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Page 2-Sunday, October 22, 1978-The Michigan Daily
The Michigan Daily-Sunday, C
RAilBLINGS/elizabeth slowIk
A T 17, I bought a plant with the
promise that it would photosyn-
thesize near the doorway of my first
apartment. My mother, an ambitious
amateur horticulturist, said the plant
would grow into a sturdy tree.
Now, almost four years later, that
plant has more than doubled its original
six inches. It remains in my mother's
living room. Not that I have no space
for it - it's just that, well, my first
apartment is simply. not a place a
healthy plant would want to live.
I thought it wonderful, ten months
ago, to plan on decorating and cooking
in my own apartment. My roommates
and I had grandiose ideas. Then we
moved in.
As college apartments go, ours is not
bad. Sure, it's on the ground floor, and
our wall of living room windows looks
out on a rock-lined pit. Even though the
curtains are falling off the rod, we did
get new carpeting. And we ignore the
flimsy curtain rod in one bedroom -
the rod held up by books wedged again-
st the casement - in hopes that the
bathtub drain will be unclogged.
Welcome home.
L AURA, PEGGY, Norene and I
spent one evening moving fur-
niture around. The couch, which at first
sat on two piles of bricks, now has legs
and can be propped up against any
wall.
After an hour of shoving, pulling,
twisting, and laughing, the
arrangement finally suited our tastes.
The crowning touches: a 20-year-old
trunk, which has visited more colleges
than the four of us combined, as a cof-
fee table; and three blue Farm Maid
milk crates as a TV stand (courtesy of
the West Quad cafeteria). The living
room has a certain flair, now, I think;
it's decorated in early modern college.
Once we exhausted our interior
decorating skills, we launched into
another domestic area: cooking. Our
culinary talents range from gourmet to
Banquet frozen dinners. After a month
and a half of enduring grilled cheese
sandwiches and canned soup every
Monday, my roommates have
developed a preference for McDonald's
on my days to cook.
I would like to clarify one point about
my cooking. There are rumors across
campus that I burn bacon and toast.
However, Peggy's boyfriend can testify
that I make a mean BLT.
I have also become adept at
producing panful after panful of pop-
corn on Thursday nights. On Thur-
sdays, 10 of our friends, some refugees
from West Quad, and others who have
forsaken the dorm life, gather around
our nineteen-inch black-and-white TV
to watch the latest episode of Soap. The
show has become an object of worship
in our circle, and our Soap parties are
its weekly ritual. During commercials,
conversation revolves around Kareen,
Bobby, and Chester, Bert's reaction to
Jody's blessed event, and who really is
in the basement. But as soon as the
show is on, silence is broken only by
popcorn-crunching and beer-slurping.
The UGLI is never that quiet.
Only once was a Soap party close to
disaster. The manager of our apar-
tment building called early one mor-
ning and said the painter would begin to
work in our living room that afternoon
and would we please remove our drapes
and pile furniture in the middle of the
room. Laura was the only one home at
the time, so, according to orders, she
tore apart the room we had worked so
diligently to arrange and waited. When
I came home at 6:00, she was still
waiting.
B UT SOAP wouldn't wait for a
fresh coat of paint on our walls.
We put everything back in its place;
and, like phases of the moon, the soap
gang trooped in at 9:30.
The painter trooped in at 7:45 the next
morning.
Mornings have become another ritual
in our apartment. We have developed a
schedule for use of the bathroom. Our
medicine cabinet looks like a rummage
sale. One morning I opened it, bleary
with sleep and blind without contacts,
and out tumbled four tubes of tooth-
paste, three jars of Noxema, three sets
of contact lens cases, two boxes of
band-aids and a tube of eczema cream.
As I picked up the mess, the hair dryer
dropped into the toilet and I knocked
the shampoo all over the floor.
Once a week someone takes a shower
without tucking the shower curtain into
the bathtub. It's our closest attempt to
wash the floor.
Bathroom aside, though, I like our
apartment. Even the fact that we live
on a much-used ambulance route
doesn't bother me anymore. No matter
how many things go wrong in our place,
it's still home. Home is where my frien-
ds are. Living in the student ghetto ain't.
so bad when you've got friends.
Now, if only we could get that peeling
bathroom ceiling repainted ...
IN OTH
T HE TROUBLE with economics, as I
see it, is that none of our economic
theories or plans seem to be solving any
of our problems. It may seem perverse
to you for an English professor to
demand of some other discipline that it
solve problems, since surely neither
literature nor the study of literature has
ever managed to do so. But that's
another argument.
Two of the biggest economic
problems facing us are, perennially, in-
flation and taxes. I have a solution to
the inflation problem, and an idea for a
simple new tax scheme which should
both work and keep us taxpayers hap-
py. Let me present them to you, briefly,
and solicit your thoughtful response. If
you agree as to the worth and prac-
ticability of my ideas, then perhaps you
can persuade me to devote more of my
energies to such problems. Maybe I
could even be talked into accepting a
professorship in economics.
Stopping inflation is a logical im-
possibility, so we might as well quit
trying. Once we invented the number 2
- once we let it out of Pandora's box -
it was all over. Numbers tend naturally
Bert Hornback is an English pro-
fessor and an authority on Dickens.
FER
WORDS!
to reproduce, to proliferate, to rise. The
Greek root, nemo, has connotations of
spreading, multiplying, increasing.
Once we develop a culture which values
things in terms of quantity, we have in-
flation. As soon as we invent price, we
cause inflation. It can't be prevented,
and it can't be stopped.
We can, however, redirect inflation -
and redirection is what I propose to
solve the economic problem inflation
causes. If we can redirect inflation
from cost or price of the product to
measure or size of the product, inflation
will no, longer be a problem - will in
fact become a blessing for us all.
Suppose, for example, you paid
eighty-five cents for a dozen eggs
yesterday. In a normally inflating
economy, you might expect to pay
ninety cents next week for your eggs. If,
however, we can redirect inflation -
from price to size - next week you'll
pay eighty-five cents still, but the size
of a dozen will have inflated enough to
give you thirteen eggs. If under the
current system, you pay $100 a month
rent for your apartment, you must ex-
pect to pay more - maybe $120 a month
- next year; if, however, we redirect
inflation, you'll pay the same monthly
rent next year, but either your apar-
bert hor
tment will be larger or your months will
be longer!
All right? Now then: on to taxes.
"Tax" is a word that comes to us
from Greek and Latin roots, and means
to "take" or "take away." What I
propose is the abolition of all our
various and variously deceptive or par-
tial taxes, and the institution of a new
triennial tax to replace them. This new
tax will be a simple and utterly
straightforward one: it will be a one
hundred per cent tax on excess. Every
three years, the new tax will reclaim all
excess wealth, whether in money or
real property. Every three years the
administrators of this tax will collect -
for redistribution, of course - all ex-
cess money stored away in banks or
socks, all the extra cars and television
sets, individual overstocks of suits or
sweaters or shoes, extra copies of
books, etc.
The triennial one hundred per cent
tax on excess will redistribute our
national wealth every three years, but
without interfering with either the
economically useful motives for hard
work - profit, gain - or the
psychologic
complishme
first status
were taxed
how much
they hit me
and a milli
say, braggi
The ultima
will probabl
have been I
have anyth:
at all; and
boast of urn
all the way
The cont
possession',
all, natural
that the cap
efficient tha
will ever be
partial tax
the effici
economic a
triennial ta
will be regi
the tax itse
efficient.
What mo:
sundav mddzine ORMTC PUZZLE
BY
S TEPHEN J.
POZSGAI
CopyrightI178
INSTRUCTIONS
Guess the words defined at the
left and write them in over
their numbered dashes. Then,
transfer each letter to the cor-
responding numbered square
in the grid above. The letters
printed in the upper-right-hand
corners of the squares indi-
cate from what clue-word a
particular square's letter
comes from. The grid, when
filled in, should read as a
quotation from a published
work. The darkened squares
are the spaces between words.
Some words may carry over
to the next line. Meanwhile,
the first letter of each guessed
word at the left, reading down,
forms an acrostic, giving the
author's name and the title of
the work from which the quote
is extracted. As words and
phrases begin to form in the
grid, you can work back and
forth from clues to grid until
the puzzle is complete.
Answer to Last Week's Puzzle
The problems of arms
may be more complex and
their control more difficult
than the layman might at
first imagine but the ordi-
nary citizen is right in think-
ing that the arms trade, like
narcotics or slavery, is dif-
ferent from other trades.
Anthony Sampson
(The) Arms Trade
FOOD/ken parsigian and
ren6
1b
A. Human disease transmitted by bite
ofmosquito characterized by chills _ _ _ _ _
and fever (periodic attacks of) 1 76 106 140 96 188 165
B. Disease characterized by severe _ _ - _ - - -
gastro intestinol symptoms 3 26 39 130 180 189 111
C. Flexible rod of cells forming the
primitive basis of the spinal---------------- _- - ---
column in vertebrates 21 24 38 42 66 81 105 181 186
D. Excessively prevalent; affecting many-----------4----9-----
persons at once 17 128 13 59 147 159 65 87
E. Human respiratory infection-
11 58 40 68 89 102 117 75 131
F. Deadly disease first appearing in _----
Nigeria in 1969 (2 words) 16 9 83 86 95 115 142 30 158 166
G. Places for those suffering from __- __ _
Hansens disease 48 116 60 4 88 120 124 70 171 183
H. Question persistently - - _ -
6 129 173 149
1. Inside facts: dope - _ -
32 61 43 113 155 143 80
J. Mosquito that serves as carrier for
yellow fever (scientific name) - _ _ _ _ - _ _ _ -
(2 words) 2 27 28 44 191 67 92 71 56 126 141 160
K. Types of measles-
22 139 8 15 167 146
L. Extreme; most remote___-_---_
47 53 64 119 93 123 134 151 170
M. Action of expelling a person
by legal-process
N. Single term or datum in a
collection
0. New World inhabitants decimated
upon contact with Old World
diseases
P. Man of great wealth or prominence
Q. Highly infectious disease marked b
the formation of a false membran
especially in the throat
R. Sycophant; one who lives off
another without giving in
return
S. Unrestrained expression
T. Characterized by development
along straight luoes
U. Press one's suit (2 words)
Take to the limit
V. Game of chance
W. Occurring in the inner ear
X. Disease that wiped out the
Aztecs for Cortez
29 187 20 110 156 '63 69 99
10 23 54 77 84 118 154 133 161
7 35 114 138 52 73 153 169 177 185 .193
37 82 103 163 176
y
19 50 94 101 132 144 152 162 182 184
34 18 55 72 136 104 179 192
31 46 175 122 172 74 107 135
5 45 85 121 127 108 145 90 98 178
41 190 168 157 109 100
51 33 12 91 79
36 125 25 150 92 78 137
Best of
AILURE TO EXPLORE Ann Arbor is a great
F tragedy of nearly everyone's first two years at
the University. Ann Arbor has much to offer if you
are willing to venture beyond the confines of cam-
pus. Few students discover the real Ann Arbor
before their junior year, and fewer still partake of
all its delights. Especially for the gastronomically
inclined, the city stretches far beyond McDonald's
and Domino's, if you take the time to search. We'll
point you in the right direction with the first part of
our modest list of some of our favorite spots. Soon
you'll find that you have compiled a list of your own.
Wine stores
The midwest is generally considered a desert
when it comes to wine. Even Detroit is virtually
void of good wine stores, save one on the east side
which adequately serves the fanciful tastes of the
rich in Grosse Pointe. This is why Ann Arbor is a
delightful surprise to the oenophilist. Several stores
here have at'least a few interesting wines. But one
looms above the rest, surpassing even the best in
Detroit. Though most of its patrons are oblivious to
the treasures which lie between the Crisco oil and
the Campbell Soup, Village Corners offers the best
selection of Californians, French, and German
wines for literally hundred of miles. You might
want to investigate V.C's collection of Beaujolais.
The '76's-the kind of year we pine for but see only
several times a century-abound at V.C., par-
ticularly the Fleurie, the queen of Beaujolais, of
which we have availed ourselves often.
Cheese
French Brie is often described as the cheese of
kings and the king of cheese. A Brie merchant must
be an artist. He or she must know exactly how long
to store and just when to cut into the chalk-white
disc-too soon means too immature, and once cut
the cheese stops maturing. Although many stores,
including Krogers, sell Brie, the place where the
merchants handle Brie, and other cheeses for that
matter, like artists is Dunham-Wells at Kerrytown.
Rene Becker is the editorial director at the
Daily. Ken Parsigian is a Daily managing
editor.
Ann Arbor: Part
There are places in Detroit that are better and
cheaper than Dunham-Wells, but for most occasions
it will suffice. Its selection, although not huge, is
always interesting; it carries the standards such as
Brie, Camembert, Jarlsberg, and Havarti, but they
often bring in lesser known but excellent cheese
from France. Big Ten PartyStore should also
receive mention for its cheese department. While
not as big as Dunham-Wells, Big Ten does have a
nice selection but unfortunately the cheese is not as
well cared for as at Dunham-Wells.
Just a passing note: we think the finest cheese
available at either of these stores is Boursault, a
creamy French cheese with a taste somewhere
between Brie and butter. Decadent, very decadent. .'
Bread
The best compliment to good wine and cheese is
bread. It would be nice if Ann Arbor had several, or
even one, good bakeries, but the sad truth is that
almost anyone can make better bread than can be ...:..
bought in Ann Arbor. We strongly suggest that
everyone purchase or borrow a book entitled Beard
on Bread, by James Beard, America's premiere
food expert. There are 100 recipes for bread in this
excellent book. We have tried many and have been
pleased with all of them.
However, if you desire authentic Parisian bread
that can be made at home, and if you have the time
and patience, we recommend the French bread
recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol.
II. The first few times may take you upwards of
seven hours but every minute is well spent. Per-
suade a friend to skip classes one day or to miss a
football game and stay home to make bread. That's.
the only way you will eat good bread in this town.
Liquor
Most liquor stores can appease the average taste
with little difficulty. But if your tastes, as ours do,
lean toward more aesthetically pleasing liquors and
liquers, then the number of places in Ann Arbor
where you will find gratification are limited.
Although its wine selection is just short of astoun-
ding, Village Corners does not give its liquor selec-
tion equal attention. It is better than adequate but
See FOOD, Page 8 -
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