Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

_ _ Quote, Unquote % / # # 4 ‘One of the reasons some Americans are uncom m / ”| /^V¥"Y ^\ T Ol fortable with erotic materials is that they were intro \l II—* \\l I II I II duced to sex as a dirty secret.’ ▼ JL V_y f f V_x-1- \J Katy Zvolerin, www.adameve.com 'Che (BamCCO Ck Friday, September 8, 2000 Wk (Bamecock Serving the Carolina Community since 1Q08 Editorial Board I Brock Vergakis • Editor in Chief Kevin Langston • Viewpoints Editor Nathan White • Asst. Viewpoints Editor Patrick Rathbun • Editorial Contributor Brad Walters • Editorial Contributor Drop date extension in hands of students Over the next couple of weeks, students will have an opportu nity to make their academic lives easier. Student Government is sponsoring a petition to get the drop date extended so that students will have an opportunity to decide whether a class is right for them. Extending the drop date has The Gamecock’s full support be cause it’s a win-win situation for everyone. With enough signa tures, there’s a good possibility the administration will listen to the students. Everyone has a voice, and now is the time to let'it be heard. The petition will be circulated throughout campus and in resi dence halls, and anyone can sign it at the SG office on the first floor of Russell House. While all students should sign this and get their friends to sign it too, SG members have an added responsibil ity to get these petitions signed. At the student senate meeting Wednesday night, President Jo taka Eaddy handed senators a petition for their constituents to sign. If you aren’t approached in some way by your senator to sign this petition, call the SG office and complain. Find out where you can sign one. Better yet, if you aren’t approached by your senator, sign the petition yourself at the SG office. While you’re there, find out what else your senator is doing, in addition to extending the drop date, to represent you. Trust us, they’ll thank you for it. New eatery provides much needed variety The Carolina Mall, located in the basement of Russell House, has a new restaurant. Over the summer, Baker Street was trans formed into a vegetarian eatery called Veggie Street. This location once offered such meals as spaghetti, baked pota toes and calzones. Now all the meat has been thrown out, and in its place you’ll find cous cous, lentils and hummus. In its early stages, the restaurant has enjoyed great success. And while Veggie Street might not see the same number of customers as Baker Street in the long run, it does offer something of importance to USC students. Before Veggie Street’s opening, vegetarians had nowhere to eat. Sure, they could pull from the salad bars and enjoy the occa sional vegetarian lasagna, but there wasn’t really a central source for vegetarian food on campus. This is odd, because there has been a constant rise in vegetarian food’s popularity. Vegetarians make up a significant amount of the student body and deserve a place they can eat. College is glorified as a place that welcomes all walks of life. People of different opinions, cul tures and creeds are supposed to assimilate in this environment with the proper facilities to promote such interactions. For USC, adding Veggie Street has been a step in the right di rection. ' The Gamecock is the student newspaper ol The University of South Carolina and is published Monday. Wednesday and friday during the fall and spring semesters and nine times during the summer with the exception of university holidays and exam periods. Opinions expressed in The Gamecock are those of the editors or author and not those of The University of South Carolina. The Board of Student Publications and Communications is the publisher of The Gamecock The Department of Student Media is the newspaper's parent orranaation. The Gamecock is supported in part by student activities fees. Address The Gamecock 1400 Greene Street Columbia, SC 29208 Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Student Media Area code 803 Advertising 777-3888 * Classified 777-1184 Fax 777-6482 Office 777-3888 Gamecock Area code 803-777-7726 Editor in Chief gamecockeditor@hotmail.com University Desk gamecocudesk@hotmail.com City/State Desk gamecockcitydesk@hotmail.com Viewpoints gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com Spotlight gamecockspotlight@hotmail.com Sports gamecocksports@hotmail.com Online www.gamecock.sc.edu Submission Policy Letters to the editor or guest columns are welcome from all members of the Carolina community. Letters should be 250-300 words. Guest columns should be an opinion piece of about 600 words. Both must include name, phone number, profes sional title or year and major, if a student. Handwritten submissions must be personally delivered to Russell House room 333 E-mail submissions must include telephone number for confirmation and should be sent to gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com. The Gamecock reserves the right to edit for libel, style and space Anonymous letters will not be pub lished. Photos are required for guest columnist and can be provided by the submitter. Call 777-7726 for more informuion. The Gamecock Brock Vergakis MacKenzie Craven Editor in Chief Meredith Davis Brandon Lanabee Asst. SP0,liBht Ed,tors University Editor Amy Goulding John Huiett Ph°<° Edilor City/State Editor Sean Rayford Kevin Langston Sports Photo Editor Viewpoints Editor Miranda LaLonde Brad Walters Ann Marie Miani Martha Wright Design Editors Jason Harmon Will Gillaspy Copy Editors Online Editor Jared Kelowitr Kyle Almond Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor John Bailey Charles Prashaw Asst. City/State Editor senior Reporters Amanda Silva Jacquelyn Poston Asst. University Editor Writing Coach Nathan White Asst. Viewpoints Editor Student Meou Ellen Parsons Robyn Gombar Director Melissa Millen Susan King Brantley Roper Creative Director NK°te Rus“11 „ Advertising Staff Sean De Luna „ , _ Todd Hooks Carolyn Griffin Melanie Hutto Business Man3«e' Emilie Moca Sherry Holmes Martin Salisbury Classified Manager Creative Services Erik Collins Kenton Watt Faculty Adviser Advertising Manager College Press Exchange u THe ONLY DeBATe format . WLl, ; Family Values Taking baby steps to debauchery . vy I spent the ma- « | jority of my | summer in | Georgetown be- f hind the counter of I a locally owned i and operated video if store. We proudly | boasted the best se- _ • ' - lection of any near- Kevin Langston by video store, and is a senior jour we were the only nalism major.- He store in George- can be reached town to carry vja ^ DV*?S' Gamecock at: ut as you can imagine, the life ol . , a video-store em- PO*nts«h0tma.l., ployee can grow com H ■*. IS 1 dull in a short span of time. To make the hours go by, we would either debate over movies and music or watch a movie in the store. One of the first rules 1 learned in choos ing a movie was to keep it below PG-13 in the content level. In other words, there could be no “bad words, nudity, killing or drugs.” We were, after all, a family store. So we kept it in the PG range. We gen erally pulled from the comedy section, be cause it was better to pretend we were laughing at the movies instead of at the ex pense of a customer. Be it a receding hairline, a certain stench or just the appearance of a customer, they would usually get roasted before they walked out the door. No, I’m not perfect, but I am a sales representative. We have every right to hate our customers. But I digress. As you might know, movie standards have risen since my child hood. “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” was the first movie to earn a PG 13 rating. So before this movie, if the film wasn’t rated R it was PG. I think “The Blues Brothers” was originally a PG movie, but the “f ’ word appears in it. That being yj JL said, you can understand how the process of choosing a safe movie could take some time. Nevertheless, we made due. On one busy afternoon, we put in a fairly new movie. It was rated PG-13, and we didn’t see any potential harm in show ing it. We were quickly proven wrong when I heard, “If you mess this up, I’ll Peking kill you.” It happened to be play ing during one of our busy spells, and I quickly hopped to the VCR and turned it off. The two ladies at the counter looked at exh other, and one said, “I thought this was a family store.” Needless to say, I was a bit embarrassed and annoyed. If a movie is rated PG-13, it’s usually safe from that kind of language. However, the “f “ word and other “worty dirds” are slowly finding their way into the PG-13 films. At first it bothered me, but my co-worker helped me put things in perspective. I was explaining the lady’s comment to him, and his retort made perfect sense to me. He asked, bluntly, “How can you have a family without Peking?” He had a great point, and it got me thinking about the entire situation. The “f ’ word has become such a com monly used word in our dialect that it has lost most (if not all) of its effect. No one flinches when they hex the “f ’ word, un less you’ve been living under the Pope’s bed for the past two decades. What 13-year-old doesn’t use that word? More importantly, what college student doesn’t use that word? I can’t keep up with how many times I use the word in a day, but I never hex it used properly in any movies about college (not until I make mine, anyway). I think the “f ’ word (and all exple tives) should be used more in program ming, be it television, radio or the cine ma. It’s a common part of our society, so why fight it? If anything, it might desen sitize our young of the word to the point that it equals “poop” or “dam.” Then what do we have to worry about? However, our society clearly has its priorities all out of whack. In recollection, blood and guts were always in popular demand. People want ed to see movies that would either scare them or gross them out. When kids would come up and ask us what our scariest movie was, we’d point them in the right direc tion without any hesitation. Hell, we weren’t their parents. As a matter of fact, the parents acted the same way we did. They didn’t mind their kids grabbing “Nightmare of Elm Street” or “Faces of Death 3.” But if their kids brought up a movie to their parents that had any nudity in it, they were quick ly turned down. This has always seemed curious to me. Are we, as parents and a society, saying that we’d rather our kids see killing than sex and nudity? It would seem that nudi ty should be accepted a bit more. Sex is something natural, and in the right con notation, a thing of beauty. There is nev er anything glorious about killing. I think parents shouldn’t try to hide nudity from their kids. While I won’t be showing junior any pornos any time soon after his birth, I won’t show him “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” instead. I’d hate to hear him ask me about tempo rary insanity as opposed to the birds and the bees. Don’t get me wrong. I am not con doning the watching of nudity by young kids. Its consequences could be very harm ful in the long run. But can you deny that the effects of spending endless hours watch Freddie, Jason and Michael chop up their victims will make a better im pression on them? I’m not saying I want my child to be a sex fiend, but it would be better than an ax murderer. i THE WASHINGTON POST "LET'S THROW ON ANOTHER COUPLE OF LOGS" j i . Society Issues I Fast food making us lazier, fatter America: ~ land of the lazy, home of McDonalds. Sure, “land of the free, home of the brave” has a nice ring to it, but I think the Mick ey-D’s slogan holds P®ter Johnson more truth. is a senior jour AsAmericans, nalism maior- He one of the privi- wr^es a column leges we have is to ever^ Pr'day. He enjoy an over- can ^ reaclle<:1 priced meal when- ArisrThe ever we feel like Gamecock at doling out cash for g^ecockview- 1 some artery-clog- Pointsehotmail. ging fatty foods ' |jj from a local fast food establishment. But as bad for us as fast food is, it sure is tasty. I admit it; I’m a suck er for a 99-cent Wendy’s Junior Bacon Cheeseburger. nowever, many muencaiib iaKe me whole “fast food" system for everything it's worth. As if fast food just wasn’t fast enough, there has to be a window on the side of the restaurant where you can dri ve up and get your meal at an even faster pace so you can drive and eat at the same time. Then, you can get back to doing all the unimportant things you have to do to get through your dreary day. If we're going to punish ourselves by eating incredibly fatty (yet undeniably tasty) McQuadruple Double Pounders with cheese, shouldn’t we make the effort to ac tually get out of the car and walk into the restaurant? The drive-through window has con tributed to nothing but impatience, obesi ty, laziness and the general stupidity of mankind. How could somebody possibly have thought the process of getting fast food was so slow that there should be a drive through window? Why should we need to get fast food even faster? You can step into any fast-food restaurant and get pre pared food within 5 to 10 minutes with no effort on your part, except for the 50 foot walk from the car to the counter. The fact that, we need to drive up to a window to get food without leaving the confines of our cars is ridiculous. There is nothing more disgusting than watching a laige balding man with glasses drive his compact car down the highway at 8:30 in the morning while eating an Egg McMuffin that splatters down his striped shirt and tacky tie. And you just know he’s got a hot cup of coffee resting at his crotch. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with the car or the clothes. It’s what he’s eating that completes the image. This is what it means to be an American today. _C._:i*_rt.it fcio* f-A i ' lullJ UUUUiVJgU »«VJV 1WU restaurants several times a week. My ques tion is this: Why would you want to sub ject your child to such a habit? This is a habit they might very well form on their own one day. They don’t need your help. I was always forced to eat my veggies when I was a kid, and 1 whined that we should all go to the local Burger King for burgers and fries. But my parents only took me there twice •— once after a funeral and once af ter we got locked out of the house. Call my family old-fashioned, but my parents always thought we should be eating a home cooked meal. One measly piece of lettuce on a burger won’t help a child’s nutrition very much at all. Neither will all of that grease. The ’50s were a decade of innocence and fun that were largely defined by drive in movies and drive-up burger joints where a cute girl in a poodle skirt and a pair of roller skates would bring your food out to you. Then, it was more like a local teen liangout spot. It had character, it was charm ing. But what it has become is disgusting. Today, the fast-food image embodies what it means to be a corporate giant. Feed off the customers through feeding the cus tomers. Give them food that’s bird for diem in a way that’s bad for them and leave them coming back for more. Thank you, Henry Drive-Through, for making life so much easier for all of us. ,■