r .. Mk s r _ i 0 0 s v I 4B TheMiciga Daly Wedesdy, oveber21,200 Weneda, ovmbr 1,207 - heMihianDaly 9 - ° r . %' - ; i' ___ _ ABOUT CAMPUS ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOHN OQUIST being a poet ___ -__tf- Bathroom confessional The sisterhood of the stall It was Sunday evening at the Fishbowl and LSA sophomore Bethany Rockwall needed to use the bathroom. Rockwall turned left from the computer lab toward the infa- mously unkempt women's rest- room in Mason Hall. Inside the restroom, she surveyed the rows of stalls, trying to find one that wasn't a primordial disaster. Rockwall's search took her to the end of the row, where she settled on a stall that was clean but impos- sible to lock. There is where she found it - the "Go Blue Girly Confessions..." wall. "Go Blue Girly Confessions..." is the name someone scrawled above a couple square feet of graf- fiti that features hundreds of con- fessions and responses written by a devout following of anonymous bathroom-goers. The wall, with its frequent updates of new secrets, acts as a sort of peer counseling system with what could be a faster response time than the Universi- ty's Counseling And Psychological Services. The stall's end-of-the-row posi- tion and door that stands ajar makes it an unlikely choice, except in the situation encountered byRockwall, darker set of guilty confessions where every other stall is a war written discreetly to the side in zone. But after women discover the small, cramped letters. stall, many will use no other. "I miss bulimia," reads the first "From now on I only use this note. stall!" reads one of many endorse- "I know! I miss anorexia but I ments written on the wall. Rock- hate what it did 2 me." wall, who admitted to spending "I miss cutting. Ahh - high a few extra minutes studying the school addictions." wall's contents, said she would "Be strong, women!" the last show the stall special preference note reads. from now on. And since it's at the on another area of the wall, dis- end of the row and it doesn't lock, cussion takes a turn toward medi- "It's probably going to remain the cal matters. A large square borders clean one," she said. a survey that asks, "Have you got- The wall's content, in a similar ten the HPV/cervical cancer vac- vein of PostSecret, ranges from cine?" Fourteen respondents have admissions of guilty pleasures - gotten the vaccine, 10 haven't but "I'm having an existentialist crisis intend to and 11 don't plan to. Two over a Coach bag" - to acknowl- others responded under the added edgement of inner-demons - category "Too expensive!" "There is life after depression. I Nearby, another contributor have found it." poses a question to her fellow The vast majority of entries women about the pros and cons refer to incidents of unrequited of the after-the-fact birth control or unfeasible love, some elicit- Plan B. "What do you think of Plan ing sympathetic responses and B? I just had it and it fucked up my advice. cycle really bad." "He cheated on me twice and "What is Plan B?" a reader lied to me about it for a year but responded. "I like the pill." I'm still not over him," one series Throughout the wall's con- of notes begins. tents, one reaction repeatedly "You need to move on. Not worth appears. Note after note extols your time.You're better than that!!" the wall's existence, if not for one response reads. therapeutic services provided, "No. Take your time. You will than at least for its entertain- heal when you're ready," another ment value. response counters. A note penciled in elegant Standing in contrast to the cursive best sums up the com- plethora of romantic angst is a munal sentiment: "Thank you all for writing on this - it leaves me much enjoyment reading people's thoughts and smart-ass comments while I have to take a dump - you know - it does get sorta boring just sitting there." "TRUE." - JESSICA VOSGERCHIAN Stadium mentality Where the unacceptable is acceptable Saturday at Michigan Stadium wasn't one of those golden autumn afternoons that composers write fight songs about. The temperature was in the low-40s at kickoff and the drizzle was softly persistent, but the crowd in the student section was electric, especially closer to the field, where it's mostly seniors who hadn't seen a victory against Ohio State in their previous three years on campus. When star running back Mike Hart was announced, the cheering swelled to a crescen- do. One might have felt proud to be part of a Michigan community that supports its members, a 110,000- person family that comes together eight autumn Saturdays a year to cheer on its team. Floating above the crowd, though, were two inflatable objects that ruined the illusion of the camaraderie of sport. They were 4-foot penises, which the students buoyed above their heads like phal- lic crowd-surfers. And written on one of them was TRESSEL LIKES PENISES. Jim Tressel is the sweater-vested coach of Ohio State who is rumored - at least according to the kind of T-shirts sold on football Saturdays whose idea of humor is switching the F in fuck with the B in Buckeyes - to do things like wear Ugg boots and drink wine coolers. There is no evidence that he is gay. He is mar- ried to a woman named Ellen, and together they have four children: Zak, Carlee, Eric and Whitney. The veracity of the inflatable penises' claim, though, isn't the dilemma.Andneitheristhestudents' dislike for their archrivals' leader, whose record against Michigan's Lloyd Carr stood at 5-1 before the game and 6-1 afterward. Such com- petitiveness is healthy and expected. What is interesting is how the studentsectionchose to express that dislike. Chanting "You suck" after the opposing team fails to convert on third down is one thing. Using homophobic symbols is another. Is there any other place at this supposedly progressive school where it is so acceptable to use such blatantly prejudiced speech? And is there any other cultural group that is so easy to openly smear without reprocussions than gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual people? What if the penises had had rac- ist language? Would the student in row 19 of section 31 have been more hesitant to thrust it into the face of the Ohio State fan in front of him again and again? And why is it that we give up all our values and beliefs at this uni- versity when it comes to sports? Things did not get much better as the gamewenton. Michigantook a 3-0 lead before falling behind 7-3 in the second quarter. A 62-yard touchdown run early in the second half by Chris Wells put the Buck- eyes up by 11. In the fourth quarter, when quarterback Chad Henne fumbled the snap on third down, one stu- dent could not hold in his anger any longer. "You're a faggot, Henne," he screamed. The final score was 14-3. The fans shuffled out of the stadium, wet and disappointed for the wrong reason. - KARL STAMPFL Ann Arbor's Ron Paul House Hanging out with fans of the GOP's kookiest candidate You're probably seen the Ron Paul House. It's the old building on North Main Street on the way to the highway with a big "Ron Paul Revolution" flag. Aside from flag, the exterior looks more like a house in small-town New England, possibly along a rural highway in independent-minded Vermont. But stepping into the worn- down building transports you to a scene that almost feels as if you're back in the radical, politi- cally active 1960s - the sort of scene that's been long dead in Ann Arbor. Graffiti covers the walls, the room is littered with political posters and pamphlets, Bob Mar- ley is playing and there are two of the most comfortable looking couches you have ever seen. Before this reverie can fully take over, however, you'll probably notice the new-looking metallic water cooler/refrigerator unit in the middle of the room, or at least the computer station right next to the front door. You're still in 2007. When you walk in, you'll likely be greeted by University alum Adam de Angeli, the technology coordinator for the Ron Paul cam- paign in the state of Michigan. De Angeli will prove a sort of a beard- ed guide for your journey through the world of Ron Paul. De Angeli, who coordinates most efforts to elect Ron Paul in Aaron McCollough, a University English lecturer who has published three books of poetry, discusses a career path that all parents hope their child won't pursue - As told to Lisa Haidostian There's generally no such thing as royalties in poetry. You don't get a dime from the books you publish, even if someone actually buys a copy. If your heart is set on being a professional poet, either score a lecturing job or get used to Ramen. The most common way for new poets to get their work published is by entering in poetry contests. They cost money and are usually only won by people already established in the poetry community. Good luck. If no one will publish your poetry, self-publishing websites like Lulucom exist to guide you through every step of the way. Of course, that doesn't mean anyone will read it. If you want to be a poet, skip out on the creative writing major and instead hit the library and submerge yourself in your favorite kind of poetry. If you don't read a lot of other people's poetry, you won't write good stuff of your own. Facebook.com, Myspace, blogs and various websites all contribute to a burgeoning sense of camaraderie within the poetry community. Sometimes poets message each other on Facebook in search of a free couch to crash on when they travel. Poetry isn't important in today's culture, but the fact that it's useless and people still continue to write it makes it important, in that weird paradoxical, poetic sort of way. Almost all poets are self-involved and narcissistic. If you're not, you might want to work on that.