The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, March 24, 1983, Image 2
t , ■ i i ! t i i i , r 4 Page 2AThe Battalion/Thursday, March 24, 1983 Complaints, praises for satirical issues Editor: We're glad that you inserted Monday’s “humor supplement” upside-down in The Battalion, otherwise we would have never found it. We were unable to find the humor. You said it was subtle, but six mentions of “precious bodily fluids” is not subtle, it is juvenile. In the editorial in the straight pages, you claimed that the Aggie Rag was pat terned after the Deadly Texan. Howev er, a Battalion staffer was overheard tell ing his English professor that you were “going to show the Buttalion how it’s done.” If he meant you were going to show them how to put out a parody, you missed the boat. It seems that they showed you how it should be done by coming out the day after the Rag. Overall, the Aggie Rag lacked not only humor, but also originality. The Emily Latella and Francisco Franco jokes were straight out of old Saturday Night Live episodes. Some jokes, such as the apathy bill which was not voted on, were even older. The editorial policy was merely a tame version of the policy from the first Buttalion. The photographs were not even original, obviously taken from Files. At least you could have had an original staff picture. According to the editorial in the Rag, Frank Irwin Graduate Student Editor’s Note: The advertisement that appeared in The Aggie Rag was for ‘‘Trash, ’ not “Shear Trash." Editor: To: The editors, staff and mentality of the Buttalion I myself am not a conservative- redneck-superpatriot type by nature, therefore I can somewhat humorously relate to your satirical publication. However, I have a problem with what I perceive to he your goals. If you want to poke fun at the abundant supply of nar row-minded, conservative hypocrites in the world, that’s one thing. But if you are somehow trying to make a stand for ra tional, mature and sensible human be havior, then you are missing the boat. By offering negative satire without anything constructive, your publication reeks of smug, self-righteous cynicism. Say some thing constructive if you want to effect any real change around here. P.S. Though there are indeed plenty of seemingly hypocritical or fanatical re ligious types around for you to make cynical jibes about, your anti-intellectual presuppositions about Christianity are not warranted by any philosophical, his torical or psychological evidence. Unanonymously, J.R.C. Robinson ’83 Editor: Congratulations to the staff of The Battalion for publishing The Aggie Rag. I was genuinely surprised to discover that you have so many clever, talented writers on your staff. The Aggie Rag was an ex ample of satire at its very best, and you should all be proud of your ability to parody the University with subtlety and wit. Good satire, written without malice, is probably the most difficult kind of writ ing, but you managed to do just what you set out to do — you made us think, and you made us laugh at ourselves. And you did it tastefully, without resorting to crude, vulgar language. Bad satire, however, serves no pur pose, and The Buttalion, which came out one day after The Aggie Rag, was the epitome of bad satire. It was tasteless, crude, unimaginative, unoriginal, and worst of all, BORING. The Buttalion staff used absolutely no humor or subtle ty. In fact, the only purpose The Butta lion served was to give a few obnoxious students and faculty members a place to write dirty words. Come on, people — that’s what bathroom walls are for. To all of you who contributed to The Aggie Rag, congratulations and thank you for a truly humorous parody. And to the so-called writers of The Buttalion — give it up. You don’t know what satire is, and you never will. Starla Bradley Graduate Student Slouch By Jim Earle it seems that you had the same purpose that those who put out the Buttalion had, yet when it came out, you lambasted it. Do you feel that something out of the ordinary is acceptable only if you do it? The Shear Trash advertisement was impressive. We would have thought you would fear repercussion from Shear Class. That shows that at least you have got some gall. Your excessive apologies for offend ing anyone led us to believe that you actually wanted some people to be offended. It seems that the only group you came down hard on was SWAMP. I his was probably due to the fact that they displayed last fall’s issue of the But talion and the rumor that they produced the same. Yes, some of us are members of SWAMP and no, SWAMP is not respon sible for the Buttalion. Probably the only people who were of fended by the Aggie Rag were those who read the entire six pages, hopelessly looking for intelligent ly written satire and not finding any. ence r.cb ntfvvest. ’ clispU' v Sl' e sal pilxiniat end- >m the S gas such ^J-kafisas. P, Rylainlr feauu t iors and . >ns, conn IJoWs and jiceSi icti 01 -Some ol ■own are r ” “Star kfan." amts 1 h ssional w -pics such Lights out to express dissents by Dick West United Press International WASHINGTON — Don’t be misled by narrow interpretations of a federal appeals court decision giving demonstra tors the right to sleep in tents they have permits to erect on National Park Service property. nonetheless exercising their constitution al right of free speech — particularly when snoring. I myself happen to be a fairly eloquent nd whil A major constitutional issue was at stake in this case. Make no mistake about that. Military snoozers the country over may sleep better at night because of the outcome. sleeper. And while I seldom demonstrate against anything, I agree that keeping me from the arms of Morpheus denys me a means of selfexpression. Does not the late Martin Luther King's “I have a dream” speech still live in mem ory? And is not dreaming a natural part of slumber? The ruling implies that sleeping may be a form of protest that is protected by the First Amendment. That is exactly the point sleeping activists have been trying to make for years. Of course it is. You don’t have to be a federal judge to understand how sleep ing and demonstrating complement each other. It is evident that grabbing a little shut eye may be a way of expressing yourself and therefore is covered by the first speech guarantee. Anytime you see de monstrators sawing logs you can be pret ty sure they are trying to get a message across. Some Constitution experts try to argue that a demonstrator must be talking in his sleep before he is protected by the free speech amendment. That interpretation patently is too strict. The very act of fall ing asleep can itself speak volumes. The message may be only a tacit plea for quiet in the vicinity. But they are Suppose a potential campaign contri butor dozes off while a senator is announcing his candidacy for president. The message thus imparted is, I sub mit, more meaningful than any comment he might make to political reMaP 1 Or what about a drama cnttllT A I gins nodding during the secomip? Broadway opening? by ^ His droopy eyelids surelyldw about his opinion of the plar A L rou a ., review he might write. ave for ! Sleep is indeed a pithy forced ijytfr pression. ( )r can Ik* when perfon, r f£ ( i ucat subtle snoozer. Rtiuei Sieve 1 Is the demonstrator sleepmsie center; supine or on his side? Is he streamer's ass or curled up in a fetal position met Joyce breath through his mouth or^Texas Ai Hary for tl Each of these variations give le l np- rent shade of meaning to the is striving to convey alxnit thecP? 1 ^ which he is sleeping. Km'jmo &M stuck Since very few park servicerar fo Brazos trained to distinguish betvveeudents w undertaken f or communication! Pejovidi which merely knits the ravelleds con p rn j cs care, it is well to give all slumber^ cre i < ; l ‘ l h nefit of the doubt. ^TeJe How wise of the Founding have recognized that principled ntei "p r j se were drafting the Bill of Rights artment t surages le ee enter Letters: More coaching complaints i rough t :tual on-s Tlie cen oviet Uni< le could si Editor: This letter pertains to the new three- year contract awarded basketball coach Shelby Metcalf. Granted, he is the win- ningest coach in SWC history with 186 victories, but combine this with 1 10 los ses, you obtain a winning percentage of only 59 percent: an F by A&M standards. His overall percentage is slightly better at 66 percent (324-214), but still a D. Although Metcalf is not a student, some sort of system judging his success must be implemented. Some may argue Shelby’s ability to recruit outstanding high school pros pects justifies his continues employment here at Texas A&M. Many believe these recruits come to this University because of coach Metcalf. Although anyone who read the article about freshman Doug Lee in The Batta lion a few weeks ago realizes that players such as Lee come here because they know their chances of playing extensively as freshmen are much greater here than at basketball powerhouses. Take the case of Jimmie Gilbert, who was recruited by two 1982 final-four teams, Houston and Georgetown. Some say he came to A&M because of coach Metcalf. Or was it be cause he didn’t want to play back-up cen ter for three years behind Olajuwon and Ewing of Houston and Georgetown re spectively? And what happens to these great recruits of Shelby Metcalf? Ask Rudy Woods. A possible alternative to Metcalf would be the coach of the Lamar Cardinals, who consistantly wins 20 or more games a year and attends the NCAA post-season tour ney with smaller less talented players than TAMU. So it would appear that the Texas A&M ‘sixth man’ must be content to watch Houston and Arkansas play on TV for at least three more years. Thanks Shelby. starting at 5 p.m. when I was taking an exam in the Academic Building, my con centration was broken several times by companies of Corps members who were (loudly) singing their jodies as they were passing by. My performance on the ex amination was definitely adversely affected by the recurring disturbance they created. I do not mean to imply that the Corps should not go on runs at all but this is a big campus and if the members of the Corps must sing their jodies there is no need to run past buildings where ex ams are possibly being given. I’m sure I’m not the only one who was disturbed during the exam. Disturbing classes and exams is not the only problem that Corps runs present to non-regs. Last semester, a fairly large traffic backup was caused on a Houston street when drivers were forced to wait while sevei 1 ^" " ' of Cadets crossed. Sudi panics v,. cm show a disregard for the impoit^L ver j 1( other people’s time and thebiisiif| sm j s ” j traffic backup could have been%t isn’t th by using a little more thoughtiilfor them nating the run and staggeringi 1 The grc at which the individual compaJ e |reedo sed the street. Inked St; ny phot Again, let me emphasize thatirl^^J saying that the Corps shouldnotw checkei only saying that if the member;£,<1^ a u Corps wish to maintain their tken froi level of esteem among non-redhilegrou must make an effort to be moreco| Bible to ate when organizing Corps activitiP (m ed to might interfere with non-regactif^e toi eningrad Marvin K. Miller. etUl ' Jeff Williams Scott Guppies Walton Hall Corps disturbing exams Editor: On the Wednesday before spring break, USPS 045 360 Member ot Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference The Battalion Editor Diana Sultenfuss Managing Editor Gary Barker Associate Editor Denise Richter City Editor. Hope E. Paasch Assistant City Editor Beverly Hamilton Sports Editor John Wagner Entertainment Editor Colette Hutchings Assistant Entertainment Editor. . . . Diane Yount News Editors Daran Bishop, Brian Boyer, Jennifer Carr, Elaine Engstrom, Shelley Hoekstra, Johna Jo Maurer, Jan Werner, Rebeca Zimmermann Staff Writers Melissa Adair, Maureen Carmody, Frank Christlieb, Connie Edelmon, Patrice Koranek, John Lopez, Robert McGlohon, Ann Ramsbottom, Kim Schmidt, Patti Schwierzke, Kelley Smith, Angel Stokes, Tracey Taylor, Joe Tindel, Kathy Wiesepape Copyeditors JanSwaner, Chris Thayer Cartoonist Scott McCullar Graphic Artists Pam Starasinic Sergio Galvez Thompson, Fernando Andrade Photographers .... David Fisher, Eric Lee, Irene Mees, John Makely, William Schulz .■>1 Mill/. Editorial Policy I he B.million is a non-proiil. scIt-supporliiH> new s paper operated as a eonnnnnih service lnW L'nivcrsitv and lit \ an-Colletfe Sliitiiin. Of pressed in I he Battalion ate those nil Ik nl* author, and do not necessat il\ nyarvoiMlififl Texas A&M L'ni\ersin administratorsiiilmH Iters, or of the Hoard ol Regents. 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