EDITORIAL
University bookstore
is the place to order
Textbooks will not bo available for this course at the
University bookstore. Instead you need to walk three
miles, turn loft, go two blocks, turn north ISO degrees,
continue through the double doors, up the stairs for sev
en flights, head to the last door on the right, give them
the secret password, and the course books are available
in a pile in the Inn k By the way. you can't sell them
back.
In an attempt to promote business at smaller privately
owned bookstore'.. among other reasons, some professors
require students to buy their < oursc books at store's off
< ampus This is great fur the professors and esper ialh
the store owners. The professors could optimally never
even step foot in the store they are ordering from, but
instead < hose their test. < all the store of their < h<>n e and
the bookstore owner would, no doubt, be overjoyed to
order the professor's books l i e books would be nearly
guaranteed to be sold as in most c ases they are required
texts. Certainly there are many jovial relationships form
mg between private ■ tote owners and prnti-sso:s
The University bookstore is a non profit (although
some of I lie text pr it es make one wonder I store opera!
ine is a serve e to the students Working cooperatively
with the professors and the students, trook ■■■!'■ ordered
by tht* professors anti sold to the students Students also
cnjov a M pe;cent (list miirt on anv b< a s • mgiit ther
Next time von go into a privately owned lx;< kslore. Pash
your student I I) anti tell them you want a .discount, the
most you’ll probably get is a chuckle, much like a
l ugeno resident walking into the 1 hiivers.it> bookstore,
flashing a drivers lit ense and demanding a student <iis
count
I'he lines can be long at the I Diversity bookstore, but
in an effort to adjust they offer extended business hours
to p,drons Try going to a pri\ utely owned bookstore
and tell the store ovy nor that his lines are too long and he
should skip dinner and man the register for a few extra
hours.
When the term winds to an end and so does the bal
am e in your hank account, tile book buy-hac k at the t Di
versity bookstore i an come in quite handy. Granted it
is a little repulsive, at times, getting hac k less than a
third ol the original cost. The l Jnivursity fa 10kstore's gen
eral policy is to provide f>0 percent of their new selling
pric e for books that will be used next term, and they gen
erally buy them back from mid-Oead Week through the
end of Finals Week. Try taking a book hack to a private
bookstore that has boon used, and most likely abused, for
a term, and ask for your money back. Can I see your
receipt please?
If the politics of the University bookstore are too over
whelming, then Smith Family Bookstore offers many of
the same buying and selling servicos as the University
bookstore and the walk is only a block down the road.
Certainly the local bookstore economy yvon't crum
ble without the support of professors requiring stu
dents to buy books there. Time spent reading the
course books certainly would be better than time spent
wandering aimlessly around Eugene in search of a
bookstore that is buried deep in the bowels of the city
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OPINION
Dealing drugs on ‘Sesame Street’
Romm Rnu>
Is amazing how times
change A couple of weeks
Aago. while flipping through
the TV' < hannels early one morn
mg, I (.ante across Novi me
.Street Ah. what memories it
brought hack
Many parts of the show were
tin1 same as when I watched it a
little over It) years ago. Her! and
I'.rnie are still on the show, and
()si ar still lives in a trash can.
Vet, a lot has changed For
example, loyal viewers of the
show will reinomlHir the "In the
Neighborhood song, in whit h
people of different common
occupations, sut h as a polite
offit er or a letter carrier, are por
trayed, and are described in tin*
song as "the people that you
meet whim you’re walking
down the street the people that
you meet eat h tiay
Imagine my surprise at seeing
t onsumer guru Ralph Nader and
TV journalist Barbara Walters
singing away on Sesame Street
After all. I guess, every five-year
old should know who Natler
anil Walters art- Vet, at first I felt
that young kids should have a
little innocence on Sesame
Street before they had to reati
about exploding t ars and cru
sading journalists like Barbara
Walters
But after thinking about it. I
realized that this was totally
wrong Sesame Street is
designed to educate young chil
dren about life Why not go all
the way w ith this idea '
True, teaching kids the alpha
bet and how to count in Spanish
are useful skills, but what about
teaching kids some things that
might l>e a bit more, ah, relev ant
and useful to their everyday
lives/
ror «• \.impi»\ tor tnt* In in**
Neighborhood' Mint.',- people in
somii more common occupa
tions c ould be portrayed like
c arjac kerx and serial inunlerers
Alter all. m mam c ities in
Americ a kids are more likely to
rim into a cln;v; deal on the street
than into the arms of .1 mailman
or a police offic er
llveryone rementliers the
(.ount. the 1 harac ter who extolls
the virtues of counting, and then
demonstrates the art to all who
wall listen Hi- could st.irt count
mg objects that are a hit more
common than apples and
oranges 'One, one pound of
heroin. Two, two dead bodies
on the corner Three, three bul
lets in each body and so 011
Kids can relate
Murders and drugs aren't the
only topic s than c an 1m- touched
on with this new .Sexrime Street
Kids should be able to hear
about some more "adult" con
troversies in a format suited to
the younger viewer
Seeming that he has been
everywhere else. Joey Buttafuo
c o could go on Sesame Street
While the current show has .1
magic ian on every one t* in a
while to impress kids with his
act. Huttufuoco 1 011 Id show kids
a few trie kx" of his own. Mind
you. 1 don’t advocate what he
did. but 1 acknowledge th.it a lot
goes on in lug e ities
Kids could learn about the
Tonya Harding scandal by hav
ing Oscar the Grouch club Big
Bird's knee. Oscar c an then
deny everything and go to court,
lust like Tonya did The lesson
for kids Violence solves more
problems than your parents will
admit (The Count will sav
Uni' imc i.luli in (In■ s1UM'
Two, two i luiis to the knee
i hrue three i lulls ami the \ n
tun goes down, ha ha ha "I
()k I'll admit that I'm a cvnii
A really big cynic. to sav the
least However, sin iet\ has jj
i hanged a lot over the past 20
years that Se.su/ne ,Stree! and
other t.hildren's shows have
been on the air Violence and
drugs are now major problems
m six let\. Init you would never
know bv watching Sesame
.Street In lai t, kids might learn a
lot more about life from the
evening news than bv watching
Big Bird.
kids need to be able to learn
about life somewhere Given
that it has Ivoen an extraordinar
ilv popular show during its life
time, Sesame Street might lx* the
place for kids to learn about
problems that they might
encounter. I'm not advocating
drive-by shootings on Sesame
Street, but I do suggest that top
ii s such as divorce and child
abuse, things thut children may
very well encounter during their
i hildhood. be covered in some
sort of a kid-friendiv format
f ifty years from now. we
might look bai k and say that
Sesame Street was pretty tame
jus! because Oscar shows kids
how to put on a condom or
because Krnie died of a crai k
overdose Then, the show will
probably need to show kids how
to shoot burglars at home or how
to launder drug money, just to
keep pace with so< iety around
it.
lust give the show some time
Robbie Rees es is a columnist
for the Kmerald
COMMENTARY
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