Page 2/The Battalion/Monday, December 8, 1986
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The Battalion
(USPS 045 360)
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Cathie Anderson, Editor
Kirsten Dietz, Managing Editor
Loren Steffy, Opinion Page Editor
Frank Smith, City Editor
Sue Krenek, News Editor
Ken Sury, Sports Editor
Editorial Policy
The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspaper oper
ated as a community service to Texas A&M and Bryan-College Sta
tion.
Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editorial
board or the author, and do not necessarily represent the opinions
of Texas A&M administrators, faculty or the Board of Regents.
The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper for students
in reporting, editing and photography classes within the Depart
ment of Journalism.
The Battalion is published Monday through Friday during
Texas A&M regular semesters, except for holiday and examination
periods.
Mail subscriptions are $17.44 per semester, $34.62 per school
year and $36.44 per full year. Advertising rates furnished on re
quest.
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A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4 111.
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POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Battalion, De
partment of Journalism, Texas A&M University, College Station
TX 77843-4111.
Justice for all?
When the Reagan administration sold weapons to Iran it set a
perverse precedent — selling guns to our enemies is OK. But, if we
follow the government’s example, that precedent now should be con
sidered the law of the land and applied to everyone equally.
Prior to the recent deal made by the administration, an embargo
made it illegal to sell arms to Iran. Through its own actions, the
White House has changed its policy, and the mood among federal
prosecutors is beginning to reflect that reconsideration.
Though federal prosecutors and investigators say the govern
ment has not shown any intention of dropping cases already in court,
the defendants in these cases have little to worry about.
Officially, and hypocritically, the government says cases involv
ing private arms sales with Iran ought to be pursued, but federal
prosecutors don’t want to bother with the cases anymore because
they know they won’t get convictions.
A federal official told the New York Times, “We’re being told
that these cases aren’t winners anymore. These attorneys don’t want
these losses on their records.”
So those who are involved in smuggling cases now under investi
gation can look forward to a happy holiday at home.
As an assistant U.S. attorney told the Times, “. . . these cases are
falling into the category of longshots.”
But getting a conviction in cases involving arms deals with Iran
shouldn’t even be in the longshot category. They should be in the no
shot category.
Of course, there is one serious problem with such a policy. Uncle
Sam would have to lower his prices to beat the competition.
Children acting adult
Little girts don't grow up gradually anymore
The realization
hit me for the first Paula
time last summer. Vogrin
I was at Wet N’ Guest Columnist
Wild, a water
amusement park in Dallas where, for
$10.95, you can catch some rays, swim
in a giant wave pool, ride every kind of
water slide imaginable and get the
equivalent of a fire-hose enema from a
10-story nightmare called The Kami
kaze. Why anyone would go down that
slide a second time is beyond me.
I was trying to recover from my en
counter with The Kamikaze when I no
ticed most of the girls there were under
the age of 18. Besides the normal
shrieks and giggles, only the colossal
amount of makeup worn by 99 percent
of them clued me in. No mature, self-re
specting female wears that much
makeup to go swimming. As a matter of
fact, we usually don’t wear any at all.
I noticed something else. No mature,
self-respecting female would put on
something that resembles a polka dot G-
string with a matching piece of material
designed to reveal maximum cleavage.
I’ll bet their fathers don’t know those
girls own suits like that. No one I knew
at 16 had the kind of bodies those girls
have, either. Well maybe they did, but
nobody noticed because they weren’t
advertising the fact. I figured once I got
into my 20s I’d want to wear that kind of
thing, but I was wrong. Any mature,
self-respecting female knows you don’t
let everybody see exactly what you have.
You have to leave something to the
imagination.
The more I looked at those girls, the
more I realized how different they are
than anyone I ever knew at that age.
They’re growing up a lot faster than we
did. At 22, what can I possibly have to
say about growing up anyway? After all,
I’m not that much older and wiser — I
just left puberty a few years ago. But the
changes in growing up that have taken
place in the last five or six years are ob
vious to me. Life is much more compli
cated for these adolescent beauty queens
than it was for me and my friends. Sure,
we worried about clothes, guys, zits and
dates, but not the way young girls do to
day.
For one thing, they’re worrying about
all this stuff a whole lot sooner than we
did. Clothes are the best example. For
us, the great clothes competition didn’t
really begin until the First year of high
school. Even then the only things we
needed to make our fashion statement
were topsiders and a tight pair of jeans.
Today, girls start worrying about
clothes in grade school. The fifth grader
who lives across the street from me
wears $50 designer jeans and carries a
designer bag.
The thing that gets me is she’s becom
ing the rule, not the exception. When I
was her age my mother still was outfit
ting me from the Winnie the Pooh col
lection in the Sears catalog. If you don’t
have a closet full of clothes by the time
you’ve reached junior high, you might
as well hang it up.
And if you’re interested in fashion,
the best place to see the latest additions
to the big designer collections is at your
local high school.
And dating! Now there’s something
that bothers me. We never dated until
we were at least 15. These days I see
more high school guys going out with
girls in junior high than ever. It was the
ultimate stigma for an older guy to go
out with a freshman when I was in high
school. Junior high girls weren’t even in
the running.
In junior high we did something we
called “going with.” A guy asked you to
“go with” him and the two of you be
came an item. But holding hands was as
far as “going with” ever went. All ma
ture, self-respecting females “went
with” someone in junior high, and our
parents always got a big kick out of
asking us “just where are you going with
him?” We hated that. Today, girls who
should be “going with” are going out
with guys who are two or three years
older than they are. And it almost looks
respectable. Most of these girls have
high school bodies and wear enough
makeup to look 18.
We used to go to the movies, the mall
and pizza places to meet guys. Today
girls go to “teen clubs.” Teen clubs are
modeled after night clubs except no li
quor is served. Instead, patrons can buy
virgin daquiris and margaritas for three
bucks a pop. And we thought dancing
parties were a big deal. Somehow the
thought of these teenage “meat-mar
kets” is a little depressing.
High school hair fads these days are
something else, too. For us, it was radi
cal to wear our hair in a pony tail on one
side. Mousse and styling gel were un
heard of. Today girls get a $40 haircut
that resembles a run-in with a blender.
Really, no mature, self-respecting fe
male would intentionally do something
to her hair to make it look that ridicu
lous.
But then again, what female with a
shred of self-respect would ride a verti
cal waterslide called The Kamikaze?
Paula Vogrin is a senior journalism
major.
Opinion
Lnitidiuiurty.i a
" DON'T LET US EVER CATCH YOU USING THE WRONG LANE AGAIN,,,"
uni i
-gift
Sanitation situation merits a
some careful consideratlor
Last Friday
night my girlf
riend and I dined
at our favorite
College Station
Mike
Sullivan
Guest Columnist
restaurant. The restaurant serves succu
lent fajitas, perfect nacho chips and pre
tty good iced tea.
There was a short waiting line to get
in, and having more than a passing in
terest in the restaurant’s sanitation, I
used the time to scan the restaurant for
some of the health violations that I had
reported that week in Restaurnat Re
port.
Though I’m no sanitarian, I had de
cided the place looked pretty good, es
pecially for a busy Friday night, until I
noticed something that didn’t look just
right. I recalled reading a note in this
restaurant’s report about employees not
wearing plastic gloves or using utensils
when handling tortillas or dough at the
tortilla machine.
A manager-type was standing at the
tortilla machine loading white dough
balls onto it with his bare hands and lift
ing the cooked tortillas off the machine
as they came out with those same bare
hands.
I was appalled at the restaurant’s bla
tant disregard for the note in the report,
and I was just about to send for the au
thorities when the hostess told us our ta
ble was ready. I decided to eat,first and
then go for the authorities.
My girlfriend could see that I was
troubled, and she tried to make small
talk to take my mind off the case, but it
was no use.
I couldn’t take my eyes off that guy as
he stood there touching that dough with
his bare hands, knowing all along he was
violating the basic right of sanitation
supposed to be enjoyed by every person
in the room.
I followed his every move as he
switched from dough-man to friendly
manager-man. He walked around the
restaurant, stopping often and talking
to strangers about strange things, but he
didn’t get to my table.
He then made his way up to the wait
ing line at the front door and shook the
hand of a man standing in line.
“He better wash his hands before he
makes it back to that tortilla machine,” I
mumbled.
But he wasn’t done mingling yet. He
walked over to a
duties as dough guy withoutsomusnu
a quick detour to a bathroom to^ ar ^
hands. ,
Short 1\ afterward, our fajiuo.: [,y .
tillascame. I hose fajitas aresop» voli
eat them with just about anything
Im
probably did
The moral of the story is thattlitS
zos County Health Departmental
everywhere at one time.
The department is there tomalts
our health is maintained, butbeaiist
is our health, we should beatvart
tential healthh
grill, held on to a
metal bar that
14,676 other peo
ple probably have
held on to and be
gan talking to a
cook. Then the
manager guy ran
his hands
through his hair
and picked at his
face.
Shn
biso
the
that
otdi
ards, in restaur/
or anyplace, an
port things
don’t seem ngl
Last Wednfi
I happily actf? I
t h e positiot |
Opinion
t or and, w
lump in myi
handed over
duties as restau
My girlfriend
thought, as she
usually does, that
I was overreact- ^
ing to the situation until we both wit
nessed the ultimate sin.
I saw it all happen in slow motion.
The manager guy took a quick look
around the restaurant, raised his index
finger to his left nostril, inserted it about
a quarter of an inch, moved it around,
pulled it out, briefly inspected his find
ing and brushed his hand on his pants.
Business had been steady up to then,
and it was about time to make some
more tortillas. The rest of this account is
pretty gruesome, so those of you with
weak stomachs might want to leave.
As you probably guessed, the man
ager guy returned to his bare-handed
reporter to:
staff writer.
1 ve enjoyed 1
ing Restaurant
port this semester not only becas*
like to keep abreast of the restau
sanitation situation in BryanCd
Station, but because I hope leaded
do.
All of the grease build-ups on
equipment, food left uncovered in* |
in coolers and meat left thawtij
standing water don’t mean at
one reads, takes notice andti
enough to do something about it.
Mike Sullivan is a senior joufltf I
major and (until Wednesday)!
writer For The Battalion.
Mail
Phone lines or waiting lines?
EDITOR:
In reference to the new registration by phone, I would
like to know why students were not informed of the
different priorities given to different phone lines
depending on their location. Most students soon
discovered that it was, for all practical purposes,
impossible to register from off campus. Meanwhile, the
phone lines located in the library seemed to be the most
likely to succeed in getting through to the system. A
possible solution would be to designate 32 phones, one for
each line, as being phones expressly used for the purpose
of registration, with the same priority given equally to all of
them.
Paul M. Strickler
Just soy no
EDITOR:
In reference to the article, “Drinking age appeal goes
to high court,” in Fuesday’s Battalion — WHOOP! to
South Dakota! Finally a state has stood up to the peer-
pressure tactics of the federal government.
I find it typical of our nation’s legislators (all well over
21) to opt for the “quick fix” solution to the problem of
drunken driving by simply denying those under age 21 the
right to drink. A far more logical and beneficial solution
would be the nationwide institution of open-container
laws. Instead, they attack those who always have been
politically vulnerable and unrepresented — our nation’s
youth.
Call
Hypothetically, what if it was discovered thatair j
cause of death among senators was alcohol? Would they
pass legislation denying themselves alcoholic beverages:
Of course not. Why deny themselves anything, since the
only individuals who really are involved in the situation
don’t have the political clout to make a difference?
Steve Rikli
Buckeyes and black eyes
EDITOR:
I want to congratulate the Aggie football teamona
great season and say how excited I am they’ll be meeting
the Ohio State Buckeyes in the Cotton Bowl. For most
Aggies, playing the Buckeyes is just like playing another
team, but for me, it has special significance. I have spent
the last 17 years of my life right in the heart of Buckeye
country — Columbus, Ohio. All I ever heard about was
how great the Buckeyes were in football and how much
spirit the Buckeye fans have. I don’t think the Buckeyes
know what spirit really is, but they definitely will gettos* I
“real” spirit when they witness the Aggie crowd at the
Cotton Bowl. I might be outnumbered when I gobacki 9
Ohio during winter break, but I’m sure going to let those
Buckeyes know there is an Aggie in their midst. They
might brag about how great their team is, but 1 am going
to let the Aggie football team do all my talking out onth (
turf on New Year’s Day.
Jennifer Jones
Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. Theeh |11
staff reserves the right to edit letters for style and length, but will/'
every effort to maintain the author’s intent. Each letter must be -
and must include the classification, address and telephone numbef*
writer.
If
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ca