Opinion
Kansan
Published daily since 1912
Spencer Duncan, Editor Lindsey Henry, Managing editor Andrea Albright, Managing editor Tom Eblen, General manager, news adviser
Sarah Scherwinski, Business manager
Brian Pagel, Retail sales manager
Dan Simon, Sales and marketing adviser
Justn Krupp, Technology coordinator
Monday, September 8, 1997
Clay McCuistion / KANSAN
Ranting
Union's prices a strain on wallet; brown-bagging lunch would help
The prices at the Kansas Union are ridiculous. Books, clothes and the various Jayhawk paraphernalia are all at monopoly prices.
But when exploring the subject of expensive food prices at the Kansas and Burge Unions, there are a few things you need to consider:
- You could be paying more. One hard-shell, beef taco at "Cafe Salsa" in the Union costs $1.25. That may seem like a lot of money for a small pile of meat and cheese, but the menu price for the same item at La Familia is $1.60. Wait a minute, you argue. If I made a run for the border, I could buy a Taco Bell taco for 74 cents. This brings us to the next
point.
- If you want variety, you have to pay for it.
Jay Glatz, manager of food services, said that because national fast food chains like Taco Bell serve only one type of food, they can purchase bulk ingredients at large discounts. Union Square and the Hawks Nest, however, serve everything from fruit smoothies to meat loaf.
If Union food services turned into one big taco joint, you could get a great deal on Mexican food. But if you want the luxury of mashed potatoes, tuna salad and cherry pie all on one tray, it's going to cost a little more. This doesn't mean you have to
spend a fortune on lunch
*If you don't want to empty your wallet, buy smart. Granted, some items are outrageously priced. No one should charge $1.25 for a carton of yogurt or $1.35 for french fries.
Accordingly, no one should pay that much. So don't. Check out the Unions' daily specials or stick to $1.25 tacos.
Students would not think twice about shelling out $5 for lunch at a restaurant, so why should the Unions be any different? If none of the above arguments put a stop to your complaints about food prices, take matters into your own hands.
Bring your own lunch.
Megan Jordan for the editorial board
Doggy-doo dilemma: Pick it up
This campus needs an ordinance requiring dog owners to pick up after their pets.
No one enjoys stepping or lying in dog feces. It is a pretty easily deduced fact. It is also easily deduced that students, faculty and staff of this beautiful University tend to enjoy recreation and rest on the fine lawns here. Many encounter the villainous subject of this editorial while doing so.
It has a tendency to smell rather unpleasant. It seems to hide in the grass—usually right where you're about to step—sticking to your shoe when you least expect it. The stuff is just no good, except for helping to increase the fertility of a garden's soil.
Once on the ground, it takes a long time for it to go away. Mike Richardson,
director of facilities operations, the University department that oversees lawn care, shared his doggy-doo strategy: "We let it biodegrade by itself. We just don't have the staff to go around picking that stuff un."
Nice. So unless owners pick up after their dogs, we're left to play Frisbee with a paranoid step.
What about the lawn mowers, you ask? Don't they just suck the excrement up? "We mow at a height that passes right over the stuff." Richardson said.
Arguably, the number of dogs on this campus has increased in the last few years. So, too, have the little products they leave while on campus. The time has come for the responsible dog owners to step forward and take care of this mess.
We all enjoy the canines we encounter on campus. They're cute, affectionate and they make you feel cool when you're walking with them. In no way would we advocate a ban or some other harsh measure on dogs.
All we're asking for is that dog-owners take care of their dogs' business. A pooper-scooper will cost you about $13.50. If this price seems too steep, there are alternatives. Why not use your "Kansan" for this task? Seems reasonable enough.
For now, we'll have to hope that dog owners become a little more responsible in regard to caring for all aspects of their dogs. Unfortunately, nothing short of giving tickets may help guilt this offence
Until then, our only advice is to watch your step.
Bradley Brooks for the editorial board
Kansan staff
Bradley Brooks ... Editorial
Jason Strait ... Editorial
Jodie Chester ... News
Jen Smith ... News
Adam Darby ... News
Charity Jeffries ... Online
Kristie Blasi ... Sports
Tommy Gallagher ... Associate Sports
Dave Morantz ... Campus
Eric Weslander ... Campus
Ashleigh Roberts ... Features
Steve Puppe ... Photo
Bryan Volk ... Design, graphics
Mitch Lucas ... Illustrations
Mark McMaster ... Wire
Ann Marchand ... Special sections
Lachelle Rhoades ... News clerk
News editors
Advertising managers
Advertising management
Matt Fisher ... Assistant retail
Michael Soifer ... Campus
Colleen Eager ... Regional
Anthony Migliazzo ... National
Jeff Auslander ... Marketing
Chris Haghirian ... Internet
Brian LeFevre ... Production
Jen Wallace ... Production
Dustin Skidgel ... Promotions
Tyler Cook ... Creative
Annette Hoover ... Public relations
Rachel O'Neill ... Classified
Jaime Mann ... Assistant classified
Marc Harrell ... Senior account executive
Scott Swedlund ... Senior account executive
Broadon your mind: Today's quote
"I was smart enough to know that when you perform without a net, you by God better not fall."
**Letterers:** Should be double-spaced typed and fewer than 200 words. Letters must include the author's signature, name, address and telephone number plus class and home-town if a University student. Faculty or staff must identify their positions.
How to submit letters and guest columns
—Rick Bragg, All Over But the Shoutin'
Guest columns: Should be double-spaced typed with fewer than 700 words. The writer must be willing to be photographed for the column to run.
All letter and guest columns should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Staufer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Bradley Brooks (brooks@kansan.com) or Jason Strait (istrait@kansan.com) at 864-4810. If you have generic questions or comments, e-mail the page stuff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4810.
Examining
Defining the process of a dictionary entry
If you intend to graduate from college and the University's athletic department can manage just fine without you, then you can expect to do quite a bit of reading and writing, often on very specialized subjects.
You're going to need a dictionary, and chances are you already have one. But not many students, or professors for that matter, understand how a dictionary is made, or how to read one critically. We think of dictionaries as the final authority on a language, the voice from the ivory tower.
But are they really that reliable?
Jason Dawdy
joiningkansas.com
One answer would be yes.
Once the decision has been made to enter a word, one of Webster's nine editors is chosen to write the initial definition. Most dictionaries only employ a dozen to two dozen people, so their editors must have several categories in which they specialize, such as business or music, to increase efficiency.
A word must appear in a variety of reputable sources, such as "The New York Times" or in the works of a well-known writer, and continue to appear for a number of years before it will be entered. It's a slow process, and it needs to be. Judging which words will last and which will be forgotten is an extremely difficult task. A dictionary editor must wait and see or run the risk of entering a word like "gnarly" that (we hope, at least) is destined for extinction.
As an intern at "Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language." I learned to appreciate the amount of work that has gone into a dictionary. As dictionaries have been edited and re-edited during the years, not to mention pirated (new dictionaries have been notorious for thievery), errors have been removed and a high level of accuracy has been reached. As long as you purchase a dictionary that is sufficiently large and is published by a reputable company, you should be fine.
Once the first editor has finished, the definition goes to one of the two senior editors who rework it to their satisfaction. The definition is then essentially done, though in some dictionaries it is also reviewed by the editor-in-chief, and it will certainly be subject to further proofing. This process may take months or years for a single word, but speeding it up allows more errors into the entries.
But the scope of a dictionary and the slow speed with which it reacts to the swift changes of our language mean there will always be inaccuracies. If an entry seems wrong to you, check it against another dictionary. Read with a critical, rather than a too credulous, eye. Once, during an argument with a senior editor over my use of a word, I pointed out the Webster's definition.
Among American companies, you have four choices: Merriam-Webster, Webster's New World, Random House and American Heritage. Merriam-Webster has the longest and most prestigious reputation, Webster's New World has simple and clear definitions, Random House has the newest edition, and American Heritage, which many of us received free from KU, has the most pictures. Any of these four would accurately meet the needs of the average student.
"It agrees with me," I said, thinking that would be the end of the dispute.
But will they be perfect? Nope. Dictionary entries are produced by a failible process that can reflect the prejudices of the editors. For years a major American dictionary entered three words for the Marquis de Sade: "soldier and pervert."
At Webster's, a new entry begins as a suggestion by one of the staff, or as a word culled by editors from the citation files, which are collections of index cards with clippings from magazines, newspapers and books. They are used to keep track of new English words and usages, and Webster's employs two citation clerks whose only job is to read and add to these files, which number more than a million.
"Yes," he said, looking down at the dictionary that he has been editing for more than 35 years, and the entry that has not been changed in almost 50, "but I'm not sure that it means that anymore."
Dawdy is a Topeka senior in classical languages.
Social billboards show way
during the second day of classes, I developed a nasty sore throat and fever. The doctor at the clinic theorized that I had run myself down the stairs." *Date*: 12/15/93
down during the summer. "I
dered. I had worked a desk job, drove my parents to a family reunion in Idaho, led cha-cha lessons at the care home and played guitar for sick orphans in the cancer ward. For a guilty, white overachiever like myself, that's a typical Fourth of July weekend.
I'd give June Cleaver a run for her apron.
During the summer,
I painted the spare room, made
batches of oatmeal soap for
Christmas presents, and
Robert MacRae opinion@kansan.com
accented my denim outfits with my new Bedazzer, the fabulous bulb and sequin-applying gadget.
My next project is to create a socially-conscious billboard. This idea came to me while driving my parents to the reunion.
On the lovely drive between Seneca and Belleville in north-central Kansas, we passed large signs at regular intervals: "Abortion is a Sin," "Choose Life: Your Mom Did" and "Abortion Stops a Beating Heart." I didn't see one hint of the progressive thinking so common in Lawrence, such as"I Love My Lesbian Daughter ... She's Adopting All Those Bastard Children Born to Disowned Teenagers."
I'm not sure how the time is found during all that central Kansas baby making to paint these mammoth testaments to righteous heterosexuality, but goodness knows I'll never suffer from that restriction.
That leaves me free to paint the billboard that could fill a noticeable gap in their agenda. They never mentioned how sex education and condoms can prevent doped up dropouts from getting knocked-up.
So I'll paint something like "Put It On Before You
Put It In So Your Grandma Won't Have to Risk Her Brittle Bones Painting a Billboard in Her Front Yard."
How rampant is abortion in Belleville? I wondered. Do swarms of fast-talking door-to-door abortionists roam the bucolic countryside? According to my Kansas Statistical Abstract (every home should have one), four abortions were reported in 1994 in Republic County. Those signs must be quite effective in putting the fear of God into those kiddies!
What are these moralizers doing to make this world safer and happier for children? I'm sure the paint and wood they bought for those billboards could be better used in building cribs and schools.
As for me, I'm going to adopt. I've already adopted one Guatemalan orphan by phone. Or is he Nicaraguan? Who knows anymore in this topsy-turvy world of ours?
I discovered my "adopted" child while I was watching The Learning Channel to see what's new in the wonderful world of stencilling (those geese in my late-80s faux-farmhouse kitchen are *tres dull*. During the commercials, this adorable, dark-skinned child stared at me with forlorn eyes. He was so precious I choked on my Ensure.
My eyes got misty when I heard about little Miguel's life without plumbing ... without electricity ... without color-coordinated bath sets.
Then, I heard those words that tug at my heart strings every time: "Three months same as cash. Call now for your first installment of hand-stitched blankets." Sold! Those blankets came in handy during my fever and look marvelous on the sofa.
Gosh, and I only have to pay the cost of a cup of coffee every day. That makes me wonder what they feed my little Miguel ... coffee? As long as I get my monthly letter, photo and handmade blanket what do I care? If it wasn't for those pesky child labor laws, all those unwanted children in Republic County could be put to good use as well.
MacRae is a Lawrence graduate student in Urban Planning.
Feedback
Article had racist overtone
I read your front-page article in yesterday's "Kansan" (9/4/97) and was absolutely disgusted. I like to know why you felt it necessary to include Dwayne Lopes' name when you clearly state, "District Attorney Christine Tonkovich has decided not to file charges against Lopes at this time." Why did you find it necessary to print someone's name if that person was released?
Far more despicable was that you found it necessary to include Lopes' nickname. By including the nickname, you turn Dwayne
Lopes, rape suspect, into Dwayne "Ice" Lopes, African-American rape suspect. Consider what popular cultural figures have the nickname "Ice". There's Ice-T, Ice Cube, George "The Iceman" Gervin, Alfred "Ice" Cole, Milton "The Iceman" McCrystal, Derrick "Nice Ice" Pitts, Mark "Chill Ice" Wills, all of whom are African American. Even if Lopes is not Black your incorporation of the name "Ice" into his description positions him as such. As a result of such positioning, readers of the "Kansan" are again assaulted by racist images of Black male rapists.
The only conclusion I can make is that you included the
nickname as a way to associate the suspect with pre-existing stereotypes of Black men as out-of-control savages to be feared by good citizens. That Lopes was not even arrested makes your association even more disgusting. I think that your article was a racist disgrace.
Miko Ezra Lawrence graduate student
Editor's note: The "Kansan" does not identify suspects in crime stories unless the suspects have been charged in the court systems. In this instance the "Kansan" erroneously did not follow its own policy.