Page 4-Tuesday, May 23, 1978-The Michigan Daily
.rmichigan DAILY
Eighty-eight Years of Editorial freedom
420 Maynard St, Ann Arbor, MI. 48109
Vol. LXXXVIII, No. 15-S News Phone: 764-0552
Tuesday, May 23, 1978
Edited and managed by students
at the University of Michigan
Bottle bill awaits
citizen action
M ICHIGAN'S environmentally concerned citizens
showed their clout when they rallied to the
support of a state bottle bill in the 1976 election.
The bill survived strong opposition from the
beverage industry and was easily approved by the
voters.
But it looks as if the bottle bill, which goes into
effect Dec. 3, may not be the environmental
triumph its supporters expect to see. The bill will
require mandatory deposits on all beverage con-
tainers. Cans and current glass bottles marked
no-deposit will not be eliminated, rather they will
require a ten-cent deposit. Refillables will require
a five cent deposit.
The problem is that beer industry sources are
predicting that when the law goes into effect, the
mix of cans and bottles of beer on the market will
not substantially change. That is, a surge in the
use of reusable beer bottles is not likely to result,
and consumers will throw away their cans rather
then going to the trouble of collecting a deposit.
Industry sources base their, prediction on con-
sumer preference studies which say people don't
want to bother with returnable bottles. An Arthur
Young & Co. study, financed by the U.S. Brewers
Association, concluded that "Michigan con-
sumers have a strong preference for convenience
packaging.'
Whether or not the people will continue using
one-way bottles or cans has yet to be seen. But if
that continues to happen-despite the deposit
charges-the effectiveness of the whole bill will
remain untapped. People will have to avoid taking
the easy way out and realize that besides losing
the deposit on bottles or cans by not returning
them, such action will more importantly not do
the environment much good.
The Young study also reported that a large
number of grocery stores in the Detroit area
refuse to sell refillable bottles, leaving consumers
no alternative. This action on the part of retailers
will have to stop. It's senseless trying to push
consumers into returning their bottles or cans
when only one-way drinks are available.
Environmentalists worked long and hard to
pass a progressive bill that has the potential of
resulting in much good for the state. But the suc-
cess of the bottle bill is in the hands of individual
citizens who, if they decide not to take the trouble
to return their bottles or cans, won't see a much
cleaner Michigan.
Submissions of essay and opinion to the
Daily's Editorial page should be typed and
triple spaced. They will be returned to the
author only if a request is made to do so.
Publication is based on conciseness, clarity of
thought and writing, and overall appeal.

WORDS
In terms of confusion

By Brian Blanchard
Maybe they learn it at Rotary
Club meetings. Or it could be that
the successful learn its mysteries
earlier, that fraternities and
sororities make its instsuction part
of their initiation rituals, right
before the handshake.
Whatever the source, the lazy
phrases of the commercial and
political communities are falling
into the discussion at conferen-
ces, meetings, and banquets with
businesslike regularity.
"I DO WANT to explain to
you," state Rep. Robert Carr (D-
6th District) assured a group
gathered for a disarmament con-
ference this last weekend, "a lit-
tle bit about how the Congress
operates, and how that impacts
on arms control, and how it im-
pacts on me in particular." En-
vironmental Impact bounces off
most of us by now, but when we
hear-as did anyone who atten-
ded any Regents' meetings this
year-that "We will impact that
with this part ...," are we to
assume it will be a left upper-cut
impaction, or a more tactful one
carried out by a secretary with a
stapler?
Whepthe average Regent or
legislator uses the term "im-
pact," it can mean "effect,"
"add," or even "current circum-
stances" ("What's the current
impact at this point in time?").
The disarmament group was
also urged by Rep. Carr to think
of the neutron bomb "in terms of
lethality."'Brows knit, we tried to
lethalize our thoughts about the
bomb. A visitor to the Regents
Room learns that a certain plan
is appropriate "in terms of being
able to happen." "In terms of" is
often used as a mysterious link
between two ideas, defying
grammatical classification. The
Fuller-Geddes Hospital access
plan becomes "ready in terms of
the near term," which probably
means-not "ready soon-but
rather "ready for use over the
next few years (but not any
longer than that)."
ONE MIGHT expecta bunch of
metropolitan newspaperpeople
on stage a few weeks ago during
the Detroit Press Club awards
dinner to watch their words. But
journalists apparently have little
respect for verbs.
"I don't want to belabor your
. " apologized James Jones,
Detroit Bureau Chief of
Newsweek to a room full of jour-
nalists, none of whom looked
pregnant. Those in attendance
found out how easy it is to prac-
tice "hinsighting." And Jones
lauded young writers for doing a
"flock of work" to handle "these
problems being faced upon
them."
BECAUSE I'M not in rhythm
with the car industry, I was the
only one in the hall to flinch when
a reporter asked former whiz-
kid, now Dean of the Stanford
GraduateBusiness School,A-
jay Miller whether cars "ae
becoming downsized." It's the
right word," said Miller of the
v a e .-s4.& .. A _',, A.

enough "allegedlys" into a story
about a story about a murder
suspect, city police chief Walter
Krasny didn't want to commit
himself too much in a recent
statement to a reporter, so he
qualified his responsibility right
out of it. "We are thinking about
the possibility we may be dealing
with some kind of double mur-
der." I guess there's a chance it's
something like a quasi-correct
sentence.

'With the aging of the
parking structures, an
engineering consultant's
report has resulted in
estimates for the cost
of substantial repairs
in the older parking
structures requiring ad-
ditional annual expen-
ditures of at least
$200,000 per year. '
- Vice-President
James Brinkerhoff
-from a University
Information Release.
The far sighted Regents tend to
look constantly "three or four
years down the road" (at least
one ".. down the pike" was sub-
stituted this year). This is fairly
poetic usage for the Ad-
ministration Building. That is un-
til the image has been summoned
and discarded six or seven times
in half as many hours.
DURING THE same arms con-
ference last weekend, Rep. Carl
Pursell, our man in the House,
opted for looking thoughtfully
toward "the near horizon." Pur-
sell's imaginative use of
topography surfaced a few
minutes later when we were told
that the armament problem is the
most disastrous one "on the face
of the human earth" (a visage not
sglglresuppopt44 o£the-Man

Of course it must be thrilling to
utter something that is probably
being said for the first time. Rep.
Carr might have had such a
feeling when he related that some
legislators oppose military spen-
ding "gut instinct-wise."
Maybe we've just been wrking
our officials too hard. The
University PR service related
this to the public recently in a
press release: "With the aging of
the parking structures, an
engineering consultant's report
has resulted in estimates for the
cost of substantial repairs in the
older parking structures
requiring additional annual ex-
penditures of at least $200,000 per
year,' U-M Vice-President James
F. Brinkerhoff said."
IT WOULDN'T be lo hard to
forgive the sketchy first clause if
we weren't hit so hard by a report
that "results in" (contains?)
estimates. But to make it up to
us, the financial vice-president
teaches us what annual means.
The Regents earned under-
graduate and advanced degrees
from such fine places as Vassar,
Wisconsin, Harvard, and the
University, but these days they
seem to delight in reducing the
style of their utterances to the
administrative minimum.
It's nice to find out from the
speaker he is "comfortable with"
a plan. It's never easy though, to
decide whetherkthe new idea
comforts him like a pair of mit-
tens in January, or if he has only
%managed to accommodate him-
self to the rough thought with
some strain.
IMPACTED ON all this are the
Regental language habits which
crop up once in a while in terms
of confusion. In context, the ad-
ministrators must all know what
it means to "flow our money"
somewhere, although the spring
tuition hike makes us wonder just
where it goes.
More unsettling is the abuse of
the once pure "literally." We find
out that "the cost of education is
literally sky-rocketing," right out
the top of the Administration
Building, carrying the sanctity of
literal meaning with it.
Dropping the "for" off "for-
see," as in "I don't see the
proliferation of nuclear
weapons, is no fair but
fashionable.
There are, however, signs that
the Regents are at least aware of
the words they use. When
discussing a delicate matter in-
volving someone's death, it was
pointed out carefully that such
and such an action ought to have
taken place "after his life."
Possibilitywise, the list goes on
down the pike, but in the
memorable words of someone
who addressed the Regents early
this year, this has been only "a
top of the head-type presen-
tation."
Daily staff writer Brian
Blanchard enjoyed a year of
terms in confusion while cov-
ering the University Regents.

amuom 'e

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