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Photo by David Coray
‘Graffiti Gobbler, ’ a new chemical that Is supposed to work wonders on graffiti may leave clandestine artists and
writers with a blank slate.
Chemical may erase ‘wall art9
By Kevan Houser
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"Babylon Must Fall!" according to foot-high words
spray-painted in black on various campus buildings
Meanwhile, eerie silver outlines of twisted bodies fade
away from steps, walks, and walls
The once prevalent "SPAM" (Super Punk At the
Max, according to one source), is now almost forgotten
Its final vestiges adorn a Lawrence Hall stairwell and a
Bean Complex wall.
But desk tops, rest room walls, stairwells and
buildings may all become blank again thanks to Graffiti
Gobbler — "the first effective, no-mix, inexpensive
formula that quickly and easily removes graffiti without
harming the original appearance of the surface.”
Invented by Australian Norman Shuttleworth, this
petrochemical solution has already proven success
ful at eradicating graffiti in a number of large cities,
and is now being put to the test on New York
subways
Harold Babcock, University physical plant director,
says his staff hasn’t tried Graffiti Gobbler yet, but would
certainly experiment with it, given the opportunity They
would use anything to help solve the "tremendous
problem” of graffiti, Babcock says
Building custodians handle most campus graffiti,
such as in rest rooms, but the physical plant deals with
the larger instances, such as the "Babylon" messages
So far this year, according to Babcock, the Physical
Plant has spent at least $400 on eliminating graffiti, and
expects to spend some $300 more to remove new
appearances. Babcock emphasizes that this cost is just
to the physical plant. Building custodians also handle a
lot of graffiti, he says
Graffiti is a "very serious, ridiculous form of
vandalism," Babcock says "It’s like throwing money
down the drain.”
Vern Edney, supervisor of painting, says his
department uses the most effective graffiti removers he
knows of. The problem, however, is that these removers
tend to strip paint as well as graffiti
Both Babcock and Edney are not convinced that
Graffiti Gobbler would solve this problem, but they are
willing to give it a try
It may help clean up brick around campus, Edney
says, but for a painted surface it would probably be
cheaper and easier to continue painting over the
graffiti Prevention is a better answer, he says
Restrooms, with their anatomical drawings and
phone numbers, are the most heavily adorned with
graffiti, some of it tasteful, some of it abominable Found
in a Straub Hall men's room: "Hamsters are not self
actualizing beings, in fact they are evil, horrible rodents
out to take over the world!" Straub is the psychology
building One math-inclined woman wrote in Deady
Hall: “Calculus is easy.”
The old, wooden desks in many classrooms are
covered with names of cities, musical groups and
romances Occasionally someone is a bit more creative
“I ATEA PIE — the newest frat” can be found on desk in
Deady Hall
Stairwells are prime targets, especially in Lawrence
and PLC Between floors six and seven in PLC,
someone wrote "No Nukes ” The response was on the
floor below: "More Nukes "
Scott Bentley, a graduate teaching fellow in the
English Department, says some graffiti is attractive and
"may be art by some standards, but it definitely isn't
literature " But he doesn't like to see property defaced,
he adds If Graffiti Gobbler could be used to erase all
campus graffiti, Bentley says, that would be an overall
good thing ” But it would all spring back, he says
Maybe not, if one writer can help it On a booth in
the Skylight Refectory are the words: "Nuke Graffi
tists."
So how about
the real story?
NEW YORK (AP) - The news that a book
publisher is restoring cuts, changes and a whole
missing chapter to "The Red Badge of Courage”
nearly 100 years after Stephen Crane wrote it
gives hope that writers will win out over editors in
the long run.
Score one for our side
Of course in the long run we re all dead, as
are Crane and editor Ripley Hitchcock, who
excised 5,000 words from the classic novel on the
Civil War when it was published in 1895 to make it
less gloomy and more palatable to the public.
Rumors are rife that a whole slew of literary
masterpieces are about to re-emerge in their
original manuscripts, exactly as their authors
wrote them Publishers row is agog with the
possibilities
Maybe this time around, we’ll get the full story
of "The Lady, or the Tiger?" which we all read in
school without realizing it might have been a slick
editor who stuck in that question mark to make
the tale more saleable
If you recall Frank Stockton s famous yarn,
this semi-barbaric king practiced a rough form of
justice in which an accused perpetrator was led
into the arena and given the choice of opening
one of two doors Behind one waited the fiercest,
hungriest tiger in the kingdom The other offered
in marriage the fairest damsel in all the land The
door prizes were always switched to keep up
audience interest in the arena
It came about that the king's daughter tell in
love with a handsome courtier, who was sen
tenced to the double door bit for daring to rise
above his station There was this man-eating tiger
behind one door and the loveliest lady in the
court, whom the princess hated with a jealous
heart, poised for marriage behind the other
By bribery and cunning, the princess had
found out which door held the tiger this time, and
she shot a signal to her lover to pick the right
hand one The editor, being a chicken, left it to the
reader to decide whether the princess had
sacrificed her lover to her detested rival or thrown
him to the big cat
Rumor is that in the original manuscript
Stockton had the maiden emerge in wedding
raiment, but the princess in fury jumped out of the
royal box, tore her to shreds, then opened the
door and kicked the slats out of the tiger, too That
apparently was considered too violent for 19th
century readers
,Maybe this time around, we ll get the original
uncut, unedited version of the movie "Citizen
Kane " There have been whisperings for years
around the studios that the final scene where the
kid's sleigh burns up with the word "Rosebud" on
it was added as an afterthought to make some
sense from heavy cuts in the plot
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