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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 7, 1949)
Rai&Utf Kane Platitudinous Ponderosity by tJfanJz Kane Once upon a time there were two would-be writers in a creative English writing class whom we shall call Roger and Dodger for ease of identification. Roger was a literary craftsman who wrote with the clarity of expression that is the mark of the perfectionist. His style was as starkly beautiful as the first chapter of Genesis. He observed all the rules of good writing laid down from on high by his English and journalism instructors. These rules were sometimes so contradictory that it was quite a feat to reconcile the inconsistencies. Never satisfied with what he wrote, Roger would revise and revise until the deadline, and then be heartsick because he had not substituted in time a better word or phrase. Thus, whenever Roger found in his work a term the average reader might not understand, he unceasingly sought a suitable two syllable synonym. There was never a trite, wasted, or extra word in his copy. His work was also multi-dimensional. First there were the words that conveyed the surface meaning. But the observant reader who noticed more than the obvious meaning caught the whispered thesis diffused through the whole story. The ordinary words were like the small part of an iceburg seen above water. The revealed portion disclosed that the greater part was below the waterline. Now Dodger was like Roger in using the same English lan guage, but there the similarity ends. Dodger thought that highfaluting and obscure pontification was good writing. His sentences would have delighted a Victorian gramar ian. Many were so long and involved that Dodger forgot what he had said at the beginning of the sentence by the time he reached the middle. When this failing was brought to his at tention Dodger would reply that if a professor could do it, so could he. Dodger would say in 50 words what anyone else could say in ten, and how he enjoyed using obscure allusions to minor persons and expressions long dead and longer forgotten! In comprehensible words were his specialty. He would hunt through unabridged dictionaries for words like peccancy, reni tent, and mnemonic, and scatter them through his prose at random. Impressed people, he said. And people were so impressed, and while most of them didn’t have the patience to read his verbal gymnastics, they predicted that he would have a great future. Whatever became of Roger and Dodger? Well, Roger turned into a low-brow newspaper who knocks out his 2,000 words of readable copy a day for a regular pay check. Dodger so exercised his “talents” that he attracted the at tention of the “advanced” critics. Now his work is regularly published in the high-brow literary magazines for five copies of the publication. Journal Reporter Addresses Class Larry Smyth, political reporter for the Oregon Journal, addressed a reporting class last week con cerning newspaper coverage of political events. In reviewing his experiences as a journalist, Smyth discussed the new radio forum held by Oregon's Senator Wayne Morse in which listeners phoned in questions to be answered on the air. He also com mented on the 1948 Dewey-Stassen debate and Mike Elliott’s career as sheriff in Multnomah County. Smyth was a police and sports reporter before turning to politi cal writing. He was in Eugene to cover a talk by Morse. Condon Club Elects To Full Membership Seventeen men were recently elected to full membership in Con don Club, a geology and geography social group. Those selected are: James Barlow, John McManigal, Robert Redmond, James McNab, William Bales, Lenin Pamp, Robert Burke, Robert Dahlgren, Don Hau sen, Walter Foster, Lewis Schrag, Kirk Zumwalt, Vinson Holdbrook, Norman Degner, Charles Halbfus, Kenneth Farmer, and Charles Bradfish. Dr. Joseph Gair, assistant pro fessor of geology, was also elected to an honorary membership in the club. WE just will not be undersold So don't get caught by Sharpies Bold! Who raise their prices.. late at night! Then cut 'em down so they'll seem right. Merry Christmas HR':- ;:"OWS Jewelers Happy New Year 620 Willamette On Utz /Ub Who Wants to Play Santa by Malty Weitfttel As far as the Emerald is concerned, it’s Christmas now. We will all be home on December 25, so in this, the last big issue, we are getting Yuletide spirits up early. If anyone is in a particularly benevolent holi day mood, we know just the people to be benevolent toward. Up at Villard, they have a University radio studio that is second to none in the country. We have practically everything up there except the thing the whole studio was designed to house—a radio station. Thats where our benevolent friends come in. If you know where you can get your hands on about $2000, step forward. You can get your Alma Mater a radio station. A standard AM radio station costs more than $2000. But for about that sum, we could have a fully operating FM unit. It would not cost living organizations much to install this attach ment. An assessment of about 50 cents a member would get any group a tuner for their regular set, or a small table sized FM radio. You could then be assured that come rain, thunder, or lightning, the radio would present clear programs, devoid of static, from any FM station within range. Christmas Sale SKI CLOTHES Wool Gabardine SKI PANTS Reg. $19.95 Now $10.00 CORDUROY HATS $1.00 WESTGATE SHOPPE 895 E.13th “GOWN' BY JO COPELAND JEWELS BY TRABERT AND HOEFFER —MAUROUSSIN tfifctk pmkeM why fewo...jdc& Camels for Mildness Yes, Camels are SO MILD that in a coast-to-coast test of hundreds of men and women who smoked Camels—and only Camels—for 30 consecutive days, noted throat specialists, making weekly examinations, reported (_Jwt one, fluujlk, (Mt timot jmdoiim (kt to emhiM ComJIa!