Column
Saturday j
cartoons I
regress <
i
By Frank Plemons
■ The University Daily
Texas Tech U.
While clicking across Saturday
morning TV programming recent
ly, I discovered the entertainment
quality of Saturday morning car
toons has regressed during the last
10 to 15 years. If I were a kid, I’d
certainly prefer the adventures of
The Superfriends" to those of The
Smurfs.’ The polymorphic powers
of the Wonder Twins always gave
me the excitement I wanted to see.
Plus, Saturday morning cartoons
lack the creativity of the good ol’
days. The current “AIT cartoon is
taken from the prime-time series,
and the cartoon “Beetlejuice" was
built on the hype of the movie of the
same name, as was the “‘Real’
Ghostb listers.’
Those copied cartoons are no
match for such greats as “George of
the Jungle (Watch out for that
tree!),’ ’Josie and the Pussycats,’
“Scooby-Doo” and the greatest
superhero cartoon of all time,
“Mighty Heroes.” Although there
probably were fewer than 10
episodes of “Mighty Heroes,” with
the likes of Tbmado-Man, Diaper
Man and Cuckoo-Man, the enter
tainment value was unbeatable.
Saturday’s non-animated shows
are not much better than the car
toons. “Pee Wee’s Play House’ can
not compare to “Land of the Lost,"
“Sigmund and the Sea Monster”
and “Dr. Shrinker.’
Weekday afternoon cartoons are
just as bad. What adventure car
toon would you rather watch: “G.I.
Joe" with such moronic characters
as wrestler/anti-terrorist comman
do Sgt. Slaughter or demon on
wheels “Speed Racer" with the
ne’er-do-well team of Sprite and
Chim’chim? Has there ever been a
cartoon hero like the “mysterious"
Racer X, the older brother and
guardian of the unknowing Speed?
It’s easier to get caught up in the
memories of the cartoons of
yesteryear than to accept the new
ones. So I opted for re-runs of
wildlife programs instead of the
depressingly unentertaining car
toons.
MUSIC
The Deadbeat Club’
The B-52's prove why
they’re not deadbeats
Pago 9
MUSIC
Class act
A l: of Georgia instructor
makes learning rock history
a rockin' good time
Page 9
DANCE
A different beat
Ballroom dance makes a
comeback on campuses
nationwide
Page 10
BOOK REVIEW
Chuggin’ away
■The Complete Book of
Beer Drinking Games”
showcases student favorites
Page 11
Playboy visits spark controversy
By Marc Weiszer
■ The Diamondback
U. ol Maryland
U. of Maryland student Rathie Slack
was curious about posing for Playboy
magazine, but she never wanted to do it
j nude.
“If 1 can wear clothes, I’ll do it," she
said “I’m not going to do anything dr as
tic I'm not posing nude
The senior English major was one of
the many students from the Atlantic
Coast Conference who interviewed dur
ing the fall for Playboy's ACC pictorial
scheduled to be released in April
The interviews sparked protests and
; petitions at most of the schools where
| Playboy photographers interviewed.
I Students and administrators were pri
! manly concerned with the use of their
university's name in the pictorial, but
others protested the exploitation and
degradation of women that they feel
Playboy promotes
“Playboy makes enormous profits sell
ing these images of women,” said Minnie
Pratt, a U. of Maryland women’s studies
lecturer "Playboy only perpetuates the
idea that women can 1m* bought and used
as sex objects ’’
For the last l-l years. Playboy has fea
tured college women from Division 1 con
ferenccs to coincide with football season.
The magazine also scheduled college pic
torials to coincide with basketball sea
son Ijist fall. Playboy featured students
from the Southeastern Conference,
where similar protests accompanied
Playboy's visits
Hut the protests didn't deter ACC or
SEC women from interviewing. Nor did
it discourage Playboy Photographer
David Chan, who is used to the contro
versy that accompanies his campus vis
it s “There is nothing new about
protests," he said. "A student has a right
to l>e upset about certain things this
minority has a right to say what they
want, just as Playboy has the right to
come to the campus It's great — it just
shows freedom of expression.”
Students who were interested in pos
ing for the pictorial first interviewed
with ('ban and posed fully clothed for
Polaroid snapshots Chan then invited
only a select few students back for
extended photo sessions "We want the
typical coed, the girl next door,” Chan
said. “The women shouldn't feel that
they have to be able to compare to a cen
terfold. If they're a little bit heavy, we can
work with it,”
“] know 1 in the luckiest guy in the
w orld. being able to photograph the most
beautiful women in the world,” he said.
ANTONIO HANSEN. THE DAAY CTCCL.EGAN OKLAHOMA STATL-l
Just get up and go is the slogan of many students who road trip
On the road again
By Juleigh Sewell
• The Auburn Plainsman
Auburn U.
Several good friends, a car with a full
tank of gas, a road map, some good tapes
and an adventurous spirit these are
the basic ingredients which, when com
bined correctly, yield the solution to the
ho-hum weekend
On a slow weekend, Auburn U stu
dents invariably ask themselves and
their friends, "What can we do this week
end?” A road trip is one answer that is
popular on many college campuses.
“It allows you to get away from every
day life. It lets you take advantage of
being young." said Brooks Wooten, a
senior political science major.
Last year before fall term started,
Wooten and his roommates, Scott
Turnquist and Tripp Haston, a senior
pre law student, took a weekend road
See TRIP, Page 11
During the extended photo sessions,
the women could pose nude, semi-nude
or fully clothed. Students receive $500
for appearing nude, $250 for appearing
semi-nude and $100 for appearing
clothed.
A Wake Forest U. student who posed
fully clothed said the Playboy staff put
her under no pressure to pose nude or in
erotic positions. “The people at Playboy
weren’t the people everyone made them
out to be. They leave it entirely up to
you"
After completing sessions at all the
ACC schools, Chan chooses about four
women from each school to be in the pic
tonal.
Campus women’s rights activists feel
Playboy’s presence on campuses hurts
their movement. Melea Lemon Bryan, a
member of North Carolina State C
Women’s Resource Coalition, said “Wt
are trying to promote a better atmo
sphere for women on campus-- treating
us as sex objects will destroy everything
we have done to increase our status as
serious students.”
Shawn I^ees, The Diamondback, L
Maryland; Andrea Liepins, Jeanie Taft,
Technician, North Carolina State l
and Ryan McQueeny, Jennie Vaughn
Old Gold and Black, Wake Forest U.;con
tributed to this story.
Dorm residents
listen to ‘hot’
bedtime stories
By Gina Kinslow
■ College Heights Herald
Western Kentucky U.
Tammy Thompson crawled beneath
the covers of her bed while she waited
for someone to come to her room, tuck
her in and read her a bedtime story.
No, Tammy isn’t a 4-year-old waiting
for her father. The Western Kentucky 1
sophomore is actually waiting for fresh
man Greg Schmidt
Schmidt was one of 11 W’estern
Kentucky U. dorm residents who
brought cookies, nnlk and bedtime sto
nes to about 25 residents of a female res
idence hall.
The women could choose a "cold" or
“hot” bedtime story. Greg Vincent, a res
ident assistant who co-orgamzed the
event, said all the “hot” stories came
from "quality magazines,” such as
Penthouse or Penthouse Forum. Tina
Hewlett, also a resident assistant who
planned the event, said none of the
women picked “cold” stories.
1 hompson said she liked her story “It
was kind of perverted, but it was cute,”
she said.
All the women in Thompson’s room
said they wouldn’t mind tucking the
men in. although the risks for freshman
Brookie Spear might outweigh the ben
efits. “I’d probably die of embarrass
ment from reading the story,” Spear
said