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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 31, 1975)
Page 2 THE BATTALION FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 1975 Who wants a candy-ass campus pub? By ALAN KILLINGSWORTH Oh my God! That was a mother test! That had to be the worst damn test that I have taken since Tve been in this university! All I want to know is how and why would a prof pull that on a person or, for that matter, on a student? I hate coming back to this dirty room. It smells like a pair of gym shorts that have not been washed all semester. First I flunk a test and then I have to come back to this dump. I'" guess 1 11 just get the hell out of| Dodge and go out and hit some woo-woo juice. Why do they dump Battalions right in the middle of the stairs. If I ever trip over the things, Tm gonna write the dirtiest letter you ever saw to that editor. “Anybody wanna go get smash ed?” I yelled down the hall. “No thanks. I already ate at Sbi- sa once today!” Melbert yelled back. Man, that was just the person I wanted to see. Melbert is the kind of guy you can go drinkin’ with and not even the worst lookin’ chick (truck driver) would come near your table. I didn’t want to be bothered by anyone. Beer and “truck drivers” don’t mix. “No Melbert. I mean go out and drown in a few longnecks/ I ex plained. “One of those standardized tests just ate my lunch, Sbisa and all. I hope the damn thing gets in digestion as bad as we do. “Where you wanna go?” Melbert asked. “I don’t care. Somewhere far e- nough away so I can test my drunk driving skills,” I replied. “May be I can pass at least one test to- day.” “Fine with me just as long as we take your car,” he said. “My car hasn’t got the shocks to take all those medians that you have a habit of running over. What ya say that we just go out, get some beer, and spend a nice quite evening at the dorm.” “Man, you gotta be pulling my reveille,” I said. “It’s an Aggie tradi tion to go out and dodge trees on a Friday and Saturday night.” 'CARL ALBERT, YOU GREASED THE RO-O-O-O-O-O-O-OPE!' Pahlmann decor is tasteful? Editor: As one of those contemptably gauche and benighted creatures possessed of the “bad taste” to criti cize our “smart, handsome, com fortable student lobby ”, I feel com pelled to reply to Ben E. Dial’s sophisticated critique of same. On one point, first, I completely agree with Mr. Dial; the South western motiff lends itself well to “expression via design”. I am par ticularly impressed with the south western water buffalo, southwest ern rhinoceros, and southwestern wart hog on the north wall. These tastefully stuffed critters are subtly complemented by the forty (40!) southwestern corps’ flags which un obtrusively surround two delicate five and a half foot globes of truly unusual southwestern flavor and hue. Mr. Dial’s opinion of his fellow students is cleverly expressed in his statement to the effect that Aggies would have filled the room with “bean-bag chairs, bas-relief sword and shield (Gibson’s, circa 1972), and bullfight scenes on crushed vel vet (a la Nuevo Laredo).’’ Bad news, Mr. Dial, Aggies didn’t decorate the room but the bullfight scene goes up on the south wall tomorrow and the beanbags will be here within a week. Mr. Pahlmann’s “creative con tribution” to our school will achieve one certain result; it will so overawe every hick in the state that they will be unable to utter another Aggie joke. After all, what bucolic clod would dare to joke about a major American university with a full- scale replica of a Brobdingnagian mead hall, decorated in a fashion that could be kindly described as Sybarittic cretinism? Tim Sager Take a bow Editor: I see that we re number one in something else: we pay the highest fees of any state institution. The student body was again united in a common sentiment: we neither needed nor wanted these ingenious improvements to our campus nor the accompanying 200 per cent in crease in the building use fee. A lot of friends — good people and good students — didn’t return this semester because they can no longer afford the high-quality, low- cost education that this place was established to provide. It’s nice to know the administration never lost sight of this purpose. I’m tired of defending the administration but that’s okay — they no longer have any trouble looking out for them selves. They’ve had lots of practice lately. And the quad needs golden arches like it needs an 8-inch rain. Would-be eaters in Duncan can’t get seconds on anything and the University — our university — is building a $450,000 wall. I guess these things are too complicated for me to understand. While they’re in the mood, I wish they’d build something really frivolous, like a place for students (remember us?) to walk. Or drive. Or park. Go ahead and take a bow, ad ministration. Your best side is al ready showing. Ken Stroebel Buried news Editor: In many an editorial I have read remarks directed against the Stu dent Senate because it had not “acted” upon some issue affecting the student body. The senate last Thursday night finally did act on probably the most important issue on the campus in years, and The Battalion did its best not to report the event. I refer to the Building Use Fees Resolution reported in last Friday’s Battalion, neatly buried in an article entitled “Ex-Senator Regains Seat. One of the most important actions taken this year by the senate was thus hidden in a story about what should have been a routine ap pointment, but instead wasted se nate time. At any rate, action on the resolution finally began. It was rapidly agreed to and passed, ex pressing very plainly the senate’s displeasure with the building use fee increase. To those who might object that the resolution, although passed unanimously, still did not do any thing, I have the following reply. The Student Senate has power as far as certain key members of the Ad ministration care to listn to it, and, as can be judged by the fact that THE WALL continues to go up, it is apparent that those people are no longer interested in what the stu dents, faculty, or many people in the Administration (yes, there is dissension within the ranks) want. To the extent we are students, we are powerless; to the extent we are citizens of this state, we can vote and write to our representatives in this state. The Texas Student Lobby and students on other campuses are getting fed up with University Ad ministrations having all power over building use fees, annnd enough push could get some corrective legislation passed in Austin. But that “push” haas to be made man ifest. So, if you’re thrilled by your higher fees this semester and things like THE WALL and the decorating atrocity known as the new MSC Lounge, don t do anything! Other wise, take out a few minutes, write your representatives and let them know how you feel. Ralph L. McNutt No news is “buried” if it is on Page 1 — Ed. Melbert and I walked to the car wondering where my steel belted radials would take us tonight and humming "Cruisin’ for longnecks in daddy’s new car, I feel free with my fake I. D. just to make sure no cops’ll catch me.” How many times have you had to go through the wonderful experi ence of trying to figure where to go for a few? How often have you sat in class and dreamed of taking University Drive on two wheels? Those are the questions I ask my self when I hear that some people actually want to have a pub on cam pus. The whole thing boils down to the fact that some two-per center organization is trying to destroy a- nother Aggie tradition. Save this precious Aggie tradition! Who wants a pub on campus? One that is comfortable on top of that. How candy-ass can you get? Every Aggie likes to go to places where the smell of deodorant over powers the music. Every Aggie likes to be the hit drunk of the night or the one that makes all the girls say, “Who is that creep?!” The idea of a pub on campus would also give a person the op tion of drinking within walking dis tance. The most fun of all is cruising through the big CS loaded. Anyone can walk through campus drunk and miss trees. But driving, that’s a different matter. It takes talent to miss trees at 60 while carrying a gut full of beer. So think about it people. If we have a pub on campus Whoops! there goes another Aggie tradition and all the fun that goes along with driving your drunken little body back to the dorm. P S. to Beany — / hate sausage pizza. AaMTH THIS OUR GREATNESS WILL! PEACH NEW V , we WILL /npAJNPH.., eft... AfOO I PROUDLY P RE GENT TO YOU THE BRAs/E PILOT OF THE "tAOON- IftAT 1“ , BUD BOOBY' AV/J, PuTAYMs SOCK \N | stamp $ "well Bud, how about SATING A FEW WORDS FOR THE HISTORY Books, BEFORE YOU'RE SHOT INTO THE UNKNOWN?, I -THINVS > WET f\Y PAmTS... It’s Sunday Buy anything except what you need Che Battalion MFMRFR Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editor . or of the writer of the article and are not necessarily those of The Associated Press, Texas Press Assoaat.on the university administration or the Board of Directors. The The Battalion, a student newspaper at Texas A&M, is published in Colle 8 e Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting enterprise operated Station, Texas, daily except Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and holiday periods, hy students as a university and community newspaper. September through May, and once a week during summer school Editorial policy is determined by the editor. Mail subscriptions are $5.00 per semester; $9.50 per school vear; $10.50 per LETTERS POLICY full year All subscriptions subject to 59} sales tax. Advertising rate furnished, on request. Address: The Battalion, Room £17, Services Building, College’ Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words and are Station, Texas 77843. subject to being cut to that length or less if longer. The editorial The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for reproduction of all Staff reserves the right to edit such letters and does not guaran- news dispatches credited to it or not Otherwise credited in the paper and local tee to publish any letter. Each letter must be signed, show the nevvs of spontaneous origin published herein Right of reproduction of .til address of the writer and list a telephone number for verifica- "^oTdTia^st^dTco^ege Station, Texas. tion. Address correspondence to Listen Up, The Battalion. Room J^iTtlnt Editor . wm AnderTn 217, Services Building, College Station, Texas 77843. Managing Editor LaTonya Perrin Assistant Managing Editor Roxie Hearn Sports Editor Mike Bruton , _ ■ o i , , , w f , Photo Editor Glen Johnson Members of the Student Publications Board are: Jim Lindsey, chairman; Dr. „ , c - * - , i . m-v D . »n ^ «j r «.i- nr r- 'ii c* City Editor Rod Speer Tom Adair, Dr. R. A. Alhanese, Dr. H E. Hierth, W. C. Harrison, Steve v , _ r» i xxr » Eberhard. Don Hegi, and John Nash, Jr. News Ed,t ° rs „ W * St Douglas Winship 1 Reporters . . . T. C. Gallucci, Tony Gallucci, Paul McGrath, Robert Cessna, Gerald Represented nationally by National Educational Advertising Services, Inc., Olivier, Rose Mary Traverso, Steve Gray, Judy Baggett, Alan Killingsworth, Sayeeful New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. Islam, Mary Jeanne Quebe, Cathryn Clement, Robin Schriver, Cindy Maciel. By MIKE PERRIN Someone is finally doing some thing in the Texas Legislature. John Hoestenbach of Odessa has intro duced a bill to repeal the Texas Blue Laws. Just in case you’re not familiar with this scurrilous set of laws, it has been described as one of the strangest joint ef forts made any where by lobby ists. Behind , the Blue Law are the , w Baptists, conser- Y^ / vative Metho- ; d|K ▲ , dists, several oth- f ' : yj " * er religious groups PLUS Sears, Roebuck and Co., Mont gomery Ward, TG&Y, in short, some of the country’s largest stores. Add the Downtown Retail Mer chants Association in your own town and you have a marvelous group effort, indeed. The Baptists and other religiose think that people ought to go to church; for one thing, it swells col lection plates; the big businesses and the lazy downtown merchants like the law because it can save them 14% of their payroll without sig nificantly dropping their sales. What it amounts to is that you can buy wine, ammunition, and a coffin on Sunday, but you cannot buy games, diapers of plumbing con nections. So you can get drunk, load up the old rifle, shoot someone and bury them, but you cannot buy a toy for a sick child, diapers for a wet baby or a fix for a broken faucet. The many other asinine and to tally ridiculous examples in the law are too numerous to list, but I will show how they got there. The religious groups simply want people to have as little to do as pos sible on Sundays (or Saturdays, for some), so that they might drop into a church in desperation. Or at least I heard one minister explain that if people had anything else to do on Sundays, then they would not attend church. This at titude does not seem to inspire con fidence in the way churches are conducting themselves. Now just to be fair, some churches do not have this problem; they KNOW that they can excite ' PEANUTS their membership to attend even with the lure of Sunday shopping. (In the back of your mind, you may be wondering, how about TV and the movies? Don’t they detract and why haven’t the lobbies done some thing about them? The answer is that the original laws were passed before the days of TV and movies. Church lobbies have lost a lot of their influence since then, but the big chains like Sears picked up the stick about that time. They were in terested in preventing sale of specific items, not in closing down entertainment, so consequently, the bulk of changes since then have simply added new items to the pro hibited list.) But many churches serve up such dull and awful fare that they need to resort to the Leechislature in order to drum up business. The businesses are where the categories come in. The Montgom ery Ward, Sears and downtown stores sell extremely similar mer chandise. The discount houses like Gibson’s, Skaggs, and Fed Mart sell a much more varied line of mer chandise. The overlapping mer chandise is generally what is prohi bited; for example. Sears sells plumbing supplies in a big way, so that item is prohibited. In this way, they can close on Sunday without fearing that someone else will be able to sell plumbing supplies. In this way, they lose no sales, but they can work employes only six days per week instead of seven, so they can cut their payroll by at least 14%. This saves them money, but also increases unemployment, since part-time or second shift help could be used on the extra day. The law is being used as a blatant device to gain advantage at the ex pense of the consumer two ways: certain items are unavailable on Sunday plus unemployment in creases, so there is less money for consumers to spend. So even in the middle of this recession, we see laws that prevent full employment. You see, if Sears really wanted to be nice to their employes, they could close on Sunday, anyway; even without the law. Nothing RE QUIRES them to stay open except their own greed and fear of losing sales. But in this way, their own greed leads to benefits for consum ers, since it means more merchan dise availability and more money to spend. It is truly surprising and refresh ing to find that someone is in favorof deregulating something. Deregula tion can only help and it can cer tainly end a carryover law from a long ago, much more ignorant time. It will also he surprising if’Hoesten- hach gets his bill passed. If it does fail, I would call on all the store managers every where to simply ignore the law and sell peo ple the things they want to buy. They can’t lock you all up; plus it will be up to someone to file charges against you; either the Baptists or Sears. Either way, the had publicity for the ones filing the charges will be tremendous. BUT it will only work if all or most of you do it. So support Hoestenbach, end a ridiculous law, and make a few dollors to boot. Slouch Jim Earle ‘Mark this spot and we’ll get him out after our break!”