deep greens and blues The seasoi n of the wit ch THEY CAME TO US that first day, telling stories with serious looks in their wild, glassy eyes. Maybe it happens in the middle of every summer, heading heavy through August, dead beat and bored, tired of summertime s t r e t c h e d out dried out - very strange. Very strange indeed. Time for the crazies - must be the season of the witch. EVERY DAY around noon, the phone used to ring and the same old guy would huff and puff at us. "Do you realize, sir," he used to begin, and he'd go on talking about something different each time, such as "the younger generation is leading us to galloping ruin," or armament conferences in Europe, elec- tions in Alabama, anything. He'd finish indignantly with, "Why don't you write an editorial about that? Why don't you?" And he'd hang up. We missed that old guy when he tapered off in June; figured the heat must have driven him away. We began to get as dry as the summer and by late July we were downright bored. Then all of a sudden, we got a rush. "You've got to help us," said an earnest voice at the other end of the line. "Our friend has been kidnapped by the Children of God." We told them we were a newspaper, not a detective agency, as they insisted that a Jesus-group in Detroit, acting as a front for a kidnap outfit, had a hold on their friend. "IT WAS DURING the street fair," the voice explained. "He went off with them then. We went to Detroit and he said he didn't want to leave - but they were surrounding him." We were arranging to talk to them again later when a tall, curly-haired student apprached us. He'd been around before, stretching himself out on the desks and talking about systems analysis. "I'm going to look outside and see if the police are waiting for me," he said in a matter-of-fact way. We met X soon after that. He was short and nervous, and so intense that he gathered a crowd of us around him. The FBI persecuted its informers, he said, attempting to pressure them into continued faithful informing. EVERYWHERE HE WENT, X told us, they planned ahead of him - he would hear people talking about him as he crossed the Diag, murmuring about him at adjacent tables when he went out to dinner, laughing at him, digging up dirt from his past. Later that evening, a group of angry radicals marched into the building and methodically took pictures of us all. But we hardly noticed - we were still busy thing about a letter to the editor, submitted earlier in the day by a former mayoral candi- date. "Why did we get into Vietnam?" the letter-writer asked, repeating a conversation he had pursued, with some success ap- parently, in Biff's restaurant. "IT STARTS WITH SALOME'S dance, of all things. Every- one presumably remembers the Biblical account, of how she did a dance which so pleased her father, King Herod, that he told her he'd give her anything she'd ask for. She wanted the head of John the Baptist on a platter. So he gave her the wish. "Why did she wish that - you're asking, probably. I feel very sure that the Herod family were descendants of the head- hunters, quite a few of whom were mentioned or photographed in The Daily Jan. or Feb. last. "The Herods were actually Jewish people, and many influen- tial persons in Washington, D.C., are Jewish descended, so our entry into Vietnam's side may have been a wish of those persons to help out. A very natural attitude, of course, "HOW DID THE HERODS happen to come here, you may ask. The Negroes were not the only persons pressed into slavery. Without a doubt many slaves were obtained from Asia, too. Some enterprising reporter-researcher might decide to ask the question very directly of the Washington D.C. people who are pushing the Vietnam war so vigorously. "I shall say this in a very straight-forward fashion - I believe it is the real truth. You surely are entitled to your opinion, whatever it is. Can you suggest any alternative? Pro- bably not." We felt ourselves falling, slowly at first, then plunging, plummeting, full speed ahead in a swan dive off the deep end. The phone rang - it was the curly-hared student. "I got home safely," he told us. "Just wanted you to know." WE DIDN'T LAUGH at him; we hadn't laughed at any of them that first day of discovery, that day we began to suspect it was all coming unhinged. Although little has happened since then to confirm our suspicions - a few phone calls now and then ,an unexplainable letter or two - we still don't laugh. You can never laugh in this haunting, perpetual season of the witch - next time, it may be you. It may be you the FBI chooses to persecute; it may be your friend who is swooped up by the Children of God. It may be you the police choose to follow, Very strange indeed. 420 Maynard Street, Ann Arbor, Mich. Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of the author. This must be noted in all reprints. Friday, August 6, 1971 News Phone: 764-0552 NIGHT EDITOR: ANITA CRONE f' sex information Chemi 'cal spermicides (EDITOR'S NOTE: This regular question -and-answerecolumneon matters of sexual coneern is being published in co-operation with Counseting Services, a division of the Office of Student Serviees. Questions may be sent to Box 25, The Daily, 420 Maynard, or phoned into 16-GUIDE, the Coun- seling Services' regular 24 - hour counseling and referral service.) By ROBERT KOOP Q. You said in your column on the diaphragm that it was not ef- fective unless it was used with a vaginal spermicide. Are the sper- micides effective all by them- selves? Is it better to use a cream or a jelly or foam? - A. Well, yes. They are effective when used by themselves, but not very. The failure rate for brand name spermicides is between 15 and 25 per hundred woman years. This is better than the failure rate for the rhythm method (slightly) and better than the rate for coitus interruptus (a little) but not as good as the rates for the dia- phragm (with jelly or cream), the condom, the IUD or the Pill. The foams are the most effective of the three types. Some women will use jellies or creams because of an allergic reaction to foam or a personal preference for them, so let me talk a little about the dif- ferences between the various types of spermicides and let you figure it out for yourself. There is one time when foam is not as effective as either jellies or creams-which is when you're using a diaphragm. The foaming action tends to move the dia- phragm out of place. People have been trying to work out an effective vaginal spermicide ever since they figured out where babies camve from. Egyptians were told to try honey and acacia tips for this purpose more than 3500 years ago. As you may have guessed, this didn't work very well, and nei- their did any of the other ones that were suggested up until so- called modern times. Anyway, after 3500 years of messing around, somebody finally came up with some stuff that worked, and here's how it does: Most currently available chemical contraceptives rely for their ef- fectiveness on both a chemical and a mechanical action. That is, they contain a chemical that kills sperm mixed with a base (cream, jelly or foam) that forms a physical barrier to sperm get- ting to where they want to go. There are also suppositories which work mostly by chemical action alone-but these are not as effective and not significantly easier to use, so there's really no reason to mess with them at all. Let's take the other ones one at a time: 1. FOAMS: These are the most effective of the chemical contra- ceptives. The foaming action makes it more likely that the pre- paration will spread itself 'out to cover the cervix-which is what you want to keep those sperm away from. 2. JELLIES: are chemicals in a water - soluble base which (re- markably enough) has a jelly-like consistency. It liquifies at a lower temperature than creams so it may be better for couples who feel the need for extra lubrication, 3. CREAMS: are chemical pre- pared in a stearate soap which supposedly adheres to vaginal tis- sues better than jellies. In fact, there's almost no difference in re- liability or cost between creams and jellies - most manufacturers make cream and jelly equivalents and the creams are slightly more popular across the board. Here's how they all work: With your first purchase of foam, ' jelly or cream you get an applicator which is essentially just a special purpose syringe. The spermicide is forced into the syringe which is then placed as far back in the va- gina as possible. Pressing the plunger deposits the spermicide at the back of the vagina and over the cervix. Here are the rules you have to follow to make them work right: 1. They must be inserted not more than 30 minutes before inter- course. 2. Two applicators full will be more effective than one -more than that and you start getting into the realm of overkill. 3. If more than a half hour has elapsed, if the woman has gotten up from bed or urinated, another insertion of spermicide is required. 4. Leaking can be controlled by pressing a tissue or clean towel 4 against the vaginal opening. None of the major brands will perma- nently stain sheets or clothing, though. 5. It is not necessary to douche, but if you do, you must wait until at least six hours has passed after, intercourse.cNot allntheasperm cells will come in contact with the spermicide right away. Douch- ing will not remove all the sperm from the vagina, but it will re- move most of the spermicide. After intercourse, you can get up or go to the bathroom without ef- fecting the action of the spermi-V cide. 6. You must insert a fresh ap- plication before each act of inter- course. If you insist on using only a chemical contraceptive (and that's certainly better than nothing) your should use foam. Cream and jelly are best for use with a diaphragm. Foam is also great when used in conjunction with condoms. The failure rate of the condom and foam together is comparable to the failure rate of the Pill (this has not been clinically documented) and, unless you have an allergic reaction to the preparation you're using, the side effects are nil. The main advantage of the chemical methods is that all the chemicals are available without prescription and are openly dish. played in drug stores and even in places like K-Mart. They're pretty cheap to use (ten to thirtyncents per act of intercourse) and ni- body looks at you twice or asks you any questions when you buy them. Emko and Delfen are the bran names of the two most widel~ used, effective foams, by the way, and a starter kit (applicator and enough foam for about twenty applications) will cost you about $2.50 or $3.00. All these prepara- tions are available at the Health Service Pharmacy.