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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2006
LO: Yes, Audrey Hepburn and Brad Pitt make for very sexy smokers. But don't think you resemble either one when puffing on campus. See kansan.com for more opinions and Free for All comments
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
PAGE 7A
》 OUR VIEW
KU playmates don't represent University
The wait ended last week when Playboy released the "Girls of the Big 12" issue. The issue had men ogling and, for some, featured something to brag about.
The issue is nothing but cheap publicity for Playboy. Unfortunately, it has come to tarnish the good name of the University of Kansas.
The issue has now become some type of competition. As throngs of people waited for three of the featured women to sign copies of the issue, many took pride in the representation. It was as though the nine KU students featured represented the image of the University.
It's unfortunate that people will come to associate the University with topless women. The photos are not indicative of the University or its qualities.
Playboy's issue now has people associating the University with scantily clad women.
Those who think that having nine women in the issue is something the University should be proud of should look around. We have a pretty good men's basketball team, some highly decorated professors and nationally recognized professional schools. There's more to the University than just good-looking women.
The college issues have become way too over played, anyway. Every year Playboy picks a conference to feature, and every year people go out and buy it.
It's the same old song and dance and it's getting a little old Find a new way to market to young college males and stop sending the wrong image about our University.
Louis Mora for the editorial board.
FREE FOR ALL Call 864-0500
1,5 million a year, don't you think Mangino should be able to teach Meier to do a handoff?
Free For All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. Kansan editors reserve the right to omit comments. Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded.
One piece of advice: Never hook up with someone from your dorm because it is awkward when you see them at dinner.
I don't think skinny guys should drink with fat guys.
I decided boys should not be allowed to wear red Crocs.
How college are we? We are sitting under a tree reading the newspaper.
Annoying students everywhere
COMMENTARY
Have you ever sat in class and thought the person next to you was really rude? Or how about that time you were sitting on the bus minding your own business and that girl next to you was yelling on her cell phone about how mad she was at Courtney for stealing her Friends Season One DVDs? You know these people. They're all over. Now in my third year at the University, I've come to see these people on an almost daily basis, and I feel that, as a journalist, it is my duty to report my findings to you. Granted, it would probably take an entire newspaper to report everything, so instead I will just focus on some of the major types of annoying people around. Chances are you've been guilty of behaving this way at least once. I know I have.
The 'Last Night' group
This is the most rampant group on campus. These are the people who for some reason insist on boring you for hours with their worthless and moronic stories from the night before. "Yeah man, I got so wasted I came home and puked all over my dog." In a given day, you'll likely hear about 10 of these stories.
Generally, these stories are all the same. They first involve some place, usually a bar or someone's apartment or house. Next, they include consumption of alcohol, poor judgment, immaturity and lack of sensible actions.
The disappointing thing about these stories is that they rarely feature anything original. No one got so wasted they repaved their driveway. No one drank so much that they translated their entire physics book into Arabic. So instead we're left to hear the same recycled stories over and over again.
When did they start making Fruity Pebbles colored?
Who wants to file a lawsuit against MTV, because I just saw an advertisement for 24 hour music and I haven't seen music the past tun hours.
I miss ya hot Scott, my dear old best friend.
To the guy who sits in my Calc 115 class: Shave the unibrow, bro
--two hours.
BY CHRISE BROWER
KANSAN COLUMNIST
OPINIONKANSAN.COM
These are the type of people who will study 12 hours for an open-book quiz on the multiplication tables and still be shaking nervously the entire time.
Here's a typical conversation between a nervous person and their friend:
The people who need to relax
These are the people who are constantly nervous in class. Any assignment given to these people will result in an immediate raised hand and a slew of questions interrupting class for a good five minutes or so. "You said the paper has to be 450 words. Is 455 ok? Can I have more then two sources?"
It's not uncommon to see these people slamming their desks in agony after finding out their grade point average was lowered to a 4.6.
Nervous student: "I've got to do well on this English paper or ... I just don't know what I'll do!"
Sympathetic friend: "Wow, this is a huge problem. But don't worry, you can do it!"
Nervous friend: "No I can't! I got a 93 percent on the last paper. I just know that might happen again!"
Most teachers prohibit cell phones in class. But this doesn't stop a lot of students from using them.
First, there are the kids who never put their phones on silent. I can't remember how many times I've been
So my friend just wanted to say the Ellsworth deskie Lauren B. is incredibly hot. We always love coming in during her shift.
The cell-phone phenomenon
If Delta Tau Delta would hand out condoms I bet more people would join.
I think it needs to be said: The Bitch and Moan guy is a complete
sitting in class and all of a sudden I hear "In Da Club" coming out of someone's backpack. Then there are the people who think we can't hear when their phone is on vibrate, as if we can't hear something vibrating in your rocket or purse.
--sitting in class and all of a sudden I hear "In Da Club" coming out of someone's backpack. Then there are the people who think we can't hear when their phone is on vibrate, as if we can't hear something vibrating in your rocket or purse.
But greater than all of these is the phenomenon that happens the second class is dismissed. Next time you get dismissed from class, watch how many people immediately reach for their cell phones and call someone. It's as if they were expecting a call from President Bush or something.
Second, there is text messaging. I can't believe people still think the teacher doesn't notice that you're staring at your laptop something. There's no laptop in front of you. So, the logical conclusion is that you're text messaging. And chances are you aren't typing to your friend about what a kickass lecture you're hearing.
The procrastinators
Procrastinators are funny people because they tend to think they need to brag about it, as if procrastinating were difficult. They waited until the last minute to write their paper on igneous rocks and they feel like boasting is necessary to prove what an amazing student they are. "I didn't write this paper until five minutes ago! Well ... granted, there are 47 typos and I'll probably get an F, but that doesn't matter because I did the unthinkable — I put something off until the last second!"
I guess all you can do is shake your head and laugh at annoying people. Either that or run really fast across the street and just hope they don't follow you.
Brower is an Overland Park junior in journalism.
It's 4 o'clock. People are in class, but I am trashed. Thank you, Crossing.
It isn't even 4 o'clock and all the newstands are empty. I want my
pape
I was sitting on the bus today and I saw a guy carying a bona fide Trapper Keeper.
What happens in Jeopardy if they tie at the end of the game?
COMMENTARY
Smoking on campus not sexy or alluring
Warning: This column is not for anyone under the age of 18; anyone who suffers from being too "PC," or anyone who lives righteously by "moralis." I want to declare that cigarettes make you look cool, but only if you know how to smoke in the sexiest way possible. According to the World Health Organization, tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death, and that the death toll caused by tobacco-related products is at nearly five million people a year. By the year 2020, the number of deaths will double to ten million a year if the current smoking patterns continue.
But, to a smoker, do statistics matter, or does that warm, oakey, satisfaction in your mouth and throat matter more?
The bottom line is that women smoke to be as elegant and classy as Audrey Hepburn in *Breakfast at Tiffany's*. Men smoke to be wild and mysterious like Brad Pitt in *Fight Club*. Besides that, smoking is an enjoyable activity after a stressful day. The Marlboro Man embodied that rugged sexiness one can create while smoking cigarettes. Although, ironically, the two actors who portrayed him, Wayne McClaren and David McLean, died of lung cancer, we as a nation will never forget how the Marlboro Man taught adults, teenagers, and children what it really meant to be "cool."
Besides the taste, cigarettes and smoke rings provide an air of mystery. Why would one smoke if he did not want to be the ultimate in sexy? People aren't stupid. I could write about cancer, yellowed teeth, bad skin and other disastrous effects of lighting ciggies, but those effects are already known and disregarded. I could blabber on about being a role model to children, but that argument is too cliche.
It saddens me to see smokers on campus not enjoying their cigarettes correctly. They walk, hunched over,
BY TERESA LO
KANSAN COLUMNIST
OPINION@KANSAN.COM
their cigarettes hanging out of their mouths. They blow their smoke in front of us non-smokers and receive looks of disdain. Smoking while walking is not alluring. Smoking in a crowd of non-smokers is worse. Being annoying is not seductive.
When a person is walking, they can't really enjoy their cigarette, so what is the point of wasting one of those precious, expensive sticks of wacky coback? Put a patch on if you can't wait to savor the flavor.
Smokers are at their sexiest when they are outside in a dark corner, brooding and staring off into the sky, away from public entrances. It is at this moment when smokers really channel their inner Johnny Depp or Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City. Sometimes it's sexy to smoke when giving phone interviews or creating artwork alone in a studio. Sometimes it's sexy to smoke in an alleyway in the winter with a greasy man and a haggard woman, while all the happy non-smokers are inside.
That is where smoking belongs. Either when the smoker is alone or when the smoker is in a dark, alluring area away from the general public. Smoking should not be done while walking on campus, or dining out, or near building entrances. Receiving ditty looks is not sexy. According to a call to the Free for All, the next person who smokes on campus while walking is unsexily going to get carted on. Keep that in mind.
Lo is a Coffeyville senior in History.
》 LETTERTO THE EDITOR
Morality found in all faiths and beliefs
In response to Adam Lockridge's letter "Morals, law are one," he is absolutely correct to assert that most countries, regardless of political system, have legislated morality. It is important to realize, however, that there are certain immoral actions, such as murder, that are collectively denounced by nearly all faiths, as well as by both the religious and the secularist. There is a clear pluralist consensus on this issue.
To claim that depriving the country of its Christian humanism history would lead to the imposition of a "non-secularist" morality. Under this presumption, someone not following Christian teachings is a "non-secularist" even if he may be Jewish, Buddhist, or of any other faith. It is absurd to claim certain values
and institutions are Christian-limited and anything different is "non-secularist," when so many morals are shared collectively and transcend religions and labels.
This sort of reasoning is unnecessarily polarizing and troublingly flawed because it seems to claim there is some sort of Christian mandate that provides a moral blueprint that everyone should follow, with no consideration given to the severity of the issue in question. Gay marriage is a civil rights issue that should be handled irrespective of Bible literalism. Let us not forget the power true religion can play in such a struggle.
TALK TO US
Vince Meserko Overland Park, junior
Jonathan Kapling, editor
865-454 or 86541kapling@ansman.com
Eric D. Scholl, managering editor
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Gabriella Souza, managing editor
864-4854 x. g souza@kansan.com
Franc rankard square email
864-4024 or fktankard@kansan.com
Dave Ruigh, associate opinion editor
864-4924 or drulish@kansan.com
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》 SUBMISSIONS
The Kansan welcomes letters to the editor and guest columns submitted by students, faculty and alumni. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length, or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Frank Tankard or Dave Rough at 864-4810 or e-mail opinion@kansan.com.
General questions should be directed to the editor at editor@kansan.com.
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EDITORIAL BOARD
Jonathan Keenan, Eric R. Schmidt, Gabrielle Saure, Frank Tankard,
Draugh Rough, Steve Layne and Loua Muera