The Michigan Daily-Sunday
Page 2--Sunday, April 2; 1978-The Michigan Daily
RAMRLINGS/eileen daley
FILM /christopher potter
T O HER parents, she is their bright,
T well-mannered youngest daughter.
To others who know her - either per-
sonally or by reputation-she is better
known as "Perv", the resident sex
monger of Helen Newberry, and my
roommate for a while last year.
I'll call her Wanda.
Wanda and I became best friends at
age 12, when her passion for Tom Jones
and my affinity for Paul McCartney
drew us together. Her erotic fantasies
about.Tom Jones were always a big hit
at slumber parties, even though most of
us didn't always understand what she
was talking about.
It was in the sixth grade that we
decided to be roommates at the
University of Michigan, Fall term, 1976.
I was sure rooming with Wanda would
be great. She has always had an ex-
tremely perverse sense of humor, and
since seventh grade, when she pointed
out the double entendre of "She'll be
Coming 'Round the Mountain", I've
been very amused by it. I never would
have guessed her perversion would for-
ce me to move out.
After a few months at school, Wan-
da's libido went wild, and she changed
from someone mildly obsessed with sex
to a full-blown erotopath. "I see
everything in sexual terms now," she
explained once. "Telephone poles are
phallic symbols to me, and the world is
one big orgy."
ROSS PLAYGIRL pinups were soon
'Gspread all over the room, along with
a chart detailing how many calories
various sexual acts burn up. A colorful
embroidered sampler which said
"Home - a place to lay my head and a
few intimate friends," hung above her
bed. It was not long before she became
known as the "Perv" to everyone on
our side of campus.
At an early October football game,
amid West Quad cries of "South Quad
sucks!", someone shouted out "Wanda
sucks!" She immediately jumped onto
the bench, shook her fist and shouted,
"You're damn right I do!" Our phone
didn't stop ringing for weeks after that.
She was inspired by the West Quad-
South Quad cursing however, and she
thought it would be quaint if Newberry
and Barbour followed their example of
comraderie.
One night she yelled "Barbour
sucks!" out a bathroom window. Bar-
bour women responded to her taunts
and the badgering went on for weeks
until, after a women's studies class, she
decided it would be more of a cut to yell
"Barbour can't suck!"
During one study day, the razzing
became particularly vicious:
"Newberry sleeps with wazoos!"
screamed an irate Barbourite.
"We take any ethnic group!" came
the reply.
T HE BARBS continued for some
time, and the next day, many
residents who had been fervently trying
to study were angry. Complaints
reached the building director, who was
slumming it for the day by eating in the
Barbour-Newberry cafeteria with RDs
and RAs from both establishments. The
building director was appalled to learn
of the previous night's activities, and he
wanted to have the instigator's identity.
Our RD, Gail, told us she tried
desperately to defend Wanda's charac-
ter - Wanda was really a nice, decent
young lady, she argued. But the
building director was not convinced,
and demanded that the trollop be poin-
ted out. Reluctantly, Gail nodded
towards Wanda, who was bopping
across the cafeteria in a t-shirt
proclaiming "A hard man is good to
find." The building director was not
amused, and has since threatened to
cancel her lease.
When "Perv" turned our room into
an erotic art gallery, I could take it no,
more. In addition to her pin-ups and
posters, the light switch plate was
replaced by a picture of a lecherous
overweight flasher done in pale blue
and green watercolors. Fleshy paper
mache sculptures were everywhere.
Most notable among them was a four-
foot replica of the male anatomy which
she sometimes used as a hobby horse to
ride to dinner.
I had had it - there was no way I
could ever let my parents visit me, and
it was impossible to have a date over
without him suspecting the place was a
campus branch of the Velvet Touch.
But I didn't expect her to change the
decor simply because I didn't like it,
and she wouldn't have anyway. So in
January, I moved down the hall. No bit-
ter feelings were involved, and we
remain as close as ever. In fact, the
other day she sent me a card.
"When it comes to friends I have to
hand it to you," it says. "Or would you
rattler come over and get it?"
'the envelope please
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C ONTRARY TO the wishes of my
best artistic and social intentions,
I suspect I'll be at least obliquely glued
to the TV screen when Oscar once again
rears his glossy but shopworn head at
the Academy Awards tomorrow night.
There will most likely be nothing better
to do. I will probably lug my television
up to the Daily edit room, plunk it down
in a corner and hope that its blaring
media prominence will lure a few film-
freak afficianadoes over to its grey-lit
sanctuary, ready to argue the general
hot banalities of Travolta vs. Dreyfuss,
Bancroft vs. MacLaine (Yeechh!),
Lucas vs. Speilberg.
Deep in my tiriseled gut, I don't
think I really care. It should have been
an interesting year for the Academy
Awards, but it didn't turn out that way.
The expected battle of the galaxies
didn't materialize, as Star Wars was
nominated for best picture but Close
Encounters, astonishingly, was not._
The Year of the Actress should have
and indeed does provide stiff com-
petitiongbut by all the wrong people.
Kathleen Quinlan gave the most
galvanic female performance of the
decade in I Never Promised You a Rose
Garden, but wasn't even nominated;
nor were Sissy Spacek and Shelly
Duvall, whose brainy interpretations
lifted Robert Altman's otherwise eclec-
tic triviality 3 Women to a passable
level of interest; nor was Lily Tomlin's
compellingly engaging kook of The
Late Show. Diane Keaton was
nominated for the wrong picture-her
shattering tragedian portrait in
Looking for Mr. Goodbar ranked
leagues above her charming but light-
weight mea culpa of Annie Hall. Liza
Minelli was vibrantly poignant in New
York, New York, but was forgotten
almost as swiftly as the movie was
discarded itself.
So who have we left to root for? Well,
officially there's mechanical Marcia
Mason counting her way through the
mechanical pacings of The Goodbye
Girl (Best Picture nominee, yet!), all
under the auspices of mechanical-
laughter hubbie Neil Simon; we also
have those over-emotive harpies Anne
Bancroft and Shirley MacLaine ham-
ming their way through the stillborn
soap The Turning Point (Best Picture
nominee, of course); the only ringing
renunciation to Oscar's canonized
mediocrity comes from Jane Fonda,
whose subtle but wonderfully sinewy
portrayal of Lillian Hellman was, un-
fortunately, far better than her film,
Julia (Best Picture nominee, natch),
deserved.
THE ODDSMAKERS claim Richard
Burton will win Best Actor, not
because his performance in Equus is
any great shakes, but because the
award will compensate for all of
Oscar's past slights and defeats suf-
fered unto the aging Welshman.
Three deeply flawed but fascinatingly
offbeat films-Saturday Night Fever, 3
Women and Looking for Mr. Goodbar
-secured a grand total of one
nomination between the three of them.
Reportedly, this mass-group omission
was due to the fact that 3 Women and
Goodbar were made by maverick,
buck-the-establishment individualists,
while Saturday Night Fever's predilec-
tion toward the youth culture proved of-
fensive to the Academy voting mem-
bers, whose average age reportedly
approaches 65.
The bookies claim Julia and The Tur-
ning Point are running neck and neck
for best picture. If the latter wins, I will
personally puke upon my TV screen; if
the former takes the honors, I will
merely propel forwardly the contents of
one of the many cans of beer I will
doubtless be
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sund av mndeazine lCHOWTI PUZZLE
N. Reach; attain
.+
A. Site of a number of recent illegal
break-ins and burglaries
B. Type of reporter currently
in vogue
C. "Operation _."-John Caulfield's
plon to provide "offensive
intelligence and
defensive security" for Nixon's
reelection campaign
D. Tending to call or draw forth
E. Game the objectof which is to snap
small disks into a container
F. instrument for compressing
ableeding vessel
G. Incited to action
(2 words)
I. The CIA spent $6 million to topple
this elected South American
leader
. Made a sound like o cat
. Marked by weakness or decadence
K. Presented or went over again
77 85 149 169 179 94 165 192 211 218.
33 46 64 70 95 106 110 118 134 145 163 215
209
4 78 103 125.176 187 180 213 204
7 24 49 92 128 143 185 151 19
19 101 47 80 84 183 112 13216469 61
O. Catch-all justification for
governmental abuse of power
(2 words)
45 52 172 198 44 109 56
2763 72 82 93 123 126 138 142 150 58 105
BY
STEPHEN J.
POZSGA I
Copyright 1978
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
'In the history of finance,
capitalism, in-the history of
medicine, it was an event of
single consequence. It
marked a score of advances
in engineering, government
planning, labor relations. It
was the first grandiose and.
assertive show of American
power at the turn of the
century. "
-David McCullough
The Path Between
the Seas
160 166 190 206
148 162
20 36129 107 2051IS
170 22 40 53 866113 34
15 38 50 60 30 186 141
6 74 152 188 130 16
17 108 212 117 203 146
11 41 73 173 207 90 121 156
krishna
P. Nixon's private secret police
0. CIA's domestic spying program
(2 words)
R. Washed; poured
S. Impending: close at hand
T. Decide not to remain (3 words)
U. Fix upon: call: ordain
V. One who seeks to overthrow
or overturn
W. Indent; jag
X. One having or affecting sensitivity
to the beautiful
Y. Crowd upon; press
Z. Man of property, authority or
education in the eastern
Mediterranean
48 75 99 210 182 194 67 32
--- ---- - - - - - - -
2 136 13 26 76 86 97 104 127 133 147 161
175 184
37 202 120 155 12
51 2219 139 79 87 135199
43 62 6 83 171 181 100 119 197 214
25 195 159 140 222
18 10 66 81 91 122 177189154220
31 5 157 98 193
54 65 178 89 116 124 168216
35 191 3 9 221 55
29 1 8 21 42 174'200
(Continued from Page 6)
master cannot answer the problem, it is
referred to the governing board of
commission, who will provide an an-
swer gleaned from the Bagavad-Gita.
THE KRISHNA devotees search-
ing for the truth mirror a larger
slice of American society
looking for answers in other mediums.
In the sixties, the medium was often
drugs. Today's youth are turning to the
burgeoning swarm of Eastern religions
that offer direction and identity. The
Hare Krishna believers join the ranks-
of other young spiritualists - the
Moonies, the Sufis and innumberable
yogis - all offering a different path to
truth.
Robert Greenfield described the
workings of many Eastern faiths in his
book The Spiritual Supermarket, an,
account of modern day gurus.
"There exists in America an entire
circuit,".Greenfield says, "a spiritual
counterculture, .for which there is even
a. guidebook called Spiritual Com-
munity Guide. The credentials required
of those applying for positions of power
in this new world are, at best, hazy. No
degree can certify a man to be "holy".
No piece of paper can attest to the fact
that he is able to accept responsibility
for the lives of others. Along the circuit
there are scenes that deny the law of
probability."
One of those scenes is the growing ac-
ceptance of the Hare Krishna
movement. Detroit-based Kirti Raja
Das, a former head of the California
publishing and distribution center for
Krishna materials, estimates that 90
per cent of the libraries in the country
have the teachings of Swami
Prabhupada on file. The business
caters to a variety of interests, using
the best of Madison Avenue methods to
swell the number of congregants.
According to Kirti Raja Das, the
publishing company produced 55
million books in 26 languages on the
culture, philosophy, meditation and
yoga relating to Krishna in the past ten
_years.
A member of the Los Angeles World
Affairs Club and host to many State
Department dignitaries, Kirti Raja Das
works to give the movement credibility
in mainstream American society.
"Krishna consciousness comes off
better with a little bit of hair and a
three-piece suit, so that is how I do it,"
he said. A member of the Detroit
Economics Club and the International
Institute, the seemingly polished young
executive has discussed the teachings
of Krishna with many prominent
figures, including Secretary of State
Cyrus Vance.
Far from being a departure from
traditional beliefs, the religion em-
bodies traditions basic to every doc-
trine - one supreme being who com-
municates his will through a chosen
speaker and the realization of life after
death. The Krishna devotees welcome
with open arms the discontented in
society. The blend of eastern mysticism
and western advancement fits nicely
into the framework of American
society.
HIS DIVINE Grace Swami Prab-
hupada, disseminator of Krish-
na to the western world, died
last fall. His followers, while
acknowledging that he "has left the
planet," feel that he lives on in another
form because they believe the soul
never dies. They plan to carry on his
work, building a Krishna-conscious
society.
"He went through a lot both for me
and for everyone else who is a member
of this society. Now, upon leaving, I
have a great responsibility to carry on
his work," said Kirti Raja Das.
Sitting in the dimly lit Ann Arbor
temple, relati
ten years as
Raja Das sp
leader and d
the sect.
After a few
to the New
that only in t
Grace Swam
direction for
"It was the
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perience -1
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those are no
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Pari Pu
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ded their i
reminiscing
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night bunch
thing. What
and benefici
L. One of the main sources of b sn s 1 130 - 1- 1- 2-
information in the spy business 39 57 114 102 131 201 144 167 208
M. Code name for FBI's counter-
intelligence program
4 23 59 :71 96 111 153 158 217 137
___________________________________________________________________________________ II