Page 8
1 elta Sonic: They do so much more than wash your car
by Ryan Russell
advertising manager
The new Delta Sonic car wash recently
opened on Peach Street, and students
around campus began hearing crazy
rumors about it. Gas for under a $1.30 a
gallon (buy a car wash, and you get a
discount on gas), and some kind of crazy
system to clean away every speck of dirt
possible from both the inside and outside
of your car.
The Beacon thought it would be best
for students to know just what is going
on at the Sonic, so the staff decided to
dispatch yours truly and his mud-and
garbage-covered 1999 Ford Taurus to
check the situation out.
After trashing my car like a rock star,
I drove up to the start of the Delta Sonic
car wash, where I was faced with several
options as to what I wanted to do with
my car.
I should take this time to mention that
this was my first interaction with Delta
Sonic employees.
All employees of Delta Sonic wear
button down shirts, with ties that are
tucked into the middle of their shirts,
bringing back that 1950's atmosphere
where the people at your gas station did
everything for you with a smile, and
looked like a million bucks while doing
it.
Car washes at Delta Sonic are not just
your average water and soap, high
pressure rinse jobs. They are an event.
There are car washes ranging in price
from $5.99 to over $2O, depending on
what options you want. Since I knew
the Beacon would be picking up the tab,
(Ed. Note: Good one, Ryan.) I decided
to go all out and purchase the "Super
Kiss Car Wash" with optional "Super
Interior Cleaning."
The two packages I chose together
included a touch-less car wash,
revitalizer, clearcoat polish and
protectant, rust inhibitor, underspray,
brake dust remover, interior vacuuming,
dashcream application, floormat
cleaning with "Super Foam," fragrance
application (I chose "New Car"),
window polishing, door jamb cleaning,
and finally, hand-cleaned tires.
The grand total for this package was
just under $2O. A great added bonus, one
that anyone who lives in Erie will jump
to take advantage of, is the Delta Sonic
5-day guarantee.
This guarantee says that if you take
your car hack to Delta Sonic within 5
days after you initially purchase your
"Super Kiss Car Wash," you can get
another one for free. With each "Super
Kiss Car Wash" costing $10.99, this is a
ereat deal for anyone who has to put up
Crossword
ACROSS
1 Eurasian vipers
5 Climb
10 Melt
14 Search
15 Rye disease
16 Freight-car
freeloader
17 Feel vexation
18 Line of
Londoners
19 Judge's garb
20 Two-handed
praise
22 Colossus site
24 Turnpike turnoff
25 Ignore with
contempt
26 Texas capital
29 Sewing kit item
33 Attitudes of a
people
34 Laziness
35 Fauna display
36 Laurel or Lee
37 Like gum
38 Soup du
39 " the fields we
go "
40 Bay window
41 Piano technician
42 Come
beforehand
44 Controversial
doctrine
45 Part of M I T.
46 Myrna in "The
Thin Man"
47 Expose as false
50 End of the world
54 Roman poet
55 Ness of "The
Untouchables"
57 Vague amount
58 Disgusting
59 On edge
60 Sacred image
61 Fraternal order
62 Pilot
63 Business abbr.
DOWN
-Romeo
(Italian car)
2 Dish with stock
3 Partner of
circumstance
4 Anatomy lab
display
====l
5 Spangle Solutions
6 Pie surface
7 "The Night of the
Hunter"
screenwriter
8 Bud's buddy
9 Infinite time
10 Pulsates
11 Gangster
12 French cleric
13 Sorrows
21 X or Y line
23 Be quiet!
25 Gloomy frown
26 Man of many
fables
27 Say
28 Diwy up
29 Rain on a winter
parade?
30 Ultraviolet filter
31 Reprobates
32 Repentant
34 kebab
37 Night chirpers
38 Spielberg film,
"
41 Prison time
43 Chopin piano
pieces
44 Owl
46 Hangman's loop
47 Symbol of
peace
Park"
40 Yoked pair
Ryan Russell's car rolls through another bay getting the royal treatment from many Delta Sonic employees. Russell's car has
never been treated so good.
with wonderful Erie winters from
November to April.
Now what made Delta Sonic stand out
so much from other car washes is the
amount of service they give for your
dollar. It's not just "in and out" car wash
boredom; it's "bring the camera to see
how they work" excitement. After taking
your car through a first "underspray"
wash, having several attendants hose it
down with soap, and then going through
the car wash, most services stop there.
Not at Delta Sonic. This is merely the
start of your car's journey.
After that, you drive up to a small
outdoor bay, where yet another smiling
attendant begins prep work on your car.
In my case, employee Brandie North
began removing all of the hug stains and
small pockets of dirt that the big pressure
washers couldn't get to. She also wiped
down all the windows, and dried off the
rest of the car. Think it's over? Nope,
48 Wickedness
49 Defraud
50 Sup
51 Long•gone bird
52 Love god
53 Canine cry
56 Permit to
FRATU
& FUNNIES
Friday, November 14, 2003
not yet at Delta Sonic; not even close.
Now the fun really begins. Pull up to
yet another bay, this one indoors, where
the interior work on your car begins. You
do have to leave your car, but all of the
work done on your car is viewable from
behind a glass wall, where it slowly
moves down an assembly line full of
vacuums, cleaning materials, cleaning
rags, and yet more nattily dressed,
smiling attendants.
It could be something out of a sequel
to "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate
Factory." Call it "Delta Sonic and the
Cleaning Factory. "And imagine a river
of soap in place of the chocolate.
Four or five people worked on my car
during this time, removing about two or
three years' worth of accumulated junk
in the time it would take me to read The
Complete Dramatic Works of Gary
Coleman. They vacuumed, cleaned all
four floor mats, scrubbed the outside and
Language boom sweeps colleges
by Robert Becker
Chicago Tribune
In an increasingly global economy and
as terrorism and war bring world events
home, American students have returned
to the study of foreign languages in
record numbers.
According to a study released
Thursday by the Modern Language
Association, 1.4 million American
college students are enrolled in foreign
language study, the most since the group
conducted its first survey in 1958.
Since 1998, the last time the survey
was published, the number of students
enrolled in foreign language courses has
Jumped 17.9 percent. The percentage of
college students taking such courses has
risen to 8.7 percent, the highest it's been
since 1972.
Students say the study of languages is
more than just an exercise in verb tenses
and vocabulary. Rather, it's a unique
window into another culture.
"Through German I'm getting a better
understanding of Germany and the
reunification process they're still
undergoing and just a lot of the things
they've gone through over the last 50
years the Cold War and all that," said
Aaron Miller, a freshman at the
University of Illinois at Chicago.
Study of some languages has risen
sharply. Since 1998, enrollment in
Arabic has increased 92.5 percent to
10,596 students from 5,505 and Biblical
Hebrew was up 59 percent, to 14,469
students from 9,099.
"I think no doubt it's the interest in
global issues," said Rosemary Feal,
executive director of the association.
inside of all of my windows, and threw
away all the junk I had hidden just to
see if they could find it. Not to mention
they sprayed the inside of my car with
"New Car" smell when they were done.
Is this where the Taurus' journey ends?
Of course not; this is Delta Sonic.
Finally. the Taurus was pulled to one
last outdoor hay, where another attendant
hand-cleaned my tires, and gave the car
a last good inspection. Then she came in
and asked me to inspect the car. I did,
and seeing as how I have never cleaned
it, was ecstatic with the job Delta Sonic
had done.
So as you can tell, going to a Delta
Sonic car wash isn't as simple as going
to a standard one. With all the car wash
options, competitive prices, and the
amazing attendants, it could take some
time to get your car whipped into shape;
and from now on, I wouldn't trust anyone
but Delta Sonic to do it.
"The world is smaller, and people are
much more aware of the need to expand
their learning beyond the border of the
U.S."
Even with the jump, foreign language
study in America's colleges and
universities lags far behind schools in
Europe, where language study often
begins as early as age 5, and high school
graduates are proficient in two
languages.
"The good news is we seemed to have
bottomed out on our sustained three
decade decline in language acquisition,"
said David Ward, the British-born
president of the American Council on
Education and the former chancellor of
the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
"So it's two cheers, not three."
The study notes that although Spanish,
French and German still dominate the
academic landscape, colleges have
broadened their offerings, teaching 148
of the less commonly taught languages
in 2002, compared with 137 in 1998.
These languages include Ojibwe,
Swahili, Tagalog and Vietnamese.
"It's great in terms of educating
students in a global way," said Larry
Schehr, a professor of French and
executive associate dean for the
humanities at the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign. "It's a great way
to develop and foster global awareness."
Education experts said American
schools witnessed dramatic increases in
language enrollment during the 1960 s
amid the Cold War.
At that time, national security
concerns the need to translate foreign
technical journals and analyze
intelligence data prompted students to
Erika Jarvis, Features Editor
The Behrend Beacon
/t r A r "IC . 1
C
out of
4 stars
** I give Delta Sonic such a high
rating due to the cleanliness of my
car and the entertainment value of
the car wash process. I even
skipped a class to get my car
washed, and it was well worth it**
study Russian and other Eastern
European languages.
Though the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks undoubtedly inspired part of the
current increase, experts said Americans
also understand the need for a deeper
cultural understanding.
"It is learning the language, but it is
also becoming culturally literate," said
Dagmar Lorenz, a professor in the
department of Germanic studies at UIC.
"Because just knowing the words and
sentences really is not that helpful if you
don't know the larger context."
UlC's German department has seen
undergraduate enrollment rise to 422
students in 2003, from 309 students in
2001.
Elizabeth Loentz, an assistant
professor at UIC, said students interested
in the European Union and the global
economy are majoring in German with
a minor in business.
The growth in the number of students
studying Arabic at schools like
Northwestern University has prompted
administrators to add additional classes
to accommodate them.
At Northwestern, enrollment
increased to around 60 students this year
up from 17 students in 2000.
Lynn Whitcomb, a lecturer in the
program of African and Asian languages
at Northwestern, said a more diverse
group of students is studying Arabic.
"It seems there are all sorts of people
who want to learn," Whitcomb said.