More young Americans seek

unconventional spiritual uplift

PAIGE LAWLERContributing Writer

Oklahoma is known as part of the “Bible Belt,” where people cling to their faith, espe-cially during times of struggle.

Barrett Zuskind’s faith helped him get through some tough family circumstances. His parents went through a nasty divorce four years ago, and Zuskind, a petroleum engineer-ing junior, said his church friends were like lifesavers.

Even now, when things in his life are going

well, he continues to go to church every week. He is friends with everyone at the student min-istry where he works, including the leaders.

“I want to stay connected with God and my religion — it makes me a better person,” Zuskind said.

Zuskind’s fiancée, Amanda Black, said her faith helped her get through an obstacle, too. Her older brother developed brain tumors last year, and Black, an advertising junior, said her family couldn’t have handled it without stick-ing together.

“I don’t know what I would have done with-out God and my faith,” Black said.

But people like Zuskind and Black appear to be increasingly rare in today’s society, even in the Sooner State.

According to the American Religious

Identification Survey, more Americans are re-jecting the Christian religion than in the past.

The survey shows 75 percent of Americans consider themselves Christian, an 11 percent drop since 1990.

Mark Carter, staff member at Student Mobilization (StuMo), the college life group at Generation Church on Lindsey Street, said the results of the survey are not especially surpris-ing to him.

Across the U.S., about 90 percent of college students won’t set foot in any church through-out their college careers, Carter said.

Zuskind volunteers at StuMo, and said although many freshmen walk through the doors every week, he’s noticed a decline in

Th ough strong in state, Christianity sees drop-off in numbers

Scientist urges

fed. government

to continue to

fund research

LEIGHANNE MANWARRENThe Oklahoma Daily

The importance and benefit of fund-ing scientific research was the hot topic as one OU scientist participated in a recent panel discussion in Washington, D.C.

Geology professor G. Randy Keller took part in the annual “Congressional Visits Day,” April 28-29, sponsored by the Science Engineering and Technology Working Group, a collec-tion of more than 30 organizations that represent science and technology in academic, government and private industries.

“It was really impressive to stand up with other big schools such as Harvard and MIT representing OU,” said Keller, Geological Society of America councilor.

Keller said after speaking with mem-bers of Congress, the panel answered questions from the media about fund-ing scientific research.

“While this administration is kinder to funding research than the previous

Professor speaks to Congress on research funding

JFK, body image, The Beatles,

Star Wars—all centerpieces in

courses on popular culture

JAMIE BIRDWELLThe Oklahoma Daily

Although math, science and pre-civil war history may be important to a higher educa-tion, there are other classes being offered in the summer and fall that add a little more spice to the collegiate career.

The classes are available for just about any-one to take, assuming there’s enough space, and they offer variable credit hours.

WHO KILLED JFK?Who Killed JFK is an honors class offered

this fall that explores the different theories of how President John F. Kennedy was assas-sinated, said Steven Gillon, Honors College adjunct professor.

Gillon, a History Channel resident histo-rian, said he will have a book on the assassina-tion called “24 hours After” published this fall. The book will have its own History Channel two-hour prime-time documentary set to air along with the release, Gillon said. Both the book and the documentary follow the first 24 hours after the Kennedy assassination and President Lyndon Johnson’s investigation into each theory of the assassination.

The students will be broken up into groups, each assigned a different theory to study. Students will examine each theory and make an informed judgment on which one they think is correct. Who Killed JFK is an honors course and open to all students, if it doesn’t fill up with honors students first.

Who Killed JFK is a one hour, 3,000 level honors course.

BODY IMAGE VS. REALITY: POP CULTURE AND THE BEAUTY MYTH

Originally taught as a freshmen seminar, Yaisa Mann, graduate research assistant in

English, said she decided to turn a class about self esteem into an upper division elective that discusses the issues of body image, pop cul-ture and cultural standards. The idea for the class comes from Mann’s dissertation, which explores self esteem and unifying the way girls can relate to one another.

The class has many guest speakers from all different fields. The speakers are divided into two categories: experts and those who have experienced difficulty with their body image.

Mann also has “body outlaws” come in, peo-ple who don’t conform to the ideal standards of body image, she said.

In addition to guest speakers and partici-pating in class, students have weekly readings and are required to write online blogs about body image and things that have affected them, whether in class, by observation or in the news, she said.

Body Image vs. Reality: Pop Culture and the Beauty Myth is a three hour, 3,000 level

women’s studies course.

SIX YEARS IN THE LIFE: THE BEATLES AND COUNTERCULTURE

This May intersession class uses one of the most famous bands in the world, The Beatles, to assess the counterculture of the 1960s in the United States, said English graduate student Ryan Slesinger.

Culturally conscious classes enrich education experience

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ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT H1M1 FLU? SEVENTY-ONE PEOPLE HAVE VOTED ONLINE AND 61 PERCENT SAY THEY’RE NOT YET WORRIED, BUT THEY’RE PAYING CLOSE ATTENTION TO REPORTS.

Ever wondered what the true meaning of Cinco de Mayo is? See what students said.PAGE 3

newsIs Sports Illustrated’s Selena Roberts’ new book about Alex Rodriguez credible? See the Daily’s Jono Greco’s take. PAGE 10

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© 2009 OU PUBLICATIONS BOARD VOL. 94, NO. 147FREE — ADDITIONAL COPIES 25¢

Saving time, money

cited as primary

incentives for switch

CADIE THOMPSONThe Oklahoma Daily

Students in the College of Arts and Sciences will now fill out their course evaluations online.

The College of Arts and Sciences is now using a new program called eValuate, which allows students to answer ques-tions online about the quality of the courses in which they are en-rolled for the spring semester.

Course surveys previously have been on paper and hand written with a pen or pencil.

The switch from paper to electronic will help save money, protect the environment and conserve class time, said Kelly Damphousse, Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

“I think it will be better all the way around,” he said.

The program will help reduce costs because about 70,000 eval-uations are filled out each year.

The efforts will help save OU $10K a semester, Damphousse said.

Course evaluations moving to the web

FUNDING CONTINUES ON PAGE 2

EVALUATIONS CONTINUES ON PAGE 2

CLASSES CONTINUES ON PAGE 2

NUMBERS CONTINUES ON PAGE 2

OUDAILY.COM » ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT H1M1 F

Sports lustrated’s

Selena Robnew book aAlex Rodrigucredible? Sethe Daily’s JGreco’s takePAPAGEGE 1 100

Is IllSnA

MICHELLE GRAY/THE DAILY

Ryan Slesinger, English graduate student, will be teaching Six Years in the Life: The Beatles and Counterculture, which will be offered during May intersession, as well as Star Wars and the Hero’s Journey, which will be offered during August intersession.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ZACH BUTLER/THE DAILY

The College of Arts and Sciences is moving to paperless evaluations and offering a raffle incentive for students to participate.

G. RANDYKELLER

Although the system is expected to work better than paper evaluations, there still may be some drawbacks, he said.

He said it’s likely there will be a de-crease in respondents to the online surveys because there will no longer be class time allotted to filling out the eval-uations and students may not feel obli-gated to fill out the survey.

To encourage students to participate in the surveys, the college is entering students who complete the evaluations into a drawing for free iPod Shuffles.

Damphousse said the college also is taking steps to make sure the evaluations are accessible to all students enrolled in a class in the college.

He said the college has sent out e-mails to students enrolled in his col-lege’s courses reminding them to take the survey and has the link to the course evaluations posted on the Desire 2 Learn Web site. A link to the course evaluation Web site also is posted on the college’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

UOSA President Katie Fox, interna-tional area studies senior, was involved in providing feedback to OU officials about the program and said the it will have a positive impact. She said students in the College of Arts and Sciences al-ready have expressed positive feedback for the program.

But cutting costs and going green are not the only incentives for moving the evaluations online, she said.

Fox said other universities already have made the move to electronic evalu-ations and have seen more productive feedback.

Damphousse said students who fill out the electronic evaluations are likely to give more thorough answers in the open response part of the surveys be-cause they can respond at their leisure.

Students also can look at their profes-sors’ evaluation data from the previous semester on the Web site, Damphousse said. He said every semester a report is compiled from the course evaluations and is used to produce a report about the instructor. This information will now be available to students who are filling out surveys online about their en-rolled courses in the College of Arts and Sciences.

ones, this is a yearly event to discuss the importance of science and technology for the government,” Keller said.

According to the National Science Foundation, fund-ing for scientific research could increase 3 percent a year if funding was at the same level as other coun-tries’ scientific funding.

“With more funding to scientific research, one of

the main benefits would be that young people will want to enter the scientific re-search field,” Keller said. “It is tough to go into science or engineering or other things with little pay off, but with more funding, we can have the same positive impact on the country as we had before.”

Keller said while the pay off with research is not speedy, he believes there is a trickle-down process to different industries such as oil, natural gas and environ-mental issues. He recalled

the scientific funding of the 1950s and 1960s, when the U.S. raced to catch up to and surpass the Soviet Union, which launched the world’s first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite, Sputnik, in 1957.

“I was affected by the Sputnik event but now we have kind of had a long de-cline since then,” he said. “The government believed that the industry should take over [funding respon-sibility] but the industry does not pay off. The gov-ernment needs to take back the responsibility.”

membership over the years.Eventually, the number will level off until

about only half of Americans will consider themselves Christian, Zuskind predicted.

Carter said Christianity is declining on col-lege campuses, and some students’ hearts are not in the right place to begin with.

Young Americans are turning to negative outlets such as drugs to help ease their prob-lems, but in reality these choices are making things worse, Carter said.

College students seem especially tired of hypocritical leaders, Carter said, and those who remain faithful tend to prefer places of worship that are authentic and straightforward.

He said the recent economic turmoil is contributing to disillusionment.

“The system in America is broken,” Carter said. “Many people are struggling, and the United States is becoming one of the most economically depressed countries in the world.”

Although Oklahoma is not completely immune from the national trend moving away from Christianity, Carter said many people in the state have developed a different

understanding of what being a Christian means.

Charles Kimball, head of OU’s religious studies program, said he believes the national survey focused on the big picture, rather than on specific branches of the religion, such as Baptism or Catholicism.

Kimball said although older traditional churches are seeing a decline in numbers, larger mainstream churches, or “mega-churches,” are increasing in popularity.

Linguistics senior Kelsey Snapp volun-teered with the Journey Church youth pro-gram for two-and-a-half years, and said he thinks fewer people are going to church than in the past.

Snapp said there are several reasons for this, but a major factor is modern culture.

“Once you get to the point of trying to ex-plain the unexplainable, people turn to sci-ence and stop relying on faith,” Snapp said.

Although there has been a decline, Oklahomans still are attending church more than people from other states, Snapp said.

Some people are turning to a different form of spirituality, Kimball said.

Evangelicals, or born-again Christians, are very common across certain parts of the U.S., including Oklahoma, he said.

“I think in that sense, Oklahoma is the pro-verbial buckle of the Bible Belt in a very real way,” Kimball said.

2 Tuesday, May 5, 2009

EvaluationsContinues from page 1

FundingContinues from page 1

NumbersContinues from page 1

CAMPUS NOTES

TODAY

CHRISTIANS ON CAMPUS

Christians on Campus will host a Bible study at noon in the Oklahoma Memorial Union.

OU LIBRARIES

OU Libraries will be available to help students

with term papers and assignments at 7 p.m. in Couch Center.

WEDNESDAY

CHRISTIANS ON CAMPUS

Christians on Campus will host a Bible study at 12:30 p.m. in the Oklahoma Memorial Union.

Slesinger’s class will cover 1964 to 1970, beginning with the arrival of The Beatles to the United States. The class will examine the lyrics and movies made by The Beatles, as well as assess different arti-cles gathered around the time period the group was most prevalent.

The class will focus on what The Beatles meant in correla-tion to the sixties countercul-ture, Slesinger said. Before 1965, American culture was more generalized and the six-ties brought about change to make way for a more niche culture, he said.

Slesinger said The Beatles recognized the hippie move-ment, became popular and were able to spread the movement because of their popularity.

Six Years in the Life: The Beatles and Counterculture is a three hour, 2,000 level University College course.

STAR WARS AND THE HERO’S JOURNEY

Star Wars and the Hero’s Journey, also taught by Slesinger, is an August in-tersession class that examines the Star Wars films alongside a book by Joseph Campbell called, “The Hero With a Thousand Faces.” Slesinger said George Lucas, director of all the Star Wars films, gained his inspiration for the series from Campbell’s book.

The class will study the

importance of the Star Wars phenomenon in American pop culture and why the films have such staying power in society, Slesinger said.

Slesinger said the class will watch every movie, start-ing with Episode I and go in chronological order according to the Star Wars world. In ad-dition, the students will read “The Hero with a Thousand

Faces” and compare the films with the book.

The class will examine the mythological and philosophi-cal roots of Star Wars and find overall meaning in its place in our culture, Slesinger said.

Star Wars and the Hero’s Journey is a three-hour, 2,000 level University College course.

ClassesContinues from page 1

MICHELLE GRAY/THE DAILY

English graduate student Ryan Slesinger created two unique courses focusing on pop culture. Years in the Life: The Beatles and Counterculture and Star Wars and the Hero’s Journey will be offered during the May and August intersessions, respectively.

is in your hands

More than 80% of germs are spread by the hands. Wash your hands to stop the transmission and kill the most

common germs that may make you sick.

Other ways to prevent the spread of common germs:• Cover coughs and sneezes

• Eat a healthy diet

• Exercise regularly

• Get enough sleep

• Frequently disinfect shared objects

• Avoid touching the face, eyes, nose

and mouth until hands are washed

• Do not share cups, plates, utensils,

make-up.

• Avoid close personal contact with

an infected person

• Stay home when sick

Your best defense against contagious illnesses, including colds and fl u

your health

The University of Oklahoma is an Equal Opportunity Institution.

“The fi fth of May – doesn’t

it have to do with their

independence?”

JOHN SALV IE , F INANCE AND MIS

SOPHOMORE

Tuesday, May 5, 2009 3

“I know it’s a Latin holiday,

so I don’t really know what

they celebrate.”

COURTNEY DIEHL, PSYCHOLOGY SENIOR

“I don’t know, honestly.”

BRIA STEWART, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

FRESHMAN

“Isn’t it a battle that the

Mexicans won over the

French?”

JUSTIN MOORE, SPANISH AND ENGLISH

SOPHOMORE

“It celebrates a Mexican

victory over French forces,

I think.”

JOSH KOPELMAN, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

FRESHMANPHOT0S BY AMY FROST/THE DAILY

A day to celebrate Mexican beer. The time for unlimited margaritas. For some college students, there’s no better time to toast a favorite Mexican beverage — for those over 21, of course — than Cinco de Mayo.

But, given its esteemed reputation among partiers across

the U.S., just how knowledgeable are students about the history of such a cherished holiday?

Contrary to popular belief, the first sip of cerveza tonight isn’t celebrating Mexico’s independence. Cinco de Mayo actually recognizes the Mexican army’s victory over French

forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. The date of Mexico’s independence is actually Sept. 18, 1810.

Three of the five students we questioned got the answer right. Now you can, too. Salud.

— Reneé Selanders/The Daily

SOONER SAMPLER: WHAT ARE THE ORIGINS OF CINCO DE MAYO?

Centralized model may

advance state health care

JARED RADERThe Oklahoma Daily

The OU School of Community Medicine and IBM have collaborated to build an IT-based, electronic health-record model in hopes of improving Oklahoma’s health care record.

The strategic partnership would, over the next several years, develop a network of physicians, hospitals, pharmacies and labs working togeth-er to share information on patients. Physicians will be able to access a larger and fuller picture of a patient’s health care record, said Daniel Duffy, senior associate dean of academic programs at the School of Community Medicine.

He said the current model of elec-tronic medical records is problematic because medical data is isolated in the offices of various health care provid-ers, making it difficult and redundant

for patients and doctors to access in-formation at another site. The new electronic model will centralize all the data in electronic medical records into one easily accessible database.

“The idea is to create a system that can take the information collected at each site and make it available in a health information exchange,” Duffy said. “This way, it would be possible for me to have information, say, on my patient from an emergency room they visited last week.”

David Kendrick, director of medi-cal informatics at the School of Community Medicine, said it was sur-prising that health care information hadn’t before been centralized in a health information exchange system. He said the new project is a step in the right direction.

“It’s as if there was always a vast ex-panse of desert and until there were highway stripes painted on it, we didn’t know where to drive,” Kendrick said. “Now that we have the stripes and the road signs, the road is much clearer to improving health care in Oklahoma.”

Kendrick said the complexity cre-ated by the presence of many health insurance companies, like Blue Cross and Medicare, also will be reduced with a centralized electronic health care system.

“All [health insurance companies] have different rules and it can be very painful to file,” he said. “Having many payers is OK from a market-driven perspective, but it’s a very difficult for systems integration.”

Oklahoma ranks last in the nation in terms of access to health care, quality of care, health equity, avoidable hos-pital use and cost, and health status, according to the School of Community Medicine’s Web site.

IBM executives and OU physicians are optimistic this project will im-prove Oklahoma’s health care record and serve as a model for other health systems and primary care practices across the country.

“This initiative puts Oklahoma in a unique position to leap forward in terms of quality of health care,” Duffy said.

New system to make health care info more accessible POLICE REPORTS

Names are compiled from the Norman Police Depart-ment and OUPD. The reports serve as a record of arrests, not convictions. Those listed are innocent until proven guilty.

MUNICIPAL WARRANTSaeed Mohammed Alyakoub,

20, 730 Stinson St., Saturday

POSSESSION OF MARIJUANAJonathan Ray Arnold, 33, 2137

Melrose Court, Sunday, also pos-

session of drug paraphernalia

PETTY LARCENYSheena Roslind Marie Bauer,

22, 3301 W. Main St., Saturday

Audrey Shari Jordan, 27, 601

12th Ave. NE, Saturday

DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCEJeffrey Andrew Bloomgarden, 64,

Jenkins Avenue, Saturday, also

transporting an open container

Brian Coleman Rayburn, 22,

1333 E. Lindsey St., Sunday

COUNTY WARRANTJoshua S. Boutwell, 25,

1145 Biloxi Drive, Sunday

Sondra L. Hill, 46, 2520

W. Main St, Sunday

PUBLIC INTOXICATIONAdan Garcia-Delgado, 38,

1226 Classen Blvd., Saturday

Terry Mercer Evans, 52,

333 N. Interstate Drive E,

Sunday, also possession

of drug paraphernalia

Tiffany Marie Greenwood, 21,

1015 E. Brooks St., Sunday

Alexander Vinet Halkins, 29,

1345 12th Ave. NE, Saturday

Autism Speaks is the world’s largest and most prominent autism advocacy organization. Through its partnerships with Toys “R” Us and other businesses and its stable of celebrity spokespeople, it is able to raise well more than $30 million per year.

It would be natural to assume that donating to such a medical charity would be a good thing.

Advances in the efforts to cure diseases such as breast cancer and AIDS have come largely as a result of widespread public concern. Wouldn’t a few dollars one might otherwise spend on luxury items be better placed in the hands of

Autism Speaks?Contributing to an organization

that speaks up for autistic individu-als would be wonderful. With my donation, this group could cam-paign for greater understanding and acceptance of those with au-tism and help influence society in such a way as to be more accessible to them.

Such an organization would be well deserving of your and my support.

However, such an organization

also would be pretty much the polar opposite of Autism Speaks.

Autism Speaks, whose sole con-cern seems to be “fix[ing]” those with autism, engages in scare-mongering, distorts facts and de-humanizes those they are suppos-edly speaking for, all as a matter of policy.

Autism Speaks has likened hav-ing autism to being in a car wreck, being struck by lightning and being fatally ill. Autistic children are said to have been “kidnapped” from their families.

Learning to live with and under-stand a person’s autism-related characteristics is not an option— autism must be defeated and the person rescued.

This attitude has been most ef-fectively distilled in an advertise-ment designed by the unrelated New York University Child Study Center.

The ad, which is presented in the form of a ransom note, reads, “We have your son. We will make sure he will not be able to care for himself or interact socially as long as he lives. This is only the begin-ning. [From] Autism.”

This variety of approach, while no doubt useful for scaring up do-nations, obviously promotes the stigmatization of autism.

Autism Speaks is abundantly eager to engage in these tactics. Autistic children are “stolen” from

their families — soulless husks, they live lives devoid of human emotion, or so the portrayal goes.

The incitement of hysteria fills Autism Speaks’ coffers, but at the cost of further alienating a group of individuals who already face nu-merous social challenges.

The most unsettling example I’ve seen of Autism Speaks’ dehu-manization of autistic individuals is contained in its 2006 film “Autism Every Day,” which features, among other things, a mother claiming that she would have murdered her autistic daughter but for the ex-istence of her other, neurotypical daughter.

That this would have been an insane or at least critically misin-formed choice is not highlighted.

Individuals on the autism spec-trum, when not being obliquely portrayed as soulless androids, are turned into mascots.

My favorite example of this is the Toys “R” Us-associated charity that offered donators of $10 or more a complementary tote bag decorat-ed with art by a real autistic person. Oh boy! For $20 can I get a souvenir photo taken with him, too?

How is it, one might wonder, that an autism advocacy organization could be comfortable promoting these views?

Why don’t those autistic indi-viduals involved in the group’s run-ning do something to moderate its

speech?The answer is that the autis-

tic are not represented, even by a single individual, in the group’s leadership.

Perhaps having an autistic board member would betray the fact that autism doesn’t render one totally nonfunctional.

Autism Speaks is like an all-white NAACP.

The organization also spends a significant portion of its budget researching the connection be-tween childhood vaccination and autism.

The hypothesis that vaccination can lead to autism is unsupported by any evidence and runs counter to what we do know about autism’s probably primarily genetic basis. But this has not stopped Autism Speaks from pouring funding into research on the topic, presumably in the hope of finding a link which would accentuate the paranoia around autism.

The truth is that, while individu-als on the autism spectrum face difficulty integrating into a society constructed by and for the neuro-typical, many autism-associated idiosyncrasies are useful and positive.

Take, for example, the character-istic attention to detail and fascina-tion with repetition that led artist Andy Warhol, who was probably autistic, to create some of his most

recognizable works.Recognizable contemporary in-

dividuals on the autism spectrum include actors Dan Aykroyd and Daryl Hannah, singers Ladyhawke, Gary Numan, Craig Nicholls (of the Vines) and Peter Tork (of the Monkees).

In fact, many high-functioning autistic individuals and individuals with Asperger syndrome (“aspies,” for the hip) prefer to live as they are, regardless of the inconvenience, and find the notion that they must be rescued from the ravening demon of their autism insulting.

But, even if one accepts the premise that autism must be con-trolled (presumably through pre-natal testing and abortion, as with Down syndrome), Autism Speaks remains an unprincipled organi-zation that actually fights the un-derstanding and acceptance of the people it purports to represent.

If you’d like to contribute to an organization making an effective effort to improve the lives of autistic individuals, I’d suggest the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, found on-line at www.autisticadvocacy.org.

The next time a Toys “R” Us ca-shier tries to guilt you into giving a few dollars to Autism Speaks, buy yourself an oversized Chupa Chups instead.

Zac Smith is an English junior.

I still remember the angry sermons my brother got from my dad for buying clothes from Goodwill Industries in the early- and mid-’90s. The argument went something like: “We can afford to buy you new clothes.” and I suppose that was also the reason my brother went to thrift stores and countless hole-in-the-wall venues.

In a time of ease and m a s s -p ro d u c t i o n , h e sought lived-in clothes, and music free from the gloss and tripe of popular and commercial interests.

And though I didn’t know it then, my brother and his friends were founding members of what would become one of the most preva-lent zeitgeists of our generation.

Nearly 20 years later, today’s new bohe-mians dominate this town and our nation’s youth. And with the recent music festivals and back-to-earth festivities, they’ve been out in force, armed with their Jonas Brothers sport coats and Capri-length blue jeans, their Ray Ban Wayfarers and organic soaps.

Worse still, I cannot count the times I’ve heard the slight new Bob Dylan album de-scribed as a “masterpiece,” and in the flow-eriest, elliptical Rolling-Stone prose to rival his own poetry.

Frankly, I’m as cheesily indie as the next guy. I have the new Dylan record on vinyl along with close to 1,000 other records (not to rival my brother’s mammoth 4,000-LP col-lection). I wear old-man sweaters and Ray Bans, too (although I’m considering losing them) and I grandiosely hammer out papers and poems on a 1960’s-era typewriter.

The problem is that in the token gestures of our hemp-scented young, in the branded defiance of a generation dispossessed of need and needy for dispossession, is the self-righteous idea that our personal habits alone — our earthy living-is-its-own-worthy-end, and is itself protest enough of the ills of our world.

Transcendence won’t be, and cannot be found in the inward-turning commune-houses, or in the precious, affected wailings of the next self-important singer-songwriters.

What made the indie culture of the ’90s relevant was its departure from conven-tion, its reaction against mass-production,

its appreciation of substance and its humble search for meaning in a world offering little but convenience and asking less of its youth.

But at some point, past the big lapels and primary colors, shoulder pads and other never-missed fads of that time, and facing the rise of our token-minded Captain Planet generation, the Wal-Mart interests caught on, and what was an earnest, real and soft-spoken movement became as contrived and empty as what it sought to subvert.

What is more, the “Time Out of Mind” Dylan spoke of and channeled in his true 1997 masterpiece of that name is passed, and if these ideals are to mean anything, they have to be applied to a ready world.

I don’t mean to insinuate that all who es-pouse the indie-ethics of recent years are disingenuous, unrealistic or inauthentic, and far from it. And if society must elevate a style and sub-culture to mass-production, one could do worse.

But those who love the authentic, real and worthwhile must seek it out and realize that much of what is being sold to them is fiat, pat and mass-produced.

And in a world so needful of original thinking and passionate action, the earthy

talismans — the countless obscure records and old men’s discarded shirts, the new-wave skirts and scarves — the Goodwill aes-thetic is simply that — a look — and is noth-ing but a beginning.

The great depression of the past 20 years and of Cold War détente and boomer ease, the lack of an urgent national cause that dressed our nation’s youth in second-hand clothes for outward expression of an inner need, is gone.

We face challenges as great as any genera-tion in the history of the world has faced, and as such make great generations.

And the infinite wash of minds, hearts, hopes and devastating needs that covers the earth is the greatest sum of people, violence and hate and wisdom and hope that ever has been and ever was.

These are historic times, the needs are great, and the dividends greater — in pur-pose and meaning, and for lives that atro-phied for want of need itself. Do something.

If you need any ideas, see the govern-ment’s new volunteer Web site at www.serve.gov.

Slater Rhea is an English literary and cultural studies and letters senior.

Ray Martin, opinion editor

dailyopinion@ou.edu • phone: 325-7630 • fax: 325-6051

COMMENTS OF THE DAY »In response to Tyler Branson’s Monday column about iGoogle replacing human interaction.

YOU CAN COMMENT AT

OUDAILY.COM

As you say, this has the net effect of making us smarter, more alienated people, and it is something that we have to constantly be on guard for. But this is the march of history, you know? We simply need to know more things to be good citizens and members of society, and the impersonal-

yet-hyperefficient access to knowledge that we have is essentially the bedrock of achieving that goal. No amount of hand-wringing can change that fact, but the bargain that we’re all apparently willing to make to be more intelligent doesn’t have to be Faustian.

- JJANOWIAK

4 Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Meredith Simons Editor-in-ChiefNijim Dabbour Managing EditorJamie Hughes Assistant Managing EditorMack Burke Night EditorRay Martin Opinion EditorZach Butler Photo Editor

Dane Beavers Senior Online EditorWhitney Bryen Multimedia EditorSteven Jones Sports EditorLuke Atkinson Life & Arts EditorJudy Gibbs Robinson Editorial AdviserR.T. Conwell Advertising Manager

The Oklahoma Daily is a public forum and OU’s independent student voice.The opinion page is produced by a staff of columnists and cartoonists who are independent of The Daily’s news staff. Letters to the editor are welcomed. Letters should concentrate on issues, not personalities, and should be fewer than 250 words, typed and signed. Letters may be cut to fit. Students must list their major and classification. OU staff and faculty must list their title. All letters must include a daytime phone number. Submit letters to dailyopinion@ou.edu or in person Sunday through Thursday in 160 Copeland Hall.

Guest columns are encouraged. They can be submitted to the opinion editor via e-mail at dailyopinion@ou.edu. Comments left on OUDaily.com may be reprinted on the opinion page.’Our View’ is the opinion of majority of the members of The Oklahoma Daily’s editorial board.Editorial Board members are The Daily’s editorial staff. The board meets Sunday through Thursday in 160 Copeland Hall. Columnists’ and cartoonists’ work is representative of their own opinions, not those of the members of The Daily’s Editorial Board.160 Copeland Hall, 860 Van Vleet Oval

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STAFF COLUMN

STAFF COLUMN

OUR VIEW YOU AREN’T THAT BUSY

SLATERRHEA

ZACSMITH

Growing ‘indie’ culture short on substance, past relevance

Autism Speaks promotes hysteria, ignorance

Online evaluations a privilege,should not be taken for granted

Instructor and professor evaluations are, or should be, a privilege rather than a hassle for students.

Students shouldn’t take this task for granted by ignoring the College of Arts and Science’s new online system for evaluations.

It shouldn’t take a bribe, like a free iPod Shuffle, to get students to take two minutes out of their days to go online and evaluate their professors.

Professors and administrators don’t ig-nore the evaluations. They consider them for salary increases, tenure possibilities and overall performance reviews.

And many professors take them seri-ously in evaluating their own work and determining which changes, if any, they need to make to enhance learning for

their future students.All of that considered, we don’t think

it’s too much to ask spending a few min-utes online offering constructive criticism that will ultimately contribute to educa-tional improvement.

Furthermore, it’s important for stu-dents to participate in the online evalu-ations so the work to move them online is not in vain.

The paperless efforts are to be com-mended. They make the evaluations faster. It saves money and thousands of sheets of paper, and students are more likely to take them seriously when they aren’t forced to do them in class.

But all of this is negated if students take the privilege for granted. Make sure you aren’t guilty of doing as much.

Opinionated?Apply today for summer and fall cartoonist and columnist positions. Contact

Luke Atkinson for summer at ljatkinson88@gmail.com and Will Holland for fall at will.j.holland-1@ou.edu.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY LILLY CHAPA/THE DAILY

Students’ lack of time management leaves them feeling busier than they should. Go online to the opinion blog to find out why you’re not that busy during the final two weeks of the semester.

Top Democrats calling for

Sen. Coffee’s replacement

OKLAHOMA CITY — A banker on Monday said Sen. Glenn Coffee made “a standard business loan” to pay off a federal income tax lien of almost $29,000, but Democrats said too many questions are unanswered and Coffee should be replaced as the top Senate leader.

H.K. Hatcher, president of NBC Bank in Oklahoma City, sent out a news re-lease saying the loan from his bank was routine.

“The loan is a straightforward, cus-tomary business transaction in accor-dance with all the standards set forth by NBC Bank and banking regulations. This loan is no different from the hun-dreds we transact for customers every month,” Hatcher said.

The banker gave no details of the loan, however, such as what collateral was used.

Democrats demanded earlier that Coffee resign as Senate president pro tem if he did not divulge those details. Coffee has said only that the loan was collateralized, the interest rate was 5.5

percent and repayment is to be with “personal funds.”

Senate Minority Leader Charlie Laster, D-Shawnee, said little still is known about the Coffee loan. He said:

“The May 4th press release from Sen. Coffee’s banker — which labels Sen. Coffee’s loan as ‘a standard business loan’, left unanswered critical informa-tion: Did a third party help Sen. Coffee secure the loan? What is the collateral for the loan? What is the source of funds by which Sen. Coffee repaid the loan?”

Laster said since Coffee continued to refuse to disclose details of the loan “it is our hope that the Senate will work together to elect another Republican president pro tempore...When trust of public officials is at an all-time low, we believe Sen. Coffee should step down.”

Laster said Democrats “call for the election of a Republican member” of the Senate to place Coffee. He said the Senate needs a leader “whose character and integrity have not been questioned in order to restore public trust” to the 48-member legislative body.

Coffee said Democrats are guilty of “raw, unvarnished partisanship” in their demand.

“My suggestion for Sen. Laster and

his friends is to quit hiding behind sensational press releases and start concentrating on passing something positive for the citizens of Oklahoma,” he said.

Republicans hold a 26-22 edge over Democrats in the Senate. It takes 25 votes to elect a Senate leader.

Democrats continue to criticize Coffee’s campaign expense reports, questioning $58,000 Coffee reimbursed himself in 2008 for travel, meals and lodging.

“In fact, since 2006, Coffee has spent over $200,000 from his campaign, dur-ing which time he never had an oppo-nent,” Laster said. “Sen. Coffee trans-ferred over $134,000 from his campaign to himself for personal reimbursement for travel, meals and lodging.”

Coffee said using campaign funds for travel and lodging is appropriate and it is “irrelevant” for Laster to note he has not had an opponent in a political race during the period.

“However, I have traveled this state and indeed the nation successfully campaigning for fellow Republican candidates, and he (Laster) knows this all too well,” Coffee said in a statement.—AP

Banker defends Coff ee; Democrats not satisfi ed

State seeking death penalty

Jury selection began Monday behind closed doors in Cleveland County in the murder trial for a man charged in the shotgun slayings of three women at a house near the University of Oklahoma campus.

William Eugene Davis, 52, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the Sept. 4, 2007, killings of his two sisters and the mother-in-law of one of the victims. Authorities say Davis used a 12-gauge shotgun to kill Tami Link, 52; her sister Sheila Ellis, 56, and Link’s mother-in-law, Letannah Bishop, be-fore being disarmed by Link’s husband, Joseph Brent Link.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Joseph Link, a blind Vietnam War veteran, told police Davis showed up at his home seeking help applying for Social Security benefits. Link said he heard a series of gunshots and brushed past a person he believed to be Davis as he responded. He told police he then tracked “a smell,” possibly alcohol, out-side to the front porch where he con-fronted Davis, pummeling him with his fists and then grabbing the shotgun away from him and using it to hit Davis in the head.

Authorities say Davis also threat-ened Link, muttering, “I’ll kill you too, you (expletive deleted,” prompting prosecutors to charge Davis with an additional count of assault with intent to kill.

Davis’ injuries were so severe au-thorities initially thought he was a vic-tim, and a Cleveland County mug shot taken days later shows Davis’ swollen face covered with cuts and bruises.

Once he was sure Davis was uncon-scious, Link said he called 911, then yelled for his son, Stephen, who was about 75 yards away in the back yard, according to a police affidavit.

Brent and Stephen Link tried to ad-minister first aid to the women until an ambulance arrived.

On Monday, District Judge Lori Walkley prevented the public and

media from attending jury selection proceedings, or voir dire, a move that many veteran courtroom observers say is unusual.

“I’ve never had voir dire closed in any of the 42 capital cases I’ve tried,” said Oklahoma City defense attorney James Rowan. “They will occasionally have individual voir dire where jurors are taken into the judge’s chambers.

“But to close a courtroom, there has to be a pretty substantial reason for that.”

Walkley did not immediately return

a telephone message left Monday with her office.

Irven Box, another veteran defense attorney, said judges will occasion-ally question potential jurors in private about their opinion on the death pen-alty, but not shut the public out of the courtroom entirely.

“The courtroom has never been closed in any death penalty I’ve cov-ered in 40 years of practice,” Box said.

“It’s my opinion that the courtroom ought to be open.”—AP

JURY SELECTION BEGINS FOR NORMAN TRIPLE HOMICIDE

NEWS BRIEFS

COMPLAINT FILED AGAINST OKC SURGEONTULSA, Okla. — A 15th medical negligence complaint has been fi led against an Oklahoma City surgeon who made international headlines after performing a risky operation in 2006 that left a Russian teen brain dead.

Plaintiff Linda K. Martin fi led the civil complaint against sur-geon Paul Christopher Francel in Oklahoma County District Court last Wednesday.

OKLA DEFENDS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT LAW DENVER— Attorneys for Oklahoma went before a federal appeals court Monday to defend a law that requires companies doing busi-ness with the state to use a federal database to verify their workers and contractors are eligible to work in the U.S.

DEMOCRATS NAME INMAN LEADER DESIGNATEOKLAHOMA CITY — Democrats in the Oklahoma House Monday chose Rep. Scott Inman of Del City as their leader designate and picked other members of a new leadership team that will take control of the House’s minority party following next year’s legisla-tive elections.

SWINE FLU SKIPPING OKLAHOMA SO FAROKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma was among 14 states without a con-fi rmed swine fl u case Monday, but health offi cials said it is likely the state will soon lose this distinction.

A total of 286 cases have been reported in 36 states, including nearby Texas, Kansas, New Mexico and Colorado, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The only confi rmed U.S. death from the disease is a toddler from Mexico who died in Texas.

CHESAPEAKE ENERGY POSTS 1Q $6B LOSSCOLUMBUS, Ohio — Chesapeake Energy on Monday posted a nearly $6 billion loss for the fi rst quarter as tumbling natural gas prices forced one of the nation’s largest gas producers to write down the value of its gas and oil properties.

—AP

CLEVELAND COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE/AP PHOTO

This September 2007 booking photo provided by the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office shows William Eugene Davis. Davis is accused in the shotgun slayings of three people at a home in Norman. Jury selection began Monday in Cleveland County District Court. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009 5

Defandant pleads not guilty, faces life

without parole if convicted of murder

WARWICK, R.I. — A medical student jailed in Boston on suspicion of killing a masseuse he met on Craigslist was charged Monday in an arrest warrant with pulling a gun on a stripper in a Rhode Island hotel.

The warrant accuses Philip Markoff of assault and weapons violations. Authorities had previously said Markoff was the suspect in the April 16 robbery attempt at a Holiday Inn Express in Warwick.

A Las Vegas stripper who offered lap dances told Rhode Island authorities that she was bound with cord and held at gunpoint by a man she met through the Craigslist clas-sified advertising Web site. She said her assailant fled when her husband came up to the hotel room.

Police had earlier described the suspect as a tall white male with blond hair, which matches Markoff’s descrip-tion. Attorney General Patrick Lynch, at a news confer-ence Monday, said he had no doubt about the identity of the woman’s attacker.

“It was Philip Markoff,” Lynch said. “He will be brought to justice.”

A law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity previously told The AP that investigators found Markoff’s fingerprint in the hotel. They also believe he sent text messages from there. But police and prosecu-tors refused to discuss the evidence Monday.

Markoff, a second-year medical student at Boston University, was arrested April 20 while driving with his fiancée to Foxwoods Resorts Casino in Connecticut.

He was charged with the April 14 killing of Julissa Brisman, a 25-year-old New York City resident who ad-vertised on Craigslist, at the Boston Marriott Copley Place hotel, in the historic Back Bay district. He also has been charged in a robbery at a Boston hotel of another mas-seuse police say he met through the site.

Markoff has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, John Salsberg, did not return a phone message Monday but has said his client is innocent and has his family’s support.

Markoff’s fiancee, Megan McAllister, visited Markoff in jail last week and has said she still loves and supports him but will be cooperating with prosecutors. Her lawyer has said the couple’s wedding, which had been scheduled for August, is being “dismantled.”

Because Markoff, 23, is a suspect in a homicide case in Boston, it could take six months to a year before he makes his first appearance in a Rhode Island courtroom, Lynch said. But he said he was committed to prosecuting Markoff even if it could take a couple of years and even though Markoff faces life without the possibility of parole if convicted of murder in Massachusetts.—AP

Warrant charges Craigslist suspect with RI assault

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Proposal is aimed toward keeping jobs in U.S.

STEPHEN OHLEMACHERAssociated Press

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama prom-ised sternly on Monday to crack down on companies “that ship jobs overseas” and duck U.S. taxes with off-shore havens.

It won’t be easy. Democrats have been fighting — and losing — this battle since John F. Kennedy made a similar proposal in 1961.

Obama’s proposal to close tax loopholes was a reli-able applause line during the presidential campaign, but it got a lukewarm response Monday from Capitol Hill. Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said the plan needed further study, even though similar ideas have been around for years.

The president’s plan would limit the ability of U.S. companies to defer paying U.S. taxes on overseas prof-its. At the same time, Obama would step up efforts to go after evaders who abuse offshore tax shelters.

Obama said his plan would raise $210 billion over the next 10 years, though no tax increases would go into effect until 2011. That’s an average of $21 billion a year, less than a 2 percent nick in a federal budget deficit that is projected to hit $1.2 trillion in 2010.

Lost revenue isn’t the only problem, Obama says. He contends the current system gives companies an incentive to invest overseas rather than creating jobs in the U.S.

“It’s a tax code that says you should pay lower taxes if you create a job in Bangalore, India, than if you cre-ate one in Buffalo, N.Y.,” Obama said Monday.

The business community argues the deferral sys-tem helps them compete against foreign companies

that pay taxes only in the countries where they gener-ate profits.

The bottom line?“Nobody should miss the fact that this is about rev-

enue,” said Raymond Wiacek, head of the tax practice at the law firm Jones Day. “These companies have the money, and the U.S. government needs the money.”

Obama also proposed a package of disclosure and enforcement measures designed to make it harder for financial institutions to help wealthy individuals evade taxes in overseas accounts. Obama said the government is hiring nearly 800 new IRS agents to enforce the tax code.

“I want to see our companies remain the most competitive in the world,” Obama said at a White House announcement. “But the way to make sure that happens is not to reward our companies for mov-ing jobs off our shores or transferring profits to over-seas tax havens.”

Obama’s plan would impose billions of dollars in new taxes on many of the nation’s largest corpora-tions, including Google, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Johnson & Johnson, tax experts said. But it falls well short of the broad overhaul of the tax system that will probably have to wait until at least next year — after Congress deals with health care and energy.

In exchange for the increased taxes some compa-nies would have to pay, Obama agreed to make per-manent a research tax credit that would provide firms about $75 billion in breaks over the next 10 years. The credit currently is to expire at the end of the year.

Obama has widespread support in Congress to crack down on tax evaders who illegally hide assets in tax havens. But he faces stiff opposition — even within his own party — to increasing taxes on the legal trans-actions of U.S. multinational companies.

Obama targets overseas tax loopholes

Inquiries aimed at identifying abusers

LAURAN NEERGAARDASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — If more doctors started asking, would more drug and alcohol abusers ‘fess up so they could get help?

It’s a huge irony of health care: Go to the emergency room and you’ll be asked about a tetanus shot, even though “most of us have never seen a case of tetanus,” says Dr. Gail D’Onofrio, emergency medicine chief at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Yet although up to half of ER visits involve il-legal drugs or alcohol, typically “we don’t ask it. It makes no sense whatsoever,” says D’Onofrio, who teaches new doctors to break that chain of silence.

A new program from the National Institute on Drug Abuse aims to help health workers past the stigma and ensure that more patients are asked for simple clues to addiction at every visit — not just in the ER, but anytime they see a doctor.

It’s a step-by-step computerized guide that takes patients’ answers to various behavior questions, analyzes their risk for a serious sub-stance use problem and tells doctors what next

steps to take.A patient admits to experimenting with her-

oin? A few more questions about how often, when and if he felt cravings can guide how big his risk is for ongoing drug use and what inter-vention is needed — plus remind the doctor to administer an HIV and hepatitis test.

Someone else insists she’s a social drinker? If she’s ever had four or more drinks in a day, she may have a bigger problem.

The goal: To get substance abuse treatment for more of the 23 million Americans estimat-ed to need it. Only about 2 million today get that help, NIDA says.

Better would be finding people early, when substance abuse is just taking hold and a doc-tor intervening might keep it from getting worse. A government study last year found that some simple doctor steps — brief in-office counseling or referral to a specialty center — could help slash drug use by patients coaxed to come clean.

They have plenty of opportunity. Studies suggest people with brewing drug or alcohol problems actually see the doctor more often than their sober counterparts. They have a lot of injuries, and a tougher time with prob-lems ranging from high blood pressure to liver disease.

Helping doctors ask about drug, alcohol problems

Experts say old laws,regulations partially to blame

RUSS BYNUMAssociated Press

GIBSON, Ga. — The banner above FirstCity Bank still reads “Celebrating 100 Years of Service,” but the 690 residents of this rural community aren’t in the mood — not since government regulators locked the door, emptied the vault and closed the only bank within nearly 20 miles.

Georgia leads the nation in bank failures, with nine banks shut down

in the past year. Still, few in tiny Glascock County suspected the fi-nancial meltdown driven by toxic real-estate loans would scuttle the place they deposited paychecks earned from sawmills and row-crop farming, their local lender for buy-ing tractors and pickup trucks.

“We need a bank, definitely,” says 70-year-old Charles Usry, who fits cars with new brakes and tires at his small auto parts store across Main Street from the now-empty FirstCity. “If you don’t have a bank, eventually people are going to go somewhere else. The towns are going to die.”

Eleven Georgia banks, most

surrounding Atlanta, have been shuttered by regulators, followed by nine in California and four in Florida. Experts predict more could be closed in Georgia in the future. But what propelled Georgia to No. 1 in bank failures is complicated.

Experts say it’s a combination of an antiquated state law that favored a plethora of smaller community banks over multi-branch giants; a population explosion in metro Atlanta that fueled massive subur-ban real estate development and a crush of new banks formed to cash in on the Atlanta boom shortly be-fore the market tanked.

First, Georgia is home to a huge number of state and federally char-tered banks. At the end of 2008, Georgia had 334 banks. That’s more than California, which has nearly four times Georgia’s popu-lation, or Florida, which has twice as many people. Only five states — Texas, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa and Kansas — have more banks than Georgia, according to the FDIC.

What these states had in com-mon, until the mid-1990s, was some of the nation’s most restrictive laws on branch banking. Georgia, for example, prohibited banks from opening branches across county

lines until 1996.The law shielded local banks

from worrying about competition from out-of-town rivals. It also guar-anteed that Georgia, with a whop-ping 159 counties, would have a correspondingly large number of banks.

“It was really a belief that local banking was the best banking and you did not want to have the big city banks dictating the amount of credit available to small town and rural America,” said Steve Verdier, direc-tor of congressional relations for the Independent Community Bankers of America.

GEORGIA LEADS THE NATION IN BANK FAILURES

RON EDMONDS/AP PHOTO

President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman arrive to make statements on tax reform, Monday, May 4, 2009, in the Grand Foyer of the White House in Washington.

6 Tuesday, May 5, 2009

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Album brings back folksy bar songs

The self-titled debut album from Damion Suomi on P is for Panda Records is an up-roarious, honest folk-fusion – combining different elements of gritty acoustic guitar, whiskey-bent lyrics and a charming pop sen-

sibility that welcomes mul-tiple listens without getting trite or old.

Suomi (pronounced Sue-Me) runs the gamut of the singer/songwriter genre, at times giving us foot-stomp-ing, hand-clapping shout-alongs, (“Sunday Morning,” San Francisco”), and other times seducing us with in-triguing, emotional ballads (“Archer Woman”) that re-

ally showcase his musical chops.For Suomi, his self titled album isn’t search-

ing for grandiose themes or lofty methods of self-actualization. Rather, Suomi’s themes focus on what any good folk artist should—booze, broken hearts, and, well, that’s about it. But it’s done in such an honest way that doesn’t take itself too seriously, adding a complex, candid layer that’s stripped down to just bare, unapologetic emotion.

For instance, “What a Wonderful Game” gives a bare, uncomfortable take on a purely sexual relationship. The sing-along drink-ing tune “Sunday Morning,” with a twangy, acoustic upstroke guitar part, boasts “I went to dinner with a bottle of wine / I drank it all in record time / I thought we’d stop / But we drank all the way ‘till Sunday morning / We drank ‘cause we had nothin’ else to do.”

On one level it’s a folky bar song, inviting clinking glasses and arm-around-your-bud-dy chanting. However, “Sunday Morning” has the caveat “I thought that we’d stop,” which

suggests vulnerability and a sense that this isn’t as leisurely and rebellious as one might think. It’s a somber drinking song disguised as reckless amusement. Or “Ghost,” which grieves about a long lost lover in a frank and evocatively depressing lamentation: “I’m not one for whiskey / But I’ll drink it down tonight / I am not a liar / But I’ll sing one here tonight / I don’t love you / I don’t love you anymore / And I will sing it ‘till it’s true.”

Suomi’s country sensibilities also show through on “Ghost” and a slew of other songs on the album, which add an extra coat to his musical paint. “Waltz” borrows classic coun-try guitar and “One More Time” actually steals its melody directly from Hank Williams Sr.’s “Cold Cold Heart,” which is no doubt on purpose, a throwback to country music’s ul-timate, hauntingly sad song writer.

Musically, though, Suomi’s vocals are reminiscent of R.E.M. or the Counting Crows, which really show through on “Archer Woman,” and “Darwin, Jesus, the Devil and Me.”

His style goes from the classic country roots of a simple fiddle and acoustic guitar to alt-country flair like that of the Wallflowers of Chris Isaac, using full-band instrumentation, interesting bass grooves and minor chords. Add to it punk-rock sing-a-longs and overt al-coholic references in the vein of “Against Me” (“San Francisco,” “Sunday Morning,” “Oh Won’t you Please”), and you have a unique and charming take on folk music.

And after the bottles are finished, ash-trays overflowed and the bar-lights have come on, Suomi leaves us with at least some hint of a positive message, despite the whole album spent drinking and feeling sorry for himself.

On the song “Save Your Ass,” he confident-ly asserts, “Nobody’s ‘gonna save your ass except for you,” suggesting that nobody can take charge of your own life and fight your personal demons but yourself.

Then again, the closing song on the album orders to “never trust the tongue of a female,” which shows the cycle isn’t broken at all, and Suomi is back to his old, self depreciating, broken hearted tricks again.Tyler Branson is an English senior.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009 7

Luke Atkinson, L&A editor

dailyent@ou.edu • phone: 325-5189 • fax: 325-6051

PHOTO PROVIDED

Like Hank Williams Sr., Damion Suomi writes songs about booze and broken hearts.

Whiskey and wild womenI used to read “Highlights” magazine

quite a bit as a kid. My favorite was a recur-ring bit called “Goofus and Gallant,” a two-

to-four panel comic of sorts in which two broth-ers – Goofus and Gallant – would illustrate different aspects of morality or good behavior through their re-spective actions.

T h e a p t l y - n a m e d Gallant would perform a task that generated posi-tive results – share with his friends, say, or make his bed without being told – while Goofus would do

just the opposite – leave his bed unmade, his room a shambles and not let his friends (how he had them at all, I have no idea) anywhere near his toys. There was no middle ground with these two – Gallant was always the gold-en child – a goody-two-shoes mama’s boy – while Goofus was the rebel without a cause, a guy who acts like a general prick every chance he gets. My mother used to call me Goofus, and I’m still a little bitter (although I can’t help but think she was at least partially justified in doing so).

But does my bitterness count as an unresolved family issue? I don’t think so.

Catheryn J. Brockett’s book, “The Dysfunctional Family Funbook,” on the other hand, is chock-full of them (it reminds me of a “Highlights” issue gone horribly wrong; additionally, it is one of the saddest books I have ever read).

On the surface, the “Funbook” is an ac-tivity book – roughly the size and shape of a coloring book – designed to “keep you sane your whole visit home,” according to the front cover.

But Brockett’s book is full of implicit – and quite disturbing – meaning.

“I wrote this book after I broke up with my family,” Brockett writes in the “About the Author” blurb on the book’s last page, a fact which is apparent through passive aggres-sive jabs at her family, which are cleverly dis-guised as “activities.”

Oh, for the most part they’re innocent enough, these activities: crossword puzzles, word searches, directions for “kitchen sci-ence projects” – all the stuff of an activity

book should include.But then there are the paper dolls.There’s one for each member of

(I’m assuming; she thanks them in the “Acknowledgments” section, at least) Brockett’s family: a sister, a brother, a mother and father. Each doll has little paper acces-sories to go along with it. These accessories are intended to be humorous: “prescription” drugs, a “thong revealing” skirt and a “chip for the shoulder” for the sister; a nun’s habit and a wooden cross for the mother doll; a bottle of wine for the father; a power suit, Blackberry phone and a joint for the brother. The brother doll is the strangest to me; by all accounts, it looks as if brother is a success-ful guy (he also comes with an “overpriced briefcase” and a pair of “expensive jeans”). Why on earth, then, are we poking fun at the guy for smoking a little weed every now and then? Give him a break, Brockett, he’s just trying to unwind after a busy day of bringing home the bacon. Ain’t no crime in that.

There are also the “Special Day Cards,” which are greeting cards that are personalized for each member of the family. Again, passive aggressiveness reins. The “Dad” card reads “Thanks for not calling me by my sister’s name again today!” The “Mom” card thanks mommy dearest for “always doing the minimum;” the “Granpoppy” card congratu-lates old grandpa on “four hours of sobriety today!”

Overall, this “Funbook” is nothing more than a coping mechanism that has mani-fested itself commercially; Brockett is literally making

fun of her family to make herself feel better, and marketing it to people who might re-late to her (very specific) problems. Either that, or the book’s target audience lives in a sitcom family (albeit a very dark one, like “8 Simple Rules” after John Ritter died and David Spade replaced him).

“Cheaper than therapy!” is emblazoned on the book’s front cover in loopy script. I suppose so, but is Brockett referring to the reader or herself? That’s pretty obvious (hint: herself).

Buy it if you want, I guess, but the “Funbook” will mostly just make you feel sad. You’d be better off with Dad’s bottle of wine and brother’s joint.

Adam Kohut is a professional writing senior.

TYLER BRANSON

TuesdayNEWMUSIC

BOOK REVIEWS

‘Funbook’ is ‘Highlights’ gone wrong

ADAMKOHUT

“THE DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY FUNBOOK”$11 Amazon.com

“Work is Love Made Visible” by Jeanetta Calhoun Mish tells a story like an old photo album recalls memories past.

It took Mish, an Oklahoma native, twenty years before she came back home to get her PhD in American literature and write this

book of poetry and fam-ily photographs. It took years of hard traveling, heartbreak, hardship, love and introspection to produce this wonderfully touching and honest look at herself, and by extension, O k l a h o m a people.

Her wr it-ing exemplifies the Oklahoma character of resilience, strife, determination and hard work. Her language is articulate and simplistic at the same time. For instance, in “Rosasharn Reports from California in the 21st Century,” a poem from the point of view of the fictional character Rose of Sharon from the John Steinbeck classic “The Grapes of Wrath,” Mish bemoans the loss of language in literature, or even life in general: “Anyway, they say I’m quite the character,” Mish writes as Rose of Sharon, “Even though Mr. Steinbeck’s “virile, realist style” / is “no longer viable.” Wouldn’t you just know it? / Plain talk is out of fashion.”

Family is a heavy influence in “Work is Love Made Visible.” Poems championing her grandparents and great grandparents, all from Oklahoma, interweave among stories of personal strife and self-reflection. “Great granny Iness had eleven children, my grand-pa / One of nine who lived long enough to grow up,” she writes in the poem “A Woman’s Inheritance,” a poetic history of the women in her family, “She gave me a strong body and a stubborn will / Her mother, Mary Ella, was less than five foot tall / but she once knocked her drunken, belligerent husband / Upside

the head with a cast iron skillet for raising a hand to her / He quit drinking after that / I want to believe I have her spunk.”

The title poem, “Work is Love Made Visible,” is a moving homage to her Grandmother, who worked hard, long hours at a garment factory to sew clothes for her grandchildren. “Even now, I can recite every article of granny’s handiwork,” Mish writes, “proclaim the delight of something made just for me / Sing the alchemy of love and labor /

testify that after working all day, day after day / my granny would sit at her sewing machine / and attire me in vestments of love.” Next to the poem is a picture of her grandmother, circa 1940, which evokes powerful emo-tions of family connections, re-spect and admiration. You can feel her sentiment.

Other poems praise leg-acy and the importance of Oklahoma connections. For instance, “Ashes and Dust,” a poem about gardening, touts, “Yet for five generations my fam-ily’s strong hands / have crum-bled red dirt clods, sown pre-cious seeds / and pulled weeds until our fingers ached.”

“For My Brother,” is a deeply sad poem juxtaposing the actual obituary of her brother, titled “What I Wrote,” with a longer, brutally honest poem called “What I Didn’t Write,” which mourns the tribulations of her brother’s history with alcohol abuse.

“Work is Love Made Visible” does a fan-tastic job of juxtaposing hard moments and somber reflection with positive imagery of home and the importance of family, if not for the purpose of garnering support and love, at least to situate herself and to discover more about who she is and where she comes from. Interwoven through these themes are images of Oklahoma and resilience, a biting intellectualism and a “plain talk” that is most definitely not out of fashion.

Tyler Branson is an English senior.

TYLER BRANSON

Legacy of OK captured in poem

“WORK IS LOVE MADE VISIBLE”$11 Amazon.com

« MOVIE BLOG

Need more L&A? Check out our blogs on OUDaily.com. This week, The Daily’s Jono Greco recommends movies to kick off your summer.

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HELP WANTED

Attention College Graduates!If you are looking for a career in the

Criminal Justice Field, please call Avalon Correctional Services, Inc.

405-752-8802 or 800-919-9113Ask for Human Resources!

Riverwind Hotel is now hiring: Night Au-ditor, Front Desk Representative, House-keeping (must be available to work Sat & Sun). All positions are P/T (16-30 per week). Please apply in person at Tradi-tions Spirits corporate offi ce: 2813 SE 44th, Norman. Take Hwy 9 West past Riv-erwind Casino, travel 2 1/2 miles, right on Penn, immediate left. 405-392-4550.

Make up to $75 per online survey, student opinions needed www.cashtospend.com.

P/T offi ce assistant/receptionist for OKC advertising agency. Answering phones, fi ling, errands, etc. Email resume to ideas@insightokc.com - $8/hr, 20 hrs per week.

Downtown OKC law fi rm seeks F/T para-legal with great communication/writingskills. Need a self-starter. Email/fax re-sume to haley@cunninghamandmears.com, or call 232-1675

GET PAID TO PLAY OUTSIDE! Girl Scout Resident Camp near Tulsa has counselor positions open for young women ages 18 and up. May 27-Aug 2. Starting salary $170/wk + meals & lodging. Work Sun-Fri. For application, call 918-745-5213 or email KHarley@gseok.org

Looking for leasing agent at Bishop’s Landing Apts. Call 360-7744 for applica-tion. $7.50-8.00 / hr, fl exible hours. F/T during breaks.

STUDENTPAYOUTS.COMPaid survey takers needed in Norman100% FREE to join. Click on Surveys.

Detailed-oriented Individuals Able to Work in Fast-paced Environment

Should Apply.As a leader in community banking,Republic Bank & Trust is committed to providing a unique, quality experience to our customers, community and bankers. We currently have the following positions available:

• Mortgage Loan Closer - Preparesclosing instructions and packets for title companies. Prepares loans to ship for purchase and insuring, and ships post-closing documents. Maintains regulatory documentation and closing calendar.6-months mortgage operations or 1-year banking experience required. • Marketing & Community Relations Support Specialist – Respon-sible for a variety of administrative duties including but not limited to promotional follow-up, administering service recovery program, supporting referral/incentive tracking,organization of marketing and promotion-al items, scheduling and coordinatingcalendars as assigned. Assists withdevelopment and coordination ofcustomer events.

Send resumes, along with cover letter to P.O. Box 5369, Norman, OK 73070, Attn: Human Resources or by fax to (405) 579-5400. Republic is an EOE.

MISAL OF INDIA BISTRONow accepting applications for waitstaff.

Apply in person at 580 Ed Noble Parkway,

across from Barnes & Noble, 579-5600.

SeekingSitters Moore/Norman is look-ing for professional babysitters. If you are looking for a fun, fl exible summer job please apply online at seekingsitters.com

SUMMER LIFEGUARDS& SWIM INSTRUCTORS.

Aquatic staff and competitive swimmers.Apply at the Cleveland County Family

YMCA, 1350 Lexington Ave. EOE.

Bartending! Up to $250/day. No exp nec. Training provided. 1-800-965-6520, x133.

$5,000- $45,000PAID EGG DONORS up to 9 donations,

+ Exps, non-smokers, Ages 19-29,SAT>1100/ACT>24/GPA>3.00

Contact: info@eggdonorcenter.com

Fantasy Sports Company seeks talented, aggressive people to promote products this summer. Earn generous commis-

sions while having fun! 423-667-5718 or bruce@paythefan.com

APTS. FURNISHED

Furnished 1 bdrm studio, utilities pd, cor-ner of Flood & Boyd, bills paid. Perfect for serious grad student. 329-2310.

Room for rent $314/month.Most bills paid, fully furnished.

Call 321-8877

$400, bills paid, effi ciency LOFT apart-ments, downtown over Mister Robert Fur-niture, 109 E Main, fi re sprinkler, no pets, smoke-free. Inquire store offi ce.

APTS. UNFURNISHED

Summer Special! 1 BLK FROM OU, very nice 4 room apt, 800 sf, wood fl oors, 1018 S College, Apt 8, $275/mo. Call 360-2873 or 306-1970.

Post Oak Apartments 1-2 bed apts avail-able! Newly renovated. Visit postoakliv-ing.com - 364-3039, 705 Ridgecrest Ct.

1 BLK FROM OU, very nice 4 room apt, 800 sf, wood fl oors, 1016 S College, Apt 1, $295/mo. Call 360-2873 or 306-1970.

FREE RENT or up to $300 off First Mo!Student and Military Discounts

Models open 8:30-5:30 M-F; 10-4 Sat1-2 bedroom apts/townhomes with

washer/dryer hookups in 2 bedrooms. Pets Welcome! Free Tanning! Immediate

Move-in! Two locations:

Apple Creek and Hillcrest EstatesCall us at 329-2438 or 360-2048 orlook us up online, apartmentguide.

com

P/L Now for Summer & Fall!*Free Membership at Steel Fitness!$99 Deposit! No Application Fee!

Models open 8a-8p Everyday!Elite Properties 360-6624

or www.elite2900.com

3 bd $820/mo. & 4 bd $870/mo. Less than 1 mile from OU, CART, w/d, pool, 24hr maintenance. www.oig.biz or call 364-5622

CONDOS FURNISHED

4 Bed/4 Bath Condo for Rent Norman - The Edge Less than 1 mile from Campus. Furnished Living Room,

Dining Room, Kitchen, W/D, Hi-speed internet. $350/Mo + utilities - pdawson.

pd@verizon.net

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2 bd, 2 full bath, w/d, fi rst fl oor of The Edge, $850/mo, no pets. Call 414-4046.

HOUSES UNFURNISHED

Available 4/18

1700 Jackson Dr. 3/2/2 $950Available 6/1

1413 Peter Pan 3/1.5/2 $950140 Alameda Plaza 3/2/2 $1000

321 Waterfront 4/2/2 $1260Contact Wendy at KW, 473-6832

Summer Special! NICE 3-4 bd, 2.25 ba. 929 Branchwood, $700. 1621 Chaucer, $800. 2326 Lindenwood, $1000. Call 360-2873 or 306-1970

805C Cardinal Creek Condo’s, 2 bdrm, 2 bth gated community, pool, weight room, on-site washer/dryer, close to campus, nice enviroment to study, overlooks OU golf course $585/mo. Call (580) 763-4278

JUNE RENTAL850 S Flood - $475+bills. 212 S Flood

- $600+bills. Smoke-free, no pets, 1 year lease, security dep. 360-3850

107 E Acres, 3 bd, 1 bth, fenced back yard, hardwood fl oors. $600/month.

714-726-1204

3-4 bed homes near campus. Reason-able. 329-4119

SHORT WALK TO OU1-5 blks west, nice brick homes, wood fl oors, CH/A, w/d, disposal, good parking. 4 Bdrm $1,800-$2,000 3 Bdrm $750-$1,500 2 Bdrm $600-$800 1 Bdrm $420-$460

Bob, MISTER ROBERT FURNITUREMon-Sat, 321-1818

AVAILABLE IN AUGShort walk to OU, 4-6 blks west of OU, nice brick homes, wood fl oors, CH/A, w/d, disposal, good parking. 4 Bdrm $1,600 3 Bdrm $1,500

Bob, MISTER ROBERT FURNITUREMon-Sat, 321-1818

NICE 3-4 bd, 2.25 ba. 612 Ash, $750. 1621 Chaucer, $850. 826 Jona Kay, $975. 2326 Lindenwood, $995. Call 360-2873 or 306-1970

3/4 bed, 2 ba, W/D, yard maintained. Ad-jacent to S Greek area. $1000/mo.

918-271-3336

Available Aug 1. 3 bd/2 ba $1500/month. 1609 S Pickard. 366-1700 or 818-4441

TOWNHOUSES UNFURNISHED

Taylor Ridge Townhomes2 Bdrm, 2.5 Bath, Fully Renovated

Townhomes near OU!Pets Welcome! • Call for current rates

and Move-in Specials!!!Taylor Ridge Townhomes

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Previous Answers

1 69 6 3 4

8 2 13 7 6 4 2 1

84 2 5 3 7 9

9 3 62 1 9 5

9 7Instructions:Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. That means that no number is repeated in any row, column or box.

Previous Solution

Monday- Very EasyTuesday-EasyWednesday- EasyThursday- MediumFriday - Hard

2 7 6 5 9 1 4 8 35 4 8 6 7 3 2 1 91 3 9 4 2 8 7 5 68 5 3 7 6 9 1 2 47 2 4 3 1 5 6 9 86 9 1 8 4 2 3 7 53 6 5 2 8 7 9 4 19 8 2 1 3 4 5 6 74 1 7 9 5 6 8 3 2

Universal Crossword

“B NICE” by Lorrie Cutchins

ACROSS 1 Statistical

components 5 Sinister spirit 10 Parental

challengers 14 Vigorous

enthusiasm 15 Deposed

leader’s fate, sometimes

16 Soft drink flavor

17 Circus purveyors

20 Stuff that goes off

21 Santa’s burden

22 Can’t forgo 23 Like staples 24 Atoms that

have gained or lost electrons

26 Primary source of income

32 Comedy club sounds

33 It lands at Ben Gurion

34 Bale fodder 35 Checked out 36 Herculean

types 38 Gael’s

language 39 Stay forever,

as in jail 40 Argument’s

weakness 41 Cooperates

with crooks 42 Song in “The

Paleface” 46 Double-

curved molding

47 Mediterra-

nean gulf 48 Pleasant

scent 51 Word on le

menu 52 Nitrogen, e.g. 55 Inn 59 Give off 60 Cousin of a

gazelle 61 Song for

Madama Butterfly

62 Rat Pack nickname

63 Map collection

64 Roentgen discovery

DOWN 1 Thing of

interest? 2 Parsons with

a Project 3 Acerbic 4 Shakers

leader Lee 5 Strong

request 6 Perfecta,

by another name

7 Ritzy wrap fur

8 Timeworn 9 Bird’s

honker 10 Worst for

driving 11 ABC’s “The

___” 12 Appealed

earnestly 13 Recites, as

prayers 18 “___ directed”

(medicine alert)

19 Void, as a marriage

23 It’s drawn with a rifle?

24 Not up to anything

25 Seaport in Scotland

26 Marshy backwater

27 Butler in a Civil War flick

28 Site of the first labor of Hercules

29 Hurled 30 Some bridge

players 31 Food grains 32 Spearmint or

peppermint 36 Get to the

point? 37 “Anything

___?” 38 Raven-

colored, to Poe

40 Colonel Klink’s foil

41 One way to

be taken 43 Club

member? 44 Nine days of

prayer 45 Doesn’t look

forward to 48 Tucked in 49 “Do”

followers 50 Wednesday

was named after him

51 Asian sea 52 She had a

“Tootsie” role

53 Vast continent

54 Reprieve from the governor

56 Org. involved in seizures

57 Short diner order

58 Office staple

PREVIOUS PUZZLE ANSWER

Edited by Timothy E. Parker May 05, 2009

© 2009 Universal Press Syndicatewww.upuzzles.com

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8 Tuesday, May 5, 2009

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Tuesday, May 5, 2009 9

SPORTS BRIEFS

HERNANDEZ ON WALLACE AWARD WATCH LISTJunior shortstop Bryant Hernandez was named by the College

Baseball Foundation and Mizuno to the watch list for the 2009 Brooks Wallace Award.

The Wallace Award, which was created in 2004, had been presented annually to the national player of the year.

This season, for the fi rst time ever, to award will be presented to the country’s top shortstop.

Hernandez has led the Sooners in many offensive categories this season, hitting .372 with nine home runs and 51 RBIs heading into Monday night’s game.

Hernandez also has a .923 fi elding per-centage on the season.

Both the Wallace Award and the Howser Trophy, which has recognized the best player in college baseball for 23 years, will be presented at the College Baseball Awards Show on July 2 in Lubbock, Texas.

WISE ADDED TO JOHNNY BENCH WATCH LISTSenior catcher J.T. Wise was added to the offi cial watch list for

the 2009 Coleman Company-Johnny Bench Award. The award has been presented since 2000 to the country’s top catcher.

Last season, Florida State catcher Buster Posey took home the award.

Wise is one of only two Big 12 represen-tatives on the list along with Kansas’ Buck Afenir.

On May 14, the list will be narrowed down to ten fi nalists. At the end of May, a national voting panel will vote to decide on three fi nalists, which will be announced on June 3.

A fi nal vote from the national committee will take place during the College World Series. The finalists will be brought to

Wichita and announced at the Greater Wichita Sports Banquet on June 26.

Prior to Monday night’s game, Wise had a .392 batting aver-age with 15 home runs and 47 RBIs. — Daily Staff

BASEBALL

BRYANTHERNANDEZ

J.T.WISE

ELIZABETH NALEWAJK/THE DAILY

Junior pitcher Garrett Richards tries to pick off Southern Utah’s Bo Cuthbertson at first base during Tuesday’s game. The Sooners beat the Thunderbirds, 14-5.

OU rolls Southern Utah, 14-5JONO GRECOThe Oklahoma Daily

After an emotional come-from-be-hind victory Sunday against Kansas, the No. 18 Sooners came out firing on all cylinders Monday in a 14-5 rout of the Southern Utah Thunderbirds at L. Dale Mitchell Park.

The Sooners (35-14)took control from the start and got a solid outing from junior starting pitcher Garrett Richards (7-2).

The Sooners used small ball to get on the board early against the Thunderbirds (22-19). After two singles, junior shortstop Bryant Hernandez bunted runners to second and third and senior designated hitter J.T. Wise hit a sacrifice fly to center to give OU the 1-0 first-inning lead.

Southern Utah tied the game in the top of the second, but OU reclaimed

the lead with six runs in the bottom half of the inning by hitting around the order for the 20th time this year.

Freshman catcher Tyler Ogle and junior first baseman Aaron Baker hit back-to-back doubles in the bot-tom half of the inning, and a string of singles by the top of the order helped contribute to the six-run inning.

Ogle and Baker each had produc-tive games Monday evening. Each player had three hits, and the two combined to go 6-7 with two doubles and two RBIs while scoring five runs.

Wet field conditions helped OU during the inning. Rain water that ac-cumulated in the outfield caused balls to come to a halt, allowing runners to score or advance an extra base.

After giving up two runs in the top of the fourth, the Sooners responded with a run on a single by Baker to take a 9-3 lead.

During the fifth inning, the Sooners reached double-digit runs for the 19th time this year when junior shortstop Bryant Hernandez reached base on an error that scored senior second base-man Matt Harughty. Hernandez later scored on a Southern Utah balk.

OU got out of the fifth inning after scoring five runs and extending its lead to 14-3. Senior third baseman Trey Sperring blasted a three-run homer over the left-center field wall to cap off the Sooners’ scoring for the inning.

Richards rebounded from an out-ing Saturday when he gave up three runs in two-thirds of an inning. In five innings Monday he gave up three runs on six hits while striking out four.

After the Sooners got up by 11 runs head coach Sunny Golloway took the majority of the starters out of the game and allowed his younger players to get some experience. Only two starters – Wise and left fielder Casey Johnson – finished the game.

OU’s offense settled down once the backups came in and was held score-less while the Thunderbirds plated two runs in the final three innings to bring the final score to 14-5.

READ THE FULL STORY ONLINE AT OUDAILY.COM.

See more photos from Monday’s game.

OUDAILY.COM

BASEBALL »

BETH NALEWAJK/THE DAILY

SOONERS TAKE ON TEXAS-ARLINGTON TONIGHT

The Sooners fi nish off their fi ve-games-in fi ve-days stretch against the University of Texas at Arlington Mavericks 6:30 tonight in Arlington.

The Mavericks boast a 26-21 record and the majority of their wins come at home. They are 18-6 within the confi nes of Clay Gould Ballpark and are 1-4 against Big 12 opponents this season.

OU will be looking for its third-straight victory and will try to extend its record to 5-3 in games played in the state of Texas.— Jono Greco/The Daily

IILYLY

Hazing?Not on our campus.

Report incidents at:

325-5000All calls are anonymous.

The University of Oklahoma is an Equal Opportunity Institution.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) -- Use your judgment when it comes to enjoying the good things in life. You’ll pay a price with any kind of overindulgence, from stressing your muscles to partaking in too many substances.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) -- Try to treat everyone the same so that you don’t inadvertently offend or slight a friend by paying lots of attention to everyone but him or her.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) -- Those outside your home with whom you share your day may think you’re pretty nifty. However, sadly, the members of your family may not say the same when asked.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) -- Although most wouldn’t know it, you could feel a bit insecure and in need of some attention or acknowledgement. A shrewd manipulator who is aware of this might twist you around his or her fi nger.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) -- Desire might outweigh your prudence and sales resistance, so if you’re smart, you’ll stay away from expensive stores. You could easily weaken and purchase something frivolous and/or expensive.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) -- When involved in a close relationship, give the other person the benefi t of the doubt about his or her intentions. In other words, give this person a chance to explain.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) -- If you choose to goof off, that’s one thing. But if you induce another to do likewise, you could get in a whole lot of trouble when those depending on him or her come down hard on you.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) -- Try to avoid people who lack good taste or the social graces because they could unintentionally embarrass or offend you. You’ll only have yourself to blame.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) -- Acknowledge the ac-complishments of others; don’t be jealous or blame them for your lack of achievement. Use the situation as motivation to do better next time.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) -- Unfortunately, people in general tend to lack a cheerful disposition and outlook, but that doesn’t mean you have to be one of them. Don’t let negativism cast a cloud on your day.

PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) -- If you are apathetic or indifferent about your fi nances or commercial affairs, someone is likely to spot this and take advantage of you. Don’t place yourself in a vulnerable position.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) -- This is likely to be one of those days when no matter how hard you try, it might be impossible to please anyone. It’s not you; people in general seem to have thorny attitudes. Take it in stride.

HOROSCOPE By Bernice Bede Osol

Copyright 2008, Newspaper Enterprise Assn.

10 Tuesday, May 5, 2009

STAFF COLUMN

DAVID BERGMAN/AP/MIAMI HERALD

In a 1990s photo, Alex Rodriguez is seen when he played for Westminster Christian high school in Miami. Journalist Selena Roberts makes the case that Rodriguez likely used steroids in high school and may have taken HGH while with the New York Yankees, in her new biography of the MVP.

Roberts’ claims questionable

I n S e l e n a R o b e r t s ’ b o o k , “A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez,” the Sports Illustrated

writer reveals that Yankees’ third baseman Alex Rodriguez may have used steroids in high school and let opposing batters know what pitchers were coming in blowouts while with the Texas Rangers.

In previous interviews, Rodriguez denied using steroids outside of his three-year tenure with the Rangers, and there have been no other reports of him tipping pitches. Also, he has said that Roberts is paid to basically stalk him and write nothing but nega-tive things about him.

Whether or not Roberts’ allega-tions about the one-time sure-fire hall of famer are true, should we believe

what she or her sources say about Rodriguez rather than believe the man himself?

One can argue we cannot believe him because he will say whatever he can to protect himself from any more damage that he has self-in-flicted. So, we auto-matically don’t trust anything he says and take anything the A-Rod haters say as absolute truth.

Roberts, who took over as the Sports Illustrated back-page columnist when Rick Reilly left for ESPN, has become the leader of the Rodriguez witch

hunt. Even though there is no docu-mentation that supports her current allegations, anything she writes is all that is needed to find him guilty in the court of public opinion.

She has been a credible journal-ist for many years, but I don’t think what she writes — or what anyone else who publishes a book based on investigative hearsay and rumors while dismissing those who side with Rodriguez writes — should be consid-ered 100 percent truth.

I may be completely wrong about this, but I would rather believe the player himself than rumors and al-legations. Roberts’ book likely will be a best-seller soon, but what is written should be taken with a grain of salt until her claims are proven true.Jono Greco is a journalism sophomore.

JONOGRECO

SPORTS BRIEFS

SENIOR DYE NAMED TO ALL-BIG 12 TEAMSenior woman’s golfer Kendall Dye was named to the All-Big

12 team late last week.The team is made up of the 10 highest-ranked golfers in

the Golfweek/Sagarin ratings after the Big 12 tournament last weekend.

Dye was named to the All-Big 12 team for the second straight season.

She recently tied for fi rst place in the Big 12 Championships in Lubbock, Texas.

Dye will be the Sooners’ lone representative at this week’s NCAA Central Regional in Columbus, Ohio, which begins Thursday.

Oklahoma State, who easily won the Big 12 tournament, dominated the conference honors. Four of the 10-person All-Big 12 team come from OSU.

The Cowgirls also took the Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year, both given to Caroline Hedwall.

SOFTBALL BIG 12 TOURNEY BRACKETS SETThe Sooners, who won the outright Big 12 regular season

title and already knew their seeding for this weekend’s Big 12 tournament, learned their draw for this weekend.

OU will play at 1:30 p.m. Saturday on the main fi eld at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City.

The Sooners will face the winner of Friday’s matchup between the No. 8 seed Iowa State and the No. 9 seed Kansas.

If the Sooners win their Sunday afternoon game, they will advance to the semifi nals, to be played at 7:30 p.m. on the main fi eld.

The championship game is slated for 11:30 a.m.Tickets can be purchased from the Oklahoma City All Sports

Commission. Session booklets are $40.Single session tickets will be available at the stadium on

game day.

BRADFORD, PARIS SCHOLAR FINALISTSSophomore quarterback Sam Bradford and senior forward

Ashley Paris have both been named fi nalists for the 2009 Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar award.

Twenty student athletes, 10 male and 10 female, were named fi nalists.

The winners will be announced in the May 28 issue of Diverse: Issues in Higher Education magazine.

The nominees must keep a grade point average of 3.2 and remain active in the community and on campus.

About 600 student athletes were nominated for this year’s award.

The Asche Sports Scholar award was established in 1992 to honor minority undergraduate students.— Daily Staff