The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, April " 00" -
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QUOTES OF THE WEEK
ABOUT CAMPUS
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ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOHN OQUIST
I IT t!"I 1 I ti 1 " K
"I don't see how we could have
dispersed the crowd without
tear gas."
- TOM WILBERT, the East Lansing police chief, on
attempts to quell quell a riot that erupted at a party
near Michigan State University's campus early Sun-
day morning. Police said that 3,000 to 4,000 people
were at the party. Fifty-two of them were arrested.
"If it's not Parley, we
certainly don't want to
move anybody else."
- ROBERT J. GROW, an attorney in Salt
Lake City, on potential complications in
removing the remains of his great-great-
great grandfather, Parley Parker Pratt, who
was a prominent Mormon leader 151 years
ago. Pratt is bured in Arkansas,but it was
apparently his dying wish to be interred in
Salt Lake City
Familiarly offensive
Quickie Burger logo just
can't get a break
A few weeks ago, LSA senior
Kelsey Gall was procrastinating
doing schoolwork by typing random
subjects into Google image search.
Gall, a member of the Stonewall
Democrats who helped circulate a
petition against a new State Street
restaurant Quickie Burger, let her
concerns color her inquiries.
One search - "cartoon burger"
- was spurred by her disdain for
Quickie Burger's logo that depicts a
busty blonde straddling a burger.
Gall didn't expect to find that
logo in her search results. And she
didn't. She just found an image that
looked suspiciously similar.
In June 2004, the cover of a
Canadian magazine called Vue
Weekly featured an image of a busty
redhead straddling a burger. From
the flame-shaped hair to the spill-
ing beer mug, the resemblance is
remarkable.
"It was a completely random
search," she said. "I never expected
to find anything."
Whether or not the Quickie Burg-
er logo isoffensive is subjective, but
what about whether it's plagiarism?'
After discovering the original
image, Gall's first thought was to
contact the artist who drew it. Ifa
petition wouldn't convince Quickie
Burger to change their logo, maybe
the threat of a copyright lawsuit
would.
But the artist, Stephen Notley,
wasn't interested in taking legal
action.
"It's clearly a redrawing of my
image - but a little worse," Notley
said. "I'm more just flattered that
someone would rip off my image
than angry."
Also, he said, it's unclear how the
claim would hold up in court since
Quickie Burger's logo is at most
a redrawing, and the likeness of
Notley's image isn't trademarked.
While Disney can demand that day-
care centers paint over wall murals
picturing big-eared mice in over-
sized gloves, it seems babes riding
burgers are fair game.
Kerope Arman, who owns
Quickie Burger, said the similarities
between the images are just a coin-
cidence.
PHOTO BY SAM wOLSON/Daily; IMAGE COURTESY OF VUE wEEKLY
(LEFT) The sign of Quickie Burger, a new restaurant on State Street. (RIGHT) The image on Vue Weekly's June 2004 issue.
"That's not similar at all, the way
I see it," he said. "Maybe it is. I don't
know."
Arman said the Quickie Burger
logo was developed over the past
year or more through the collabora-
tion of ideas of the owners' friends
and family, as well as strangers
shown the image to gauge public
reaction.
He described the thought pro-
cess behind the logo this way:
"Usually, in a typical bar setting
there is bull riding... we did,a
burger because it's indicative of
the business were in."
Arman said he hadn't seen the
image before, but wouldn't say
who drew the original draft of the
logo and whether he or she could
have seen the magazine cover.
"We drew it. We did," he said.
"I've never seen it before."
Perhaps after being put on edge
by the Stonewall Democrat's peti-
tion, Arman was quick to return to
the question of the logo's offensive-
ness.
"I know it doesn't offend anybody
because when your mother walks by
and she looks up, she's not offend-
ed," said Arman, who does not know
this writer's mother. "My wife's not
offended. My mother's not offended.
No one's offended."
Ron Garth, editor of Vue Weekly,
likewise wanted to stress the appro-
priateness of the image that ran on
the magazine's cover.
"You know, we're alternative
press," he said. "If it gets attention,
it gets attention."
An image of the cover, which
teased a "Hot Summer Guide" to
Edmonton, Canada, canbe found in
Vue Weekly's online archives next
to a column in the issue about gay
interests in politics - which Garth
said made the-Stonewall Democrat's
concerns ironic.
"It's actually counter to their
argument because it's juxtaposed to
this gay-friendly rant by a columnist
on our website," he said.
Although, Garth said the maga-
zine's editors aren't able to control
which article from an issue gets
displayed with the cover in the web-
site's archives.
But Gall said the context of the
Vue Weekly image makes it less
offensive than the Quickie Burger
logo.
"I personally believe the different
contexts change the offensiveness
of the logo," she said.
What's the difference? Here's a
conjecture:
While the magazine cover pres-
ents riding a giant burger as a
fun summer activity, the Quickie
Burger logo, juxtaposed with the
restaurant's motto "Come in for a
quickie," compares women to fast
food - cheap, fast and brainless.
But whatever the interpreta-
tion, it stands that offensiveness is
a subjective and personal affair.
Just as Notley found when he
was offended after reading The
Michigan Daily's article about the
opposition to his image's dopple-
ganger.
"I was like, 'Well, that's what
you think, buddy,' "he said.Michi-
gan Daily's article about the oppo-
sition to his image's doppleganger.
"I was like, 'Well, that's what
you think, buddy,' "he said.
-JESSICA VOSGERCHIAN
TALKING
POINTS
Three things you can talk about this week:
1. The plight of Morgan Tsvangirai
2. Polygamist ranch raids
3. Mark Penn's demise
And three things you can't:
1. Beyonce and Jay-Z tying
the kn ot
2. Two-faced babies
3. Your football seating :
standing
BY THE NUMBERS
Number of jobs the U.S. economy lost in March
Number of jobs the economy lost in the first quarter of this year
Current unemployment rate, up from 4.8 percent
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
YOUTUBE
VIDEO OF
THE WEEK
Wacky weatherman
The weather doesn't have to be
boring - just ask AccuWeather.com
meteorologist Jim Kosek.
Kosek, the subject of a Slate.com
profile called "Weatherman Gone
Wild," does dozens of local weather
reports each day. The job could be
repetitive, and he didn't want his
reportstobeboring, so Kosek started
adding a little flavor: a spastic dance,
a funnyvoice, an off-color joke.
There's something alluring about
the wayKosek makes the weather his
own, sometimes calling out errors on
the projection behind him.
"I don't buy this for one iota,"
Kosek yells, gesturing at a map of
State College, Penn. "Not even a see-
ond!"
Sometimes it seems Kosek has
gone mad with power, acting as if he
controls the weather.
"Roanoke," he sings eerily. "Hey,
Roanoke - I'm gonna put you
through pain," he yells, clenching
his fists like Zeus preparing to send
down lightning.
It's a strange style, but it appar-
ently keeps viewers coming back.
"You can get your weather any-
where," says Bernie Rayno, Kosek's
executive producer. "But if you can
get someone that's entertaining as
well, you're going to come back to the
entertaining person."
Well, unless all you really want is
tomorrow's forecast.
- GABE NELSON
See this and other
YouTube videos of the week at
youtube.com/user/mrchigandaily
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"I still haven't decided how to split the cow."
- BRANKO ZIVKOV, a farmer from Serbia, explaining how he has tried to comply with a court
order mandating that he share all of his property with his former wife. Zivkov purchased a grinding
machine to slice in half his farm tools and machines, including a sowing machine and cattle scales
THEME PARTY SUGGESTION
Tibetan prep party - With the Dalai Lama's
visit to campus fast approaching, it's time to get
prepared - you only have 10 days to become an
expert on Tibetan Buddhism. We recommend you
get your friends together and research the Dalai
Lama on Wikipedia. Educate yourselves on his
background, views and awards. Maybe even try to
learn some Buddhist rituals. The more you know,
the less you'll look like an ignorant Westerner.
Throwing this party? Let us know. TheStatement@umich.edu
STUDY OF THE WEEK
Great sex lasts between three and 13 minutes
The optimal length of sexual intercourse is three to 13 minutes,
according to a survey of sex therapists that will be published in May
in the Journal of Sexual Medicine. The survey was conducted by Eri
Corty, an associate professor of psychology at Penn State Erie, The Beh-
rend College and one of his students, Jenay Guardiani.
The researchers surveyed 50 members of the Society for Sex Therapy
and Research in the U.S. and Canada, using questions that were gender
neutral.
This optimal sex time does not include foreplay, and the therapists
said that sexual intercourse that lasts from one to two minutes is too
short, according to the researchers.
Dr. Irwin Goldstein, editor of the Journal of Sexual Medicine, defend-
ed Corty's findings by citing a 2005 study of 1,500 couples that discov-
ered the median length of sexual intercourse was 7.3 minutes. In this
study, women wore stopwatches to gauge the time.
- BRIAN TENGEL