Editorial opinion: Next time, do What's your excuse? During Registration last week, the Undergraduate Student Govern ment furnished rides to Bellefonte for students who wanted to register, to vote. On Wednesday, six students took them up on the offer. On Thursday, the car sat in the sun outside Rec Hall. Almost every student in the University went through Rec Hall, saw the sign on the exit door and made his choice. During the long, empty days, nearly every student decided not to register to vote. Classes had not started yet and buying books did not involve an undue amount of comparative shopping. It is all very simple. Ride out to the Bellefonte Courthouse and sign At the Rijksmuseum By ARTHUR TURFA Fine Arts Director WDFM The warm summer days brought little change from previous times. Hordes of young tourists, Americans forming the vanguard, converged upon Amsterdam, a city set in the midst of countryside that still very much resembles a van Ruysdael, with the additions of present day technology. On the steps of Dam Square's Natinnal Monument, in the night clubs, in Vondel -Park or in the Central Station between brightly-colored trains they congregated, finding security in numbers. • - Along the canals, several of the narrow, high-gabled houses served as student hotels and head shops. However, the builders comprised a totally different class. They were the newly-rich burghers of three centuries ago, whose faces have been placed on canvas by Frans Hals or painters of lesser merit. During their time, the tricolor of Oranje was carried to all corners of the globe by Dutch ships which finally surrendered to the English in the contest for colonial supremacy. Gradually, the Netherkands grew accustomed to a secondary role in the world. Amsterdam itself has changed drastically, expecially after it received the unofficial designation of "the place to be." So the rush to the Netherlands begins. The dikes that protect the land from the North Sea fail . to stem the tide of vacationers. The nomads weary of Amsterdam after awhile, and the feeling is returned by the natives. The "dying ;Collegian PATRICIA J. STEWART Successor to the Free Lance, est. 1887 Member of the Associated Press Charter member of Pennsylvania Collegiate Media Association Editorial policy is determined by the Editor.' Opinions expressed by the editors and staff of The Daily Collegian are not necessarily those of the University administration, faculty or students. Mail Subscription price: $l7 50 a year. Mailing Address: Box 467, State College, Pa 16801 Office: 126 Carnegie •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ••••••••••• • • STRADA BICYCLE SHOP The only student owned and operated bike shop in town. We won't rip you off 'cause we know what it's like ... • . , • • • • , 238-0020 . • • • 1 / 2 block west of State College Post Office . • • • • ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• , Accordinvo a . survey of former COmmonwealth Campus students, Vniyersity Park is more anxiety-producing than the campuses. Arid w` e're trying to do something abdut it. USG Dept. of Branch Campus Student Services 203 HUB 863.0295 Free Counseling & Information Jan. 8- 12 Ground Floor HUB 10 a.m. - 2 p.m: your name. No one is after your driver's license or birth certificate or credit cards or telephone bill. USG officials had expected a poor response, but they were still disappointed. They are extremely aware that the fall elections are vital to students. At stake are the offices of State College mayor, borough councilmen, tax collector and Center County district at torney. By not registering, students are losing their chance to decide whether State College needs an effective consumer protection agency, whether building codes are enforced adequately, whether the area transportation system is satisfactory and whether in creased social services are needed. generations" that W.B. Yeats wrote about in his poem "Sailing to Byzantium" currently find boredom putting them out of their misery here. They content themselves by passively sitting down while the hashish' peddlers move through the crowd in a manner similiar to a priest dispensing the EuchariSt. Most of the time, the police look the other way. Standing to one side, I observed the entire scene as if it were being presented on a stage. Oddly, I didn't feel at all compelled to participate as a bit player in a cast of thousands. If outward appearances meant anything, I should have assumed a leading part In this production.. Butr I realized that outward appearances are meaningless when viewed from another perspective. This perspective I found in the Rijksmuseum. On my first morning in Amsterdam, exhausted as I was from a night on the train, I walked to -the Rijksmuseum. Outside of the building , a calliope played, intensifying the 'circus atmosphere. However, I was in no mood for acrobats and clowns. Instead, I paid my guilden and entered the museum. There were long-haired students in the museum, grandparents with white hair, wrinkled faces and slow steps, middle aged people from the bourgeoisie and wide-eyed children. No tension existed between the generations, as it had on the streets. Most of the chambers were painted a muted yellow or a medium brown. Silence hung heavy in the air, broken only by exclamations of praise for Rembrandt's Night Watch or a Vermeer. to get ripped off. Bicycles"- 70 speeds $7OO up Repairs - very cheap accessories/parts it right Maybe you realized this when you registered for classes last week. Maybe you intended to register to vote later. It isn't like last spring. The State College chapter of the League of Women Voters have ruled out registering voters once a week. Last spring, the response was so poor they considered dropping the effort before its scheduled end. But there is one more chance. If you intend to register, circle these dates on your calendar: Oct. 1 to 5. That week, the League will be registering new voters between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. in the council chambers of the Borough Municipal Building. Next time, do it right In each chamber stood graying men in matching uniforms, who served as watchmen a day watch that remained unpainted. The only sound to speak of came from shoes on the highly-polished floors, whenever people walked briskly. But mostly the pace was slow. Not only walking, but time appeared to have slowed down, a virtual cessation. The visitors sensed this. For as long as we remained in the RiJksmuseum, we roamed about in an entirely different world. This new world was a beautiful - one. As we walked through it, we would meet each other from time to time. All of us, with the exception of the aesthetic dilettantes, had a valid reason for being there and benefited from the visit. After all, no one really was forced to enter. In this respect, museums are healthy stimulators. The peer pressure one encounters to smoke dope, .drink martinis, turn on to Jesus or wear the latest fashions doesn't exist in museums. In Amsterdam, because of the painfully obvious generational clashes, this was easily seen. I do not intend to moralize. It is impossible for me to condemn someone's avenue of escape as it is for a drunkard to condemn a junkie or an Impressionist a Baroque portrait painter. I, like other young people, will be confronted by our children. They will show us our shortcomings by holding up a mirror to our middle-aged faces, and we will realize how ugly our lives have been. If I am fortunate, I will be spared a brutal, agonizing catharsis due in part to the perceptions I had in Amsterdam. The Daily Collegian welcomes comments on news _coverage, editorial policy or noncampus affairs. Letteis should be typewritten, double spaced, signed by no more than two persons and no longer than 30 lines. Students' letters shoilld include the name, term and major of the writer. JOHN J. TODD Business Manager Letters should be brought to The Collegian office, 126 Carnegie, in person so proper identification of the writer can be made, although names will be withheld by request. If letters are received by mail, The Collegian will contact the signer , for verification. Letter policy 70111 1 14 Ohiv tool 1* SIM 14:1 The FaiNlous 4,3 6,oRyttur K outs *6.m.,5.1i sasurrae v St. m. Get this FREE Wilkinson® BONDED - Trial Razor and Blade With Coupon in Your Copy of- THE TERM PLANNER UNIVERSITY PARK BOOKSTORE SUPPLY DEPARTMENT RM. 24 HETZEL UNION BLDG. ' The National Soapbox Derby, an All- American ritual held every year in Akron, Ohio, is a 45-second "must" to be inserted toward the end of the network news shows. A red, white and blue winner. Not only do you have a reason for *lowing some nice, white, freckle faced kids and they''re'almost as heart melting;as the Hush Puppy pup but there is' something vaguely patriotic about the story. Shades. of Gasoline Alley afld other forms of a Simpler- America-In-a-More-Innocent-Time; run the piece as one more proof that television's executives aren't the liberal, cerebral Manhattanites they're accused of being. This year, though, the- winner, a 14- year -old freckle-facer from Boulder, Colo., had his title and his $7,500 college scholarship taken away from him on the ;grounds that his motoriess racer was rigged in violation of the rules. A couple of days later his uncle and legal guardian stepped forward and said that while he admitted no wrongdoing, he was responsible for what happened, that it was done under the pressure of competition, and that anyway others have done the same. • From! the freckle-faced kid's hometown, the District Attorney's office emitted some kind of bilge about a "little Watergate," but the predictable waters of editorial lamentation about the violation! of this sacred rite of American boyhood, mercifully did not flow. Why? Possibly we're learning not to get upset over trifles; possibly we have given way to a resigned* cynicism or maybe we've gained a degree of self knowledge, which could be the same thing. • Letters to the e Tsk, tsk, Ms. Nottle TO THE EDITOR: I have been reading The Daily Collegian ever since I came to Penn Slate" early this summer. Although this hardly qualifies me as one of your oldest readers, I feel loan make some commentary. For the whole of the Summer Term, the end of the Spring Term and the beginning of the Fall Term, your readers have been treated to a series of truly inane film reviews For example, let us look at Ms. Nottle's treatment of Franco Zeffirelli's "Romeo and Juliet." Ms. Nottle mentions that a "gimmick" of the filin is . that on film for the first time Shakespeare's lovers were portrayed by teenagers, rather than the traditional adult actors. How many other times has "Romeo and Juliet" appeared on the screen? Could this "gimmick" really be a box-office "draw?" Shakespeare used young actors; Zeffirelli used young actors. Ms. Nottle says that Zeffirelli's production is "Shakespeare down from ... 'culture' to a good old-fashioned melodrama With all the necessary elements sex, violence and a moral to the story." When William Shakespeare sat down to write "Romeo and Juliet," he sat down to write what we now call a good, old-fashioned love story. Only a fool would intentionally try to write "culture." Obviously, Ms. Nottle has little knowledge of Shakespeare. Ms. Nottle mentions attempts on Zeffirelli's part to achieve comic relief. These attempts, in the characters of Mercutio and the nurse; are Shakespeare's, and not Zeffirelli's. Has Ms. Nottle ever seen another version of the play? Your reviewer speaks of the costuming and sets being "appropriately rich and romantic ..." Sorry, wrong again. The costumes used in Shakespeare's time and in some of the finest contempoiary productions of his plays are sparse and unassuming. Very often they are merely street clothes, with a few accessories to distinguish characters. Let us not forget Ms. Nottie's final, and greatest, blooper. "Yet, if the moviegoer remains interested in the film through all of Zeffirelli's mistakes, he may 'consider it more than a medieval version of 'Love Story.' " How utterly ridiculous! Perhaps "Love Story" could by some stretch of a very fertile imagination be a modern version of "Romeo and Juliet," but how could things be the other way around, if "Romeo and Juliet" was written some 300 years before -Segal's "Love Story"? It is painfully obvious to me that your reviewers are little more than casual filmgoers, with little knowledge of film Nicholas Von Hoffman: Say it ain't so It could be that a lot of people had read a recent Sports Illustrated cover story about the 10,000-plus children who now race around tracks all over the country on undersized motorcycles or minicycles. Children? Babies, infants might be better words to describe the two-and-a-half and three-year-olds whose parents put them on these powered racing machines. In the light of that, it's surprising there are any kids around to compete in soapbox racers, according to the rules or not. You'll be surprised to learn that Sports Illustrated reports there is mass cheating at the minicycle races too, or is there? The father of one diapered A.J. Foyt was quoted remarking, "Well, as the old saying goes, it isn't really cheating unless you get caught, now is it?" Another parent estimates a quarter or more of the minicycle competitors cheat. The minicyclists' parents seem even more driven to win than the most maniacal of the Little League-daddies. One of the small losers at the miniature bike races .had Pops reward him for a losing effort with a clonk over the head with a wrench. The rest of us hear about such behavior and inveigh against the devils of limitless competition that take hold of our souls and haunt our. culture. It does no good, naturally. Nothing dissuades us from our raging need to win contests made meaningless and, without purpose by our own breaking of the rules. What honor comes to the victor of• a game played by cheats? Yet It was just a couple of years ago that some of us were proclaiming, if not a hippie ethic, then at least the gentle Minolta SRT-102 50mm f/1.7 Minolta SRT-102 50mm f/1.4 Minolta SRT-101 50mm f/1.7 Minolta SRT-101 50mm f/1.4 Minolta SRT-100 50mm f/2 Minolta SRT 100 Action Pack Includes SRT 100 Camera with neck strap, 55 mm f/1.9 lens, 135 mm f/3.5 lens, Minolta Electroflash-S with case, and deluxe compartment case. Minolta Hi-Matic F Electroflash Kit (includes camera, case, Electroflash-P) Minolta AutoPak 600-X Funpak Outfit Minolta AutoPak 400-X Extra Special Buy! Kalimar SR 200 SLR w/58mm f/2 128 All sale prices apply to items in stock, quantities limited. Terms available, Watch for Super Sale on movie and slide projectors and Special Football Season offer. Drop in once a week and see if you're the mystery person In our Phan tom Photographer contest. Pictures are taken in the State College- Bellefonte area. If you're the one In the picture . . . you've won a $lO gift certificate. A new winner every week. At G-P, we . FOCUS ON SERVICE. except that the films which entertain them are good and vice. versa.`there have been reviews recently which were better than; last Friday's, but they have been For a paper which serves,; at least 30,000 readers, most of them somewhat captive, I am certain that you could do much better. Kissinger on the move TO THE EDITOR: There is a logical reason why Richard Nixon has recommended Henry Kissinger as Secretary of State. The President hopes the appointment will cut the travel budget o(' this adviser on foreign affairs. Because if Henry Kissinger received a mileage allowance in addition to his regular salary,_ then he's already made 'a fortune. Kissinger seems to light in one place barely long enough to oblige the news photographers. Then he is off again, winging; his way into the-wild blue yonder. it is almost impossible to; catch up with Henry because he is always one move ahead of the latest news stdry about him. Recently I toddled off to bed leaving Henry in Paris where hEi had just announced on TV that very shortly he would bet reporting to President Nixon. By the time I was fully mobile the; next day, Henry was in Florida conferring with his boss. And there were pictures to prove it. That weekend i put about SG-. miles on the car and never got out of State College. During the )) same interval, Henry chalked up another few thousand miles. Y i When he travels, he doesn't fool around he crosses oceans and continents between newscasts and newspaper editions. Henry must "travel light." He has been on the move so much in recent months that he has probably learned to live out of a briefcase or - at least one piece of hand luggage only large enough to hold toothbrush, razor and a change of linen and socks. In his job, there is no room for excess baggage. About 50 years ago, Henry Kissinger would have spent the weekend in Paris packing his steamer trunk._ A couple of days later he would have been just getting his sea legs. It would have taken him a week to reach New York. It would be interesting to know just how many miles—' President Nixon's special adviser has traveled in the past yearn It seems as if he has been continuously in orbit. They should write a song about him, "I wonder where Kissinger's now," td the tune of "I wonder who's kissing her now." I x We dare you to find better prices . . . anywhere! GENERAL PHOTOGRAPHIC 222 South Allen Street 237-0011 Across from Centre Hardware Extra discounts for photo classes. Greening of America. We thought we::: foresaw the replacement of competition 4 , with cooperation, but it didn't pan out. Instead, we got hard-hatism, and Nixon in Washington celebrating a local pro football coach whose need totwin verges on the barbaric. "Nice guys finish last" has now given way to "only rats finish ; first." But there are countervailing forces.', Such savage and competitive winning'. and losing can only rule a society that is either hierarchical or believes only in merit.yVe are far too egalitarian to rank,„ ourselves up and down strictly according_ to who wins and who loses. There is too much featherbedding, too many .people of inherited wealth and power, too many people on relief to arrange our place. simply according to the merit of surviving competition. If we have a need to compete so wildly,. that we will even teach our children to:, break the rules, we have an equal need to make sure that most of our competitiond are shams. The egalitarian society is populated only by winners. And by Jove, that's what they have at the minicycle races! "We got our son hid— first bike when he was six one father s ., says, "but he just didn't get anywhere.,; He was never even close to the leaders.._ Then we heard about a track where they give 100 per cent trophies, a trophy for. every kid who entered ... Now my son is nine and he's got 72 trophies." Not the Greening of America, perhaps„ but next time at the Soapbox Derby it t, might be more in keeping with our" national expectations to let the little freckler bend the rules and keep the title, and award everybody else a trophy too—. ditor J. D. McAuley : Professor of education' WE'VE GOT MINOLTA MANIA! LIST SUPER SALE $269 299 229 259 189 289 $4OO 445 350 395 290 450 $l5O $B9 80 50 David Williams,;, [2nd-Liberal arts] 49 31
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