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Tlifii Has A Familiar Ring

by Jack Doppelt

Late last Friday night at about
12:30, I returned to my room and
found a note taped to my door.
It read, “your mother called at
800 p.m., call her back," '

Not very cryptic as far as notes
go. sb, within thirty steps lwas
at my floor phone calling the home—
stead. After an abbreviated greet-
ing to the Grinnell operator, lwas
talking to my relieved mother.

After yust as abbreviated a greet-
ing to her, a familiar nasal voice
intruded.

“Hello? It is 12:30 and this is a
college-operated phone.”

I could feel my conversation slowly
being strangled.

But then the college operator chim-
ed, “15 this a direct call?

Not knowing what she was driv»
ing at, but relieved that this might
grant me a stay of a few minutes,
I replied a confident “yes.”

The next sound I heard was not
my nonplused mother, but an
abrupt ”click” to coin an anoma-
topoeia.

The next sound was the receiver
crashing onto its nulder. I’m sure
I felt worse about that momentary
lapse than the operator felt about
cutting me off,

I don’t know who concluded that
12:30 am is the time that all good
college students who want to grow
big and strong should be asleep.
It certainly was not the Same admin»
istrator who reasoned that the
obstreperous few who refuse to
abide by the 12:30 norm are ca-
vorting about in the library until
2:00 a.m.

At one time, the 12:30 telephone
cutoff might have been purposeful.
Probably during the lazy, crazy,
hazing days that inevitably bear
the brunt of criticism for any left,
over archaic rules.

I'm sure there are numerous stu»
dents who would prefer to leave
Bell enough alone. These are the
early to bed, early to despise when
any disturbance. interrupts their
sleep.

Leaving the phones open all night
would be a distasteful infringement
on students who might want to be
awake for classes, Improvement can
be made in a system without in—
stituing more egregious rules than
existed before.

So, I wish to tamper a bit with the
rules and the phones in an attempt
to elicit a compromise that might
not leave my mother hanging.
Firstly, it might be appropriate
if the campus operator were instruc—
ted to tell those speaking on the phone
that they have a liveeminute reprieve
before the phone goes limp.

As the phone system operates pre-
sently, all phones in all halls ex—

cept those in RA suites, lntne house
presidents’ rooms, and in the rooms
of scattered preferentials go off at
12'30 a.m, The campus used to have
one phone in every nallihatremained
on all night. That made Sense, That
was discontinued.

By leaving one phone on all night,
incoming long»dlstance calls have a
chance of reaching the designated
party it there is any semblance of
life nearby The phone could be in
stalled near the lounge and out of
hearing range of most rooms. It
might not be a bad idea to have
phones in lounges anyway.

And lastly, if most students find
that they are as awake at 12:30 as
they are during Am. Civ. lectures,
then it might be advantageous to
move the phone curfew up to 100
a,m. After all, with the precarious
position the communications depart,
ment is in, it would he compensa-
ting to extend this mode of inter—
personal communications a halfe
hour.

If not for Grinnell students, then for
their parents and friends who don’t
find solace in the operator’s sym—
pathetic voice. Picture a grieved
mother on the West Coast who has
just heard on the nightly news that
Lyndon Johnson has died and wants
to tell her son of the tragedy be—
cause She fondly recalls the ashen
effigy he brought home a few years
prior. She calls Grinnell and reaches
an operator who can only recome
mend that she relax and go back to
the Tonight Show. Would Watson have
said “I’m sorry the phones turnoff
at 1 30?" No, he’d have given Bell
until 1:00 a.m. at least.

That brings me to the cynics, or
course, if 1 got cut off at lz:zo,
1 can get cut off at one. But, had
Cinderella had that extra half-hour,
she could have been in and out of
the sack and back home with both
feet on the ground.

Or she could have casually left at
twelve and gone to the library for
two hours, , . . ,

A college operator stays on duty
all night anyway, All that would
«be necessary would be for the col,
lege to permit her to connect two
estranged parties. No bureaucra-
tic redrtape. Nothing as insurmount-
able as expanding library hours or
instituting a continental breakfast.

In the meantime, if anyone ispass-
ing through Chicago, call my mother
and tell her I'm fine and asleep by
12:30.

Thoughts To Lament On

After a president leaves office, he
is respectfully termed, “former
President." After he dies, he is
again called “President."

Now that the war is over, may
Lyndon Johnson “rest in peace."

Over Consumption Pia

by Fran Cutler

Devoted SM? readers will notice
that Man and Earth by Keith K027
loft has been replaced with The
ECOrNut and is now a column of
the SGfB's glorious past. As this
paper's newest and only female
columnist, I believe that it would
be clearly inappropriate for my
name to be placed below such a
title as “Man and Earth.”

Although Mr. Kozlol‘i was content
to limit his attention to man and
earth, I prefer to widen the scope
of this column by addressing the
ecological problems confronting
both men and women. It is my hope
that this column’s weekly recomr
mendations for eco-action will in-
fluence the actions of Grinnellians
so that they can adapt their life
styles as to be less a part of the
environmental deterioration prob-
lem and more a part of the solu-
tion.

The key word in raising your
“ecowonscience” IS CONSUMP
TION. Our national habit of conspi r
uous overrconsumptlon results each
day in the accumulation of more than
one billion pounds of solid wastes.
This means that on the average
each man, woman, and child throws
away one ton yearly
in spite of these alarming statis»
tics at present, industry generally
considers it less expensive to use

new materials than to recycle old
in making products. This is seen
in the increase in use of nonreturn-
able glass bottles, in the abandoned
automobiles that scrap dealers are
hesitant to salvage, and in the 25
million pounds of aluminum tooth
paste tubes thrown away and lore
gotten each year.

Overconsumption of nonrenewable
resources has been witnessed lnthe
current petroleum fuel shortage.

7h Eco—7w

Scientists optimistically estimate
our petroleum resources to last only
70 to no more years. Because plaSr
tics are made from petroleum pro
ducts, Grinnellians should seriously
consider refraining from purchase
ing plastics in any form In addi-
tion to consuming our valuable pe-
troleum resources, plastics produce
nondegradable waste Upon being
incinerated plastics tend to melt
rather than burn and can foul in-
cinerator grates Polyvinyl chlorr
lde (PVC plastic), which is being
increasingly incorporated into pace
kaging, produces hydrochloric acid
when burned. This is a serious

ptlolo by John iicrlltrll

Jlteahalwhue ‘Uwfu

chi emrltrrhnb a’laln'clt?

'fchuciy‘ 2 6;: 1m

, _
photo in John Eeumkl

Cecil Lytle and James Reeder, aided by Odette DeLaCleuse,
combined aesthetic media for a performance entitled “Srlnbin

in Sound and Light” before a packed Roberts Theatre,

Senior Quandary: Weather Or Not?

by Jim Alt

With the start of my final semi
ester, 1 face a dilemma. On one
hand, this is my last chance to get
my academics together, to produce
my crowning opus.,,,or at least to
get the work done on time.

On the other hand, this is also
my last chance to enjoy Grinnell’s
countless opportunities for jogging,
partying, bullshltting, and generally
not working.

In the past, I have dealt fneptly
with these alternatives. When Ihave
begun a semester in the earnest
pursuit of academics, it has always
ended in serious jagging. When I have
begun a semester with the intention
to Jag, it has invariably ended in a
frantic semester’s-end attempt to
save myself academically.

The problem may lie with my
goals»and-rewards approach. This
unnatural synsthesis of Aristotle’s
golden-mean, c’hild psychology, ec-
onomic reasoning, and naturalindo»
lence rests on the dubious propos-
ition that if I keep my mind relaxed
and amused by practicing unstruc-
tured thinking (i,e,, any form ofjag-
ging), it will function more effie
ciently when called upon for some
structured thinking. The All-work,
and-no-play Theory, right?

In practice, the goals-underewards
approach works like this: Iconsider
jagging to be the just reward for
working, Conversely (and, in my
twisted mind, equivalently), I con»
sider work to be the price I should
pay for the privilege of jagging.
I state both forms because some-
times I Jdg until guilt and other
pressures bring me to atone for my

gues Nation

threat to plant life as well as His
cinerator stacks,

If you must buy plastics, it is re—
commended that you only purchase
those products that are intended
to last. Because the longevity of
Bic pens (the subject of heated
debate) is seriously limited, I llighr
1y recommend that Grinnellians ins
vest in a fountain pen. Unlike the
wasteful hallrpoint and feltrtip pens,
fountain pens last forever and can
be economically refilled

Another way in which each of us
can carry on the ecorrevolution
is by returning unsolicited ads to
the sender. Although ”junk mail”
serves the dubious purpose of fill-
ing student mail boxes, it repre~
sents a monumentous waste ofpaper
If the ad is marked ”return pos-
tage guaranteed," or something 5.,
milar, you can mark it “refused”
and it will be returned at the Zidr
vertlser's expense
In addition, you can make your
legislators aware of the magnitude
of this problem by snving your
“junk mail" and sending the ac,
cumulation to your congressman,
explaining your dismay However,
if you consider yourself a left-wing
ecorddical, you can attach a brick
to any postage guaranteed return
envelope and then send your favor»
ite advertiser a surprise at his/
her own expense

sins by doing some work, whilein
other instances, I work until l have
accomplished enough to justify a
good long jag.

My standard payments to myself
are two to three days’ lagging for a
paper of more than ten pages; one
day for a paper of less than ten
pages; half a day if I catch up on
my reading (a reward which I have
never earned); and about eight min
utes for finishing a column.

You may, of course, object that
eight minutes’ reward for this cole
umn is too generous. I will not
quibble.

And 1 would rather not hear my
profs’ opinions about the approp-
riate rewards for my papers The
less said about those, the better.

I have used the goaISrand-rewards
approach for seven semesters and,
although it has helped to preserve
some vestiges of my sanity, it has
not been very satisfying. Unable to
make a total commitment either
to working or to yagging, I have
been unhappy with the quality oi
both,

Imagine a semester in which you
were perfectly conscientious, and
kept up with readings, and went to
class prepared, and started papers
early, You could go through a sem-

ester never feeling badly pressed,
or at least not blaming yourself
if you were. Think how much bet—
ter and less painful your academe
lcs could become!

Eut imagine a semester of pure
yaggingl lmagiuea semester inwhich
you reiused to let your work de-
press you. You could attend all the
concerts and lectures and parties
and movies and bullshit sessions
that you wanted. You could read
and write only about things that
really interested you--letting the
chips and GPA fall where they may.
Such is _my dilemma. Given the
courses which I am carrying, ac-
cumulating enough credits forgrad-
uation may preclude the total-jag
decision; but it is common enough
for a second-semester seniorto as—
Certain exactly how little work it
takes to pass. Then again, it is
not unheard of for a senior to take
one last shot at a good academic
semester. There are always a few
students around.

And finally, there are fools like me,
the quality of whose work for the
semester probably depends on the
date of the first warm. sunny spring
day. If that day comes early, it
would be unwise to bet much on my
academics.

Birds OtFire

by Scott Mason

The decision about what to re-
view fhis week or, in fact, if there
was anything worth reviewing was
taken out of my hands when some
friends of mine brought in n copy
of the new Mallavishnu Orchestra
album, Birds of Fire, from New
York Although we only had me
opportunity to hear it once the
single listening was so impressive
that Birds of Fire became the only
album I could even consider vlise
cussing,

There are some records lhit go
beyond excellence on first listening,
and impress you with the feeling
of something extremely new antler
citing, perhaps even inspirational
Herbie llancock‘s Crossings (lid
this, as did Inner Mounting Flame
and Bltche’s Brew. Mahavishnu‘s
second album must be added to this
list, but as something more than
in extension ol the first. There nre

‘ Mounting Flume
“chromatin; is Wt
the new material on Birds of Fire:
this second album sliol very (le-
finite progression iu the bond 5 mus~
ic. Whatever problems existed on
the first record, if such a word
can be made to apply to The Ma»
havlsllllll Orchestra, hive been per-

Iectly resolved hci-c perhaps be-
cause the group luff been together
a relatively short time did Mcldlh
glilln’s gult. telnl todonllnutellmer
Mounting Flame Olllv Billy Cour
1mm seemed cupihle of mulching
his ener , run. while pnuusf iin
lInlnlIler nun violinist Jerry odour
min were ronunuillv ti, and ind
creative uliycrs. their solos soilies

limes poled behind McLaughlin‘sinA
credible outbursts. On Birds of
Fire, however, the use of Moog
synthesizer and electronic effects
elevate the tone qualities otthekeys
boards and violin to a point where
they successfully match the guitar,
Hammer expecially plnys much to
much greater advantage on this ale
buln, and bassist Rick Lairdpres
viouslv capable but subdued, takes‘a
more dominating role. and contl‘l»
bules an outstanding solo on Side
One The music on Inner Mounting
Flame has a curning, loose feeling
that is usually replaced on Birds
of Fire by an extremely tight, driv-
ing structure Cohhnm. nsyou might
expect. ouldoes hlnlselibothintech-
nicdl finesse and in his ability to
make extremely strange time Signir
flu-cs sound as easy and nilui-ul is
4/4.

Discussing in .ilhuin .iflern single
listening gives a fiiutly Rolling stone
tinge to a review; to ivoid any more
of this I cin olllv suggest that you
get IlOId of Birds of Flame and 1is~
tell I0|‘ \Uiii‘seli. many times. After
thit, the olllr question that \\i11
ruuiuin in your mind is uhei-e can
I ,et ,i Illtilltlvislllul Orchestra T»
Shirt

 

