Slouch
by Jim Earle
baru:-
“Okay, l can see how it would work for this weekend, but
do you really think you can wear it and get excused front
class before every weekend trip?”
Opinion
Potato chip
journalism
Bought a bag of potato chips lately?
It’s disillusioning. The wraper is shiny and pretty and
feels full. But open it — look beyond the package — and
you realize how little substance is there.
People in the potato chip industry know that, but you
don’t.
Much the same is true in the media.
Within the industry, many of the flashy ones are re
garded as 25 cent bags of chips — without substance. On
the other hand, the honest fellows — the ones who admit
they don’t have all the answers — become respected
examples for the rest of us.
Both groups were represented here this week.
The flashy one — Marrrvin Zindler — was completely
confident and sure he was doing the right thing. No self
doubt.
Members of the other group said often they wonder the
next day why their newspapers did a particular thing the
day before.
The three editors — each responsible for running The
Dallas Morning News, The Houston Post or The Austin
American-Statesman — are among the most respected
journalists in the region.
“Sometimes we know we’ve been had,’’one said, and the
others agreed.
They weren’t confident of all they do.
In fact, they were concerned with their credibility.
Marvin Zindler told of his triumphs; the editors told of
their frustrations.
In journalism, friends and readers, there are more frus
trations than triumphs.
the small society
by Brickman
Woo-'&o'i'!
ANP
nn
ty±
nn
F£S
nnn
LiK^ GOOP
Get
Washington Star Syndicate. Inc.
/0-2S-
The Battalion
USPS 045 360
LETTERS POLICY
Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words and are
subject to being cut to that length or less if longer. The
editorial staff reserves the right to edit such letters and does
not guarantee to publish any letter. Each letter must be
signed, show the address of the writer and list a telephone
number for verification.
Address correspondence to Letters to the Editor, The
Battalion, Room 216, Reed McDonald Building, College
Station, Texas 77843.
Represented nationally by National Educational Adver
tising Services, Inc., New York City, Chicago and Los
Angeles.
MEMBER
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Congress
Editor Liz Newlin
Managing Editor Andy Williams
Asst. Managing Editor Dillard Stone
News Editors Karen Cornelison
and Michelle Burrowes
The Battalion is published Monday through Friday from
September through May except during exam and holiday
periods and the summer, when it is published on Tuesday
hrough Thursday.
Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semester; $33.25 per
school year; $35.00 per full year. Advertising rates furnished
on request. Address: The Battalion, Room 216, Reed
Sports Editor Sean Petty
City Editor Roy Bragg
Campus Editor Keith Taylor
Focus Editors Beth Calhoun and
Doug Graham
Staff" Writers Meril Edwards, Nancy
Andersen, Louie Arthur, Richard Oliver,
Mark Patterson, Carolyn Blosser, Kurt
Allen, Debbie Nelson
McDonald Building, College Station, Texas 77643.
United Press International is entitled exclusively to the
use for reproduction of all news dispatches credited to it.
Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein reserved.
Second-Class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843.
Photo Editor Lee Roy Leschper Jr.
Photographers Lynn Blanco, Sam
Stroder, Ken Herrera
Cartoonist Doug Graham
Opinions expressed in The Battalion are
those of the editor or of the writer of the
article and are not necessarily those of the
University administration or the Board of
Regents. The Battalion is a non-profit, self-
supporting enterprise operated by students
as a university and community newspaper.
Editorial policy is determined by the editor.
VIEWPOINT
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Thursday
October 25, 1979
Window
Carter says he is closer than Ted
to John Kennedy’s political stand
United Press International
WASHINGTON — After hitting rock
bottom. President Carter’s aides believe
his political star is climbing.
They are feeling more confident about
the powers of the incumbency and their
ability to overcome the challenge of Sen.
Edward Kennedy.
Carter says he believes he was “undere
stimated” and that the Florida caucuses
show he still attracts the traditional con
stituencies of the Democratic Party. Re
cent polls have shown a slight upswing in
political support for Carter, although some
observers say he had only one way to go —
up.
Carter’s upbeat mood was best reflected
on the flight aboard the presidential jet as
he winged his way back to Washington
from the dedication of the John F. Ken
nedy library. He went to the plane’s press
area to chat — something he has not done
in a year.
At the dedication, with almost the
entire Kennedy clan on the platform. Car
ter paid tribute to the late president. He
twitted Senator Kennedy about his presi
dential ambitions, and stressed that times
have changed since 1960.
Carter later told reporters he believes
he is closer to President Kennedy in polit
ical philosophy than his brother is, de
scribing the senator as a more liberal big
ger spender for social needs.
The White House line of attack on Ken
nedy is beginning to take shape. Kennedy
is being portrayed as a politician who, as
Carter put it, “is much more inclined to
ward the old philosophy of pouring out
new programs and new money to meet a
social need.” Carter also says he is “in
favor of much stronger defense commit
ments than his (Sen. Kennedy’s) record
shows. ”
Press secretary Jody Powell followed up
the president’s criticism of his probable
opponent for the Democratic presidential
nomination by telling reporters that Ken
nedy had “quietly voted for a 3 percent
real increase in defense spending while
not supporting Pentagon hikes in the past.
As for the bounty of federal monies Car
ter gets to pass out at major political stops
to keep the local Democratic politicians
happy, Powell says the administration had
been criticized in the past for not using the
powers of the incumbency to its own ad
vantage.
But he indicates that it is all going to be
different now, and millions of dollars in
grants and assistance are going to be
sprung more quickly to areas where it
counts politically.
Powell also says there is no “survey”
under way to flush out Kennedy suppor
ters in the administration, but he makes it
clear that Carter’s political appointees
must be loyal to him and if they cannot
serve the president they should quit.
The idea, as he points out, is J
with presidents. TeamworkaiAj
the main criteria when the |
are down as the past has demons
Carter also has a Cabinet filled^
rogates ready to hit the can
him and many already are piaiii
speech making schedules early a
Vice President Walter Mondalej
step up an already heavy travels
The president also has a 1
over Kennedy in terms of c
The Carter-Mondale Presideou
mittee has been in business
holding fund-raisers and linioo
faithful.
Carter told interviewers ir
Saturday that “the press is pt
with the presidential race,
thing to indicate that the Whitel
not put reelection at thetopo[tli|
dent’s priority list.
By AN
Newspr
iredibilil
ie trust r
of the He
Kh M Uni
i That an
the role c
iscussed
ilitical 1
less —
esday ni;
J Edwin
liid that
well-estal
govern me
Jilitary, \
kcks by I
‘Infancy to senility in two short yea
Half o
uncan
(pen to
students,
way fror
ioes havi
Lot 4(
tricted
nale dor
lents.
Univei
'homas 1
eing ful
of the k
;reen pe
nits are
ith less
“We e
ermits s
illing it, ’
p furtln
United Press International
The U.S. Department of Energy isn’t
doing the job it was created two years ago
to do — that of dealing with the nation’s
fuel problems.
The DOE, lurching along out of control,
has put a pox on everything it has touched.
By its own admission, DOE bungling
was chiefly responsible for last spring’s
gasoline crisis that spawned lines of angry
motorists at service stations across the
country. What had happened was that the
agency allocated too much fuel to priority
users and rural areas and too little to fast
growing urban areas.
In fact, nearly everyone who has had
dealings with the DOE agrees with
Samuel Schwartz, senior vice president of
Continental Oil Company, who says:
“DOE has gone from infancy to senility in
two short years.”
President Carter has given the job of
cleaning up to new Energy Secretary
Charles W. Duncan Jr., rated a tough ad
ministrator.
Duncan seems to be wasting no time in
trying to revamp the fiasco-ridden de
partment with 20,000 employes replacing
most of the major posts with associates
who worked with him at the Pentagon.
Duncan has reorganized the
along fuel lines. For instance, i
energy programs are being corss]
into a single unit instead ofbeings
throughout the department.
It would be great if Duncancot
vamp this nightmare of an agency!
doubt that even Solomon could
maelstrom under control now.
Amarillo Daily News
Letters
There are only so many
to take of a man behind
pictures
a podium
Editor:
After returning from the MSC Great Is
sues presentation of Marvin Zindler I have
mixed emotions about the one-hour lec
ture. I thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Zindler’s
talk, and I thank MSC Great Issues for
giving myself and others the opportunity
to listen to such an interesting man, but
one aspect of the lecture has left me so
annoyed that I feel this letter is necessary.
I would like to know why the photo
grapher on the front row felt compelled to
take so many pictures of Mr. Zindler dur
ing his lecture. There are only so many
poses a man can strike when he’s standing
behind a podium. He can have his arms
out or in and his head up or down. So why
all the pictures?
I found this very distracting, and I’m
sure Mr. Zindler was wondering when the
pictures would stop. In the future I hope I
can attend a lecture and give my full atten
tion to the speaker instead of being
bothered by flashes of light every few
minutes.
— Robin O’Day, ’82
mention actually cutting the wood and
tying it to the stack.
However, women have been involved
in this process for several years now. It is
the women who provide water at the cut
ting area for the men (and now women) to
drink. The water is hauled in 32 gallon
trash cans in the back of pick-up trucks
and, it may surprise you, but those trash
cans don’t jump from the ground to the
bed of the truck or vice-versa. The trash
cans, when filled with water, weigh up to
200 pounds. There are usually six to eight
trash cans that are refilled at least three
times a day. That is a minimum of 3,600
pounds that are hauled, by usually four
women, on any one day (sometimes the
water is not crystal clear, but we bring
what we can).
As for ice, this is not an inexpensive
item, folks! At least 500 pounds (five trash
cans with about 100 pounds of ice,
minimum) is hauled out there every day,
and no, it does not leap onto the trucks
either. It is the women who provide it. It
is the women who called store manager.
beer distributors, and dozens of other local
companies to find someone to donate (yes,
free! — Thank-you McDonald’s, Jack-in-
the-Box, and Wendy’s) their ice.
And yes, we, too, get up at 5 in the
morning, but not to bake cookies. We are
out there to do what we can without being
a nuisance be it haul water and ice or pass
out lunches or haul guys back and forth
from the cutting area to the parking area.
Sure, there are those girls who manage
to get to the cutting area to boy-watch, and
there are those who think they are most
helpful cutting wood, but remember this.
There are those of us who have worked on
Bonfire in the past and will continue to
work our hearts out for that precious tradi
tion.
— Patricia Jones, ’80
and Sunday? Weren’t you man
stay out all day Saturday? Wl
leave in the early afternoon? WM
your 112 Puryear Playboys Sunt'
While other dorms such as
Aston and Moses Hall workedSm
you tend your cuts and scratd
time you decide to disgrace an.ti
fire hy calling it “Puryear Bop I
sure to remember that it takes®? I
one little dorm cutting Haifa day!-1
to build the great Aggie Bonfire .
— Kevin W H
If you
ot to 1
Brazos C
college f
able to ti
The c
lood-pla
local are
hr .poter
In a V
bop ses
be cum
irea is o
Mem!
bat a m
ftei
Correction
Hey, Puryear
Editor:
Hey Puryear! What happened Saturday
In a story about the Miss '!
Pageant in Wednesday’s Batta) y
the name of the company {
the show was spelled incorrectly'
company is Imperial Miss Inc 1
Battalion regrets the error.
Behind Bonfire THOTZ
by Doug Graham RE
Editor:
For you people who don’t know what all
Bonfire involves, it is not just a bunch of
men who go out in the woods, chop a lot of
trees down and come stack it all up behind
Duncan.
Maybe the students of A&M don’t
realize the work that Bonfire requires. The
Redpots and Yellowpots do mounds of
work even before cutting starts. These
men, and others, are responsible for secur
ing the cutting areas, marking off the site,
organizing crews of workers, arranging for
tractors, bull dozers, flatbeds, cranes,
chainsaws, communications equipment,
baling wire and various other items, not to
LET'S QrO TO
I didn't
jocks
ba&es.'’ a
they DiDN' INI