Page 2/The Battalion/Tuesday September 3,1985
One for the rood
As of Sunday, driving without a seatbelt is illegal in Texas.
The law won’t be strictly enforced until December 1 to give Tex
ans a chance to become accustomed to the new law.
Many foreign countries also employ a seat belt law. In Israel,
not buckling up can result in indefinite suspension of a driver’s
license. But in this country, where personal freedoms abound,
some people say the new law is an infringement on their rights.
They feel the government shouldn’t have such control over
their lives that it can force them to take safety measures if they
don’t want to.
The new seat belt law is akin to the laws which prohibit sui
cide. Self-murder is against the law, even though it’s difficult to
prevent. The belt-law breakers also will be hard to catch, but
now dying in an accident because of the victim’s own lack of con
cern for himself is illegal.
We already have laws which regulate how fast we can drive,
what direction we can drive, what side of the street we can drive
on and what kinds of emissions our cars can have. The seat belt
law is another vehicle restriction which is designed to improve
the safety of automobile travel.
While the seat belt law may be a thorn in many sides, the far-
reaching benefits will be worth the slight inconvenience. Some
times it’s necessary for the government to intervene and help
people protect themselves.
The law also protects those who cannot protect themselves.
The child of non-belt-wearing parents now has protection un
der the law. The infant’s life no longer has to be endangered be
cause of his parents’ negligence.
The law’s only shortcoming is its partiality to trucks. Un
buckled pickup drivers can die just as easily as unbuckled car
drivers.
The Battalion Editorial Board
UaJttd FtMlurt Syndic Ml*
‘Sillybus’ is not worth
paper it’s printed on
About this time ev
ery semester profes
sors give their stu
dents a sheet of
paper dubbed “the
syllabus.”
Trent
Leopold
lively detailed syllabus. At the top was
an asterisk and at the bottom were the
words: “This course outline is tenta
tive.”
Guest Columnist
I’ve taken a lot of classes and have
been handed a variety of syllabi (plural
for syllabus) in my # college days.
The Latin root of syllabus is “silly-
bus.” I’m not sure where the word origi
nated — it was probably somewhere
fancy like Harvard — but I am con
vinced that syllabi indeed are silly.
What I’ve found is that syllabi aren’t
worth the paper they’re written on or
the time it takes professors to write
them.
The thickest syllabus ever handed
to me was about 10 pages in freshman
chemistry 101. Those were the caref
ree days. I would sit and listen to Dr.
Kuni Tatsumoto explain how to make
dynamite while reading the syllabus
to decide where we were suppose to
be.
One of the most colorful syllabi
given to me was a hot pink one-pager
in an English class at another univer
sity. The professor who wrote it was a
smart old bird. The day he handed it
to us he said:
“Now let me show you the trash
can, that’s where this syllabus needs to
go on your way out today. Or, if you
prefer, you can write a note to your
girlfriend or boyfriend on the back,
but don’t think for a 4 minute we’re
going to talk about everything listed
here.”
I opted to write the note to a girl
(not necessarily girlfriend) but she
wasn’t impressed.
Last spring in one of my journalism
classes the professor handed us a syl
labus about once every two weeks. By
the end of the semester I had a lot of
syllabi for that one class.
But even with a bi-weekly syllabus
the due dates and times still changed.
Journalists have a habit of using a
lot of paper. Maybe that’s what I
learned in that class.
Last summer one of my marketing
professors handed the class a rela-
it?
It was, so why did he bother to write
If you’re a freshman and are about to
get handed your first syllabus you really
don’t need to take it home and lock it in
a safe, although you probably will. And,
if you’re an upperclassman, you already
know the myriad others uses for syllabi:
bird cage liners, paper hats, charcoal
starters...
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By ART BUCHWALD
Columnist for The Los Angeles Times Syndicate
(Whilst Art Buchwald is on vacation
we reprint some columns from the
past.)
Trent Leopold is a senior journalism
major and a Senior Staff Writer for The
Battalion.
As someone who has made a close
study of tourism (there must be a cure
for it), I believe I have isolated a certain
type of tourist that for some reason has
become more prevalent in recent years.
This is the type of tourist who hates
traveling.
While I’ve written in the past about
individual tourists who hated traveling,
I have discovered a new type of tourist
who needs somebody else to hate it with.
There are couples now traveling who
know before they leave the United
States they’re going to hate it. But no
matter how bad they think it’s going to
be, the reality is even worse than their
wildest nightmares.
I met a couple like that not long ago.
They had been touring Europe for a
month and they were on the home
stretch in Paris. When I caught up with
them they couldn’t decide which they
hated more, Venice or Rome.
“Jane,” the man said, “didn’t like
Rome, but I still thought it was better
than Venice.”
Jane said, “That’s because Harry
didn’t have the experiences I had. I still
maintain I’d rather spend four days in
Venice than two in Rome.”
“It was that bad, huh?”
Harry said, “Well, it wasn’t as bad as
Zurich.”
Jane agreed. “We both hated Zurich.
We didn’t have any fun in Zurich at all.
It was almost as bad as Copenhagen.”
“You didn’t like Copenhagen, huh?”
I asked.
“Does anyone like Copenhagen?”
Harry wanted to know. “Would you like
to hear what happened to us in Copen
hagen?”
“Not particularly,” I said.
“We were terribly disappointed in
Amsterdam,” Jane said.
“Almost as disappointed as we were
in Brussels,” Harry said. “We couldn’t
wait till we got out of there and got to
London.”
“Which,” said Jane, ’’turned out to be
dreadful.”
“The funny thing is,” said Harry, “I
hated it, but I thought Jane liked it, so I
said I liked it.”
“And,” said Jane, “I thought Harry
liked it so I didn’t tell him I hated it.
You can imagine our surprise when
we discovered we both hated it. If we
had known it at the beginning we
would have left right away.”
are high, and I don’t see what there
isthat’s so special about Paris.”
j'Mark Tw;
An show ab<
“Jane and I hate it,” Harry said.
“You two seem to hate the same
things,” I said.
“Well, we know what we don’t like,"
Jane said.
Harry said, “Europe’s overrated.
But we’re glad we made the trip be
cause now we can understand why
other people don’t like it either.”
As I left the couple Harry was ex
plaining to Jane why he didn’t like the
Arc de Triomphe and Jane was tell
ing Harry why she didn’t like the
Place de la Concorde. You couldn’t
find two happier people.
“But where would you have gone?’
I asked.
“Not to Monte Carlo, that’s for su
re,” Harry said.
“I don’t know what anybody sees in
that place,’’Jane said.
“You can have the entire Riviera as
far as we’re concerned,’’Harry added.
“Just try to get a good dry martini on
the Riviera. Just try.”
“Well, what about Paris?” I foo
lishly asked.
“The worst,” saidjane. “The peo
ple are so unfriendly and the prices
The Battalion
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Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Rhonda Snider, Editor
Michele Powe, Managing Editor
John Hallett, Kay Mallett, News Editor
Loren Steffy, Opinion Page Editor
Karen Blocn, City Editor
Travis Tingle, Sports Editor
The Battalion Staff
Assistant City Editors
Kirsten Dietz, Jerry Oslin
Assistant News Editors
Cathie Anderson, Jan Perry
Assistant Sports Editor
Charean Williams
Entertainment Editors
Cathy Riely, Walter Smith
Staff Writers ....Tamara Bell, MegCadigan,
Ed Cassavoy, Ann Cerv’enka,
Michael Crawford, Cindy Gay,
Doug Hall, Paul Herndon,
Tammy Kirk, Jens Koepke,
Trent Leopold, Mary McWhorter,
Jund Pang, Tricia Parker,
Lynn Rae Povec, Marybeth Rohsner,
Gigi Shamsy, Kenneth Sury
Copy Editors Mike Davis, Rebecca Adair,
Wendy Johnson
Make-up Editor Sara Oates
Columnists Cami Brown, Marcy Basile,
Karl Pallmeyer
Photo Editor Wayne Grabein
Photographers Greg Bailey,
Anthony Casper, Frank Hada,
Kyle Hawkins, Jaime Lopez
Michael Sancnez
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rd o '
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rspaperl
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