THE DAILY COLLEGIAN T D 1, Collegian Elizabeth Murphy Editor in Chief Kelsey Thompson Business Manager About the Collegian: The Daily Collegian and The Weekly Collegian are pub lished by Collegian Inc., an independent, nonprofit cor poration with a board of directors composed of stu dents, faculty and profes sionals. Pennsylvania State University students write and edit both papers and solicit advertising for them. During the fall and spring semes ters as well as the second six-week summer session, The Daily Collegian publish es Monday through Friday. Issues are distributed by mail to other Penn State campuses and individual subscribers. Complaints: News and edi tonal complaints should be presented to the editor. Business and advertising complaints should be pre sented to the business man ager. Who we are The Daily Collegian's edito rial opinion is determined by its Board of Opinion, with the editor holding final responsibility. The letters and columns expressed on the editorial pages are not necessarily those of The Daily Collegian, Collegian Inc. or The Pennsylvania State University. Collegian Inc., publishers of The Daily Collegian and related publi cations, is a separate corpo rate institution from Penn State. Editorials are written by The Daily Collegian Board of Opinion. Members are Kevin Cid'', Jenna Ekdahl, Bill Landis, Elizabeth Mur phy, Laura Nichols, Edgar Ramirez, Andrew Robinson, Heather Schmelzlen, Jared Shanker, Katie Sullivan, Alex Weisler, Steph Witt and Chris Zook. Letters We want to hear your com ments on our coverage, editorial decisions and the Penn State community. ■ E-mail collegianletters@psu.edu ■ Online www.psucollegian.com ■ Postal mail/In person 123 S. Burrowes St. University Park, PA 16801 Letters should be about 200 words. Student letters should include class year, major and campus. Letters from alumni should include year of graduation. All writers should provide their address and phone number for verification. Letters should be signed by no more than two peo ple. Members of organiza tions must include their titles if the topic they write about is connected with the aim of their groups. The Collegian reserves the right to edit letters. The Collegian cannot guaran tee publication of all let ters it receives. Letters chosen also run on The Daily Collegian Online and may be selected for publi cation in The Weekly Colle gian. All letters become property of Collegian Inc. Town losing last true This week, State College said goodbye to a part of itself. Webster's Bookstore and Café is closing after 13 years of business. But to call Webster's simply a "business" would be a stark understatement. The 128 S. Allen St. store is one of the only locally owned bookstores in State College. While some may contend that the Student Bookstore or Got Used Bookstore fit into that same category, the literature those stores sell is largely for the classroom. Webster's offers something more. Among the shelves upon shelves of books are 1 ~ ~~~11 14404 1111 G 1G cmELIDVE 441 cgT 1449 2 5_ F EITAWER-D 6 . ag .• , 4.4. , o ~..kt , ...,'N African vuvuzela at center of World Cup criticisms Vuvuzelas are humming in Africa and Penn State By Jared Shanker FOR those who h watching ESP coverage over I month, it's been tough getting up as early as 4 a.m. for the day's first game. Conveniently, though, ESPN had a built-in alarm clock for three weeks to alert soc cer fans it was time to wake up and wrap themselves in their country's flag. It's called the vuvuzela, nothing more than a long piece of metal or plastic that projects a loud buzzing noise when you blow into it. From the opening kickoff on June 11 until the last whistle during Sunday's final (and even after), fans across South Africa have been blow ing the vuvuzela nonstop. And I couldn't be happier. The constant buzzing doesn't bother me like so many other critics have proclaimed. It provides a soothing background tone to the a' tion, which much of the time can h trdly be considered as such. For u.use who don't like it, it's really not that hard to tune out. And by the way, you have, because if it was that bad, you wouldn't have made it through 30 dozens of literary genres from English-to-Sphnish dictionaries to the J.R.R. Tolkien saga "The Lord of the Rings." Literally hun dreds of books call Web ster's home. But there were more than just books. The entire store functioned as a hub of activity. Among a strip of franchises like Abercrombie & Fitch and Chili's, there stood a ker nel of local personality personality the town is now losing. On top of the occasional customer, the store main tains a large following, a factor made evident by the hundreds of support ers who have petitioned to az - voae. • iCkYve .4:l"etV) \iojcz v435710\1 (A OUR .111.estENT eXPAINGcNS, days of World Cup soccer. The vuvuzela is more than just an "annoying" buzzing sound coming through through your TV screen. It's a symbol of South African her itage, which should be especially important considering this year's tournament is supposed to cele brate Africa's hosting of the World Cup, the first time in the continent's history ave been 's World Cup the last Regardless, the vuvuzela is just fun to blow into. Trust me. I've been the proud owner of an orange vuvuzela for a little less than a week, and I can say it's been the best week of my life. What better way to celebrate one of the just 20 goals in the World Cup this year than to yell into a giant horn, blowing out eardrums indis criminately? MY OPINION The best part, though, is that the vuvuzela isn't just designated for soccer use. Time to convene for a board meeting? The vuvuzela has got you covered. Want to punish your roommate for perpetually waking you up as he stumbles into your dorm at 4 a.m.? Grab the vuvuzela. Fbllowing Sunday, the vuvuzela will once again be obsolete in America. That is unless us pro vuvuzelers can do something about it. And you can count on me to be leading the charge. But duty calls for now. It's time for a board meeting. Bzzzzzzzzzz! Jared Shanker is a senior majoring in jour nalism and is the Collegian's opinions and web editor. His e-mail address is jpss226@psu.edu. bookstore keep the business from closing. And even though the borough often attempts to attract the attention of national fran chises, there are still com munity leaders publicly coming to Webster's aid. For all those involved in the public support of this local and independent business, it shows a high degree of solidarity and dedication among the State College community. And this town needs to continue to support inde pendent businesses. Hopefully, for our corn munity, Webster's unfortu nate closing will not be permanent and the store will find a new home. li~`"`~ .'l.. a II 1111.11 ' cp.e.,,rfratrresr Vuvuzelas need to stay in South Africa, not U.S. Ihave been looking forward to Sunday afternoon's 2010 FIFA World Cup Final for several weeks now and it is not in anticipa tion of seeing who will be crowned champion. Rather, it is so I no longer have to endure the almost daily headaches of hearing the vuvuze las. It's not that I haven't enjoyed the games, but the need to keep my TV on mute is get ting old. I understand they are part of South African culture, and I am fine with the use of them there, even if it has caused me to increase my Advil consumption. But the vuvuzela phenomenon has already, in less than a month since the start of the World Cup, spread to the United States and even to State College. Unfortunately, that includes the Daily Collegian office (to see the culprit of that crime, merely look at the mug left of this). These horns, with the annoying sound similar to a swarm of bees, need to stay where they belong: in South Africa. I have already heard them on the streets of downtown State College on Saturday nights this summer, FRIDAY, JULY 9, 2010 I 3 James critics being unjust By Matt Fortuna BY the time you read this, Leßron James will have won over a new city and become Public Enemy N , 1 in five others. That much I think I know. And yet, the optimist in me can't help but think this is for charity. Shouldn't that be what we're talking about, instead of labeling him a villain and a narcissist and tons of other terrible things when there are plenty of worse human beings in this world, this country? James is a 25-year-old kid who reached the heights after coming from nothing, and he did it in large part because of us. Now the same group that helped build him into "The King" is tearing him down before he even begins his eighth year in the NBA. He doesn't need any more money or any more attention. But he knows exactly how we think He knows no matter how much complaining we do about his-decision to announce his next team live on ESPN, every damn one of us will be tuning in. And he knows the Twitterverse will explode, and we will one daptell our grandkids about the time we made new plans to watch the most physically talented basket ball player alive broadcast his decision. Perhaps most of the critics are fans of Kobe Bryant, the best player today. It was just six years ago Bryant, a free agent, was staring at a much different court over alle gations of something that may or may not have happened in a Colorado hotel. Fans and teams still fawned over him, though. He stuck with the Lakers, settled out of court and accomplished little to noth ing for the next three seasons, trashing teammates, throwing away a Game 7 and demanding to be traded along the way. Now, two titles later, Bryant's comeback is complete, and he is the gold standard. You don't think James' camp noticed this? This was from Ryan Jones, a Collegian alum who was on the James trail from the start, penning a book on him, "Believe the Hype," before James played in the NBA. "It's easy to forget how that went a few a years ago," Jones said. "Leßron and his people are definitely aware of that. Kobe's the guy he's compared to, because they're the two best players on the planet. If Kobe can do it, certainly Leßron can, so I think they said, 'Hey, all of this will go by the way side if we win.' Wmning isn't guaranteed in sports. Look no further than Dan Marino and Ted Williams to know that. But what is guaran teed in today's society is short-term memo ry loss, because America loves nothing more than a good comeback story. And yet, I can't help but think what is he coming back from? Another season without a championship? A two-month reign of swimming in all the attention we the people who have spent the past week rip ping him have endlessly given him? "I understand why people are criticizing him but it's probably those who don't already like him, so it's easy to say," Jones said. James is not Tiger Woods and he's not what Bryant was accused of being. He is simply feeding the monster, acting like a kid who has the world by the you-know what. And he's helping out the Boys and Girls Clubs of America while he's at it. Maybe if he wins a title someday that will be worth something. Matt Fortuna is a senior majoring in journalism and is the Collegian's Friday columnist. His e-mail address is mjfs2l7@psu.edu. and this worries me that their use, as well as their annoyance, will con tinue to spread. A couple of weeks ago, the Florida Marlins gave out 15,000 vuvuzelas at one of their games. This was a terrible idea, as evi denced by a ninth-inning miscom munication between then-Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez and the home plate umpire, costing Florida a leadoff baserunner. The postgame reactions of both the Marlins' players and the visiting Tampa Bay Rays showed the noise makers to be an outright annoy ance, and I hope that other sports teams do not follow suit with similar promotions. MY OPINION Here is another example that may drive home my anti-vuvuzela stand. A recent Facebook group created by Ohio State students attempted to organize a crowd full of these horns for when the Buckeyes host your Nittany Lions on Nov. 13. Can you imagine playing in a vis iting stadium with that awful noise buzzing in your ears? It probably wouldn't bode well for the Penn State football team. Kudos to the Big Ten for quelling this idea right away, reinforcing their rule banning "irritants" in are nas. Irritants are exactly what vuvuze las are, and they do not belong at sporting events outside of South Africa. Jake Kaplan is a junior majoring in journal ism and is the Collegian's Spikes reporter. His e-mail address is lyksl42@psu.edu. MY OPINION
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