1997_05 The Daily Collegian May 1997

              THE DAILY
COLLEGIAN
Wednesday, May 7,1997
News Editor: Matthew Hart
Telephone: (209) 278-2556
NEWS OF TWF. WEIRD
Can't hold it in
• The school board in Durham* N.C., sus¬
pended a substitute teacher at Hillside High
School after she urinated into a trash can dur¬
ing class, allegedly because of a medical con¬
dition. And fifth grade teacher Dow Ooten.
36, was suspended in Charleston, W.Va., af¬
ter he brought his soiled trousers to a school
board meeting to show what he was forced
to do because the faculty restroom door was
locked. And in November, a similarly soiled
Tom Pak won a $45,000 settlement from Los
Angeles County, whose property tax office
clerks made him wait at a desk, without a
restroom break, in retaliation for his having
arrived 15 minutes before closing to make
payments on more than 200 properties.
Latest ear technology
• Police in Independence Township.
Mich., arrested a 45-year-old man and
charged him with peeping into windows al
ihc Clarkston Motor Inn, basing the arrest on
the carprinLs he allegedly left on the windows.
And one month later, in Vancouver. Wash¬
ington. Judge Robert L. Harris ruled that the
prosecutor could use an carprint found on the
bedroom door of a murder victim in the trial
of his suspected killer.
• Actress Anya Pencheva announced a
plan to divert her fellow Bulgarians' atten¬
tion from grim economic problems: She
would have a plaster cast made of her breasts,
to display in the National Theater in Sofia.
Said Pencheva, "It is a pity to focus every¬
thing on (budget cuts) when there are such
beautiful breasts around."
The civilization crisis
•According to a report in Toronto's Globe
and Mail, the University of Toronto's medi¬
cal school employs actors and other people
for $12 to $35 per hour to be practice pa¬
tients for its students. Bob LeRoy, 45, com¬
mands the lop pay because he is a rectal-exam
patient. Said LeRoy. "I always hope the stu¬
dent with the biggest finger goes first."
• The Wall Street Journal reported that
about 100 "laughing clubs" had sprung up in
India in the last year based on the philoso¬
phy of Dr. Madan Kataria. who says the an¬
cient yoga breathing and laughing exercises
can help" people shed inhibitions, build self
confidence, stop smoking, alleviate high
blood pressure and arthritis and stop migraine
headaches. After conventional stretching,
adherents engage in silent laughs, out loud
laughs with their lips closed, and the roaring
"Bombay laugh." Dr. Kataria worries only
that someday the government might try to
tax laughter.
• According to a dispatch by Britain's
Guardian News Service, the family of Chiang
Kai-shek (the Chinese ruler who was chased
out by the Communists, to Taiwan, in 1949
and who died in 1975) is growing weary of
the "temporary" storage of his skeleton in
Taiwan, were it has been kept in preparation
for its triumphant return to the mainland upon
the fall of the communist government. Ac¬
cording to practitioners of the art of feng-shui.
the spirits are upset that the skeleton is kept
in a box in the living room of the family es¬
tate instead of being buried in China.
• Students rioting in South Korea's Yonsei
University apparently found weapons in short,
supply and used whatever was available.
When police finally quashed the protest, the
geology department faculty discovered that
about 10,000 rare rocks, collected over 30
years and considered irreplaceable, were
missing. A few were recovered from the
Streets, chipped or broken.
• David Cook of Caledonian University
(Glasgow. Scotland) told the British Psycho¬
logical Society's annual conference that his
three-year study shows that politicians have
significant behavior patterns in common with
criminal psychopaths. Cook said that crimi¬
nals were relatively easy to analyze but that
he did not have as much data as he would
like on politicians: "(They) don't like to be
studied."
• Miss Canada International, 20-ycar-old
Danielle House, was removed from further
competition after being charged in St. John's.
Newfoundland, with punching out her ex-
boyfriend's current girlfriend in a bar. Ms.
House said she had been in counseling re¬
cently for "low self-esteem."
• In Santa Fe, N.M.. Christine Bodman
announced that a group of massage therapists
has formed the Massage Emergency Re¬
sponse Team to minister for free to stressed
out firefighters, police officers and paramed-
Latest Bobbittizations
Ms. Renu Begum, in Dhaka. Bangladesh,
and Ms. Raquel Nair Lucio. in Tiete. Brazil,
at about the same hour on the clock (but 10
time zones apart) severed their respective
husbands' genitals in jealous rages.
Road kill
• A federal judge in Springfield. Mo., dis¬
missed the lawsuit of Jennifer Stocker Jessen.
now 24, who had claimed lhat repressed
memories of childhood abuse by her step-
grandfalher returned to her in 1988. The trig¬
gering mechanism, she said, was her hitting
an opossum in the road with her car.
Proving, once again, you can't
take it with you
• In East Orange, VT., Christie's auction
house sold almost $2 million worth of auto¬
mobiles (including 33 Stut/. Bearcats| thai
belonged to eccentrics Arthur Miller, who
died at 87 a few years ago. and his wile
InWigene. who died in 1996. The couple left
millionsvmore in gold and silver and other
valuables but lived like paupers, sometimes
eating dog food or bread made of Hour thev
had swept off the floor, sometimes shopping
at yard sales, sometimes dressing in rags .V
treasurer of his church. Miller had once re¬
fused to accept a small increase in elcclricttj
rates and converted the entire church lo kcro
sene lamps. The Millers paid propcrtv laxcs.
but no other ones, and the federal and stale
governments are now claiming $8 2 million
No longer weird
• Adding to the list of stories that were
formerly weird but which now occur with
such frequency that they must be retired from
circulation: The gun expert who shoots linn
self while demonstrating safety techniques
as did Constable Randy Youngman. who took
a shotgun blast in the leg while teaching i
safely class in Medicine Hal. Alberta And
the periodic warnings.about global warming
caused by excessive methane production In
flatulent livestock, as was announced in i
European Commission strategy paper re
leased in Brussels.
Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd
P.O. Box 8306. St. Petersburg. Fla. 3373S iv
74777.3206@compuserve.com.
Lifestyle
Continued from page 1.
leveis" (31 percent) and a "competi¬
tive salary" (30 percent).
"The survey tells us that, regard¬
less of national boundaries*, students
are ambitious but are concerned
about 'career overdose' and long
working hours," said Nicolas
Moore, chairman of Coopers &
Lybrand International.
Even with the most promising
job outlook in recent years, observ¬
ers say recent tough job markets.
Students' Future Cimr Goals
marked by corporate "downsizing"
and the end of so-called lifetime
employment jobs, have had an im¬
pact pa young adults.
Temporary work, for instance, is
gaining in popularity among both
employers and students, says Burt
Slatas, director of Marketing Ser¬
vices for Olsten Corp., one of the
nation's largest temporary staffing
based in Melville, N.Y.
"College students never really
seriously considered temporary
work before." Slatas said. "It's be¬
coming very accepted. Twenty-five
percent pf the people we place arc
at the professional level (are new
      college graduates],
and that's incrcas-
For good reason:
many temporary
staffing companies
have begun offering
the sort of perks —
from health and
dental care to
40 l(k) plans — nor-
mally associated with full-time em¬
ployers.
In addition, Milwaukee-based
Manpower Inc., the nation's biggest
temporary staffing company, says
the stronger U.S. economy means
the average hourly pay for its work¬
ers has risen by as much as 5.8 per¬
cent in some cases.
But why would students seek
temporary wort^if the employment
outlook for full-time, permanent
workers is so strong? One reason
may be, for many students, such
jobs offer the personal freedom and
flexibility they seek.
Culbert says if he doesn't find a
job he likes, he'll earn his, way
bartending before applying to
graduate school.
"I like the option of being a bar¬
tender," said Culbert, whose resume
lists his past job experiences as a
bartender and camp counselor.
"That's a skill that's marketable,
that I can take across the country."
Massimo Salerno, a part-time
student at Baruch College in New
York City, left a retail job because
he says the company was t(x> inflex¬
ible.
"There's no longer a 40-hour
week, but I was working a lot of
hours," said Salerno, who's wrap¬
ping up classses for an accounting
degree. "They wouldn't let me go
to school, so I quit"
Salerno says his work schedule
improved when a friend told him
about a temporary agency. "I
wouldn't have considered going to
a temp agency if it wasn't for him,"
he said. "I just never thought of it."
Megan Fowler, who will gradu¬
ate, in June from the University of
Santa Cruz with degrees in psychol¬
ogy and sociology*, says she hasn't
been looking for jobs — despite her
mom's and dad's wishes.
"I'm getting a lot of pressure
from my parents and family to get
a job," said Fowler.
Fowler says her real inicrest —
for now — is to visit Guatemala and
teach at a language school. She says
eventually she wants to work in in¬
ternational health and public polk >
at a nonprofit agency.
Even students who alreadv
landed a high-paying job after col
lege aren't necessarily expressing
a die-hard commitment to their
field. Lisa Freiberg, for example, is
a Dayton University senior and a
management information systems
major. She had five job offers be
fore her final semester of college
"I don't sec myself staying in
this field," she said. "I enjoy ihc
work. It's taught me to be more ana
lytical. It's not fulfilling."
"I can sec myself getting in¬
volved in political issues. I can .see
myself working with children rather
than working with computers." she
added. "There's no personal reward
working with computers or. if there
is, I haven't found it."
If a temporary staffing studv
conducted by Olsten proves to In¬
accurate in its prediction, man)
employers' use of flexible staffing
as a regular business practice will
only increase in the coming years
Auditions for SPUNK will be held Thursday & Friday May 15 & 16
In the Arena Theatre • Speech Arts Building — Performance Dates are October 31 - November 8, 1997
Producers are looking for 4 African-American men and women for this special production.
fs Department at 27S-2646.