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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 9, 1982)
opinion Battalion/Page 2 November 9, M Slouch By Jim Earle “That’s the main reason!” Main street trivia from past elections by Arnold Sawislak United Press International WASHINGTON — Before the elec tion is forgotten, tribute must be paid to political trivia, which reached the high est point of abstruse sophistication in 1982 since someone discovered that Bary Goldwater was the First jet pilot to win a major party presidential nomina tion. Political trivia, it should be noted, can be a sport or a business. It becomes the latter when politicians are trying to prove a point that normally gullible peo ple might have trouble accepting. For example, who won the elections just past? It was not, as someone who is unaware of the nuances might think, the party that won the most Senate and Houe seats and governorships. Instead, it apparently was the party that did better in the election than it should have. And that is where the trivia begins to fly like shrapnel. The president’s party usually loses seats in Congress in midterm elections. Since 1902, with only two exceptions, the average loss has been 38 seats in the House. But that seems archaic, like base ball statistics before the era of the lively ball, and is avoided by true politicial trivia lovers. In recent times, the preference has been to use the post-World War II era in measuring midterm average losses. That number drops to 31 seats. But in 1982, both the Republicans and Democrats found a need for better trivia on mid term elections. The Democrats, worried that they wouldn’t win either 38 or 31 seats and would be judged to have lost the election if they won only 10 or 20, set to work to find a more acceptable bit of trivia. The Democratic trivia wizardry didn’t buffalo President Reagan. The day after the election, Reagan triumphantly an nounced that the Republicans had won the election because they had not lost control of the Senate. Reagan declared that every other president since 1928 whose party had won control of one house of Gongress when he was elected had lost control of that house in the next midterm election. Nor did Reagan have only one trivia arrow in his quiver. He also announced that he had beaten the odds by losing fewer House seats than any other president in a midterm election during “hard times.” That ap parently as a reference to 48 seats each lost by Dwight Eisenhower and Gerald Ford during midterm recessions in 1958 and 1974. All this reminded the writer of a tele phone call from a small town news strin ger years ago in Wisconsin. The caller, highly excited, announced that there had been a horrendous accident when a fully loaded produce truck and a car had collided in the center of town. “How many people were killed?” he was asked. “Killed? Nobody was killed. But there were cabbages all over Main Street!” The Battalion USPS 045 360 Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference Editor Diana Sultenfuss Managing Editor Phyllis Henderson Associate Editor Denise Richter City Editor Gary Barker Assistant City Editor Hope E. Paasch Sports Editor Frank L. Christlieb Entertainment Editor Nancy Floeck Assistant Entertainment Editor Colette Hutchings News Editors Cathy Capps, Johna Jo Maurer, Daniel Puckett, Jan Werner, Todd Woodard Staff Writers . . Jennifer Carr, Susan Dittman, Beverly Hamilton, David Johnson, John Lopez, Robert McGlohon, Carol Smith, Dana Smelser, Joe Tindel, John Wagner, Rebeca Zimmermann Copyeditors Elaine Engstrom, Chris Thayer Cartoonist Scott McCullar Graphic Artist . Pam Staraslnic Photographers David Fisher, Jorge Casari, Ronald W. 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Address all inquiries and correspondence to: Editor, The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald, Texas A&M Uni versity, College Station, TX 77843, or phone (713) 845- 2611. The Battalion is published daily during Texas A&M’s fall and spring semesters, except for holiday and exami nation periods. Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semes ter, $33.25 per school year and $35 per full year. Adver tising rates furnished on request. Our address: The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald Building, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843. Editorial Policy The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting news paper operated as a community service to Texas A&M University and Bryan-College Station. Opinions ex- 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. Si Sharing homes saves money Lo By Maxwell Glen and Cody Shearer On its front page the other day, the Washington Post divulged a secret that many young Americans learned long ago: Sharing a house is cheaper — and more sensible — than living alone. According to the Post’s story, in fact, the group house concept is sharjdy re ducing demand for more recently con structed single-person dwellings in and around the nation’s capital. Reports from other states echo this trend. As one landlord’s representative complained to the Post: “Instead of paying $300 a month for a one-bedroom apartment, you can share a $100,000 house and jxiy $250. It’s a lot more value for the buck.” Time was, of course, when “group house” connoted illicit activities: over grown yards and unmarried people of both sexes in close quarters. Residential neighborhoods rarely threw welcoming parties for newcomers who favored the Grateful Dead at 3 a.m. Indeed, as late as 1978, residents of Berkeley (Calif.) demanded a law requiring that group house residents park their automobiles off the street to ease curbside conges tion. Yet, as the Post discovered, simple economics has turned the radical into the chic. More so than previous genera tions, a wide variety of young Americans have moved in with friends, lovers and complete strangers to save money. According to the Census Bureau, the number of households comprised of “unrelated individuals” rose 72.4 per cent between 1970 and 1980, or from 14 million to almost 26 million households. This increase was more than three times that of any other living arrangement during the decade. No wonder, then, that the group house has evolved from a den of iniquity to a major factor in the real estate market. In addition to its economic needs, the group house caters to the baby boom’s fancy for having it all. Group house groupies gain access to a well-cared-for house (often much like the one in which they were raised) as well as more space than they could otherwise afford, a yard, and pleasant surroundings. With the presence of three or more housemates also come increased quantities of furni ture and beer and an enhanced sense of safety. It’s sort of like an overnight club. Yet if the group-house concept seems form-fitted to our contemporaries, it’s unclear whether they’re well-suited to living in numbers. While some friends thrive on a cooperative environment, others often don’t seem willing or able to make the necessary sacrifices. Unfortu nately, in our own experience, group- house horror stories have been more the rule than the exception. For example: • A 25-year-old woman enters into a year-long lease for a three-bedroom house and invites friends to move in. Yet, after inviting in a lover and upset ting the two house members, she moves out two months later, regardless of the legal and financial burdens her depar ture j^laces on the other two. • A 24-year-old unemployed Yale graduate spends two years in a group house, rarely, if ever, offering to clean or buy groceries for the communal re frigerator. Though independently weal thy, he repeatedly has to be asked for a check at rent time. The frustrated house leader eventually asks him to leave (the scoundrel is now back home with mom, dad, and the maid). “A lot of peojDle go into a group house blindly, without thinking about the re sponsibilities,” exjilains Nancy Bm bv len wein, coauthor of “The Group HuM g a(ta Handbook,” just published by Acrojime^ Books. “They expect (that) their livesiJjwsal to c go on as smoothly as if they werelitiUy commiti alone, and then don’t want to deahlonday night the problems." Ird report! According to Brandwein and ci« e P* ann ‘ r pany’s survey of 300 group houses,mm 1 !, seve,a house-sharing arrangements. ^ 1 r • vive a year in their original form. ■ to be di The high turnover rate reflectsi M.’ s j ( i en t Toe fact that group houses are, first% a ] with pro foremost, marraiges of convenieit fall connr Though we live with others, we dt iid. The con always.love it. 4 |r standing “The Group House Handbook) [XraTS tempts to provide guidelines for a Igrams. Th fronting problems — such as landlonfnot infrin zoning problems, live-in lovetl moochers, food squabbles and ui I bills — before they turn nasty. Ati r the pointers seem a bit namby-p 1 One section includes 300 words on It to w rite an agenda for a house meelit another suggests to those lookingfoi| house, “Don’t bring your resume to interview.” But whatever house sharers doto§ | along, economics will increasinglybei mediator-of-last-resort. As cycles li , , , 7 • | Battalu high rents and condo conversion! .. , 1 faculty and crease pressure to form groups, Am (m jjniven cans may spend more than the prowforientation bial two to four years in group hoititjie traditions Shared living space in America mayntlning Iresht er match that in communist epunttiadents. but it is an increasingly-popuj^r opl® ut ^9 n B with contemjioraries who are welli®[ u “ en f their 3()s, married, or both. If thegroM n ? wl 1 1 house becomes less transitional, itvillle beennrr taken more seriously. iHesaidthe Until then, its everyone for hiraseljich would c They came up with a thoroughly cooked statistic that showed recent presi dents lost an average of only 1 1 seats in the first midterm after their first elec tion to the presidency. They did not, by the way, include Harry Truman’s midterms either in 1946 or 1948 or Lyndon Johnson’s in 1966. That would have raised the aver age to about 25, w'hich is about the way it came out this year. lusting to ‘ning abou m tossed ar or six yea not been lest. Platchley sai jentation da The Depart fairs will sp< on rc fL in 206 M Hie film, “F I be Inquiry, ■views rape |nvicted rapi hre the pa led by mer it body an hnel me I : ®g, a mend II Police Dep I 55 the miscoi niotivatio Pists and |ainst rape ler ty Ackles !n t advisor ! |tter work tlosophies i Ears tell the meaning of life Wroversies ®ive or act tier defensi Ite third mei By Dick West WASHINGTON — All of us are aware that the lines and wrinkles in the palms of our hands foretell the future for good or bad. Usually bad. And any good cranium-reader will tell you the shape of your head reveals worlds about your character. Or lack of same. But ears? Until the current issue of Omni magazine was published, I somewhat had never thought of ears as “reflecting the peculiarities” of our psyches. Greases mean one thing. Small ear lobes another. 1 And dangling lobes are indicative of something else. Or so Omni reports. It remains to be seen whether the arti cle will give birth to a new pseudoscience based on the auricle, as the outer ear is called. Gertainly any oracle of the auricle would have a tough time competing w ith phrenology, palmistry and astrology, which already are well established. It does seem logical, however, that the outer ear is at least as reliable a clue to our inner being as the tea leaves some fortune-tellers use. In recent years, ears have fallen to a low estate. So anything that tends to elevate their status must be considered a distinct plus. “Unlike other parts of the face,” Omni points out, “the ear isn’t groomed.” Indeed, some hair styles, effected by both men and women, cover the ear completely hiding it from the woyld of day and making it impossible for pas sers-by to gain any psychological insights therefore. Nevertheless, the outer ear long has been recognized by connoisseurs as valu able equipment that is worthy of re habilitation. Gorrugation, for example — the grooves and gullies, ruts and furrows that give our ears their shell-like appear ance — plays a vital role in the hearing process. Scientists tell us these culverts and channels guide sound weaves to the mid dle ear, which passes them along to the inner ear, where the hearing is done. Thus, as you can see, there is a great deal more to the outer ear than simply a convenient anchorage for earrings. Ear-wise, perhaps, we are less fortu nate than elephants, rabbits and foxes, whose ears give off body heat and help them stay cool in summer. Moreover, the three muscles that attach our ears to our heads are not as well develojied as they are in certain other animals. Bats, for examj^le, can move theireai as nimbly as you might twiddle thumbs. But the best a human beingcii muster in the way of ear action is wiggle or two, if that. Nevertheless, human beings are betf off than crickets, whose ears will pi new respect if they become recognize as mirrors of the soul. Who knows, the time might co# when matchmakers will use ears criteria in determining whether a jl ticular couple is compatible enough! 1 matrimony. As Omni, somewhat lyrically, | out, an ear “unfolds like a flower, and on its own, shaped by the enetf forces that surround it.” Yes, and if, in time, an ear comes 11 resemble cauliflower, fJiat makes it less informative. by BrickmaJ