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Thursday, September 7. 1989 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN Skateboarders create havoc for pedestrians on campus
The Wescoe Beach area may look like the perfect skateboard alley, but contrary to current notions, the area was not meant for the airborne expression of First Amendment rights.
Skateboard fanatics have been congregating at the Wesco and Hoch Auditorium areas for their rad sessions, taking advantage of the smooth concrete, awesome railways and granly launch opportunities.
They also are taking advantage of areas designated for pedestrians.
Not quite. But the skaters are a nuisance to walkers. They are also hard on concrete surfaces, which weren't intended for such a display of the more excellent moves.
There are no specific University or city ordinances that monitor skateboard activities on campus. In fact, campus police said the only city regulation that concerns skateboarders is that they are not allowed to ride in business districts during business hours, which leaves the entire campus area unprotected.
On campus, the only time an officer can interfere with skateboarders' practice runs is if they are obviously destroying property — for example, if one of them flies through a glass window.
Bicyclists aren't allowed to ride on sidewalks. Why shouldn't skateboarders be expected to follow the same set of rules?
However, taking skateboarders off the sidewalks puts them in the streets, which not only poses a hazard to motorists but also puts the skaters' lives at risk. Bus drivers already have their hands full looking out for preoccupied pedestrians and racing bicyclists.
Ultimately, no matter how harsh it may sound, finding a place for the skaters to go is not the responsibility of KU students.
Give the walkways back to the walkers. A student shouldn't have to look both ways before crossing a sidewalk.
have to look both ways before crossing a sidewalk.
Tiffany N. Harness for the editorial board
Nuclear power still an option
No nukes may not necessarily be good nukes.
The Wolf Creek nuclear reactor near Burlington has operated at an average capacity of 96.1 percent during the first half of the year, ranking first in the United States in kilowatt hours of electricity.
This local example of the successful use of nuclear power should be evidence that the use of nuclear power should not be immediately discounted as an alternative energy source for the future.
The history of nuclear power has been rocky. The images conjured up by the idea include abandoned cooling towers at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, and protests and cost overruns at the Seabrook nuclear plant in New Hampshire.
These images, however, should not cloud the research for or potential of a new generation of nuclear reactors that could meet future electricity demands and reduce the consumption of dwindling fossil fuels.
In fact, the Audubon Society, one of the nation's most active environmental groups, has offered cautious support of research into nuclear reactors. The society remains opposed to conventional reactors and sees nuclear power as an insurance policy in the event that other sources, such as solar power, fail to meet their potential.
This outlook seems fair. Using nuclear power is cheaper and cleaner than burning coal or gas. For example, the cost of fuel on a per million BTU (British Thermal Unit) basis for customers of Kansas Gas and Electric is 36 cents for nuclear fuel but $1.46 for coal and $2.06 for gas.
Unfortunately, the problems associated with nuclear power remain, namely the safe disposal of radioactive waste and the possibility of a meltdown.
These problems are not insurmountable. Designs for several new reactors that would be incapable of melting down are generating enthusiasm in the field. The problem of waste disposal still is formidable but never will be resolved if the concept of nuclear power is shut down.
Daniel Niemi for the editorial board
Certainly the nation does not want to trade one environmental headache for another, but nuclear power should not be dismissed. As an alternative energy source in the future, it deserves reconsideration.
News staff
David Stewart...Editor
Ric Brack...Managing editor
Daniel Niemi...News editor
Candy Niemann...Planning editor
Stan Dell...Editorial editor
Jennifer Corser...Campus editor
Elaine Sung...Sports editor
Laura Husan...Photo editor
Christine Winner...Art/Features editor
Tom Eblen...General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Linda Prokop...Business manager
Debra Martin...Local advertising sales director
Jerre Medford...National/regional sales director
Jill Lowe...Marketing director
Tami Rank...Production manager
Carrie Stanlinka...Assistant production manager
Margaret Townsend...Company manager
Eric Hughes...Creative director
Christian Doo...Classified manager
Jeff Meesey...Tearsheets manager
Jeanne Hines...Sales and marketing adviser
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"IS IT ME, OR DO THE POTHOLES SEEM WORSE THIS YEAR?"
Tracking down the Grateful Dead
It was, as the saving goes, a long hot summer.
It was, as me told it, "I was unemployed, looking for the big kill, the big bist, the big score, the big paloocha that was going to net me the big bucks if I got away with it and a book and a film deal if I didn't. You know, the American Dream — make enough money to move to another country, preferably one with more reasonable drug laws and no speed limits. To spend my days frolicking on the beach with nothing to do all day except my noon frolicking lesson. What is commonly referred to as "The Life." I could taste it. It tasted like caviar, something I'm not particularly fond of but could grow to love. Especially on a beach. Especially on a beach I owned.
But first I had to come upon a plan. I had to think big, I'd tried getting hit by cars, throwing myself in front of orrushing vehicles, gracefully rolling off the hood and into the street with, of course, serious spinal and hip damage. "Hey buddy, just give me a hundred bucks and we'll forget that this nasty little incident ever happened." That seemed too small. No, I had to stretch my mind to encompass something new, something that would take the criminal world by storm.
One day, sitting on my porch drinking very cheap beer (something professional florickers never do), it came to me. A plan of genius, of scope. It even had gird.
The kidnapping and ransoming of the Grateful Dead
Now, many of you are undoubtedly saying 'I wouldn't pay a cupful of warm spit for the Grateful
Christopher Cunnyngham Staff columnist
Dead and neither would anybody else," but you are very mistaken. Do you have any idea what the Deadheads spend every year on T-shirts, bracelets and drugs? It's phenomenal. If I could tap just half of the market I'd be doing fine.
First, I selected my team, the finest criminal minds I could locate from the local bar and from my friends who were working at various burger palaces.
Then, disguised in strange shoes and crystals of every size and color, we made the grab. Once inside the Dead's high security building we changed into our all-black outfits (Metallica T-Shirts turned inside out) and we talked like Cary Grant for a while to put us in the mood. We sprayed some cool smoke stuff on the laser light alarm beams. We were stylin.
The Dead never knew what hit them. They put up a fight at first but we blasted them with some early ACDC to let them know we meant business.
After we had secreted the Dead in our secret Dead Cave, (Somewhere off Lakeshore Drive in Chicago) we contacted the FIH with our demands. In order to cause confusion and keep the feds off
our trail, we pretended to be South American drug kingpin. Originally, we were going to pretend to be Israeli, but none of us could manage the accent.
Our demands were as follows:
1. The abolition of work as a viable force in the socioeconomic structure of Earth as we now know
2. Five million in cash.
2. I five million in cash.
We were prepared to accept just the cash.
We were prepared to accept just the cash. But how, you ask, did we get the money? The feds never give out money to kidnappers. So how did we do it?
This, my friends, is the most beautiful part of the plan. It was simple.
We set up a 1-900 number, 1-900-FOR-DEAD. Our logic was that if the Who could sink that low, well, then so could we. Our commercial went something like this:
"Deadheads! Get your credit card numbers ready! Help Jerry and the boys keep from being a dinner for the fishes! Call 1-900-FOR-DEAD and put your money where your mouth is! Hear how much weight they've lost! They're hovering near death! Call now!"
Christopher Cunningham is a Leawood senior majoring In English.
Sifting through 'Primetime' tidbits
No, no, no, no. A few weeks ago, when I mentioned the existence of a new book called "Primetime Proverbs," you were supposed to be appalled by the concept.
"Primetime Proverbs" is designed to replace Bartlett's "Familiar Quotations", i.e., it is supposed to be the repository for the wisdom of the ages. The difference is that, while the quotes in Bartlett's "Familiar Quotations" come from such people as Socrates, Plato and Abraham Lincoln, the quotes in "Primetime Proverbs" come from the likes of Beaver Cleaver, Ed Norton and Sgt. Bliko.
So were you appalled — appalled at the idea that the words of the great philosophers, preserved for posterity, are about to be replaced by the words of TV characters, most of whom are totally fictional, and who never really existed? You were not. Hey
Bob Greene
I . . . I was appalled, either. Thus — with the permission of Jack Mingo and John Javna, authors of “Primetime Proverbs” — here are more immortal words for you to ponder
▶ LOU GRANT (on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show") "Love stinks."
DOBIE GILLIS "My parents don't understand me. Of course, a lot of the time, I don't understand me. But they're supposed to be smarter than I am."
► ANNETTE FUNICELLO (singing on "The
Syndicated columnist
CONTESTANT ON "JEOPARDY"; "Life is just a bowl of kumuques."
Mickey Mouse Club'': "When it comes to learnin', you'd better start at once. There's no use being beautiful if you're a little dunce."
▶ THOMAS MAGNUM (on “Magnum P.I.”): “I love gettingRAIL — just the fact that someone licked a stamp just for you is very reassuring.”
▶ STEVE DOUGLAS (on “My Three Sons”): “If you expect perpetual minute-to-minute romance from a marriage, you're in trouble.”
▶ SONNY CROCKETT (on "Miami Vice"):
"Keep on thinkin'. Someday you'll get it right."
▶ BICARDO TUBBS (on "Miami Vice"):
▶ RICARDO TUBBS (on Miami Vice)
“There’s a big difference making instant coffee and bringing a Rastafarian back from the dead.”
GROUCHO MARX (on "You Bet Your Life"):
"If women dressed for men, the stores wouldn't sell much — just an occasional sun visors."
- WALLY CLEAVER: "Look, I've been going to school all my life. You can't get in trouble by keeping your mouth shut."
keeping your mouth safe
▶ RHODA MORGENSTERN (on “Rhoda”):
“The first thing I remember liking that liked me back was food.”
back was too.
▶ FELIX UNGER (on "The Odd Couple"):
"What's your idea of a romantic dinner, Oscar?
Red wine and fish sticks?"
▶ ILLYA KURYAKN (on "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.") "take pills, therefore I am."
▶ BARNEY RUBBLE (on "The Flintstones")
"It takes a smart man to know he's stupid."
MARY RICHARDS on (the Mary Tyler Moore Show"): "I'm very bad at firing people, Mr. Grant. I once had to move, rather than fire a housekeeper."
► INSPECTOR FENWICK (to Dudley Do-Right, on the "Bullwink Show")：“Do-Right, you're a disrespect to your underwear.”
And if you're starting to think that all of this is an idea that is less than admirable, and that is demeaning to the great historical tradition of reading — I will leave you with the words of Beaver Cleaver himself:
"I you know something?" If you couldn't read, you couldn't look up what was on television."
Bob Greene is a syndicated columnist.
LETTERS to the EDITOR
Anti-abortion prejudice
Last Saturday, I attended a pro-choice rally to counter-demonstrate a "pro-life" rally in front of a Planned Parenthood facility in Kansas City. I was soon convinced that showing my support for the pro-choice movement was very important. Even if one does not believe in the person's choice, it is good to show support for a choice because of the personal, health and social implications.
First, a woman must have the right to make decisions regarding her own body. One group should
not have the authority to legislate whether abortion is appropriate.
Health issues also arise. Women in the history of the United States have been having abortions since colonial times, and they will always have them. There should be provisions for safe abortions; rich women should not be the only ones who have access to safe abortions.
However, the important thing I learned from attending the rally is that the results of such rallies have implications beyond abortion rights and could affect the rights of other groups. The people protesting in the name of Christianity with the "pro-life" group at the rally seemed to have little tolerance for other groups. When I was with a male friend with long hair, I was accosted by a woman with a megaphone who shouted, "I don't know why lesbians need abortions anyway," and proceeded to sing to my friend, "Tutti Frutti." When I lined her that I felt I was a Christian, a Catholic, and told her some facts about abortions, I was told that Catholics were not Christians, and that my KU professors were tell me lies.
Parking plagues workers
Karen Mathels
Overland Park senior
If groups such as "pro-lifers" get their way and abortion rights are restricted, who or what will be their next target?
Since I ride the bus to class every day from my off-campus apartment ($40 per semester), I have no need to park in a yellow
Hooray for the editorial about desk assistant parking. I work in a residence hall as an Academic Resource Center assistant and have the same problem.
zone. But in order to get to work in the evenings I can either buy a $40 yellow permit and park in "East Topeka" or feed the meters far more than $40 in a year's time. That is, if the metered spots were ever open.
During early August, Parking Services informed me that if I had a letter from my supervisor stating that I was a residence hall employee, I could purchase a residence hall permit. But last Monday, once I had my letter, the inconsistent policy no longer allowed me to buy the permit.
I am now tempted to beg a friend living in a residence hall to buy a permit for me. And then I begin to wonder why it costs more than $100 a year just for transportation to my classes and work. Thank goodness I have a job. Now if I could only park somewhere near it.
Heather Moore Lawrence Junior
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