The Behrend beacon. (Erie, Pa.) 1998-current, November 14, 2003, Image 8
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.