Page 8A
Friday, October 18, 1996
Bird's EyeView
Bagel
BOOM
By Eric Weslander
Photos by
Pam Dishman
“T”
"I it seems like everyone is eating more bagels," said
Mandy Peters, Lenexa Junior, as she sheared cream cheese on a sesame bagel. Peters slices, toasts and serves bagels at Uptown Bagels, 818 Massachusetts St.
People flock to bagel joints for bagels ranging from pumpernickel to honey oat bran and spread everything from spinach to honey almond cream cheese on them.
Some people think that the bagel is replacing the doughnut as the great American bakery mainstay. Bagels are appearing in continental breakfasts, cafeterias and receptions everywhere.
Bagel and Bagel, a Kansas City-based chain, set up shop at the Kansas Union and opened stores at 1026 Massachusetts St. and 3514 Clinton Parkway. Uptown Bagels has been in Lawrence for five years.
A college student's stereotypical beer-and-pizza diet may be one of the factors contributing to the bagel boom in Lawrence.
"Maybe it is a guilt thing," said Danny Pumpelly, Wichita sophomore and employee at Bagel and Bagel on Clinton Parkway. "After feeling kind of guilty about having 12 beers the night before, you can do yourself good by eating something more healthy than a doughnut."
A plain bagel contains less than 1 fat gram, whereas a plain doughnut with no icing or toppings contains up to 11 fat grams. Cream cheese usually adds 5-7 fat grams. On the whole, bagels are easier on the arteries than doughnuts.
"For some people it's a good fast food thing that seems better than french fries," said Gretchen Giloth, Overland Park senior and employee at Bagel and Bagel on Massachusetts Street.
Bagel and Bagel offers some light cream cheese spreads. Uptown Bagels uses all low-fat cream cheese, said co-owner Bryan Daffer.
Gilth so that veggie lite cream cheese was by far the most popular spread at Bagel and Bagel.
Made with grains ranging from wheat to rice, bagels do contain wholesome ingredients but some people overestimate a bagel's
"It's kind of like eating a bunch of Wonder Bread," she said. "How good can that be for you?"
Giloth said her store's location made it a popular but hectic place during events such as parades or festivals. Last weekend was no exception, with Band Day bringing 98 high school marching bands and their entourages to downtown Lawrence.
"There were screaming children; there were screaming band members," Gilcoh said. "We had a dog in here four times that I had to chase out of the store with a black russian bagel."
Gilth also told of hungry cyclists who invaded the store while passing through Lawrence during a bike race.
Some customers don't tell her that they want their bags toasted until the bags already are smothered with cream cheese.
"I've never seen more Lycra in my life," she said. "The place smelled really weird, too."
"I can't grill cream cheese," she said. "That's a popular misconception — that you can toast a bagel with butter and cream cheese on it and that it won't cause some kind of a large fire with four alarms and a loud siren."
Other customers are just fun to observe, such as the ones who eat cream cheese plain or who are chronically indecisive, Giloh said.
mosing a bagel is not a problem for Taza Lividatis, Wilmette, Ill., junior, who visits Uptown Bagels at least three times a week.
"When people don't know what they want, they get really scared," she said.
Choos-
"I get the same thing every time: the pesto bagel with plain cream cheese, lettuce and tomato, bagel chips and a pickle," Livaditis said.
"She is the bagel queen," said her roommate Jami Goldman.
Lawrence junior, whoopts for the wheat everything bagel with half spinach spread and half chive cream cheese.
Dafter said regular customers were the mainstay of Uptown Bagels, especially with new bagel stores opening. He said he knew of three or four national chains that planned to open more than 300 stores nationally next year.
"I expect everybody to try the other places that open up, but it's nice to see them come back once they've been there," Dafter said.
The employees, however, are the most loyal bagel consumers.
"I am a carbohydrate addict," Giloth said. "I have had to drastically reduce my bagel intake. I've started to actually turn into a bagel."
David Grimes,
Lawrence junior,
pulls bagels from the
steam oven at Bagel
and Bagel, 1026 Massa-
chusets St. He begins
work at 5 a.m. to pre-
pare bagels for the
rest of the day. At
right: Gretchen
Giloth, Overland Park
senior, also works at
the Bagel and Bagel on
Massachusetts Street.
By lan Ritter
The idea that dinosaurs and birds are related has been accepted as fact by many neo-
Photos by Rebecca Ramaglia
ple around the world. The National Museum of Natural History in Washington has even spent $12 million on an exhibit describing the relationship between the two. But to Larry Martin, professor of biological sciences, this idea
"There are several arguments on bird origins, but the one that gets the most press coverage is the idea that birds are just feathered dinosaurs," Martin said. "I've got an open challenge out that I will consider the bird origin of dinosaurs if they can show me one characteristic that just isn't embarrassing."
is about as ridiculous as saying that dinosaurs were wiped out from widespread heroin overdoses.
Martin, who has been featured on public television's
Evidence of Larry Martin's influence abounds in the Natural History Museum, where Martin is curator.
"People who work on dinosaurs tend to go crazy," he said. "I tend not to take this very seriously, but the people with the dinosaurs tend to get very emotional about it."
Nova program, the Planet Earth Series on the Discovery Channel, a program on the Learning Channel and in various publications, claims that his theory is common sense—yet some dinosaur experts still vehemently disagree with him.
There are three main points that Martin explains when describing his theory:
Dinosaurs couldn't run fast enough to take flight. They weren't shaped wide enough to gain flying momentum. And they weren't able to climb trees.
Martin argues that the dinosaurs' legs were too short to achieve a wide enough stride to give them enough speed to gain flight.
"The point is, the dinosaur would have to run faster than anyone could expect it to run," Martin said. "In order to get any useful lift from running on the ground they have to run at a rate faster than a
small animal can run."
He said that there would be even less of a chance of a large dinosaur being able to approach these speeds.
As for their shapes, Martin says that dinosaurs simply aren't wide enough to fly. Pointing to a diagram, Martin explained that the frames of dinosaurs weren't nearly as wide as other birds. From an overhead view, dinosaurs' frames are much thinner than those of ducks and the prehistoric bird, called the Archaeopteryx. The thinness of their frames wouldn't allow them to achieve the lift from underneath that is necessary for flight, Martin said.
If dinosaurs couldn't run fast enough to take flight, could they at least climb a tree and glide from it?
Martin said no way.
"Their front legs are shorter than their hind legs, which doesn't help," he said. "What you're trying to do is get an aerodynamic dinosaur up in a tree, and it just doesn't work."
The opposing view on birds' origin from dinosaurs argues that the bone structures of the two are similar. To some,
dinosaurs aren't even extinct—they are represented today by birds. Many of these scientists would consider the hummingbird to be the smallest living representation of a dinosaur.
"That's the great attraction in this," Martin said. "That dinosaurs don't have to be extinct. It's all a conservation plan to save dinosaurs from extinction."
But some graduate students in ornithology, the study of birds, warned people to take Martin's theory in stride.
"I can argue with you from kingdom come, but we'll never have the specimens to go back and look at," said Kim Bostwick, Bolivar, New York, graduate student in ornithology.
Bostwick said that it had come down to two differing outlooks that could have clashed forever simply because the theories are subjective.
Dave Watson, Lawrence graduate student in ornithology, said, "Even though you're dealing with what looks like an objective set, there's already been a lot of biases
that have previously affected it."
The bias that has affected fossils, Watson said, is the fact that some animals don't fossilize.
Bostwick said that the theory of birds and dinosaurs being related was often not discussed at the University because of Martin's influence.
It is possible that certain species could be lost because of erosion
"We're in a University where one side is very strongly promoted," she said.
An exhibit at the Natural History Museum illustrates the two views. In the dinosaur exhibit, there is a display titled Two Competing Theories, which outlines Martin's theory and shows the opposing theory.
But Martin seems sure that he has the competition beat. He said he is usually unopposed when he gives speeches on his theory.
"I tend to do very well at these meetings," he said. "They really don't have that much on me."