist, will present a Master Recital at 7:30 p.m. Friday at St. Lawrence Catholic Center, 1631 Crescent Rd.
AUDITIONS
University Dance Company will hold auditions open to students and community dancers at 7 p.m. Sept.1 in 242 Robinson Center.
INFORMATION ON LISTINGS
The Kansan welcomes submissions to the calendar listing published on Wednesdays; however, listings are limited to University-affiliated events.
If you wish to list an event, please stop by the Kansan, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. Listings may also be phoned in to Almee Estrada, features clerk, or Ezra Wolfe, features editor, at 864-4810.
Listings to appear Wednesday should be submitted no later than noon Monday.
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