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University Daily Kansan Thursday, March 30. 1961
THIS BALLOT IS VOID—Members of the election committee look on as the counting procedure is explained to Richard Harper, Prairie Village junior and elections commissioner.
It Hurts So Good in Rome
Pinching Females Is Proper
By Harry Ferguson
LONDON — (UPI) — The system of cultural exchanges among nations is under a severe strain today because British girls do not understand some of the more subtle aspects of life in Italy. They have caused an Italian man to be brought into court on charges of indecent assault. They said he pinched them.
In Rome the pinching of females is a highly developed art and has the status of a national sport. When the police swooped on Cosimo Montello, 32, he appeared to be as bewildered as an Englishman would be if he were arrested in Rome for wielding a bat while demonstrating the fine points of cricket to a throng on the Via Veneto.
MONTELLO IS out on bail pending trial. The legal principle involved here is whether the national pastime of one nation becomes illegal when it is exported to another. A girl who doesn't get pinched, in Rome wonders if lifelong spinsterhood is her fate. What a kiss on the hand is in Paris, a pinch is in Italy.
But Miss Patricia Holland, Miss Brenda Church and Mrs. Alice Fox
of Derbyshire deposed that they did not consider it a compliment to be pinched. The proper way to compliment a British lady is to gaze into the distance and say as casually as possible: "smashing gown, my dear." Hands off all the way.
THE MATTER of Italy's national customs was brought up at Montello's hearing, and it was established that he was a married man. In Rome, that would be regarded as irrelevant and immaterial. No stigma attaches itself to an Italian man who engages in extra-curricular pinching even while he is on his honeymoon.
"Pimehing," said prosecutor Ian Madin, "may be a custom of his native country but here it comes under the heading of indecent assault."
In Italy pinching is divided into two categories. There are the "squadra a piedi" men who do their pinching while walking and the "squadra mobile" school, which operates on bicycles and motorcycles.
The charge against Montello is that he was a squadra a piedi man, and, as such, his range of operation was fairly limited — inside the city limits of Chesterfield. Derbyshire.
THE LITERATURE of pinching is fairly extensive in Britain. Newspapers and magazines have dispatched personable females to Italy to stroll the Roman streets, await developments and then report their findings. These journalistic martyrs invariably have returned black and blue, but in complete agreement that a pinch is the highest form of compliment an Italian man can bestow.
PARSONS JEWELRY
They also have reported that for a beautiful girl there is no defense except to stay indoors. Few do. One lady journalist devised a complete set of evasive tactics, but the caption on her article was the measure of her failure: "They will get you in the end."
Remember! April Is Diamond Month Serving the Community With Quality Products for 60 Years
MEXICO CITY — Fifty years after its revolution, Mexico is stable, prosperous and anti-Communist.
Yet it is also a nation about which generalizations are dangerous.
Mexico Stable and Anti-Red
By United Press International
One of Mexico's greatest assurances of future stability comes from its growing middle income group which owns property, goes to school and will fight to protect what it has. Even the poorest worker may aspire to own his own home, and the son of a street peddler may become a distinguished doctor or lawyer.
Yet, aided by a large Soviet embassy which distributes anti-American literature throughout the whole of Latin America, the Communists work with a purpose with schools a special target.
Among Mexico's 35 million inhabitants, the Communists and their affiliated parties are a distinct minority.
Among Mexico's 90,000 university students, it is established that nearly 10 per cent are followers of Communism, well led, well organized and missing no opportunity to
Winners Announced In Package Contest
Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity and Alpha Delta Pi sorority won color television sets in the P. Lorilland Co. cigarette package contest.
agitate against existing authority or the United States.
Individual winners and their prizes are Dale L. Hoyt, Merriam senior, clock radio; David Bahm, Belton, Mo., sophomore, poloroid camera; Jack Williams, Syracuse freshman, typewriter, and Stanley Adams, Lawrence junior, a Stereo-high fidelity set.
Last summer they took to the streets to protest government ouster of some Red-line teachers. At the peak of the demonstrations, 3,000 of them clashed with riot police. In the ensuing battle more than 60 persons were injured.
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Just as it takes a green thumb to raise gardenias, it must take something special to remove spots successfully. Whatever it is, I haven't got it. By "spots" I don't mean spots before the eyes or a rash on the chest. I mean that thing you find on your best dress on the day of the party.
"OUT, DAMNED SPOT!"
The spots I find on my clothes are usually about the size of a dime. They are too large to pretend that nobody will notice them, but too small to feel quite right about sending the entire dress to the cleaner. So the obvious course is to attempt to remove the spot myself.
Somewhere around the house,
I remember, I have one of those charts that tell you how to treat spots. Depending upon the ingredients of the spot, the chart tells how to eliminate it.
The first difficulty is figuring out what caused the spot. I never notice my spots until it is too late to trace them back to their source. I rarely have the faintest
idea whether they consist of mayonnaise, orange juice or diaper ointment. Peering at the spot gives me no clue. Neither does smelling it. Perhaps Sherlock Holmes or a police laboratory could identify it for me, but that doesn't help much either.
So I give up the idea of using the chart. Even if I knew what the spot was, probably couldn't find the chart. And if I could, the spot would surely turn out to be one that should be treated with chloride of lime, sugar of lead or beef gall. It certainly wouldn't be a simple soap-suds-and-cold-water case. The next problem is to decide whether to try water first or cleaning fluid. I decide upon cleaning fluid because it smells awful and therefore seems more likely to do some good.
In our house, there is no special place we keep the cleaning fluid. Since the label warms that it is inflammable, we are constantly finding new and safer places to keep it. Sometimes I
find it, and sometimes I have to go to the store for a new bottle. Reading the directions carefully. I take a clean cloth and apply it with the prescribed circular motion.
The spot, after being saturated with cleaning fluid, is no longer visible. I think, hopefully, that maybe I have actually removed it. I tiptoe from my room, promising myself not to look for five minutes. After three minutes of unbearable suspense, I can wait no longer. I peek. Is the spot still there? Well, yes and no. Something is there but it's different and bigger than the original spot. It's more like a smudge with a ring around it.
By this time, being desperate,
I decide to try anything. First
water, then soap and water and
then practically anything from
dry oatmeal to lemon juice. My
last move is to phone the cleaner.
The spot is now large enough so
that I can send the dress with a
clear conscience.
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