Section A·Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
...
Tuesday, February 13, 2001
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New daytime TV book feeds viewers' passions
Hidden Passions: Secrets From the Diaries of Tabitha Lenox, has climbed to No. 5 on the bestseller list. The book reveals secrets from before the debut of the NBC daytime drama and hints at the future as well. Contributed art
By Sarah Warren writer@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
Suzanne Schlotzhauer,
Leawood freshman,
won't admit to having
too many passions, save
a love for cappuccino
and a quirky infatuation
for NBC's daytime soap
opera *Passions*.
Passions, which airs at 1 p.m. weekdays on NBC, has gained quite a following in its second year on the air, marked by NBC's deal with HarperCollins to produce a book written by a character on the show — Tabitha the witch.
Latif probably won't have to wait very long to get her shot at reading Tabitha's secrets. Schlotzhauer received the book last Thursday from Latif and is
Hidden Passions:
Secrets From the Diaries of Tabitha Lenox, hit the shelves of bookstores Jan. 23, using a plot line involving Tabitha's fictional diary publication on the show. In just two weeks, the book has shot to No. 5 on the New York Times bestseller list for hardcover fiction.
Now, fans of the show in Lawrence are plunking down $25 for the hardcover tell-all at local bookstores such as Borders Books, Music
and Cafe, 700 New Hampshire, to learn secrets not revealed in the show.
Asma Latif, Leawood freshman and Schlotzhauser's best friend, is also a Passions addict. She special-ordered the book as a gift for Schlotzhauser from Hastings Books, Music and Video, 1900 W. 23rd St.
"I think it's a good promotional idea for the show," Latif said. "I didn't get one for myself, but I'll probably borrow it when she's done."
more than half-way through the 338-page book.
"The book actually talks about *Passions* before it was on the air," Schlotzhauer said. "It hints at secrets and gives some away. It also shows how devious Tabitha is because she causes all these bad things to happen."
Although Schlotzhauer owns the Passions book and watches the show daily, she maintained that she didn't take the show as seriously as it might seem.
"I don't have my schedule planned around it," Schlotzhauer said. "In fact, I miss it every day, but I tape it and watch it when I get home in the evenings."
And when she and Latif sit down with a few friends for "Passions parties" some nights, she said they didn't watch it for a dose of daily drama.
"I watch it because it's so amusing." Schlotzhauser said. "The best thing to do is not to really make fun of it, but laugh at
how ridiculous it is."
Ridiculous in a silly sense, she said, not as in the twists and turns of the plot.
- Edited by Jay Pilgreen
"There's witches and people being pulled into hell and a doll that comes to life." Schlotzhauer said. "So, if that's not crazy I don't know what is."
Some phone cards are scams
By Amanda Beglin
By Amanda Beginl writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
For some KU students, a calling card is the best way to phone home. But students are finding that some promises of long distance bargains don't ring true.
Buying a phone card from a machine may not be the best way to spend those coveted college dollars, according to some out-of-state students.
Advertised low per-minute rates dupe some students into buying phone cards that never work from machines on campus.
Jeremy Bennett, Kansas City, Kan., senior, said he had bought one of those cards because he wanted a cheap way to talk to his girlfriend in Kansas City.
"It's ridiculous. She lives 45 minutes away, and it gets expensive to call her," Bennett said. "And I can't call her from work, so I had to depend on phone cards."
But his card never worked. When he tried using the card to make his first phone call, a computerized message told him he had used all his minutes — before Bennett had entered his pin number.
"I called the customer service line, and they told me the whole card was used a couple weeks ago for calls to Dallas." Bennett said. "There was nothing they could do. That thing cost me $20."
Kansas Attorney General Carla Stovall issued a consumer protection alert last week in response to complaints about faulty calling cards. Some low per-minute calling cards may be too good to be true, she said. She offered the following reasons:
Unfortunately, this is not uncommon.
- Several small phone companies offer low-rate phone cards, but go out of business before customers use all the minutes on their card.
- Cards may have hidden charges that increase low per minute rates when used for more than one phone call. These charges include weekly service fees, taxes, pay phone surcharges and connect fees.
Some low per-minute rates are based on making only one domestic phone call for the total minutes of the card from any phone except a pay phone.
- Phone cards charge by the minute, not by the second — turning a 20-second call into a one minute charge. And if the card has a three-minute minimum call time, a customer may not be able to use the card for that phone call at all.
- Cards may have expiration dates that allow only two or three months of use.
Stovall suggested buying a prepaid calling card from a large retail store by familiar companies
such as AT&T and Sprint.
Trevor Johnson, Oconomowoc,
Wis., freshman, said he bought
phone cards by the bundle at Sam's
Club, a national members-only
bulk retailer owned by Wal-Mart.
Other KU students offered differ ent suggestions.
"They're only 40 dollars for something like 300 minutes," Johnson said. "I buy them whenever I go home and use them when I get to school."
CampusLink, a nationwide college phone company, allows students to make domestic and international phone calls from their dorm rooms with a 7-digit pin number. However, calls made off-campus carry additional charges.
"It's about 10 cents per minute from my room," Taylor said. "I don't have to call home too often since I'm pretty close, but it doesn't cost much."
Some students, including Taylor, have been using phone cards given to them at high school graduation and Christmas.
"I got an AT&T card for Christmas with 350 minutes on it." Taylor said. "But it's one of those that you can keep adding minutes to. So I just spent $40 to get 1,000 minutes on it. That's only four cents a minute."
Edited by Jason McKee
Reporting lost, stolen cell phones important
By Lauren Brandenburg
writer@kanson.com
Kanson staff writer
Wibels, Lincoln, Neb., senior,
said she had lost the phone Saturday
night and had it back by Monday
morning.
But cell phone companies say Wibbles' case is the exception.
When Shelly Wibbels lost her cell phone, she didn't worry about someone making unauthorized calls with it because she knew she had left it in a Saferide car.
Verizon Wireless, Cingular Wireless, Sprint PCS and Nextel Communications offer insurance plans in case a phone is lost or stolen. The insurance is about $4 a month, company representatives said, and has a $3 deductible.
When someone loses a cell phone or realizes it has been stolen, the first thing the person should do is call the carrier to report it. That way, other people cannot use the phone, said representatives from five major wireless providers.
The next step is to file a police report or find the phone, representatives said. Depending on which carrier a person uses, there are different ways to replace the phone.
"It covers anything from being run over by a car to being lost," said Karl Jackson, sales associate at Simply Wireless. 1901 Massachusetts St.
"The dumbest thing you could ever do is steal a cell phone," said Michelle, a sales representative at Cingular Wireless who did not give her last name for company security reasons. "We can see every call being made on it almost instantly. It's really pointless to steal something like that when it's so easily trackable."
Michelle said if someone brought in a phone for activation, the system would show whether the phone was reported lost or stolen. If it was, the carrier would not activate it and would contact the phone's owner, she said. Representatives from the other companies said they had the same policy.
And after a phone is reported lost or stolen to its carrier, no one else can activate the phone.
Because the phone can only be activated with one carrier, it is easy to keep track of lost and stolen phones. Michelle said that was one reason phones could not be interchanged between carriers.
On the other side of the issue, Julie Kellogg, Lecompton senior, said it could be hard to return a phone to its owner. She said she and her roommate had found a phone in the mud near an apartment and had been trying to find its owner for two weeks.
"It just says Bubba's phone on it," she said. "We have no idea what to do with it."
Kellogg said a friend of the phone's owner called one day, and Kellogg had been talking with him about how to return the phone when the battery died.
Because they could not figure out how to get the phone back to its owner, she said she and her roommate planned to turn it in to the police.
801 Mass
841.2963
Sgt. Mike Patrick of the Lawrence Police Department said police tried to contact the phone's carrier and owner when phones were turned in.
Edited by Jacob Roddy
"Use your noodle... eat some pasta"
monday
ALL-YOU CAN-EAT
Boulevard Night, Pate Ale Drinks $0.75
Wheat Bottles $1.50
thursday
$1.95 Martin's
Custom Pastas, Salads and Soft Drinks
5-10 p.m.
$2.00 Killian's Red Bud Light Schooners
WEDNESDAY
Jimbo ($2 ae) Hargatez 'on the rocks' $2.00
safetyaw
Family-Style Pasta Platters
Store #214. People Starting at $10.50
63.00 Jumbo (52 oz) Bohama Hamas
SUNDAY
Family-Style Pasta Platters
Welcome, Nontradsl! You're invited to make:
CAMPUS CONNECTIONS
with staff and current students
WHERE: Big 12 Room, Level 5, Kansas Union
WHEN: Thursday, February 15,2001, 2:30-5:00 p.m.
WHAT: Brief introductions, Questions & Answers, Info Fair and
time to signaling (including hour ID/departure)
WHY: Your best chance for one-stop info "shopping" to help you settle in at KUI
ESPECIALLY FOR NONTRADS, PARENTS, COMMUTERS, & VETERANS!
Student Development Center
22 Strong Hall
1460 Jayhawk Blvd.
University of Kansas
Lawrence, KG 60445-7535
(785) 684-4064
edu@Pukane.edu
Come when you can!
SDC
www.ku.edu/~develop
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