Cat Still Smiling " 'The time has come,' the Walrus said, 'To talk of many things; Of shoes—and ships—and sealingwax— Of sabbines—and kings— Of cabbages—and kings— And why the sea is boiling hot— And whether pigs have wings.'" As the KU community celebrates the University's 100th year, the time has indeed come, as Tweedledee so aptly put it, to talk of many things. Perhaps Tweedledee's friend Alice, of "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" fame, who is also celebrating her 100th anniversary this year, can provide us with subjects for reflection. Alice was created by a British mathematical genius at Oxford named Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known to readers as Lewis Carroll. His story of Alice in the awesomely unpredictable land has as many messages for people of all ages today as it did 100 years ago. DR. WILLIAM D. SCHAEFER, professor at the University of California in Los Angeles and authority on English literature, has said the story must be read twice by everyone, once during childhood and again as an adult to gain all Alice has to offer. For, when we enter Wonderland with Alice as a child we see only the excitement of the adventure as we also try to describe the big world with a child's knowledge. But, when we re-enter that dream as adults, we helplessly realize that the problem is still there. We still have not explained the world any better than we did at the first reading of Mock Turtle reciting the poem about the whiting and the snail. In Alice, we see youth. Carroll called it "audacity, vigor and swift directness of purpose." Alice welcomes adventure of every kind. She is not afraid of the unknown. In contrast, the White Rabbit is "elderly, timid, feebly and nervously shilly-shallying." All his vitality is gone. He spends his time worrying and talking about time, making small talk in the royal court and paying obeisance to the raving and savagely ugly Queen of Hearts who is forever shouting, "Off with his (or her or its as the case may be) head!" At one time or another Alice experiences almost every day-to-day feelings of people today. She uses words like longitude and latitude, although she hasn't any idea what they mean, merely because "she thought they were nice words to say." She becomes irritated when no one can or will give her exact answers to her problems. (The frog-footman keeps chattering about himself while Alice asks how she can get to the beautiful garden.) BUT, MOST OF ALL, Alice is involved in our common search, that of trying to find out who she is and where she fits in this zany and everchanging world. During her journey she meets a caterpillar, who, perched atop a mushroom, smokes a hookah and asks Alice, "Who are you?" "I-I hardly know, Sir, just at present—at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then." And when asked to explain herself she can only answer, "I can't explain myself, I'm afraid, Sir, . . . because I'm not myself you see." That familiar phrase, "alone and afraid in a world we never made" becomes more and more meaningful as we sail through Alice's series of adventures. Alice is constantly changing size to meet every situation, at least she tries to do so. But, she always grows tall or short at the wrong time, or the king makes another ridiculous rule such as "All persons more than a mile to leave the court!" Nothing is certain except, perhaps, the Mad Hatter's constant tea party with the March Hare and the sleeping dormouse. THERE IS A TRIAL, but no one knows for sure who is on trial or for what crime; there is no evidence that is evident of anything; the jurors copy only irrelevant chatter. Some record certain evidence as important and others record it as unimportant while the king doesn't even know the meaning of the two words. Is there such a thing as justice? But, as Alice said to herself, "It doesn't matter a bit." The Cheshire cat is always popping up to tell us, "We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad . . . You must be or you wouldn't have come here." All of us, in a constantly shifting universe, are searching for Alice's goal. We are all equally eager, but we are keeping in contact with the March Hare's lessons in Reeling and Writhing and . . . the different branches of Arithmetic—Ambition, Distraction, Uglification and Derision." And, those who have time and motivation learn from the Classical master about "Laughter and Grief." But, whether we have the wonderous adventure of falling down a rabbit hole or whether we just remain in our own playing-card environments, the experience is about the same. We're all trying to play a game in which nobody knows the rules. We're each swinging a live flamingo as a croquet mallet, trying to hit the hedgehog croquet ball across a rough and furrowed course. But, we have difficulty keeping the flamingo's neck straight, and when that problem is solved the hedgehog waddles away or picks a fight with another hedgehog. All the time there is the pigeon telling us we must be serpents since we have long necks or that children must all be serpents if they eat eggs, because all serpents eat eggs. Somewhere the duchess is revolving her sharp chin on a weary shoulder chanting a moral to everything — "Take care of the sense and the sounds will take care of themselves."* And the Cheshire cat is still grinning. *A switch by Carroll on the British proverb, "Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves." — Janet Hamilton That's Real Individualism I'm thoroughly fed up with people who sneer at the rest of society as cattle-brained conformists. I'm fed up with people who, like Mr. Ketchum (in the Sept. 29 Kansan), feel vastly superior to "the herd" living down there in those rows and rows of ranch style homes. I'm tired of pompous pipsqueaks saying — in Mr. Ketchum's words — "The people who live in these houses are much like the buildings they live in—all the same." I LIVE IN ONE OF THOSE ranch style homes, and there are a dozen more just like it in the same block. I know a lot of people who live in similar houses, and on behalf of all of us who "wallow in sameness," I protest. We're not all the same. Now, to anyone who would have difficulty separating the Jonathans from the Delicious in an apple bin, we may look the same. In fact, a lot of us have come to accept ourselves as pretty commonplace, once Most of us men in those ranch houses have pretty ordinary jobs selling shoes, writing advertising copy, or teaching youngsters. Most of us get haircuts every couple of weeks and wear carbon-copy business suits. Most of our wives spend a great deal of their time washing dishes, ironing clothes, and changing diapers. we had awakened from our youthful dreams of becoming world-changers. BUT IN SPITE OF ALL our m a s s-production similarities, most of us struggle every day to discover who we are, what we're doing in this world, and what we can do to improve our little corner of it while we're here. To me, that's individualism that means something. There's the writer down the street who earns a living writing scripts for sales meeting movies. In his spare time, he has written a novel (which was published) and the script for a horror-fantasy movie he and some coworkers produced. And there's the Negro family whose ranch style home, however ordinary it may be to Mr. Ketchum, is for them a great step out of Lawrence's ghettos towards self-esteem. My wife and a lot of other women from ranch style homes have given huge hunks of time and energy to operate a volunteer-run nursery school for children who otherwise might start kindergarten with a big head start towards being high school dropouts. There's another thing in which we're pretty much alike, though. We fail to understand what's so individualistic about the jokers who are following the latest high school-college fad — whether it's wearing beards and sweatshirts, riding Japanese motorbikes, or avoiding the barbershop. 2 Walt Blackledge Daily Kansan Tuesday, October 5, 1965 "Why Do You Oppose Him? What Difference Does It Make Whether He Does It From Without Or From Within?" It Used to Be... The Kansan today inaugurates a special Centennial feature—a day by day feature tracing the activities of the University over the past 50 years. Each day the Kansan will report on the activities of KU students in 1915 and 1940. 25 Years Ago Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini met aboard an armored train today at Brenner Pass and discussed vital Axis war policy. Silhouetted against an overcast sky last night and casting a glow from the hundred Japanese lanterns they carried, University women participated in the 24th observance of the annual Lantern Parade. After dining buffet style in the Memorial Union Ballroom, the women went to Chancellor Malott's house and sang "Tell Me Why." "I'm a Jayhawk," and "The Crimson and Blue." ROTC units have organized into 20 platoons with an enrollment of 716 men, Col. Karl F. Baldwin said today. This is double the number in years past. 50 Years Ago A number of instances of illegal practices in the recent class elections comes to the attention of the University Daily Kansan. The newspaper believes that the election lists were inaccurately compiled, that names were voted by others than their owners, that many voted as members of two classes, that men not in school voted and that some men voted in classes other than the one in which they belong. Definite action on the proposition to establish a Bible College at the University by the Christian churches of Kansas is expected tomorrow. Dr. Walter Sutton, Supt. of American Red Cross Hospital in Northern France, lectured at the University Club last night on frontier war conditions. His talk was illustrated with over 100 lantern slides. A broken trolley wire on the street car over the Hill Monday afternoon caused a tie-up that delayed many students in a rush for their afternoon classes. Dailij Hönsen UNiversity 4-3646, newsroom UNiversity 4-3198, business office Founded. 1889 Founded 1889 Represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50 St., New York, N.Y. 10022. Mail subscription rates: $4 a semester or $7 a year. Published and second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays, University holidays and examination periods. Accommodations, goods, services and employment advertised in the University Daily Kansan are offered to all students without regard to color, creed or national origin. EXECUTIVE STAFF MANAGING EDITOR Judy Farrell BUSINESS MANAGER Ed Vaughn EDITORIAL EDITORS Janet Hamilton, Karen Lambert NEWS STAFF Assistant Managing Editors Suzy Black, Susan Hartley Jane Larson, Jacke Thayer City Editor Joan McCabe Wire Editor Robert Stevens Feature Editor Mary Dunlap Sports Editor Scottie Scott Photo Editor Dan Austin BUSINESS STAFF Advertising Manager Dale Reinecker Circulation Manager Mike Robe Classified Manager Mike Wertz Merchandising John Hons Promotion Manager Keith Issitt National Advertising Eugene Parrish