Tuesday, November 27,1984/The Battalion/Page 7
luffy
sage
Slouch
By Jim Earle
‘Would you mind going through that one more time from the
start? I’m sure interested in learning how you believe that
A&M has a chance to play in the Cotton Bowl this year.”
U.S.-lraqi relations restored
Somali hijackers continue threats
United Press International
Five
I ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia
I Somali gunmen Monday renewed
■ their threat to blow up a hijacked
■ airliner with 108 people aboard un-
I less Somalia agreed to release 21 po-
i litical prisoners.
I The live, armed with machine
|guns, pistols and grenades, gave the
Somali government until 8 a.m. to-
! flay (Ethopian time) to meet their
demands, Ethiopian Foreign Min
istry spokesman Tefere Gizaw said.
The deadline was the fifth set
since three Somali army officers hi
jacked the Somali Airlines Boeing
707 to Ethiopia Saturday after it
took off from the Somali capital of
Mogadishu for Jeddah, Saudi Ara
bia, en route to Cairo.
Two passengers in civilian clothes
joined the three hijackers after the
jet touched down at Bole Interna
tional Airport in Addis Ababa. It was
not known if they helped plan the
hijacking.
The new deadline doused opti
mism aroused earlier in the day
when Western diplomats said the hi
jackers had agreed to postpone in
definitely their noon deadline to
give Somalia more time to consider
their demands.
That word came after Somalia an
nounced it had suspended, pending
a review by Siad Barre, the death
sentences of seven high school stu
dents convicted of bombing govern
ment installations who are among
the prisoners the hijackers want
freed and flown to neighboring Dji
bouti.
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The United
States and Iraq, frequent antagonists
during a 17-year break in relations
prompted by the 1967 Arab-Israeli
war, Monday announced an imme
diate restoration of formal diplo
matic ties.
The announcement was made at
the White House, where officials
stressed the move signaled no
change in the neutral position Presi
dent Reagan has staked out in the
Iran-Iraq war, and has no effect on
U.S. relations with Israel.
Final agreement, expected for
several weeks, came during a half
hour White House meeting attended
by Reagan and Iraqi Foreign Min
ister Tarek Aziz.
A senior administration official
described the move as having limited
impact beyond improved bilateral
relations in nonmilitary areas, but
hinted the rapprochement could
Navy saves
$243 million
in contracts
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Navy Secre
tary John Lehman said Monday the
Navy is saving $243 million by
awarding $2 billion in contracts for
construction of 10 ships.
All of the contracts were awarded
on a fixed price basis, with an
agreement that the contractor and
the Navy will split the cost of over
runs up to 25 percent over the con
tract price, Lehman said. If overruns
exceed the 25 percent ceiling, the
contractor will pay the full share, he
said.
He told a news conference that
$600 million saved in shipbuilding
costs this year were redirected to the
MX missile program.
In the biggest single contract,
$779.4 million was awarded to the
Newport News Shipbuilding and
Drydock Co., of Newport News, Va.,
for three nuclear-powered attack
submarines.
The Electric Boat Division of the
General Dynamics Corp. of Groton,
Conn., was given a $282.9 million
contract to build a fourth attack sub,
Lehman said.
General Dynamics, which won the
competition over Newport News the
two previous years, was awarded a
contract for the fourth submarine.
In contracting for all four subma
rines, Lehman said the Navy saved
$76.2 million’.
help ease tensions in the Middle
East.
The official also emphasized the
improvement in bilateral ties, often
strained over the past 17 years by the
complex politics of the Middle East,
should not be read as a step against
Iran in its 4-year-old war with Iraq.
“We are prepared today to discuss
improved relations with Iran —
when Iran ceases its support for in
ternational terrorism and when Iran
is prepared to seek a negotiated set
tlement of the war with Iraq,” the of
ficial said.
While a Senate Foreign Relations
Committee staff report as early as
1982 detected a pro-Iraai tilt in the
U.S. position toward tne Persian
Gulf war, the official said Washing
ton remains committed to neutrality
and added both Iran and Iraq are
still barred from access to U.S. mili
tary hardware.
Until three years ago, Iraq was on
a State Department blacklist that
barred nations considered support
ers of international terrorism from
entering into contracts for U.S.
products that had possible military
applications.
“Resumption of relations,” the se
nior official said, “doesn’t portend
any change in our arms policies to
ward either Iraq or Iran.”
Iraq, in coordination with other
Arab nations, broke off relations
with the United States in retaliation
for U.S. support of Israel in the
1967 Six-Day War.
The prospect of upgraded rela
tions between Washington and
Baghdad has caused concern in Is
rael, mindful of past anti-Israeli sen
timent in Iraq and a rocky history
marked by the destruction of Iraq’s
nuclear reactor research center in
1981 by U.S.-built Israeli warplanes.
Bryant
(continued from page 1)
this is a cultural universal,” Bry
ant said.
Bryant has traced the custom
of kissing back to the first few
centuries after Christ. Leaning
back in his chair with his knee
propped up on his desk, Bryant
began to tell the origins of one of
the world’s
origins
most universal cus
toms.
“Did you ever wonder where
the expression ‘kiss my ass’ came
from?” Bryant said. “It took me
five years to find out the origin of
that expression.” Bryant said that
early Christians wanted to rid
themselves of Roman decadence,
so they forbade all kissing except
for the holy kiss. People could
kiss items or people of religious
significance, such as the Pope,
Bryant said.
The satan worshipers also
kissed people of religious signifi
cance; in their case, the devil,
Bryant said. The devil was pic
tured as having two faces, Bryant
said, one on the front of his head
and the other under his tail. Bry
ant said this is where the express
ion “two-faced” came from. Satan
worshipers kissed the devil on his
face, Bryant said — the face that
was under his tail and became
known as “ass-kissers.” Thus the
expression “kiss my ass” came
about to be directed toward a per
son of low rank, Bryant said.
Another of Bryant’s many tal
ents is writing. Bryant likes to
write short stories and has had a
few of them published. Bryant
has started a book he expects to
be finished in January. The book,
entitled “Late Quaternary Pollen
Records of North America and
Mexico,” is expected “to be of ex
treme interest to a handful of
people,” Bryant said. “If the book
is an amazing success, they may
sell 1,000 copies in five years.”
Bryant’s research has taken
him to various places in South
America, Canada, the Cayman Is
lands, Mexico and all over the
United States.
Bryant doesn’t spend much
time traveling because other ar
chaeologists do the field work
and he does the actual research.
Bryant stays in town with his fam
ily and may travel to a dig site to
check the progress of things.
“I consider myself as having
the best of both worlds,” Bryant
said.
Bryant has had many job offers
from other schools, including
UT, and from oil companies.
Bryant said he stays at A&M
because of his devotion to his
work and the enjoyment he gets
from working around other peo
ple.