TUESDAY NOVEMBER 12, 2002
4A - THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
OPINION
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2002
TALKTOUS
Jay Krail editor 864-4854 or jkrail@kansan.com
Brooke Hesler and Kyle Ramsey managing editors 864-4854 or bmneser@kansan.com and kramser@kansan.com
Laurel Burchfield readers' representative 864-4810 or iburchfield@kansan.com
Maggle Koorth and Amy Potter opinion editors 864-4924 or opinion@kansan.com
Amber Agee business manager 864-4358 or advertising@kansan.com
Eric Kelting retail sales manager 864-4358 or advertising@kansan.com
Malcolm Gibson general manager and news adviser 864-7667 or mgibson@kansan.com
Matt Fisher sales and marketing adviser 864-7866 or mfishen@kansan
Free for All
Free for All
Call 864-0500
callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. Kansan editors reserve the right to obcite comments. Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded.
For more comments, go to www.kansan.com.
I'd just like to say thank God there aren't any more Dave Matthews, Ben Harper, Jack Johnson and John Mayer clones out there, because then today's music scene would really suck.
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To the sorority-like girl in psych class who tried to diss on us and our friends. Well, you failed as expected, because A) your voice sounds like a 2-year-old and hurts our ears, B) your hair is so bleached that hurts our eyes, and C) your freckles are no longer cute, but skin cancerous due to excessive tanning. Here's a beauty tip for you: leather-looking and feeling like skin is not in.
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To whoever lost a matchbook that says Julie and Laurence, August 11, 2001 in the stairwell of Bailey Hall. I wonder, are Julie and Laurence still together?
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I would like to say that it's great that the Kansas guide to candidates is in your paper, I just think that it should've been a little bit sooner. Because a lot of people went and voted without looking at the issues. In class, I don't know how many people I heard say, "Oh, they want to decrease funding for education? Oops, I voted for him."
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If you're wearing short sleeves or if you're indoors at all, you don't need to be wearing a stocking cap. Just because it got colder outside doesn't mean it got colder inside. The stocking cap thing needs to go.
This is to the idiots that came up and bothered me at the McCollium Hall about the whole 911 thing. We answered your stupid question saying that if you dialed 911 you get KUPD, and if you dialed 8-911, you get Lawrence PD. So quit lying to the Free for All.
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No thanks, I'm not interested in a credit card. What do you mean, you aren't interested in a credit card with no annual fee? Are you crazy? Yes, maybe.
ShhR. Don't talk. Just dance.
This weekend, for Dad's Day, I met my friend's dad. And he said he couldn't believe that guys weren't just lining up around the corner for me. So take the advice, guys. Get in line.
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I was sitting in my class yesterday and realized that I have a pink shirt on, I have pink underwear on, I have a pink backpack, a pink purse, a pink CD player, a pink wallet, a pink cell phone with pink buttons, and pink bows in my hair. Do you think I have a pink problem?
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Today's word of the day is putange. Go ahead, look it up.
题
I voted for Dennis Moore, because I want
Caramel Hannah to stop scaring seniors.
Toilet go boom.
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I like cookies, they are very good. I love you. Meow.
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Is it just a coincidence that when I walk by a car with the license plate POO that all the sudden it smells like poo?
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My math teacher didn't show up to class last Friday, and his excuse today was that squirrels were attracted to the ether in his tires, and they dug into them and ate them. And then he was running to class and his shoes got caught in the gutter. So he had to run back home, get new shoes, and run back to class and by that time it was over. So, yeah, that was a good one.
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To the people who called in about throwing out the Bible. I didn't even take the Bible, I told the guy that it was too late to save me.
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I just wanted to congratulate the KU Greeks for being paraded in this week's issue of The Onion. I guess that means of all the vapid and out-dated greek systems across the country, you guys are one of the laestm. Uh, good job, once again, and I hope you all get a case of Natural Light for your efforts.
Rochelle Moore, it is Wednesday the 6th and I found your wallet on the bus, and I turned it into the Lewis Hall lost and found.
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My brother used to be a loser, but now he has a futon.
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My roommate and I just got back from Dillons, and I'd like to report that we had $10 to spend, and we were able to buy 40 cans of creamed corn.
I just wanted to let all the frat boys on campus know that if you're really interested in joining a cult, you should drop out of your frat and join the Free Masons.
I was just wondering why 22-year-old guys have an affinity for sleeping with 16- year-old girls. Personally, I think it's revolting, and I think the law says it's illegal.
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I'm in the Kansas Union in the back of a car's trunk, wrapped up in saran wrap. This is my college experience.
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Why is everybody always picking on me?
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SACK'S VIEW
NO MORE POLITICAL CAMPAIGN COMMERCIALS. NO MORE NEGATIVE ATTACK ADS. BACK TO GOOD OLD REGULAR AMERICAN ADVERTISEING. OH,YES!!!
Steve Sack/Knight Ridder
ON THE KANSAN ON-LINE
kansan.com
Go to kansan.com and click on the opinion section to check out the weekly online poll. Click on forums to post to the discussion
Opinion Forum
Did you do anything for Veterans' Day? Do you think enough people pay attention to this holiday?
Opinion Poll
What do you think of the Parking Dept.?
They are working hard and doing a good job. Parking is tight, but they can't help it.
Last Week's Poll
By overselling passes they are deliberately trying to entrap students. That department needs reform.
I don't know.
There was no new poll online last week because the Kansan was in the process of changing Web editors. We apologize for any inconvenience.
PERSPECTIVES
See Second City performance experience future of SNL
I did something exciting and new Saturday, something I'd tried before but could never quite get the hang of.
I watched Saturday Night Live. More significantly, I was amused and entertained by it.
I was curious about how, when and why Saturday Night Live began to be funny again, and I soon discovered its secret.
The quality of Saturday Night Live depends on where it is drawing its cast from.
Now in its 28th season, Saturday Night Live is a cultural icon. But for a while, it was a lackluster icon.
COMMENTARY
When I first began watching new SNL episodes it was exciting, mainly because I was about 12 at the time.
Lauren Stewart
opinion@kansan.com
But, alas, by then the once-ground-breaking show was being compared to a quickly-sinking ship, and the funny, inspired scenes from the 70s, 80s and early 90s were nowhere to be found.
Chris Farley was no longer in a van down by the river eating government cheese; Adam Sandler and Opera Man had left the building; and Hans and Franz weren't there to pump you up.
Instead, SNL viewers ended up with the Spartan cheerleaders and Goat Boy. Saying these sketches were merely dull is a blatant understatement.
Watching the pointless, boring scenes was like discovering another level of hell.
But I think I've stumbled upon the secret of the show's decline in the mid- 90s.
For some reason, almost no recruits were cast from The Second City, one of North America's leading theatrical institutions for comedy and satire.
SNL legends like Bill Murray, Gilda Radner and Dan Akyroyd, all of whom were greatly influential in the show's beginnings and first success, got their start at Second City.
Based in Chicago, other Second City alumni include Chris Farley, Mike Myers, Joan Rivers, Martin Short and John Belushi.
When producers had to rebuild the SNL cast after the disastrous mid-1990s seasons, they didn't choose just anyone—they selected Second City members.
These people don't only know comedy. They are comedy.
Now, Second City alumni Tina Fey, Horatio Sanz, Rachel Dratch and Amy Poehler play major roles on the show.
The addition of Second City members correlates to the rise in quantity and quality of funny sketches on Saturday Night Live, which benefits all who love good comedy.
This week at KU, we have the opportunity to experience Second City live, and maybe see the future of SNL.
Student Union Activities, where I spend all of my time, will present The Second City and its hilarious and satirical sketches, songs and cutting-edge improvisation tonight at 8 p.m. at Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union.
Tickets are $7 with a KU ID or $10 without a KU ID, a small price to pay for good comedy.
SUA is also sponsoring an Amateur Comedy Night tomorrow from 7-9 p.m. in the Hawks Nest, and will award a $50 prize to the winner.
So come out, have some fun, and laugh a little or a lot. Celebrate the magic of improv comedy — without any Goat Boys.
Stewart is a Wichita sophomore in journalism and english. She works for Student Union Activities.
Protesters need to research, think critically about causes
The front page of Friday's University Daily Kansan provided an excellent example of the kind of attention-seeking escapades practiced by leftist groups who ignore facts and have too much time on their hands. The story "Environs' tree theatrics" was aptly titled — theatrics is exactly what it was.
The KU Environs members, swathed in tree garland and dressed as businessmen with chain saws, chased each other in front of Strong Hall on Thursday.
This was supposed to bring attention to Environ's claim that Boise corporation, a supplier of paper for the state and the University of Kansas, destroyed oldgrowth forests.
But the evidence indicates that the Enviros are full of hot air.
According to the Kansan story, the corporation's Web site states that it actually uses very little old-growth forest wood and that Boise is decreasing that amount.
An Oct. 4 Kansan story ("Environs challenge University's paper supply") reported that Environs rejected Boise's claims on the grounds that the company's definition of old-growth forests was different from their own.
COMMENTARY
Audrey Snyder
opinion@hansan.com
The blaming of corporations for real or imagined problems seems to be a national epidemic.
Wal-Mart is an off-targeted company, as is apparent from recent politics in
Lawrence surrounding a possible second Wal-Mart store at Sixth and Wakarusa streets.
Liberals in other small towns across the country try to prevent new Wal-Mart stores as well. Those who want to protect local business claimed another Wal-Mart would take business from small,
local business, and it would ruin the character of Lawrence.
According to an Oct. 24 story in The Lawrence Journal World, the planning commission declined to rezone the area for Wal-Mart, citing concerns about increased traffic and a lack of need for a second store.
The champions of local businesses should have realized that there weren't many local businesses that carried the same kinds of goods as Wal-Mart.
The protesters argued that Wal-Mart was evil because the corporation encouraged globalization. The environmentalists whined in general.
The character of Lawrence is defin- able by those who live here.
Many of those people want a second Wal-Mart and would shop there. The protesters should realize that Wal-Mart sells goods more cheaply than other stores and employs people. These practices benefit those with low and fixed incomes. The environmentalists probably even use the recycling center provided by the Wal-Mart store on Iowa Street.
Those who think that a company is doing something wrong should look into the facts before they make fools of themselves.
Snyder is a Shawnee senior in political science.