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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 19, 2000)
-U/XII2L The t*Jtim*xte in cfiKaJitt/ service I ~P'Stylists &“ 3 IWdI Techs Hair Sculpting & Styling -A- Color Ar F’erms Roll Higtiligtits Ar Straig hi toners A Gel Nails Acrylic Nails A Manicures & Pedicures All Types of Waxing PtZJVt Page 4 A AGGIELIFE Thursday, October 19,2((i THE BATTALION I «Tf "‘fri ‘t~^» 1 r* m t^v. c.g~ Worlci .v JLorrg&st JPoemi October 16-20 from 10-2 at Rudcier Fountain. Come t>e a part of the world’s longest poem L>y sharing your work. S&ofctzn Wor-ci-. Oct. 1S in IV1SC 203, Oct. 1 S> in IVTSC 205, and Oct. 20 in Rudder 60 1 from 5F3V1-6FIV1. S2 per day or $5 for all three days. Learn techniques in Spoken Word poetry from a published poet. I .AC ' F’ortstorx* witTa disabilities please special needs. Wo reques to tbe eyexxt to ex-xab>le ms • • 11 84S-1 51 S to inforrm xxts of jrotJtr • tlort tlxaroe (3) -worlcix^g days pr-ic eist yotx to tbe best of otir ak> LTities. www.unitedflight.com LEARN TO NOW at UNITED FLIGHT SYSTEMS Easily awarded student loans now available. You can learn to fly for as little as $50. 00 per month. Located next to campus at Easterwood Airport. Discount Discovery Flight (with presentation of coupon) ■ Student Loans ■ Aviation Career Tracks ■ Private thru advanced training ■ Aircraft rental, Pilot Shop ■ F.A.A. approved 141 school ■ VA Eligible Benefits United Flight Systems, Inc. Easterwood Airport College Station, TX 409 260-6322 l Gravity Tess Gerritsen Published by Pocket Books With the release of The Andromeda Strain, Michael Crichton lured the novel-reading public in a web of fear emanating from the possibility of an invasion by a space-born virus. While this scenario may seem like unrealistic science fic tion to the science-savvy public of today, the idea was so intriguing and was displayed in such a re alistic fashion that it is still known as a bench mark in the medical-suspense genre. With Gravity, the bar has been raised. Gravity, set in the near-future in the complet ed international space station, is the horrific tale of a space crew trapped in the claustrophobia-in ducing confines of a space station with an air borne, highly pathogenic disease. What makes this novel especially frightening is the realistic manner in which it is told. Gerrit sen has undoubtedly done her research. Her list of resources range from the top NASA flight sur geon, to a decompression chamber specialist, to Jim Reuter — the real technician behind the in ternational space station’s life-support systems. This technical knowledge, paired with Ger- ritsen’s knack for creating vivid pictures in her readers’ minds, pulls this novel from the realm of science fiction into the realm of science pos sibility. The only downside to the constant realism employed in the novel is the dialogue that in corporates the slang and technical jargon of NASA and medical personnel. However, Gerrit sen included an appendix in the back of the novel for readers who are not rocket scientists, and if the readers pay attention, they just might learn something. For the romantics, the author manages to in corporate a well-developed love story between a husband (who is stuck on Earth) and a wife (trapped on the space station with the disease) who are going through a divorce. The movie rights to this book have already been sold to New Line Cinema, so headers who like to read the book before everyone begins to rave about the movie should rush out and grab this gem of a thriller right now. (Grade: A+) — Stuart Hulso: Diamonds and more DIAMONDS If ftgti Quality / Lowest Price GUARANTEED LOOSE) or MOUNTED STONES CALL FOR PRICE St APPOINTMENT Aggies serving Aggies Sherry Piper (979) 774-7101 Dear Alice ... Rejected Let ters to Advice Columns from Completely Insane Idiots Steven Ryniak Published by Muse World Media This book is tiny — only the size of a common pocketbook -r- but it crams in more humor than most stand-up comedians manage in a lifetime. The book is a parody of letters written to advice columnists from writers who have problems, from using too many steroids to turning into “weresquirrels.” The jokes are lewd and the profanity is plentiful, but this is definitely one of the fun niest books since A1 Franken’s first foray into writing. This humor is not nearly so high-brow as Franken’s, with much of the humor centering on profanity and slap stick — like “South Park.” One letter is written by a man who describes his problems going through the drive-thru of a fast food restaurant. He describes curs ing at the attendant, and beating him unconscious while using ex pletives after every other word. Expletives actually take the place of proper nouns, to the point that everything is a “f-—k.” Needless to say, this humor is not for the faint of heart, but for those with the stomach, it is laugh-out-loud fun- I ny. This story is surrounded by tales of weed-wacking squirrels to | death and going to the most back-1 water sky-diving school in the world. The letters are short, one to two pages at the most, which means this book is easy to pick up and put down for short humor breaks throughout the day. However, it should not be taken to church, as ex pletive-filled laughter is never looked on kindly by God. (Grade: A) — Jason BennyhoffI Eat the Rich (Abridged Student Edition) By P.J. O’Rourke Published by Cato Institute If only economics classes could use this as a textbook. Eat the Rich is a humorous examina tion of what makes some nation’s economies successful, and what makes some nations’ economies (and people) eat dirt. Because O’Rourke uses some economic theo ry, only those who have taken some sort of macroeconomics course will be able to fully ap preciate the book’s look at economies from around the world. However, enough principles are explained, that even readers who have no clue what the gross national product is will be able to enjoy the general ideas expressed. Unfortunately, O’Rourke writes solely from an extremely laissez-faire (capitalist) viewpoint. While capitalism is decidedly the general eco nomic winner at this point in time, the author’s continual slander of socialism (O’Rourke even tually gets to the point where he leaves the cate gory of humor and enters insulting vulgarity) be comes tiring by the third chapter. The book also bogs down in irritating succes sions of platitudes. Lines like “China stinks,” and “{economics} is like a tricycle from Santa” are mildly humorous at first, but tire quickly. Considering that every page has at least three or four of these “pearls of wisdom,” reading the book can get tedious quickly. Luckily, there are only 48 pages of this. The book is short enough that any annoying characteristics do not have enough time to get under the reader’s skin. The length also makes this the perfect book for a short night of reading before falling asleep to a night of capitalist dreams. (Grade: C) NCAAMM National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness WeeK-Ccteber f6>2C