Things about me you might (not) want to know Undressed from the neck up Becky Weindorf copy edit 'H You might be surprised what the copy editor of this semester's Beacon has to share with you. I might not be an inter esting character, but I guarantee that some of the things you will read will make you laugh. Or you might think I'm really, really screwed up. Hey, I'm writ ing this thing in less than half an hour in the week before finals! You better be lieve I'm going to get a little spacey here! First of all, I am a creative writing En glish major. And thanks to several of my professors here on campus, I am starting to be proud of that. What will I do with that major, you might ask? For now, I'm planning on technical writing or advertising. Why not major in adver tising, you wonder? Because I DON'T WANT TO. And no, there is no way I'm going to be a teacher of English because I'm sick of the class room already. So quit asking if I'm go ing to teach. I'm going to write. Second of all: In a frenzy of impor tant deadlines and missed hours of sleep, I decided to get my belly button pierced in October. Considering that lots of girls have done that already, I still think it's an achievement for me. I don't care if I'm 20 and I chickened out the first time around a year ago; I wanted to do it and I did. Yes, it hurt. No, I can't feel it. Yes, it gets infected if you touch it with your dirty fingers. No, please don't touch it. Yes, you can see it if you would like. The reason I write this is because I want to have fun and show off. Yes, I'll admit that I want just a little atten tion. Doesn't everybody? Plus, when I show Mom how well my belly is heal ing, she says she gets dizzy and can't look at the ring. It weirds her out but she makes me laugh. While on the subject of body art (or body mutilation, as some older fellows would say,) I have a tattoo on my right ankle as well. Yes, it hurt. It hurt like a mother, and I'll tell you, tattooing is more painful than piercing. It's a purple and yellow flower against a black italic background to accent it. I like it, ex cept that when I got the courage to show my parents a month after I had it done, my father looked curiously at it and said the following words that made me crest fallen: "Why did you get a biohazard symbol on you?" Yes, the black italic background was, as he defined it, a bio hazard symbol. I'm not so sure it is; I just wanted it because I saw it and said that was the one. Both my parents, as you have guessed, do not have tattoos. I told my mother she was a rebel when she got her ears double pierced. Other things? I'm getting married in a year and a half, but if you're a faithful reader of my column, you already knew that. I also love to swing dance, when ever I get a stinking chance to do it be tween the rest of the stuff I do here at Behrend. I belong to a service frater nity named Alpha Phi Omega. You want service hours and to meet some great people, that's where you should be look ing. I also have a 15-year-old purebred Shih-Tzu named Tuffy that can still walk around the house she's almost com pletely blind. I can roll my tongue down, not up, like most people can; my genes are backwards, I suppose. And I can lift both of my eyebrows one at a time, back and forth. Not many people can do that talent (I've already polled a bunch of people.) And one more thing: because I'm at my word quota for my editorial this week, I'm going to stop and I hope you look forward to my return in SPO2 with a brand new position (yet again) with the Beacon. Merry Christmas and have a blessed holiday season and New Year (oh yeah, I'm Roman Catholic, too. I sincerely mean having a blessed holiday, whatever religion you practice. How ever, if you don't want a blessed New Year, then have the best damn drunken New Year's you've ever had. And get a designated driver if you do.) Weindorf's column appears every three weeks. One bad Greek doesn't ruin Greece , , ilhilliSS Nr, ', i 4i,.,. IFORICAIie '— ' , 51 . 4 to . ' , Many of us know someone who does it way too much. They sit there and spout off about it, unaware of the fact we, a) aren't listening or b) don't care and/or are annoyed by them. You may ask what it is I'm talking about? I'm talking about people who criticize! I used to be one of these people. I'd whine, bitch, moan and complain about anything that pissed me off; whether it was someone I knew, something I disliked, etc. What happened? I went to high school and began to mature. I realized how stupid and self-destructive criticizing could be. Did it accomplish anything? No. What irks me, though, is when someone The heavyweight champion of the schoo ce my last editorial and both of you who read that edition have probably forgotten what I wrote about. I spent most of my 700 words babbling, but somewhere in there I took the liberty to declare myself Dean of Behrend. I have yet to receive opposition to this claim, so I assume everyone out there is okay with me running the show. It will be a big responsibility and my classes don't allow me time for this, but I can afford to let my GPA slide a little. I'm going into my final semester here, and with my new title, this will be the most fun semester yet. I'm not talking most fun for just me; I'm going to help Behrend EDITORIAL Friday, December 7, 2001 Oh, you didn't know? Karl Benacci be any group or heritage. Some people criticize Greeks, saying we think we're so cool and believe we're better than non- Greeks. Okay, there are definitely Greeks out there acting this way, but are all Greeks like this? Nope! For one to make the claim all Greeks act this way is stereotyping. In fact, I've never seen a Greek criticize a person for being non-Greek. I only see certain non-Greeks criticizing Greeks! When this happens, a number of questions run through my head. I think, "Leave us alone! Why do some people HAVE TO criticize us? Does it make these people feel better about themselves? Are they lacking something in their personal life? Are they jealous for whatever reason? What other groups do they stereotype?" Let me break it down for you. There are bad Greeks and there are good Greeks, just as there are good and bad Italians, Baptists, etc. One wicked person in a group does not mean everyone in that group is that way, and if one thinks this, they will ye and tgles Anthon of his authority is the special gown he wears at graduations. I hereby i ti i co i ttain k t proclaim that the Dean will now wear a gold-encrusted belt over his shoulder at all school functions. This belt will be similar to the one worn by WWF Heavyweight Champion Steve Austin and it will not be just for show, either; I plan to defend it against other area Deans. I think Mercyhurst's Dean is a nun, but I'd still tell her to bring it on if she started talking trash on me. The next thing I would do is bring some money into this school. Dean Lilley did a great job of getting alumni to donate tons of cash, but I have a feeling the well will run dry soon if I don't get busy on this. Here is my plan. Engineering is the biggest major here, and it seems that most engineering students have internships or jobs with General Electric. Plus, GE is always investing money into criticizes a whole group of people. There are so many groups of people who are criticized for the way they look, dress, stand for, or simply are. I'm in a fraternity, so I will use that as my example of a group (for I need to use an example I can tell about from my experience); however, as I said before, it could regain its "hot and trendy" title (maybe I'll help it lose it instead...did anything good really come out of that fiasco?). For my first order of business, I need to change the rules a bit. All I have ever known a Dean to have as a symbol .... Behrend (i.e. Knowledge Park.) So I would like to propose that GE purchase the entire engineering end of campus from Behrend and make it a totally separate school. It could be called General Electric University and when students graduate from it, they will receive their GED (General Electric Degree.) Not only will this give engineering students closer ties with GE, but it would also free up a lot of money for Behrend's other departments like Humanities and Business. Any student majoring in these areas can tell you that we are in dire need of new technologies and resources within these majors. Next on my agenda is to address several issues/rumors I keep hearing about. I would publish these viewpoints and distribute them to all students so everyone is in the know. For instance, I would point out that bandwidth in the residence halls has been limited to 50 kb/s. Have you noticed that your computer has been running a lot slower lately? For anyone who is unfamiliar with what this means, our connection here at school is now probably slower than your DSL connection at home. The Hot Debate of The Week Is Yassir Arafat an ally or a terrorist? Yeah, that's a great idea! Isolate and punish Arafat. That is exactly what the USA needs; another problem. Arafat has worked with us for years on trying to reach a successful peace in Israel. i fm? Ptifii ; 4 ) . asi. i 4u f-the red ill'Onci er act ~.1,- '.o;;': Here is the deal: We need to punish those repo', 'l* fur terror. That is clear-c 1: i e.e opinion, non-ne. I - go after Arafat s • 1 for the Palestinians and Arabs in general. If we would cut relations with him or try to take action against him then we'd be sending a message to the Arab people that this war is not about ending terror, but about ending the Palestinian cause. We should use the events of Sept. 11 to try to come to some sort of arrangements and settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In my view there is no better time to do so (in fact it should be on our list of top priorities, to stop terrorism we need to end the fighting in Israel.) To reach this goal the U.S. will need Arafat. He is essential to any peace that will come about in the region. It will also strengthen the coalition and send the message to Arabs that the most powerful nation on earth and friends are not after Arabs, but terrorists. From this we will find not another enemy, but another ally in the coalition. -Guy Reschenthaler Every week, two editors from the staff will debar • encouraged to email suggestions for the h be thinking with the same mind-frame as Hitler and bin Laden. What good did they do? Groups that are criticized rarely care what others have to say about them. I don't care about what people have to say about me being Greek. Why would I? I'm perfectly happy with my life and don't care what others think about me. I'd rather people judge others by who they are and not base it on their heritage, looks or what group they're in. How's that old saying go? Never judge someone until you walk a mile in his or her shoes? Before one judges a group, one would have to get to know every person in that group, or else one would be stereotyping. Agreed? Do I judge non-Greeks? No, that would be stupid. After all, the non-Greek population is made up of lots of different people. Some of those individuals might not be cool; however, a lot are. I wouldn't judge all non-Greeks just because I had a bad experience or disliked one. So why would people stereotype other groups, such as Greeks? We're not all the same, just as all people in other groups aren't the same. Anyone curious about a group should talk to a member of that group. I'm sure most people in a group would be more than happy to inform one about it. After all, judging someone without obtaining information about them is ignorance. Would one like it if someone judged them when The Behrend Beacon The Al-qaida network is to the Taliban as the Hamas is to the Palestinian Authority. Plain and simple. The who-to the what to the who now? If you don't know what I'm talking about, you probably haven't been paying attention to the news lately. T —444,0)4,0 wo 4 brutal , regime that cont 0 . a war - tOn 'country through fear and , ewe. Thi,afititin ha red great anti- ~ ' ' *cantbi arittaittsian sentiments for a variety of reasons. In order to remain a politically viable entity in the world playing fielciPtbelAibim *thered their anti Am 5„<0*.,,,.. feelings by o ...4 , ^4 ;' ' '' coopera , t it group of tr terroris'th- • • a a, h is (was?) lead by our good friend Bin Laden. The Palestinian Authority is a regime that controls a war-torn country through a common ethnic and cultural bond. The Palestinian Authority harbors great anti- American and anti-Israeli sentiment. In order to retain support from the (wealthy) Western world, the Palestinians cannot directly attack America or Israel. So that they can carry out their anti-American and anti-Israeli agenda, the Palestinian Authority tolerates a tightly knit group of terrorists, the Hamas, living on their soil. Yasser Arafat has no interest in peace in the Middle East There has been ample opportunity for a peace agreement to be reached, but Arafat was never content. Every cease-fire between Israel and Palestine is shattered by the sound of another car bomb going off in a civilian A Palestinian leader who is interested in unification, not separation, is what the Middle East needs. Throw the bum out. - Ben Kundman a topic that is hot. Students, faculty and staff are of topic. Send ideas to behrcoll2@aol.com they knew little or nothing about them? Probably not. But as I said before, one would most likely not care, for if a person did that, one would most likely not want to get to know them anyway. I don't know why some people have such distaste for certain groups. Must they criticize for attention? I don't know. What should one do when someone who doesn't know what they're talking about is criticizing them? Well, let's look at baseball star Jackie Robinson. He was, as many of us know, the first African American to break into Major League Baseball. When he played against other teams, he was treated like crap, simply because he was African American. Robinson received taunts and some players even tried hurting him. Did Robinson curse back or throw punches? Nope! He showed he was better than those who persecuted him by action, not words. He played his heart out and never lowered himself to their level. That's respectable. When being criticized, one needs to he like Mr. Robinson, and turn the other cheek. As I said before, I don't know why some individuals judge groups. I feel sympathy for those people and hope they can find the courage to learn to judge people for who they are. Benacci's column appears every three weeks. Also regarding computers, does anyone know why there were cops in the library computer lab last Friday morning? I'm Dean and I don't even know why. When graduation time comes around, I would let the graduating students decide the faculty member who will give the commencement address. This fall's speaker, I understand, is certainly not a favorite among the students in his major. In fact, I have been told this person is a....we11, this is not the BUDPOT, so I can't really say here in the Beacon what I've heard about him. Next, I want to publicly point out how funny I think it is that last night I got an email at 11:03 telling me to go to a concert at 8 that night. Sure, let me just charge up my flux capacitor and hop in my DeLorean and zip back three hours ago. If you know of any issues or juicy info about the school or faculty, I would love to know about it. I have an open door policy as Dean and I feel the students should know everything. Email me (rjal42@psu.edu) and I'll share your thoughts with the rest of campus in future editorials. Anthony's column appears every three weeks. Page 9a
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