UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday, October 4, 1996
3A
Barbecue will spice up festival
Food to add diversity and bring community together this weekend
By Liz Musser
Kansan staff writer
The best evidence of how much people like their food is in how empty the plates are by the end of the meal, says Muriel Cook.
By day, Muriel Cook works full-time in serials-retrieval services at Watson Library, but the rest of the time, she's all about barbecue. With the help of her husband Harold, Muriel owns and operates Cook's Barb-B-Que in Tonganoxie.
This weekend, their barbecue will be one of many ethnic foods offered at the Harvest of Arts and the Celebration of Cultures Festival in Buford Watson Park,
Seventh and Kentucky streets.
"Food is an excellent way to share cultures," Cook said. "Everybody loves to eat. It brings people together."
Cook said her food represented more than just the African-American culture. Her food embodies several cultures. She cooks red beans and rice, which typifies a New Orleans style of cooking. She also prepares Jamaican Jerk chicken, which has a Caribbean flavor. She said that her barbecue also represented Kansas with a touch of southern taste.
"Take pork skins," she said "By talking with people, we've learned that they are also called piggy pops and pork rinds. Three names for the same thing."
the Kansas City Blues and Jazz Festival.
Cook, who was born in Georgia, said that she grew up cooking. In 1987, she and her husband started Cook's Barb-B-Que by serving their sauce and meat at area festivals. They are now regulars at the Farmer's Market, Art in the Park, and
Earlier this year, they opened their restaurant along U.S. Highway 24-40 East in Tonganoxie. Channette Kirby, a Baldwin resident and Cook's regular, said that it was Cook's barbecue sauce that made the restaurant special.
"The flavor is unique," Kirby said. "It has a nice balance — not too sweet, but with a little kick to it."
Cook said that there was no secret ingredient in the sauce.
"It's common, everyday seasonings," she said. "It's just a matter of how we mix it."
The Cook's will sell their special sauce, along with beef brisket, turkey legs, peach cobbler, and more at the Celebration of Cultures.
"You don't actually see the diversity in Lawrence, until we have the Celebration of Cultures," she said. "It really brings the community and the University together."
Tvler Wirken / KANSAN
Muriel and Harold Cook, owners of Cook's Bar-B-Que in Tonganoxie, will participate in the Harvest of Arts and Celebration of Cultures Festival this weekend at Buford M. Watson Park, Seventh and Kentucky streets.
Advisers help pre-professionals
The University offers no specific majors for pre-law,pre-med
By Eric Weslander Kansan staff writer
The competitive fields of medicine and law can intimidate and confuse students.
For that reason, the College Undergraduate Services Center, 109 Strong Hall, employs full-time advisers to work specifically with students hoping to enter law or medical school.
Paul Crosby, who works with pre-med students, said it was important to have advisers for law and medicine in addition to general advisers because of the complicated application processes and the large numbers of students in both fields. There are more than 1,000 undergraduates at the University who have declared themselves either pre-medical or pre-law school students.
One of the advisers' main purposes is to help students decide what their undergraduate majors will be. The University of Kansas offers no specific majors for pre- law or pre-medical students.
"Some students believe pre-law is a major and are a little disconcerted to find
they have to pick a major," said Christine Keller-Wolff, who advises prospective law school students.
She said political science was a popular choice for many pre-law students, along with philosophy, history and English.
"In my opinion, the best direction for students to go is to pick a major that is interesting to them." Keller-Wolff said.
Buddy Lloyd, Tulsa freshman, said he planned to double major in business communication and political science to prepare himself for law school. He said he had not heard of the center's pre-law advising program.
"I guess I'm one of the lost," he said.
"That's definitely a good idea."
Crosby said that often too much emphasis was placed on finding the right major. He said that although most pre-med students chose biology as a major, he had worked with students whose majors ranged from anthropology to psychology.
"In undergraduate study, the choice of a major may not be that critical, especially very early on." he said.
Crosby said a typical advising session involved discussing frequent choices made by pre-med students. He said he also gave students information to help them with their decisions and talked with them about their general interests and past successes.
Major advantage
"I probably do more informing than
The top 10 undergraduate degrees, in terms of medical school acceptance rates:
Interdisciplinary Studies 57.0%
History 50.9
Anthropology 50.0
English 49.8
Physics 46.8
Biomedical Engineering 44.6
Science 44.1
Chemical Engineering 43.8
Mathematics 43.5
Philosophy 41.9
More than 17,500 biology majors applied to medical school in 1995. 6,148 were accepted. By contrast, 151 of 265 interdisciplinary studies majors were accepted.
SOURCE: Medical School Andy Rohrback/ Admission Requirements KANSAN
pointing," he said.
Crosby said it was important for students to make an effort to talk with an adviser.
"It might take a little time, but it's time and effort well-spent," he said.
Watkins offers flu shots to help fight top viruses
Students can be armed against influenza season
By Ashleigh Roberts Kansan staff writer
Getting a flu shot is not nearly as painful as having an ice pick stabbed in your back 5,000 times.
That's what Charles Yockey, chief of staff at Watkins Memorial Health Center, is telling students as he prepares for flu season. Watkins ordered 1,650 flu shots this year and will have an area set up in the Union on Nov. 6. Students also can get the shot at Watkins any time. The shot costs $5, and students can pay on the spot or be billed.
Students are not the targeted population for flu shots, but Yockey said it was a precaution students should consider.
"The flu travels across the world much like the weather," he said. "Every year the top three strains change. As a result, they make a new immunization every year. The problem is that there are more than three types."
Influenza is a common, contagious respiratory infection, Yockey said. There is a 24- to 48-hour incubation period, and the virus can last seven to 10 days.
"Students who get the flu this winter are guaranteed to miss a full week of school," he said. "They will have the worst muscle aches of their life, a severe cough and bad headaches."
The virus has an abrupt onset. Yockey said students would know the exact moment it hit.
"One moment you're fine and the next minute you feel like you've been run over by a truck. That's the influenza," he said.
Yockey said the flu shot not only decreased the risk of getting influenza, but it also was considered a herd immunization because it lowered the chance for a campus outbreak
Contrary to popular belief, the flu shot does not give students influenza.
"It is a viral vaccine, but it is a dead virus," Yockey said. "It is a highly purified, egg-grown virus that looks like a live virus to your immune system, but it is not replicating."
Vockey said the look-alike virus caused the immune system to produce antibodies that would attack the virus if it entered the body in the next six months. The shot takes two weeks to take effect.
"The flu is a viral infection. Viruses don't have cell walls, and antibiotics work by breaking down cell walls," he said.