u jsday • July 21,1998
The Battalion
PINION
and
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ttorney
rors in
ham \
os was lr
asual corner
ericans have progressed in every aspect of society except outward appearances
Chris
Martin
Aggie life editor
e mod-
rn
orld is
3 -woijderful
t low ceofaes-
crimeai lC ll< ^’
iwas de;- cement,
ss alotd new
■re ever.ks'vagen
le
ssion, alu -
ned |iur; stere-
digitally-
PncentriM d cornic
|ecar,( |kjand
the ed Tah Fawcett — all of these
ion. Bodities are pleasing to the
■ ThafsB an ks to thm miracle of mod-
lood, iBhnology. But despite all of
|cover a.'lp^g 1-685 / there seems to be
area that always is found
bny Me-Jdng- Clothing.
Istitied Call it a modest proposal. In
foariB where no party is com-
|home: teUithout a gaggle of tank-
kill JorBd "woo woo" girls and no
lest siness has a sound morale
|v Vjjtout "dress down Fridays," it
tesdt. ils the old-fashioned art
Jon t ssy and elegant haberdashery
onefijecome, well, old-fashioned.
I He latter third of the 20th
pm itury is truly going to be an
arrassment to future genera-
o quo ) who wake up and realize
error of our ways. And de-
lld face
not
alty,
lishes
spite what Devo and Back to the
Future 2 have predicted, surely
the future of fashion does not lie
in synthetic metallic jumpsuits.
Like everything else, taste comes
in cycles, and the world is cur
rently stuck in the lowest oscilla
tion.
Somewhere along the line, the
world went from the pearls and
spats to belly chains and flip
flops. The blame for this rests
squarely on the shoulders of two
men, Henry Ford and Richard
Simmons.
Society's obsession for exercise
is one of the big reasons for the
great casualness. Before the auto
mobile, people stayed in shape
by working and walking. But
walking now is seen as "exer
cise," and not as a basic method
of human propulsion.
It is fascinating to see this in
action in the school's busy park
ing lots, where students late to
class will park themselves in the
front row of a lot waiting for
someone to leave a space while
empty spots lie just a few rows
down. "You can't make me walk
any further than I absolutely
have to," seems to be the creed.
Because of this, fashion has
made the transition from looking
good to feeling good. People
must be ready at all times, no
matter what time of day or night,
to be able to exercise. Thus came
the plague of matching purple
and green jogging suits, and not
surprisingly, the fanny pack.
Think about the person who
should embody the most class
and grace in society, the presi
dent.
A quick stroll through the
pages of history reveals riding
coats, suits, hats and gloves.
Then picture the president to
day. Four words: itty-bitty run
ning shorts. This is what history
will record.
Can anyone imagine Lincoln
jogging up and down the White
House lawn in his top hat and
some Adidas soccer shorts? Or
Grover Cleveland frolicking in
the rose garden wearing only a
smile and a pair of red Speedos?
Layers may be hot and obtuse
these days, but they sure look
good.
Besides, being a rebel today is
not about a skateboard, baggy
shorts and a tube-striped tee. It's
about wing-tips, a pocket watch
and a fedora.
Chris Martin is a senior
journalism major.
000 bug causes personal problems
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the year 2000 ing.
Well, of course it is. But with it comes a big problem.
No, not the end of humanity. As "Planet of the
” fans know, that happens
-o,, _id the year 2500 when the in-
d fill ant monkeys take over the
•f nnj -What the year 2000 will
'r'. ■ is the year 2000 bug.
'I? tl» anticipation of the year 2000,
[lent?' it! nited States government and
the; major corporations have been
I happen ing diligently on fixing it (i.e.,
g legions of programmers to
that? * e °i d programs). In anticipa-
)f the year 2000, students, too,
been working diligently on
computers (i.e. playing hour
hour of computer solitaire),
ndan; lt: the year 2000 a scant year-and-a-half away,
'thing must be done to stop the year 2000 bug from
pting students' personal lives. After all, the 21st cen-
will be worthless if they can't spend a significant por-
>f it playing solitaire on the computer. Unfortunately,
don't have a fleet of nerds to fix the bug in their per
il lives. But fear not, there is a solution. What follows,
3me suggestions for beating the year 2000 bug at
sA&M.
y now, the bug has received considerable attention
the media. Various doomsday prophets have
John
Lemons
columnist
'ed the bug may do all kinds of nefarious things from
• an ar ’ : n 8 die world's economy to wrecking the Internet.
even has a melodramatic name — the Y2K bug. Y2K
Caro) ds an awful lot like the title of a Terminator movie
n, ojr ? years back. If this Y2K bug is somehow connected
less li borg killing machines from the future, then it really
dine, rves all the attention it has been getting.
nagine this terrible scene. It is the morning of Jan. 1.
^orom )ld Schwarzenegger, dressed in black leather and
*1 to the teeth, busts down someone's front door. He
3 at: die homeowner through his dark sun glasses and
ui his thick, Austrian accent, "I'm looking for Sarah
asoli* jior,",after which he proceeds to pull out his sawed-
botgun and target the family. Wow, that is a scary
thought.
Anyway, onto solving the year 2000 bug problem in
students' lives. My first thought was that the perfect solu
tion to the bug is time travel. If one can transport him or
herself and their electronics back in time, they can avoid
the year 2000. Upon contacting the physics department to
ask how one might travel backward in time, one will find
department employees will laugh and inform the caller
time travel is impractical unless one has access to Michael
J. Fox, a Delorian and 1.21 gigawatts of power.
Since most students probably don't have access to
these things, they should make their most important pos
sessions year 2000 compliant. For example, one definitely
want one's refrigerator to be safe from the bug. If a refrig
erator fails on the morning Jan. 1,2000 and all of the food
spoils, people will not be able to cook breakfast. Starting
the new millennium out on an empty stomach is not a
good idea.
Fortunately, some refrigerator manufacturers say their
refrigerators are year 2000 compliant.
Lastly, students should protect their VCRs. Since many
students never figured out how to program the clock, it
stays at 12 a.m., continually blinking. Students should
briefly un-plug their VCRs and then fail to set the clock.
This way, the VCR will never reach Jan. 1,2000, keeping it
safe from the bug. One will also get the added benefit of
never being able to set the timer to record "The Jerry
Springer Show."
Hopefully these suggestions will help students protect
tliemselves from the year 2000 bug.
Oh yeah, if a student comes across one of those com
puter nerd types that got Americans into this mess, give
him or her what he or she deserves — a swift kick to the
rear. After that, just say, "That's for those cyborg killer ro
bot terminators, you geek."
And if the person gives you a puzzled look, don't fall
for his or her bluff. Just walk on by, secure in the knowl
edge that you are prepared to handle the year 2000 bug.
John Lemons is an electrical
engineering graduate student.
Ahirt proposal
r omotes unity
Wsponse to Chris Huffines'Thursday,
I 16 , column:
Chris Huffines not only attacks
Pride, but his opinions are
ririse assumptions and un-
I ^1 ^ffines has somehow come to
p^ous conclusion "Maroon
i r i fewest project being re-
I l .,, e d y class councils is some-
); ,JJ^ng Texas A&M into "the
I J f slar ? es t cult." His belief is ti
P dents H titUteS ^ large gr ° up of
HI alike and s i nging
II n - So beware of all choir
J
that
members, football players, girl scouts
or even janitors, for crying out loud.
Huffines then questions the idea
of how Aggies "sweating together
could possibly be fun. He states "the
last time anyone checked, maroon is
a dark color." The last time anyone
checked, we are also the same Aggies
who stood, soaked to our underwear,
at the University of Texas game.
What does Huffines think everyone
presently wears to football games,
thong bikinis?
Huffines talks about former stu
dents as if they were rotisserie meat,
roasting along, standing in the sun
watching a football game in the mid
dle of September in South Texas."
The former students sit in the shade
and will be doing so in the middle of
October in Central Texas.
In closing, Huffines assumes Ma
roon-Out T-shirts will divide the stu
dent body because of all the sponsor
ships listed on the back of the shirt.
The class councils generate their own
revenue and do not use sponsorship.
We do disagree with the last point
presented in the column when
Huffines states, "Maroon Out is a
well-meaning idea." Precisely — it is
an idea, and it is just an idea. It is not
a cult, not a forced tradition and cer
tainly not something developed to
divide student unity.
By raising funds through tradi
tions such as E-Walk and Ring
Dance, working with the Association
of Former Students and hopefully.
Maroon Out, we are able to donate
$90,000 each year to A&M.
We appreciate any kind of feed
back, as long as it is based on re
search facts. We look forward to sell
ing you a T-shirt.
Kendall Kelly
Class of'99 president
Kyle Valentine
Class of'00 president
Kevin Weeks
Class of VI president
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Letters may be submitted in person at 013
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E-mail: batt@unix.tamu.edu
Nation’s anti-drug campaign
could change youth attitudes
F rom the wealthy suburb of
Plano to the Amish country
of Pennsylvania, young peo
ple are in
creasingly
being enticed
by the allure
of illicit
drugs. In the
latest battle
in the war on
drugs, the
government
has invested
$195 million
Meredith
Right
columnist
m a year
long ad cam
paign to dis
courage teenagers from using
illicit drugs.
It could be one of the most ef
fective tools the government has
in combating the popularity of il
licit drug use among youth in this
country.
Some activists and politicians
claim the money could be better
spent on after-school programs
and drug treatment centers. Al
though these also are viable op
tions in the attempt to dissuade
teenage drug use, the power of
television should not be underes
timated.
One of the main ads features a
young woman angrily tearing her
kitchen apart with a frying pan
while screaming about the rav
ages of heroin on her body, her
family and friends and her job.
The new ad is a twist on the
1980s campaign that featured a
frying pan and an egg being fried
, with the voice over of "this is
your brain, this is your brain on
drugs." This time, the frying pan
is used as a weapon by the young
woman to destroy the kitchen,
and the egg is immediately
smashed against the kitchen
counter as symbolic of heroin's
effect on the body.
Before it was a national media
blitz, this ad was aired in 12 test
cities all over the United States. In
those cities, there was a 300 per
cent increase in calls to a national
drug information resource center,
according to Gen. Barry McCaf
frey, the drug policy director un
der President Bill Clinton. Al
though it will take three years to
determine if these ads are effec
tive, that is a promising sign.
It seems as if drugs have left
no part of the United States un
scathed, leading to the need for
national attention to this subject
matter.
"Nobody in America is free of
this — not the president, not any
community, any school, any
church, any neighborhood, "
Clinton said at the official an
nouncement of the ad campaign.
The entire community of Plano
was reportedly shocked at the
heroin overdose deaths of several
local high school kids. A family-
oriented, wealthy suburb is the
last place one would expect to
find teenagers addicted to a drug
as hard as heroin.
Even more bizarre was the dis
covery Amish youths were
caught using drugs. The Amish
may be one of the least assimilat
ed social groups in America, but
even it did not manage to escape
the influence of drugs.
Television is one of the most
powerful mediums in American
society, and therefore is one of the
most powerful ways to make an
impact, no matter what the audi
ence background.
This correlation between drug
use and anti-drug advertisements
is most easily seen with the rise in
teen drug use when public ser
vice announcements were shifted
to late-night/early morning slots.
Since cable television was creat
ing intense competition, prime
time television could no longer
afford to air public service an
nouncements against drugs.
During this time, drug use
more than doubled among teens.
At Texas A&M, students gener
ally have reached the age when
they are not quite so vulnerable to
the peer pressures that middle
school and high school students
are under. In addition, "Campus
wide surveys have shown students
are not tolerant of illicit drugs on
campus or at parties," according to
Helen Gutierres, coordinator of
campus wide alcohol education.
Generally, a very small num
ber of students use illicit drugs.
The new anti-drug ad cam
paign may not necessarily be tar
geted at the college age audience,
but that does not mean their im
pact will not be felt.
At the end of the new ad de
picting the young woman tear
ing her kitchen apart, she stares
in to the camera and asks, "Any
questions?"
If one has any questions regard
ing drug use, confidential, free
counseling is available through the
Alcohol and Drug Education Pro
grams office at 845-0280.
Meredith Might is a
junior journalism major.