Showing posts with label Colleges Universities Campus Politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Colleges Universities Campus Politics. Show all posts

Thursday, December 3, 2009

This week in The Tentacle

This week in The Tentacle

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Wednesday, December 2, 2009
The Rise of Parentalism
Kevin E. Dayhoff
In early November, Towson University announced that it will become a smoke free campus in late summer 2010.

Accepting One’s Inadequacies
Tom McLaughlin
London – I had the pleasure of visiting many scientists in the Museum of Natural History in this fabled town. My good friends, Jan and George, scientists in their own right who work there, introduced me to these scholars and they patiently explained their research.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Obama’s Breach of Faith
Roy Meachum
When the president of the United States talks to the nation tonight, I will not be listening. One chief reason I backed so enthusiastically Barack Obama was his campaign pledge to remove American forces from the Middle East. In addition to everything else, including his endorsing George W. Bush’s wars, Sen. John McCain was simply not my political tea.

For Better or Worse?
Farrell Keough
We’ve all seen and heard the current brouhaha’s within the Board of Education, but have we been able to follow the alternatives presented to this group for better educational choice and potential savings?

Monday, November 30, 2009
Considering the Source
Steven R. Berryman
More than a headline, title or subject line, considering the source author itself is most vital to comprehension when establishing the weight of your various media viewings and readings.

From Hither, Thither and Yon…
Michael Kurtianyk
I like it that Maryland’s State Highway Administration (SHA) is testing a new mixture for pre-treating roads this winter. It seems that the $25,000 pilot program will treat this winter’s roads with a mixture of salt water and a sugar beet molasses byproduct.

Friday, November 27, 2009
REVIEW: Good and Bad Theatrical Nights
Roy Meachum
It has been nearly 44 years since I first sat on the aisle as a critic; although reviewer might be more appropriate. Because of working on television (Washington’s Channel 9), the number of words was limited to maybe 250. Switching to print, the amount doubled but still not enough to nit and pick aspects of the production and the people in it.

Thursday, November 26, 2009
It Isn’t Just a Game
Tony Soltero
In November of 1979, Iranian militants invaded the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took more than 60 Americans hostage. A few were sent home shortly afterwards, but 52 of them remained captives of these terrorists for 444 excruciating days, finally being released after a long, arduous series of negotiations and a failed rescue attempt.

“Like the Pendulum Do”
Patricia A. Kelly
We’re trying too hard, and it isn’t working. Maybe it started when trash men became sanitation engineers, and when people started considering whether to call congressmen congress persons.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Goodbye, and Good Riddance
Kevin E. Dayhoff
Merry Christmas, weeks early. It’s a great day in American. Bill Moyers is leaving weekly television.

Gramps’ Special Black Friday Gifts
Tom McLaughlin
It has been a few years since Mom and Dad passed away but I remember the torture I went through to try and figure out what to get them for Christmas. Even now, the thought makes me shudder.

A Plus, A Minus, and Thanks
Derek Shackelford
Former Vice-Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin is currently on a cross county tour promoting her book, “Going Rogue.” She has recently made the rounds on many of the most popular television shows, The Oprah Winfrey Show, an interview with Barbara Walter, The Sean Hannity Show, and many of the morning news programs.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Childhood Holidays
Roy Meachum
With its rich tradition of Mardi Gras, I must report it was the only holiday publicly celebrated. In my New Orleans childhood, while there were balls in the weeks before Fat Tuesday, attendance was limited to Krewe (club) members. Things really came apart the weekend before Ash Wednesday when out-of-towners poured through the railroad stations; air travel was still in the future. But Thanksgiving couldn’t be celebrated in a more subdued manner.

The Pain of Taking a Break
Farrell Keough
I have been on hiatus. I would say sabbatical, but that involves payment during the absence and considering the vast sums we are paid here at TheTentacle.com, how could one possibly expect our esteemed editor to pay us when we are away?

Math-Test Taking: A Study Guide
Nick Diaz

Two weeks ago I listed the causes of math-test anxiety and the ways a student should deal with such a condition. In this column I’ll list some strategies that may lead a student to improve his math-test-taking skills.

Monday, November 23, 2009
Of Double-Dips and Bubbles
Steven R. Berryman
The corollary of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s famous “We have nothing to fear but fear itself” is that economically, it’s the “not knowing” that can damage us even worse than a specific negative indicator of our progress in recovery.

To Grow or Not to Grow
Michael Kurtianyk
So, the current aldermen overrode a veto by Mayor Jeff Holtzinger on the city’s Comprehensive Plan. Specifically, the Board of Aldermen voted to approve it. Mayor Holtzinger vetoed the plan, citing the approximately 1,100 acres intended for development in the future may not have future water and sewer capacities. Thus, the mayor doesn’t want to mislead those property owners by having them think their parcels could be developed.

20091202 sdosm This week in The Tentacle
*****
Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack: http://www.kevindayhoff.net/ Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://www.kevindayhoffart.com/ Kevin Dayhoff Westminster: http://www.westgov.net/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevindayhoff Twitpic: http://twitpic.com/photos/kevindayhoff Kevin Dayhoff's The New Bedford Herald: http://kbetrue.livejournal.com/
*****
Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack: http://www.kevindayhoff.net/ Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://www.kevindayhoffart.com/
My http://www.explorecarroll.com/ columns appear in the copy of the Baltimore Sunday Sun that is distributed in Carroll County: https://subscribe.baltsun.com/Circulation/

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Local University to ban eating ice cream on campus


A leading “Local University” will be an ice cream-free campus, according to recent widely circulated media reports. (Click here for a larger image: http://twitpic.com/plzlw )

November 14, 2009 by Kant BeTrue New Bedford Herald http://tinyurl.com/yck8ubq

The policy was announced last Wednesday by university officials as they sipped bottled water and munched on simulated fiber-bars, Manhattan style fish assholes and giant curried water bugs. (Click here for a larger image of the “Red Curry Giant Water Bugs: http://twitpic.com/plzzd )

University officials expressed pride at becoming “Maryland's first four-year college to ban an activity once as commonplace as lounging on the quad,” according to one local newspaper.

The sloth-like “lounging in the quad” is also under consideration to be banned. “We want a healthy – and all-conforming campus, that is obedient and health-conscious,” said officials.

“The reason for the policy, which goes into effect in August, is simple, administrators said: They want to reduce health risks from (eating ice cream) and secondhand exposure to (obese students.”)

"I don't try to guide people in how they live their lives, but I am going to protect the campus so it's clean and pleasant for as many people as possible," said the Local University President, Dr. Knowles Jerry-Ben, known affectionately on campus as “Dr. Kno,” who cited a study by The Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Eating ice cream is decadent, indulgent, and delicious, however, the consumer watchdog group is warning many ice cream treats are “coronaries in cones.” Many top brands contain huge amounts of calories and saturated fats said CSPI.

According to one publication, which reported upon the study, “the researchers were astounded at the calories and saturated fat content in a single cone of many products sold by companies like Baskin-Robbins, Ben & Jerry's and Haagen-Dazs.”

Local University has concurrently announced that all products manufactured by Baskin-Robbins, Ben & Jerry's and Haagen-Dazs are not only banned on campus, but also prohibited within a ten-mile radius of the university campus.

Also, all local rallies and celebrations of National Ice Cream Day, usually held every year on July 15, are also now banned. Defiant demonstrators will be dealt with sternly, warned one official as he manically munched on the cardboard wrapper of a simulated fiber-bar.

When asked to comment on a Frederick News-Post article from 2007 that noted “In 1984, President Reagan designated National Ice Cream Day and declared July to be National Ice Cream Month,” one university official belched that President Ronald Reagan and any reference to the former president or his words or “utterances” is now deemed “hate-speech” and also banned on campus.

The news account had cited that “Reagan recognized ice cream as a fun and nutritious food enjoyed by 90 percent of the nation's population, according to the website for the International Dairy Foods Association.

One university official reminded the audience that the International Dairy Foods Association – the IDFA - is now on the Obama administration’s terrorist watch list for propagandizing that “The average amount of ice cream consumed in the United States on any given day in July is 5.3 million gallons.”

The inquiring reporter was immediately – and forcibly - removed from the news conference in handcuffs for asking questions considered seditious in tenor and rebellious in nature.

As the reporter, B. P. Ward of the Potomac Publishing Co., was dragged from the room, he shouted, “George Washington spent $200 on ice cream in the summer of 1790 – that’s a lot of money for back then.”

To which several university officials responded that any reference to President Washington is also seditious… and now banned.

Meanwhile, a published account noted that “Everyone knows that ice cream isn’t a health food, acknowledges the U.S.-based food sleuths famed for blowing the whistle on movie theatre popcorn and MSG in Chinese takeout,” which are also already banned from the campus.

The published account on the perils of ice cream noted, “A CSPI study released Wednesday found a regular scoop of premium ice cream provides 250 to 350 calories and half a day's worth of artery clogging saturated fat.

“‘That's twice what you'd get in a supermarket ice cream like Bryers,’ nutritionist Jayne Hurley told a Washington press conference.

“It can get worse. The food police say a large vanilla shake from Baskin-Robbins has more than 1,000 calories and 32 grams of saturated fat. That's like eating three McDonald's Quarter Pounders.”

All McDonald’s products have been banned from the university campus for some time, noted university officials.

“Hurley even had a warning about empty cones.

“‘This empty chocolate dipped waffle cone from Ben & Jerry's is the equivalent to a half pound rack of baby backribs…”

Waffles, baby backribs and all meat are also banned from the campus, university officials said with noticeable pride, while spitting-out giant water bug shells.
(Click here for a larger image of the Manhattan style fish: http://twitpic.com/pm08r )

Recently ABC News Medical Unit reported that “While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention consistently report that meat is the number one cause of foodborne illness, they are not the only foods to be wary of.

“A new report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest found that a number of food poisoning cases are caused by some unexpected foods, including leafy greens, potatoes, and ice cream.”

Local University officials said that a ban on leafy greens and potatoes is also under consideration, which cited that, the “CSPI reported that leafy greens, including spinach, lettuce, and cabbage, were responsible for 363 outbreaks between 1990 and 2006 and caused 13,568 cases of illness.”

Eating hamburgers and all meat products, waffles, ice cream, popcorn, and Chinese food is “already banned in campus buildings at (Local University,) but under the new rules, it will be off-limits on the grounds: on sidewalks, in garages and parking lots, and even outside the bar … at the local bistro.”

Local University “joins a rapidly growing list of U.S. colleges - at least 365, according to the (American Say No to Ice Cream Rights Foundation) - that have banned (eating ice cream) on campus.”

According to a local publication: “Last year, Montgomery College became the first Maryland institution of higher education to take the leap. Harford, Frederick, and Carroll community colleges have followed suit. Pennsylvania's university system has banned (eating ice cream) on all of its campuses.”

Dr. Kno “said a survey found that a very small percentage of students and faculty (eat ice cream) and that those who do, (eat ice cream) less frequently than they did in the past. The policy encountered some opposition from student leaders.”

However, all opposition, dialogue, and discussion of university policies have long been banned on campus, following recent successful attempts at banning any opposition to the Ruling Party, on both the state and national level.

Some students “wondered if the university will be able to enforce the rule, noting that a current ban on (eating ice cream) within 30 feet of school buildings is only loosely followed.”

Directing their attention to the 30-foot rule, university officials deny that students have been beaten for violating the rules; however, a small number of students were imprisoned last year for eating ice cream.

University officials, speaking on the condition of animosity, said, that the arrests and incarcerations will continue until the mood and moral of the campus improves and conformity abounds.

“Students and staff members who violate the rules will face fines and sanctions. Visitors who” eat ice cream “may be barred from future access to the 328-acre campus,” and sent to a fat-farm for re-education…

“Some students said the ban on (ice cream) will improve campus.”

“By not having eating ice cream on campus, kids will stop eating ice cream,” said a senior, “can world peace be too far away as a result?”


-30 ½ -

Kant Betrue, a Carthaginian with a Doctorate in Modern Anxiety and a minor in ennui; whose family settled in Westminster after the Third Punic War, has been with the New Bedford Herald since the 1960s (he can’t remember exactly when in the 1960s…). A Pulverized Prize winner for journalism, he writes about issues ranging from the international syntactic semiotic economics to avatars of hyper-theoretical exploding toilets.

Local University to ban eating ice cream on campus #art #PC http://tinyurl.com/yck8ubq http://twitpic.com/plzlw

Click here for a larger image of poison-labeled ice cream art: http://twitpic.com/plzlw

Red curried giant water bugs at university to ban eating ice cream on campus http://tinyurl.com/yck8ubq http://twitpic.com/plzzd

Click here for a larger image of the “Red Curry Giant Water Bugs: http://twitpic.com/plzzd

Manhattan style fish %#&holes at university to ban eating ice cream on campus http://tinyurl.com/yck8ubq http://twitpic.com/pm08r

Click here for a larger image of the Manhattan style fish: http://twitpic.com/pm08r

*****

Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack: http://www.kevindayhoff.net/ Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://www.kevindayhoffart.com/ Kevin Dayhoff Westminster: http://www.westgov.net/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevindayhoff Twitpic: http://twitpic.com/photos/kevindayhoff Kevin Dayhoff's The New Bedford Herald: http://kbetrue.livejournal.com/
*****
Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack: http://www.kevindayhoff.net/ Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://www.kevindayhoffart.com/
My http://www.explorecarroll.com/ columns appear in the copy of the Baltimore Sunday Sun that is distributed in Carroll County: https://subscribe.baltsun.com/Circulation/