Plain Janes are eco-heroines I'.v k. Kelly knight Kidder Newspapers Call '* t i!’ h I i‘i n i victory lor all the women out thcic who don't primp and preen, and lor tin guys who believe that a five-minute sltowei is all they need to face the world 1 urns out. we ie on the front lines of en- vironmental delensi. An analysis teleased Wednesday by a team of scientists lot the U.S. Geological Survey shows that a variety of chemicals Irom personal care products - shampoo, makeup, deodoiunt and such - are among the "organic w asicw ater contaminants" found in I' S u aiei wa\ .. Sure, we no makeup tvpes just thought we ware savme nine and money by not spending an Inuu even morning in front ol the miimi w ilh .m anay of foundations. coneealeis. highlighters, minimizers, moisturi/ei s. powder palettes and other weapons o! lucial w ai laic We comb and go lulks thought we were just simplilvmg our lives vvhen we adopted “basic" haircuts that don't require the ap plication ol pi oduct gels, shines, waxes, sculpting sprays, volumizers. mousses, thickening glues, glazes, activa- tors or textme v teams before we can leave the house We ; iccepkd that others would often judge us to be la/v ill groomed, unaware of out beauts potential or "letting our- selves go Most ol us never dicamed we were on the cutting edge ■>! an emerging" envi- ronmental ISS'll You see all tho .e be.nils products even tually m 1 wiubls d oil laves and washed out ol haii mid into walei tieatment sys tems that men i dv signed to remos'e them. So the cli inn ah that millions ol Ameri- cans put on ibe 11 I sal ics c in. lup in our wa Although mo l ol us think of solvents and othei i nditsi m ,d w nates w hen we think (>l watet im >!! ill i 1 ’n the < iiolngical Survey looked loi i liemu ;iK lomid in PPCPs, which s'.i'nl'. bn "pliat macc.ulicals and person;!l uiu' pi<hlih l^ It's [uvnmim’ <. Ksu. Item (Ik* new analy sis publi-'licti in iIk 1 k 11 it 1 ' nt issue ol hnvi ronmenkil S< iuih c leehnt'lngy and from previous studie done in Linopo and Canada, tba! eliemteals used in beauty aids are a ptow me i < meet n (ienet ;d!\. <' u* talking about trace a i is ‘i , I lowing with shower amount gel and mkim. aia. bin scientists aie uneasy because the effects of long-tei m exposuic and lioss sik h i iieinu ais may interact in the wild ate unclear. While (lies 1 1 y to sort i( all out and de velop bettei was"' in remove PPC P con- taminants, ii would he prudent to reduce the flow. Stiir. the folks who will give up their hair gel qnly when it s pried from their cold, dead hands vastly outnumber the shampoo - on I v community, hut perhaps we till could use a hit less. A headl'ul ol thick, loamy shampoo may feel luxurious, hut it's just wasteful, say beauty-cate experts. When you use too much shampoo, you re sending more de tergents, fragrance, preservatives, humee tants, thickeners, emulsiliers and condi tioners down the drain needlessly. Ft’s also worth noting that frequent shampooing can make hair dry and unruly, which prompts many' lolks to turn to other products - and a whole additional slate ol chemicals - to solve the problem. Better to just wash your hair a little less often, you’ll create less pollution and spend less time and money on your hair, too. The same is true of bathing and show ering; there is such a thing as being too clean. Not only does the resulting dry, itchy, flaky skin prompt us to reach for moisturizers and lotions, it can make us more susceptible to irritations and infec tions. By definition, PPC’Ps include common medications, too. such as antibiotics, hor mone replacements, antidepressants and analgesics. To be honest, it’s easier to fo cus on beauty products than treatments that measurably improve our quality of life. Everyone can live without wrinkle cream and hair spray, though. Can’t you? ABOUT THE WRITER l Kelly is :,n editorial writer for the Wichita Eagle. Readers may write to her at the Wichita Eagle. 825 E. Douglas Avc„ Wichita. Kan. 67202, or via e-mail at Ikellyf AT) w ichitaeagle.com. Put this JLook, here s how it is Reschenthaler The other day I heard on the radio that the state of California is seriously considering raising the smoking age to 21. If one is not over the age of 21 then he/she cannot pur chase or smoke cigarettes, cigars, etc. This is just down-right stupid. Think about it. An 18, 19, or 20 year old could serve in the Armed Forces but could not smoke a cigarette if he/she is in Califor nia. It is bad enough the drinking age is 21 (that is a topic for another day) let alone that Need to get something off of your chest? Race-baiters by Stanley Crouch New York Daily News In Texas, the state where James Byrd was dragged to his death by three white men who were convicted of homicide and sentenced to death by an integrated jury, a black woman w as just charged with murder. She is accused of running into a homeless w hile man who got caught in the glass of her windshield, driving him home, parking her car in the garage, closing her garage door and allow ing him to bleed to death as he begged her to call for help whenever she cheeked on his condition. If she is found irrefutably guilty, is this Texas woman’s crime different trom that of James Byrd's murderers? Sure, on one level. Byrd was lured to his death by men who had killing on their minds. There was clearly a racial subtext. The home Lowest uncommon denominator: TV hits it by Myriam Marquez The Orlando Sentinel Two trailer-trash girls duke it out on na tional television. We should laugh it off as just another example of American frivolity in a culture of throwaway excess. Fat and supposedly happy Americans don’t take themselves too seriously. Even after the horror of Sept. 11, everything’s seemingly back to “normal.” Except I’m not. The banality of what passes for normalcy in our society contin ues to astound even this child of pop cul ture and former addict of round-the-clock TV. As a youngster, I learned rudimentary English, thanks to Lucy and Ricky and Ethel and that cheapskate husband of hers, Fred. I learned valuable economics lessons - particularly the cost of chi-chi things that were prohibitively expensive for my fam ily - by watching “The Price is Right.” Comedy shows, game shows, even soap op eras helped lighten the mental load of a latchkey kid of the duck-and-cover nuclear ’6os. I was not alone. American kids were glued to their TVs after school - little spuds in the making of couch-potato heaven. Friday, March 22, 2002 in your pipe and smoke the Golden State is considering making the smoking age 21. Every time I turn around, California is doing something moronic so normally I would not be surprised by a bad idea coming from the West Coast, but this shocked me just because it is such a bad idea. If someone wants to smoke, let him or her smoke. Live and let live, live and let die of lung cancer —who cares? Every one knows the risks ol tobacco use. They are not my lungs, your lungs, or the state of California's lungs. So let people do what they want to do. Their body, their choice. When making legislation it is important to look at one question: Will the law change how people behave? If the answer to the ques tion is no and the law is passed, then one more useless law is put on the books. If a law is so ridiculous that no one will follow it then it is not worth passing. Penn sylvania would never want to pass a law mak ing the speed limit throughout the state 10 MPH. That would be dumb. If California Look, here’s how it is Send letters, both positive and negative, can forget this Texas case less man’s tragic story began as an accident and allegedly descended into astonishingly cruel treatment, followed by the woman and some friends dumping his body in a park, where the cops initially assumed he was the victim of a hit-and-run driver. Not a hit-and carry driver. We know, of course, that if the situation were reversed, we would see all the civil rights establishment speaking on somebody’s steps somewhere in the area. We would see a march, a candlelight one if by night. There would be loud talk about hate crimes, and someone would say predictable things about the white woman who ran that black man down and refused to call tor help while he bled to death. Slic'd be accused of locking hands with all those white women in the past who’ve been central to the murders of black men. The incident would be described as an They still are, but today’s shows seek out the lowest uncommon denominator in our society. This hasn’t happened overnight. It has taken decades to spiral uncontrollably downward, and every time I think there’s no other place to go but up, another pathetic show or two or three drags us down. Last week’s new low in TV viewing may have caught my attention because I just had returned from traveling to a country where two government-run channels are the Cu ban people’s only choices. Given dozens of choices here at any given hour, what do Americans settle for? Celebrities with little box-office flair (a Backstreet Boy among them) letting bugs, worms and snakes crawl over them in NBC’s “Fear Factor.” On TNN’s “Fame for 15” we were treated to short biographies of tangential no-names like Donato Dalryrmple, the fisher guy who plucked Elian Gonzalez from the sea and then held tight till the bitter end, and Di vine Brown, the Los Angeles streetwalker who latched on to Brit star Hugh Grant for her 15 minutes and then some. But the absolute talk of the airwaves was a match that didn’t take but a couple of min utes, if that much, between two scandal- to the editor! behrcoll2@aol.com passes this law it will also be dumb because no one will follow it. Laws cannot change how people think. That is a very important concept, so I’ll re peat —laws cannot change how people think. If a teenager thinks he/she wants to smoke he/she will smoke. If someone thinks smok ing is cool he/she will smoke. The govern ment can waste all its money on enforcement, on useless TV commercials but when the day is done they will have done absolutely mull ing to change public opinion about smoking A case in point is the drinking age. It is 21. last time I checked. Go around Bruno's and ask students under the age of 21 if they con sume alcoholic beverages. Then ask them il they think it is wrong that they do. 1 m willing to wager a few bones that at least Sg percent of the students under 21 drink and that close to 80 percent of them feel it is not w mug to do so. State law states that the drinking age is 21. but most do not think it is wrong to think Once again—laws cannot change how people other example of the war against black men We might even see a march by the new Black Panthers announcing that homeless black men should arm themselves so that, if caught in the windshields of white women they could shoot their way out or avenge themselves. What we really need to do is to rcmembei less expected kinds or responses that express our collective relationship to the threat of le thal violence. In 1989, when a gang of black and Latino teen-agers attacked a white woman who was jogging in Central Park, bashed her skull with a brick, beat her with pipes, raped her repeat edly and left her for dead with 75 percent ot her blood creating red mud, the Rev. I lerlvi t Daughtry and a number of black minister held a daily prayer vigil for her as death tried to rock her to sleep. It was one of the most mongering bad girls on the Fox Network’s “Celebrity Boxing” show. Tonya Harding, infamous for plotting to smash skating ri val Nancy Kerrigan’s kneecap before the 1994 Olympics, relentlessly pounded Paula “I’m a good girl” Jones, whose sexual-ha rassment lawsuit against Bill Clinton led to political investigations that uncovered an intern named Monica “not" having sex with Mr. President. Of course, Paula only wanted her good name cleared. And Clinton the scum bucket should have apologized and spared us all the humiliation of two-plus years cover age into such boxer wars. Why care ’ Clinton’s a has-been. And after posing in tight jeans and for a nude magazine spread, plus getting a new nose, Paula s good name can’t be murkier. But isn’t that precisely why people tune in to watch such spectacles? Paula always could say she was being a good sport. For Thursday’s match, Paula stepped in for another bad girl, “Long Is land Lolita” Amy Fisher, who probably could have creamed Tonya had the parole board allowed Amy to rumble. But alas. Amy had to pretend to be nice by parole board decree and poor Paula, who looked |i i iii i in,, i ',1,11 h.i'.m-s this law— it \s>>11 1 • Im i -mi|m itin- 1 1:: isc people out there Inn , .it'll ,ii‘‘ i ii- i'iiln'ii time and money. In i,i. t .1,,.ii.;' tin i .i' under 21 will in cic.iM h hi iM- i 1., I las tiit will add into the mul n :■, ,|i , ; i 'i: I \cnune loves a rebel, 1 1 111 , \, h- .■ ill 1. 1 . i in under 2 1 smoker i <r. • h m ilk' iHivemment to H i-ul.'i' a I. l' |’ .•(•!. .1" i" tln-irown bodies. do.I linn I Hi . ui ’M ■ mum iml \Mimcn who are old ciK'i" l( 1 '■ i> 'ii, i \ ire not lie allowed l.iu u ill change the - I iv, will change how In h i\ ' |Vnpf 'ln:,! Rt si hcnihau r \ column appears ti V 111, ■' d l ! I "i M ■■■ r>ifs. 1 1 n B;irnctt, Bobby ( It.vm , n .i ! . i '.hi'!, i, mu Mack men, saw on i c li ■■ i.‘ 11 * | | h nny, a white man, >-l. iiii Jui iii” the Los An- w ,i.l - : ' In .lilt It,II 11 ■I 1 ( ,' i,,1 . .h.i.n ! . impassion and top-of ii„. i nil , , •!! ■ ! . , 1 1 ■ \ in" to the scene and ,i!I. ; , 11. uni nl the lion’s den. De DEAD SEA 1 like :i ,|n 1 i'lll 'Mime pumped hen 1 1. "M-i,- <.m>a in the ring, ihiiii.’ |ust one more runniii ■ 1 1 11 (> 11 1> 1 1 ! .!'' ■ i- ■.J \\ illi\ of “Different Stink,’ i i ,| !nn.,,11,-it rapper Vanilla Ice. “Ihe I’ Mi' : ■ I i"■ ii \ I hinny Bonaduce bopped m w 'Mi.im ■, of "The Brady 131 m h would h l,i m i 1 Ilf 1.0 w unit! I would eel !' has i.in"l 1 1 Yolk We! And I \ MU >1 I I 111 W PI I I P. Mm i mi \l.n, in.-/ h ;m editorial pagecol uiiiiim! Ini ■!, ihi mil,. Sentinel. Readers ma\ unte t!, i .<i the Orlando Sentinel, bO \ n 11 1 ’ t »i me \\e . Orlando, Fla. i.'sf’l i' e-mail at The Bvhrend Beacon ' ..M ii K ", will nnK' line! it unen- •i: : this nle.i is dumb, i ■•incli .linnilim”. It may be l i" I,limn but it won’t i i. r \ Ou t c necks \ll seen in this town in ’ !i>.'l nl the cops who i n place since then, !. I,id that Murphy, uni '.mill shocked and out- i I ~is. someone who • mun il the police after i-| i '■ edlv was over- t . •l, id homeless man ' ih ■ nil mthts leader- h, ' h.i, l vens hopping one nr, I,uld Bridges (the in,| |mi. to provoke ,m'i), i time perhaps I 1 ■ tew ritmles with the I! d my eyes about nun icana and that : I, ,e 11.iitl to imagine it idle:. Imii it will. History i'i.ii |.’n"i-. Ihi rued. The New !, t mi, i towers crumbled. ; i"' , h< ip thrills. m l, ' ent inel.com Page 7
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers