Opinion
University Daily Kansan, October 8, 1981
Those noisy neighbors
Gee, block parties are fun. So are other big outdoor bashes where the kegs are consumed by the score and bands play loud and long.
The thrill is a little like skinny-dipping. There's something exhilarating about celebrating out in the elements—exposed with bright spotlights and joyous crowds really letting go in the open air.
Apparently, however, the joy and the kegs are leading partygoers to lose their inhibitions as skinny-dippers lose their clothes. Some have tossed all respect of others to the night breeze.
The Lawrence City Commission, which approves the roadblocks and time limits for parties on city streets and other outdoor parties, is making noises about zealous partners.
City commissioners have received many complaints from citizens whose residences border outdoor party sites about loud music, among other things. The commission is threatening to think twice about approving future blow-outs.
After the Sept. 26 Naismith-Oliver block party, nearby residents complained because the rock 'n' roll didn't stop at the agreed-to 11 p.m. deadline. That hour is early, but when dependent on the city's approval and the goodwill of neighbors, deadlines are deadlines.
In another case, residents near the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity complained that students parked on their streets, walked through their yards and even tore down a fence that separated a neighboring yard from the party.
No one wants block or other outdoor parties to become a thing of the past. But because some residents have become fed up with what they must view as "typical" student behavior, the city may decide it's fed up, too.
All it really takes to avoid complaints is for people at block parties to keep in mind the people who live down the block.
Today's beholders blind to anything except beauty
Good looks are everything to Americans.
Good looks are everything to Americans. Near-sighted people stumble to an optometrist to buy contact lenses. Or that slightly too-large nose becomes magically smaller through the skill of a plastic surgeon. What adolescent, or even adult, hasn't gone through months of visits to an orthodontist, all for that perfect smile?
Good looks are a social asset and an aid in improving one's life. Good business is more important than most people believe.
Studies of physical attractiveness done at the University of Minnesota show that women are more attractive than men.
KARI
ELLIOTT
A good-lookup machine is concerned with
armor and power output; kind of being
armored with power output; kind of being
armored with power output; kind of being
pearance. These judgments often become self-fulfilling prophecies, affecting individuals the rest of their lives.
The research also showed that attractive people were thought to have better career opportunities, more ideal marriages and more successful social lives than the less attractive.
You can see proof of this in everyday life. When describing an acquaintance, the first characteristics that come to mind are physical traits. A typical first-impression might be that a person has curly blond hair, blue eyes, a nice body but a bad case of acne.
We usually don't mention such non-physical characteristics as intelligence, sensitivity or sense of humor. However, describing a blind date is an exception. If we immediately face the personality" or "good sense of humor," that is a good clue the date is unattractive.
With our society becoming more fast-paced and mobile, the importance of physical attractiveness will grow because people won't have, or take, the time to see more than the outward appearance. People must decide whether they like someone on the basis of a one-time impression, and that first impression becomes a lasting one.
We are becoming a superficial society in which an individual is judged by his "cover."
This preferential treatment of physically attractive people is not limited to adult relationships. It starts soon after birth and never ends.
Attractive infants were more likely to be cuddled, kissed and held, and good-looking children were more popular with their school colleagues. A research by the University of Texas at Austin.
Adolescents have not escaped the beauty trap, either. In fact, unattractiveness can be detected in these children.
A psychologist at Johns Hopkins University discovered that ugly teen-age girls were more likely to have higher blood pressure than attractive girls. Therefore, in addition to all juvenile securities associated with adolescence, teen-age girls must now contend with inner pressures.
To test whether attractive adults are given preferential treatment, all one has to do is
In these "meat markets" buyers are drawn to the prime and choice selections. It doesn't matter that nothing is behind the Max Factor But face. People want cover over content.
This attitude is not limited to men, who traditionally have been the buyers in the meat
As women have become financially and
sarily independent, they have begun to
openly discuss their feelings.
The popularity of "Playgirl" with its male centerfolds and of clubs with male burlesque dancers are examples of women's interest in how men look.
Many men now have their hair styled by "professional hair designers," not cut by barbers. They spend their time and money on curl-perments and even use curling irons.
Men are affected by this male-body consciousness of women. No longer can they slip
Men, too, are being drawn into the beauty trap. This looks-are-everything mentality has made them more vulnerable.
Superficial physical characteristics are becoming so important that people will have to look like Ken and Barbie clones before they can leave home. Superficial, a bit of happiness or more than two friends.
No escaping march of Invisible Death
The Invisible Death had devastated the country—indeed, the world. No pestilence had ever been so fatal or so hideous. The Death crept under the sky and shaded the shadow and slowly suckered the very life out of them.
Of course, many millions hadn't lived to die this death; uncounted lives had been lost in the fireballs that rose over three continents. But those unlucky enough to survive the day of the fallout found themselves facing the hazards from the war, if they didn't starve to death first.
The Survivialsist, however, were safe from all this tragedy, thanks to their own careful forethought. They'd been well prepared for the day when the screaming metal thunderbirds would dive out of the blue. Up in the mountains, away from civilization and its targets, they built their shelters and stored away food and munitions, awaiting Armageddon.
Once before, this particular group of Survivals, the Jones family, had fled to the Sierra's to await the end. But that had been only a false alarm, and they had returned to their white two-story house to await the real thing. This time, it was the real thing.
they would plant a garden and begin life anew
their old life, like the city of the angels,
was now
Not long after the Joneses were snugled all safe in their shelter, imagining visions of hester and skelter, the radio broadcasts from town abruptly ended. Their home, Los Angeles, was no more—after the first Soviet warnead hit its mark. That made the next two bombs that dropped almost useless, serving only to dig a deeper crater and spawn up more fallout.
Anxiety took its psychological toll, however. When the thought of the outside became too much for the simple human mind to bear, they laughed—they laughed at the poor fools who had
But safe from megats and nuclear bombs were the Jonesses. They passed away the hours playing cards, reading books and telling stories—both about the way the world had been and what it was like now. They began to plan chores for the day they could venture outside;
DON
MUNDAY
considered the Survivalsite nothing more than a bunch of paranoid Cassandras. They laughed at them.
And they laughed at those who had struggled so hard to build bigger and better bombs, and they laughed at those who had voted to spend money to build newer and faster methods of delivering the bombs. Blood will have blood. Bombs will have bombs.
And after they laughed, they shot anyone who tried to approach their well-fortified abode. And after they'd shot a hungry scavenger or two, they began to cry. They cried for those that had once seen them or were scared when they finally realized survival meant sacrificing everything and everybody they had known.
Somewhere in between the laughing and the crying, one of the Jones children began feeling queasy. Not to worry; the kid had been through a tough period, and he began vomiting, too, they had to pause to think.
It was the food, they assured one another, just
some spoilt food they had all partaken of. But Mom and Dad Jones didn't believe their own words, for they knew the food they had partken of was air.
They looked out of the windows to the evening sky and saw the red sun's last few beams break through the clouds. There, in the twilight's last gleaming, was backlit a curtain of silt, a stream of particles, and infected was the air whereon they rode.
Death appeared as a presence wailing in on the breeze and soon became a member of the family as it settled in among the cozy little group. Under Death's careful touch, skin grew more swollen and tender. Her organs ulcerated, hair was shed; and finally their bones were marrowless, their blood cold.
"Why aren't you with the rest?" Dead ask in his inaudible voice. "This is my day, not years. Five thousand years you've been persecuted by war, and you would deny me my day of glory!"
Finally, impatient Death stood above the wretching victims, saying, "Hurry up, please, it's time!" And it was time. Death, destroyer of worlds, cast a shadow of his on what had once been the walking shadow of life. It was just as dark as the ground before that when the end came, there was no escape from the insanity of humanity. There was no place to run, on this planet at least.
Escape! That was the guise that allowed Death to creep into all corners. The crazy notion of death, and its dangers, is explained in "Hell."
Death had come like a thief in the night. He left only the coccockes and a littifly stink to mark his presence. And under the dark, hot rain of Invisible Death he fell asleep in an invisible Death held illimitable domination over all.
Letters to the Editor
KU swimming program not bound for grave
To the Editor:
As a fourth-year member of the KU Women's Swim Team, I would like an opportunity to comment on Chrys Campbell's Sept. 28 editorial "Troubled waters for swimming, other sports."
The future of non-revenue sports in the face of ever-increasing athletic budget cuts has been a popular subject in recent years. Yet I think that the biggest problem is not that we step from elimination paves excessively viral
Those inside the athletic department are much more optimistic about the future of swimming. This is evident in the fact that after interviewing knowledgeable people within the department, students are asked to consider the opinions of outsiders and on the fate of swimming programs at other universities.
The situation at Oklahoma would indeed indicate that the men's swim program there may be in jeopardy. However, unlike KU, Oklahoma's men's swim team consistently finishes at the Big Eight. While Oklahoma wrestlers and gymnasts are perennial NCAA title challengers.
Campbell also referred to the dropping of the Kansas State swim program as an indication of KU's program folding. However, were this really the case we would have been doomed long ago, because K-State dropped its men's swim team 16 years ago!
Yet, my main concern surrounds Campbell's quote that "the writing on the wall indicates that KU also may follow suit" by dropping its swimming program due to funding cuts. This statement cannot be supported at all. Budget officials have not recommended sports, but the prospect of being dropped as an intercollegiate sport at Kansas has not been discussed with regard to swimming.
As captain of the women's swim team, then, I must say that we are very proud of our men's swimming skills and abilities. Our sisterly wins or challenges for the Big Eight swimming title. Individual KU men swimmers
After talking to vote Kansas University Athletic Corporation members last spring, when the dropping of a Kansas non-revenue sports was discussed by KUAC, I was assured that the swim program was never even mentioned. Therefore, although the "financial belt" may be tightening at Kansas, our swimming program will continue to represent Kansas both as the leader of Big Eight swimming and as a rising power at the national level.
also have won more than their share of individual Big Eight titles and have gone on to compete at the NCAA nationals. The women's team has won the Big Eight team title every year since its inception seven years ago. And in addition to numerous All-American swimmers in the last few years, last spring the women's team placed 17th at AIAW nationals.
As non-revenue athletes, we swimmers have come to expect and accept budget cuts. But we are not ready to see the tradition and success of Kanaas swimming suffer, and most definitely we do not want our training be viewed as being one step from the grave based on distorted facts and unsupportable half-truths.
Sallv R. Burger
Captain, KU Women's Swim Team
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