The Voice of Montana State University Billings for Over Half a Century

www.MSUBretort.orgDecember 7, 2012 Volume 88, Issue 6

PATRICIA HAMPTONNews & Campus Life Writer

Alpha Theta Chi: MSUB Welcomes Brand New Sisterhood

Colleges and universi-ties across the coun-try are home to soror-

ities and sisterhoods, so why not MSUB?

This is the very question that the members of Alpha Theta Chi (AOX) looked to face and overcome this year at Montana State Universi-ty Billings. AOX is a new-ly formed student organiza-tion advised by Kristin Pe-terman, Associate Director of Student Life and University Events, and run by a group of eight officers, including pres-ident Sarena Underwood (Ju-nior) and vice president Clara Escutia (Senior). Both Un-derwood and Escutia came to MSUB from Bakersfield, Cal-ifornia, and are studying ed-ucation.

Underwood and Escutia saw the community that ex-ists on other college campus-

es with sororities and frater-nities and wanted to be able to start something similar at MSUB. According to Under-wood, a lot of students “don’t even know about a lot of the clubs on campus. The main ones that I see are HEROES and the Dance Club because they're out where people can see them.” It is important for these young women to start something and give girls that

“shoulder to cry on.”The name Alpha Theta Chi,

represented by the terms Pas-sion, Love, and Excellence, was selected for several rea-sons. “Alpha” is representa-tive of the first, in this case the first Sisterhood of its kind at MSUB. The Greek letter Theta is circular, indicative of the unity shared by its mem-bers. Escutia explained that the Sisterhood is meant to strive for passion and love for

one another, and excellence in their academics and ev-eryday lives. The colors rep-resenting AOX are blue and purple, and their mascot is a hummingbird, and Under-wood explained, “We fly to-gether.”

Because MSUB is not na-tionally affiliated with Greek life, the women cannot tech-nically call themselves a so-rority, but rather a Sisterhood. This Sisterhood will create a home away from home for the

women involved. In addition, the Sisterhood requires par-ticipation in service activities, so they will be benefiting the community while positive-ly representing the universi-ty. Another hope is to bring the student body together by sponsoring events that appeal to many students, and collab-orating with other pre-exist-ing student organizations.

Underwood and Escutia also discussed their biggest event for the spring semester.

Universities across the coun-try often have what is called a

“Spring Sing,” and AOX will be bring this to MSUB in the Spring of 2013. Spring Sing will be an opportunity to pro-mote other student groups and individual students on cam-pus, allowing them to partic-ipate by performing dances or vocals, among other opportu-nities, and would be a “great opportunity for different or-ganizations to step up their game” in preparation for this

public event.All young women inter-

ested in being a part of AOX must meet the 2.0 cumulative GPA requirement, and main-tain that standard throughout their membership. Officers are required to maintain a 2.5 GPA. Each semester dues will be collected from each mem-ber. This fall, dues were $30 per member, and will be in-creased beginning in the spring to $50 each semester. These fees cover the costs of shirts, socials, and other AOX activities.

While some girls were skeptical of joining at first, there are currently eighteen members of AOX with an es-timated twenty additional in-dividuals looking to join in the spring. For more informa-tion regarding Alpha Theta Chi, feel free to email MSUB-AlphaThetaChi@Gmail.com.

international students adjust to different culture in billingsCHRIS CLAUSOnline Editor

Life at MSU Billings might seem pretty typ-ical for you. After all,

Billings isn't too different than any city of its size in the United States. Sure, it's more remote than those of you who grew up on either coast are used to but, all in all, it's or-dinary-for most of you that is. There is one group of stu-dents, for whom, life here at MSU Billings is anything but typical.

There are currently 120 in-ternational students, from ap-proximately fifteen different countries, studying at MSUB. Not only do they have to ad-just to the, at times, extreme, cultural differences, they also have to adapt to attend-ing classes taught in a lan-guage that may be their sec-ond, third, or even fourth lan-guage. Can you imagine what it would be like, not only to live in say, Korea or Saudi Arabia, for a year, but to also be expected to attend dai-ly classes that are taught in a language that you did not grow up speaking?

As difficult as that may sound, it's estimated that over a quarter of a million Amer-ican students, and over three

quarters of a million students from other countries study abroad every year. The two biggest difficulties most peo-ple have are language barri-ers and culture shock; how-ever, there are many benefits to it. One of the biggest ben-efits is that you become more culturally aware- which, in today’s global economy, is a huge plus.

I've taken the time to sit down with some of the inter-national students we are host-

ing, hoping to hear about their experiences here at MSUB, and have talked with a couple people that work with them day to day, doing their best to help the students.

Karen Baumgart, the pro-gram coordinator for the in-ternational studies office, works with students from the very beginning, answering their questions before they apply, working with them to get them enrolled and get their visas approved. Her fa-vorite part of the process is meeting the new students

when they arrive, getting to see, for the first time, people she’s worked with for so long and finally getting to know them. But, her involvement doesn't stop there. She helps them with everything from getting over culture shock, to working with various aca-demic departments to help the students succeed here.

Xiaoyi Wang, an exchange student from China, has a lot of experience as an MSUB student from another country. Coming from a town with a population of around one mil-

lion, Xiaoyi has been here for nearly six years. She works closely with Karen in the international stud-ies office, and is in the master’s program for pub-lic relations. When she first arrived, the biggest difficulty she had adjust-ing to was speaking the language. It's one thing to speak in a foreign lan-guage amongst your class-mates, but speaking to a native speaker of that lan-guage is something com-pletely different.

Other international stu-dents had similar prob-lems adjusting to life here. The language barri-er was the most difficult for most of them. Then there is homesickness, which most people have experienced at one time or another. Lack of pub-lic transportation is anoth-er problem. Most of these students come from plac-es where you can catch a bus to anywhere, 24 hours a day, and if you missed your bus, there will be an-other one in a few minutes.

One thing they all agreed on is that Billings is a very friendly place to live.Current and former International Students.

Billings is a real-ly, really friendly

place. I took ten students down to Jakes for dinner. There were some German students, some from Slo-vakia and Africa, Ethio-pia, Saudi Arabia, China, Japan. We were talking, about the school, about different things in life, cul-ture stuff. Then this older gentleman walked over to me, and whispered, “Be-tween you and I, I got your ticket taken care of.” I was about to ask why, and he said,, “Don't say anything yet, I want to tell you a sto-ry. When I was a young-er man, I went to Germa-ny for business. I ended up in this tiny little town, and I didn't know the lan-guage. The people in that town were so nice to me, they took care of me re-ally well. Today, I see you guys are from different parts of the world, and you ended up in Billings for whatever reasons, but I want you to feel welcome.

Below is one International Student’s experience in Bill-ings as told to Xiaoyi Wang.

Members of Alpha Theta Chi enjoying Montana’s great outdoors.

The Retort encourages the submission of Letters To The Editor. Letters must be under 750 words in length and include a name and phone number. The Retort reserves the right to edit for space and possible libel. Letters should deal with subject matter relevant to the students, fac-ulty, or staff of MSU Billings. The Retort is published monthly. Letters must be submitted by our submission date (ten days prior to our next publication date). Submit Letters To The Editor to editor@msubretort.org

The Retort is made possible in part by student fees allocated by ASMSUB. The Publications Board of ASMSUB advises The Retort, leaving content decisions to the editors.

Reasonable care is taken to ensure that The Retort articles and other information in this pub-lication and website are up-to-date and accurate as possible, as of the time of publication, but no responsibility can be taken by The Retort or Montana State University Billings for any er-rors or omissions contained herein or online.

Furthermore, responsibility for any losses, damages or distress resulting from adherence to any information made available through this publication and our website is not the responsibil-ity of The Retort or Montana State University Billings.

The opinions by expressed columnists are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Retort or Montana State University Billings.

For advertising information, please email us at business@msubretort.org or visit the ad rates section of our website at http://www.msubretort.org/ads.php.

Subscriptions to students, parents of students, alumni, faculty, or staff are available for sim-ply the cost of postage. For more information about subscriptions, please contact us at busi-ness@msubretort.org or 406 657 2193.

If you’d like to order a back issue of The Retort, the cost will be $5.00 plus the cost of post-age. Email us our business manager at business@msubretort.org to check issue availability and for more information.

Montana State University Billings

Student Union Building 2281500 University Drive

Billings, MT 59101

Phone: 406-657-2193Fax: 406-657-2388

E-mail: msubretort@gmail.comwww.msubretort.org

Guidelines & Policies

Advertising & Subscriptions

Deadlines & Publication

Faculty Advisor

Editor-in-ChiefBusiness Manager

Design Editor Copy Editor

Online Editor

News & Campus Life WriterSports WriterA&E Writer

Outdoor WriterColumnistColumnist

Contributing WriterContributing WriterContributing Writer

Dan Carter

Leah CampbellVacant

James Dean Hickman Jennifer OtisChris Claus

Patricia Hampton Cory Lovec

Serene CreesTabby Maust

Paulina CarrilloTiff Hall

Ian MacmurdieKendra CarterHolly Daniels

September 13, 2012September 27, 2012

October 11, 2012October 25, 2012

November 8, 20112 November 29, 2012

January 24, 2013February 7, 2013

February 21, 2013March 7, 2013April 4, 2013April 18, 2013

September 21, 2012October 5, 2012October 19, 2012November 2, 2012November 16, 2012December 7, 2012

February 1, 2013February 15, 2013

March 1, 2013March 15, 2013April 12, 2013April 26, 2013

The Retort encourages the submission of student writing including, but not limited to: re-views, features, editorials, creative writing, or Letters to the Editor. Articles must be under 600 words in length, typed and include a first and last name and phone number. Submissions writ-ten anonymously will not be published. The Retort reserves the right to edit for space or for the reasons stated above. All writing should deal with subject matter relevant to the students, fac-ulty, staff of MSU Billings and the surrounding Billings community. The Retort is published semi-monthly and writing must be submitted by the deadlines listed below

All submitted writing become the property of The Retort and cannot be returned. Please submit writing to msubretort@gmail.com or access our submission page on our web-

page at www.msubretort.com. You may also drop writing by The Retort office in the SUB Room 220. Please direct questions or comments about submissions to editor@msubretort.org

As The Retort staff began preparation for Issue 6, I was excited to bring a holiday theme to our final issue of

the semester. It seems to me that the spirit of the holidays is slowly fading into the abyss of American consumerism and people are forget-ting what the season is really about.

Advertising for the year’s best must-haves seemed to bombard us the moment we turned off our porch lights on Halloween night. On television, images of “baby wet-and-smell dolls,” flavored play-dough, robot-monster-alien-trucks were being thrust upon us before we even had time to remove our vampire fangs. Stores began offering special sales for un-heard of occasions-like “day before Thanks-giving sale,” “twenty-one days to Christmas sale,” or the “bi-annual Christmas stocking-stuffer holiday-time spectacular sale,” all of which are, of course, one day only.

At the mere sound of jingling bells, children be-gan making out a wish list for San-ta, revealing their deepest desires and offering well-thought-out rea-sons for why they should be reward-ed for the year.

New holiday movies rarely fo-cus on the won-derful mystery of Santa or the joy of family. Instead, they portray a de-mented figure in a scarlet jump-suit who breaks into homes and disrupts innocent families in their sleep, or couples who avoid Christ-mas with the fam-ily at any cost so they don’t have to spend a few days with overbearing parents, irritating siblings, and med-dling relatives.

This year, I en-

courage you, Retort readers, to disregard these new attitudes about the holidays like the fruitcake from last year that still breeds bac-teria in the back of the freezer. This time of year is not about frantic, shopping-cart races through Wal-Mart’s aisles for 99 cent socks. The season is about still sitting on grandpa’s frail knees and laughing until his teeth fall out, and wearing that ragged, embroidered sweater that you wouldn’t dare throw away. The sea-son is about making snow angels in stranger’s yards, elaborately frosted cookies made with more love than sugar, strolls through the city on crisp, winter nights, and packing the entire family into one car to look at Christmas lights. It is about building forts out of old boxes and heirloom blankets and making memories that last longer than the edible play-dough of hol-idays past.

I am relieved that I survived my first semes-ter as editor of The Retort, and am excited to see what lies ahead for The Retort next semes-ter; that is, unless, the Mayans were correct in their prediction and the end of the world is upon us! If this is the case, and Issue 6 turns out to be the final issue of your beloved Re-tort, do not despair! We publish online as well so The Retort will forever live on in the cyber universe for future generations, alternate life forms, or whoever comes after us to continue The Retort legacy for centuries to come.

At The Retort, we wish you a happy and healthy holiday season and look forward to seeing you next semester!

3

Photos by Patricia Hampton

PATRICIA HAMPTONNews & Campus Life Writer

IAN MACMURDIEContributing Writer

PATRICIA HAMPTONNews & Campus Life Writer

The Global Peace Youth Corps of MSUB Tackles Drug Abuse in Billings Community

GPYC is a service orga-nization with a spir-itual mission: One

Family under God. We serve because service is a means of expressing compassion, care and concern for others who are not just strangers but are valuable people who are part of the family created by God that we all share in. We in the MSU Billings Chapter welcome anyone who wants to get involved or just check us out to learn more about our leadership development ini-tiatives, fun stuff, and free

cupcakes. The Global Peace Youth

Corps (GPYC) of MSU Bill-ings volunteered 6 hours on Saturday, October 20, to help a prescription drug take back project organized by the Elks Club and Bill-ings P.D. In Montana, there are around 45,000 prescrip-tion drug abusers. In Yel-lowstone County, more youth have tried prescription drugs (without a prescription) than have tried heroine, metham-phetamine, and cocaine com-bined, and because it contrib-

utes to the death of more than 300 Montanans per year, pre-scription drug abuse is 15 times more deadly than these three major drugs combined.

Billings Police Officer Thomas Keightley explained to us the ways in which pre-scription drug abuse is a com-munity wide problem. The impacts are not limited just to abusers or their families. Breaking and entering, traf-fic fatalities, and other violent crime are all associated with prescription abuse. Prescrip-tion drug abuse affects all de-mographics of a community.

In 6 hours we collected 30

pounds of pills: many had a street value of $100 each. Ev-ery pill taken off the streets and disposed of properly is a pill that cannot do harm. Pills flushed down the drain or toi-let can leach into the water ta-ble and poison the water sup-ply. The Billings Police De-partment currently destroys pills according to EPA regu-lations in an incinerator.

We meet the first and third Thursday of every month in the Yellowstone room at 5:15 p.m. Find us on Facebook @ http://www.facebook.com/groups/GPYCmsub/

In your best interest: first semester wrap-up

As papers, tests, finals, and the much-antic-ipated winter break

approach, so does the end to the first semester of legisla-tion for the Associated Stu-dents of Montana State Uni-versity Billings. It has been a semester of both challeng-es and triumphs. ASMSUB was faced with a lower bud-get than in previous years due to decreased enrollment at the university. This, of course, had an effect on how much they were able to award to the various student organizations requesting funding, and will continue to affect the senate during the spring semester. Senators have been elected, and have needed to step down for various academic and per-sonal reasons, leaving open positions to be filled when the student body returns in the spring. Since the penulti-mate update of the semester, the senate has been moving at a fast clip toward that semes-ter-end finish line.

Recently, ASMSUB was approached by the Highlands Elementary School Student Council to propose partner-ing with MSUB for a fund-raiser. The student senate has agreed to partner with High-lands, and will be working with them to organize a mov-ie night in Petro Theatre in January.

As required of student or-ganizations who receive funding from the student con-

tingency fund, HEROES re-turned to the senate meeting to report on their successful and educational experiences at the BACCHUS Conference.

Billings Catholic Campus Ministry submitted Financial Bill #8, requesting $1000 to travel to the St. Francis Or-phanage in Philadelphia, PA for a week of volunteering.

ASMSUB President Isaiah Garrison provided a Board of Regents (BOR) update. The dishwasher discussed in pre-vious meetings (used in Rim-rock Café for fifteen years be-yond its life expectancy) has been approved by the BOR and will be replaced. In addi-tion, the boiler needed for the Alterowitz building will be replaced. This boiler is one of two in the building, the first of which is no longer func-tioning and has been kept for the purpose of salvaging parts to repair and maintain the second.

Dylan German has been hired to represent MSU Bill-ings as the lobbyist during the upcoming legislative session this spring.

The most recent Senator of the Month was voted upon, and Quincy Linhart was se-lected.

For more information re-garding ASMSUB, please contact Valerie Sperry, ASMSUB Office Manager, at 657-2365.

honors students present research projects

Elevating excellence has become an inher-ent aspect of the Mon-

tana State University Bill-ings University Honors Pro-gram, and is carried through in events and programs ap-proved by the Honors Club.

On Tuesday, November 29 at 6pm, one such event was held in the Beartooth Room of the Student Union Build-ing. The Honors Reflections and Research Presentations, an annual event sponsored by the Honors Club begun in No-vember 2011, featured the re-search of three Honors stu-dents.

The initial concept of the research presentations was designed by the 2011 Hon-ors Student Advisory Council (HSAC), the executive com-mittee for the Honors Club. During the previous year, four students had the oppor-tunity to attend the National Conference for Undergradu-ate Research (NCUR) in Itha-ca, New York. NCUR is an annual conference hosted at a different university each year, at which students from across the nation can come togeth-er and make presentations on topics ranging from scientif-ic research to dance perfor-mances.

HSAC, in an effort to pre-pare students from MSUB to present at this conference, in-troduced the research presen-tations and opened the sub-missions to all Honors stu-dents. The tradition continued this year, and submissions were accepted from mid-Sep-tember through the second

Honors Club member, Cory Lovec, (and The Retort’s Sports Writer), presented his research on solid matrix luminescence of polycydic aromatic hydrocarbons in sugar.

Left to right: Cory Lovec, Honors Club member, Patricia Hampton, Honors Club President, and Nathan Baillat, Honors Club member.

Exceptional or Inspirational

week in November.This year’s three student

presenters are veterans of the process as they all pre-sented in November 2011, and included Senior Na-than Baillet, and Juniors Cory Lovec and Patricia Hampton.

Baillet travelled to Peru during the summer of 2012 and climbed to the site of a sacred glacier. Dur-ing his presentation, Bail-let shared his experiences with the audience, and paid particular attention to the religious beliefs that incor-porate both Incan tradition and Christianity.

Lovec continued his re-search on solid matrix lu-minescence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in sugar glass under Dr. Mar-lowe in the MSUB Science Department, and present-ed the developments at this year’s presentations.

The third presentation, by Hampton, was entitled

“Sociolinguistics: Gen-der in Instruction” and re-viewed the connection be-tween instructors and their male and female students.

The Honors Club is al-ready looking forward to expanding the presenta-tions next year to include more student presenters and a more versatile audi-ence.

For more information regarding the Honors Club, please email msub.hon-ors@gmail.com.

4

SERENE CREESA&E Writer

What would Christ-mas be like with-out chocolate,

cookies and sweets? I decid-ed I would do some detective work and find the best shops in Billings to fulfill your sweet-tooth desires. It was a messy job, but hey- somebody had to do it.

Tipsy Cupcake1001 Shiloh crossing blvd

suite 7Who would have thought

that pink champagne could taste so good in a cupcake. Tipsy Cupcake is famous around town for its unique blend of cupcake flavors. I also enjoyed what they call

Treat your taste buds to local sweet shops around Billings this holiday season

a cupcake shake; a milk-shake with a cupcake blended in. Apparently they have oth-er cupcakes with a flavor you would usually find in a mar-tini or shot glass. I must say I am excited to try those as well. I highly suggest you get over to Shiloh Crossing and give their alcohol flavored morsels a“shot”!

Candy Town USA820 Shiloh Crossing Blvd,

Billings, MT 59102One of my favorite places

to go growing up was the can-dy store in Red Lodge, Mon-tana, but since it was so far away, we only got to go there once or twice a year. However,

thanks to Candy Town USA, you no longer have to venture to the mountains to get the amazing candy that you loved so much as a child.

Candy Town USA has more candy than any other candy store in Montana and its fun, old-school atmosphere makes it far better than your average candy story. They have a vin-tage soda shop with real “soda jerks!” They also have a wide assortment of fudge and pret-ty much any candy you loved as a kid.

So, whatever you’re crav-ing, I’m pretty sure you can find it there…AND it’s a great place to get Christmas pres-ents for people who are hard to buy for! The owner told

me about a deal on fudge that is amazing…and it includes some fudge for you PLUS free shipping!!

Velvet Cravings225 North BroadwayDowntowners have a new

place to curb their sweet tooth cravings. On the cor-ner of Broadway and 2nd Av-enue North, there is a cute lit-tle shop that is quick to catch your eye. Velvet Cravings has not been open long but they are getting great reputation for having out of this world cupcakes!

So, Next time you are out strolling the shops in our adorable downtown, treat yourself to a delectable, vel-vety treat!!

Brockel’s Chocolates117 N 29th St, BillingsWhen you walk in to this

family-run candy shop, the smell of chocolate, caramel and other sweet scents tick-le your nose and immediate-ly your mouth begins to wa-ter. Then your eyes devour the sight before you as you are tempted with every chocolate treat you can imagine.

The Brockel family has been around for 34 years and as far as I know is the oldest candy store in Billings.

This little shop has such a homey feel to it and I know I have many fond memories going there as I grew up. It is another spot in our beloved downtown that has been a

constant over the years and I know that it holds a spe-cial place in our communi-ty’s heart. They are famous for their Billings Chocolate Mints and for their beautiful handmade Christmas bows and packaging.

All of these wonderful shops are locally owned and operated AND they all make charitable contributions to our community. From donat-ing to the Shiners Hospital to handing out cupcakes at nurs-ing homes and hospitals, not only do these places treat the taste buds, but they treat the heart; and that is the sweet-est treat of all; The Christmas Spirit!!

Your Holiday Candy Shopping List For Grandma: Candy Town USA’s assortment of vintage treats will bring Grandma back to the good old days.

For Dad: Any of Brockel’s Chocolate’s homeade delights will be sure to bring out the holiday cheer in dad.

For Mom: Tipsy Cupcake’s unique flavors will favor well with mom this year. She will especially enjoy their grass-hopper, drunken irishman and signature pink cham-pagne cupcakes after a long season of prepartion for the holidays.

For Little Sister or Brother: The variety of gummy treats sold at Candy Town USA sure beats out visions of sug-ar plums.

For Uncle Bob: Velvet Cravings Black Forest cupcakes will be sure to settle Uncle Jim’s stomach after a long weekend of eating everything out of your fridge.

QDear Tiff,I broke up with the

mother of my 5 year-old son this year and this will be the first Christmas we are not together to celebrate the holiday as a family. My son is really upset that we will not be together for Christmas this year. I would be willing to put aside my differences with my ex for the day so that we could all spend it together, but she is not willing to. How can I help my son deal with this transi-tion and make Christmas en-joyable for him again without us all spending it together?

-Sad Dad

ADear Sad Santa,I am very sor-

ry to hear about your break-up. That in itself is a very hard situation to go through. I do applaud you for your approach to this dilem-ma. I’m sure it is difficult bal-ancing your emotions while trying to put your son first.

I am not sure what caused the break-up or what the cli-mate is between you and your ex when your son is around. However, I can tell you that he is at an age where less is more. It is ok to explain to him with minimal detail that you and his mother are no longer to-

gether but that it in no way is his fault and that both of you still love him very much and are still there for him.

In addition, I would sug-gest that you attend some counseling together (you and your ex) so that you can come up with a game plan on how you are going to raise him to-gether now that you are no longer a couple. There are many counselors in town and if you can’t afford one, local churches like Faith Chapel offer free counseling. I would also recommend that you seek some counseling individually and also for your son. It is im-portant that you and you ex deal with your residual feel-ings towards each other so that your son can feel secure in this new situation. He also needs an advocate for himself. Right now, he may not be able to voice to you or his mother what he is thinking and feel-ing. If he has a person he can talk to who is trained in being

able to help him communicate, then you will be able to have greater insight.

As for specifically how to handle the holiday itself, I would recommend you and his mother come up with an agreeable compromise and then communicate the plan to your son. If children know what is going on, they feel more safe and secure. Also, it may simply take time for him to adjust. As painful as it is to see your son hurt-ing, sometimes all you can do is comfort him and even cry with him. Tears are healing; and although I’m sure you don’t want tears to be shed on Christmas, it could actual-ly create a way for you to cre-ate an even closer bond with your son.

QDear Tiff,I am an exchange

student and am finding the “holidays” here difficult. We do not celebrate Thanks-giving or Christmas where I

am from and so I am not re-ally sure what to do. I lived in the dorms the last couple of years and went home for break so I only was here for Thanksgiving and just used that extra time to study. But now I have an apartment here and am staying and working through the break. So I will be here for Christmas for the first time. I have a few invites to people’s houses, and I want to go but I don’t want them to be offended that I don’t be-lieve in or celebrate Christ-mas.

How can I participate without actually celebrating Christmas…without offend-ing anyone?

-Confused Exchange Stu-dent

ADear Confused,I think it is very

brave of you to want to step outside your comfort zone and experience holidays in a new culture.

I’m sure that the peo-

ple who have invited you know that you are not famil-iar with many Christmas tra-ditions and will be happy to explain anything you don’t understand. Also, I am sure they will be gracious if there is something you are uncom-fortable participating in.

The thing I found the most helpful it to just sit back and take everything in. Watching and listening as an observer is very acceptable. Just commu-nicate with your host.

The great thing about our country is that we are so di-verse. There are so many dif-ferent ways people celebrate this holiday. For some it is a very Spiritual Holiday, and for others, it is simply a time for family, food and fun.

So, I encourage you to en-joy the experience and simply let your friends know what you are thinking and feeling.

5

LEAH CAMPBELLEditor-in-Chief

Scanning downtown and the surrounding area shows Billings has a

rich history of enjoying re-fined culture. Though it has taken different forms - some-times in fashion, other times in architecture, music, or the arts - over the 130 years since the birth of our fair city there has been a passion for excel-lence that is in the very bed-rock of the Yellowstone Val-ley.

Entering its 18th season, The Art Walk continues this legacy. For many years art-ists and the community have been able to develop fellow-ship over fine wine and art, celebrating every medium imaginable. This year was no exception and The Art Walk will close out 2012 on December 7 with free recep-tions at 26 different locations

Billings Art Walk enters 18th seasonSERENE CREESA&E Writer

around downtown Billings. The final Art Walk of the

season will feature numer-ous protégés of artist Hec-tor Alvarado, including Allen Knows His Gun, Ben Pease, Jamie Benzel, Jason Zink, Matt Shriner, Mike Medicine Horse, Travis Delp, and Wen-dy Red Star (niece of famous artist Kevin Red Star.) Much of the art from these artists focuses on Native American culture, but there are other styles as well and these artists have used a variety of media to express their visions.

I had the opportunity and privilege to interview Mr. Al-varado and one thing that he stressed in our conversation was how imperative it is for artists “to be proficient in all mediums of art.” One can en-gage in any artistic form for pleasure or praise without

quality being the focal point; if you consider yourself an artist, it is important to know your craft and to hone your art to the best of your ability.

Hector shared that he had many teachers and professors

Free Rides to Artwalk GalleriesBus begins loop at 5:00 and 7:00 pm and ends at 9:00 pm at Good Earth Market/Wetzel park-ing lot and at Level 504 at 6:30 pm and 8:30 pm.

1. Good Earth Market - 5:00 and 7:00 ParkNRide2nd Ave and North 30thVisit Guido’s Pizzeria

2. Sandstone Gallery - 5:05 and 7:05Visit Kennedy’s Stained Glass, Amy Dean Studio, Stephen Haraden, Lore Law, Phil Bell, Catherine Louisa Gallery,Billings Gallery of Fine Arts and Gallery Inte-riors

3. Sunrise Studio & Art Gallery – 5:25 and 7:252923 Montana Avenue

4. Yellowstone Art Museum – 5:40 and 7:40401 North 27th Street

5. Log Cabin – 5:45 and 7:45Visit Navigate Art, Prodigal Gallery, Purple Sage Gallery, Harry Koyama, Toucan Gallery, susang, Jason Jam Gallery and McCormick Café

6. CTA – 5:50 and 7:5013 North 23rd StreetVisit Papa Bear Gallery

7. Billings Food Bank - 6:05 and 8:052112 4th Ave North

8. Level 504 – 6:30 and 8:30 ParkNRide504 North 20th Street

9. Q’s Art & Framing - 6:45 and 8:451511 6th Ave North

10. Alberta Bair – 6:55 and 8:55Visit Global Village, Jens Gallery, Barjon’s, MSU-B, Limber Tree Yoga

who laid this foundation of excellence in him; Ben Steele, Brian, Caste, Connie Landise, Neal Guslla, and the late Pe-ter Whitson-Warren. It is this legacy that he has passed on to his protégés.

He also encourages teach-ers at the elementary, junior high and high School levels not to hold back in prepar-ing children for artistic ex-cellence. Giving youth more advanced skills and expo-sure to museums and other art shows are investments that will yield dividends later in their lives, regardless of their end path. As William Bennet, former U.S. Secretary of Ed-ucation put it, “The arts are an essential element of edu-cation, just like reading, writ-ing, and arithmetic…music, dance, painting, and theater are all keys that unlock pro-found human understanding and accomplishment.”

I asked Hector how to be-come one of his protégés and he told me that there is now talk of creating an Art-ists Guild so that for years to come young artists can learn from those who have gone be-fore them. This will, in turn,

keep our community rich with the beautiful culture so many have cultivated over the last century.

When we participate in a night of strolling the chilly downtown streets, enjoying free wine and beautiful art, it may be a great date night or fun family time, but it is also an investment in who we, as the Billings community, are becoming, and the future of our city.

For maps and more infor-mation please visit their web-site at http://artwalkbillings.com/

here; it truly can be the smallest things that bring the biggest change. So, thank you to The Art Walk and all those involved; Small strokes truly do create the most beautiful paintings.

For maps and more infor-mation, visit their website at http://artwalkbill-ings.com/

In a time where a good night’s rest is proven to re-duce stress levels and im-

prove emotional and bodily health, I believe some health experts have overlooked an important late-night activi-ty. That activity is, none other than, late night/early morning infomercials. For me, it is re-assuring to know that Ameri-can inventors are busy at work attempting to discern and solve the real problems the world is facing today. Can-cer research and world hunger are old news but a fleece blan-ket with sleeves and upper-lip hair remover?- Pure genius! I will save you the loss of sleep and time at stores by listing off the top five best infomer-cial products advertised to-day!

5: Sauna Pants: If you’re like me and the regular old sauna is just way too hot and you’d just like to keep the heat below the waist, then Sauna Pants are perfect! Not only do they provide the experi-ence of being in a sauna from the waist down, they also are great for weight loss since they “help sweat away ex-cess weight and toxins.” Sau-na pants are also really at-tractive to wear and come in fire-retardant orange and midnight black. And why not wear them under your clothes

Top five late night infomercial products

all the time- if you’re close to an outlet, just plug in your sauna pants, set the temper-ature dial and you’re in for a soothing heat sensation.

4: Anything Tony Little advertises. A permed mul-let pony-tail, bronze, sculpt-ed biceps and a cheesy grin all defined by a sheer glaze of sweat- now I want what he’s using. Julian Michaels has nothing on Tony Little! His pure love and devotion to his products is evident in his gleaming smile and tight, spandex shorts.

3: The Slender Shaper: The Slender Shaper is a product that will appeal to many die-hard diet-pill addicts. A thick belt-like machine, that’s sem-blance borders on an over-sized fanny-pack, is strapped around the waist and BAM-

six pack! Basically, the Slen-der Shaper guarantees a “Hot Bod” without dieting, exer-cise or any real physical ex-ertion. This amazing belt de-fies all laws of weight-loss physics by simply “melting away the pounds” and builds strong, ab muscles by “mas-saging” the area.

2: Snuggie: You saw this coming! I must admit, the Snuggie is pretty inventive. Light-weight with sleeves and a zipper, I really see no rea-son in wearing clothes at all! A Snuggie will suffice. And with the wide array of pat-terns and colors, like leop-ard, midnight blue and even a Harry Potter Snuggie, it’s sure to fit whatever mood you are in. There’s even a Snug-gie for dogs- because I imag-ine Fido gets pretty sick and

tired of answer the phone in his sleeve-less blanket, too!

1: Chia Pet: The Chia Pet will forever be the best info-mercial product and it’s get-ting harder to find, which means it could be worth something someday. The Chia Pet really holds its own as the number one, best info-mercial product for its simple beauty and creative shapes. From a Hippo Chia to a Ju-lius Caesar head Chia, the Chia Pet is an American fa-vorite and reminder of our rich culture. Though we tear down lush forest land for pa-per and are continually con-suming plastic products like it’s going out of style, Amer-ica’s enduring attention to en-vironmental awareness is ev-ident in its attention and love for the Chia Pet.

6

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

11

3130

15

16

1410

22

1 2

20

December- January 2012

13

23 24 25 29

129

8

26 27

7

21

28

SUDOKU

17 18 19

3 4

Residence Halls Close

5

FINAL EXAM WEEK

Final Day to With-draw from Fall 2012

(all classes, no refund)Semester Ends

Pancake Breakfast Rimrock Café 9-11pm

Sale Campus Store 12:12pm

Women’s Basket-ball vs. South Dako-ta Mines Men’s Bas-ketball vs. South Da-kota Mines 7:30 pm

Service Saturday 9:30 am Atrium

Men's Basketball vs. Alumni 2:00

pm

MSUB Men’s Bas-ketball vs Rocky

@ 7:30pmRHA Study

Buck Auction

Study Study Study

Issue 6 of The Retort is

Out!

Women’s Bas-ketball vs. Rocky Mountain College Men’s Basketball

vs. Rocky 7:30 pm

Women vs. UM-Western (Exhibition Game) Men’s Bas-

ketball vs. Montana Western 7:30 pm

Christmas EveChristmas Day

MSUB Men’s Bas-ketball vs Dicken-son State @ 7pm

Flowers From Her Holiday Reunion

Show @ 8pm: Rai-lyard Ale House

ZooLights at Zoo Montana 5pm-9 $5/car

Scour the store aisles for those

last minute gifts!

Projectile Comedy @ 8pm: NV Club $6

Tunes 4 Tues-day Open Mic @ 4pm-8: Yellow-

stone Valley Brew

MSU Billings Mens Basketball vs Seat-tle Pacific @ 7pm

MSUB Men’s Bas-ketball vs West-

ern Oregon @ 7pmJam at the YAM @

5pm-8 : Yellow-stone Art Museum

Laugh Juras-soff Open Mic

Comedy @ 8pm : Bones Brew Pub

MSU Billings Bas-ketball vs Universi-ty of Alaska @ 7pm

Billings Bulls Hock-ey @ 7:35pm: Cen-tennial Ice Arena

National Lemon Cupcake Day

New Years EveNew Years Day

Holiday Horoscopes

Hanukkah: Dec. 9-16

ARIES: Mar 20-Apr 19

in attending the countless holiday parties that bombard your calendar every December. Drinking at these holi-day parties will help you feel more comfortable and al-low you to discover the holiday spirit- but, unfortunate-ly you will not remember what it is or where it came from in the morning.

Pisces: Feb 18-mar19

Taurus: Apr 20-may 19

Libra: Sept 22-oct 22

Chinese finger trap: With relatives in town, you tend to get moody sitting around engaging in endless

small-talk about the weather, your life plan and why you never visit them. The Chi-nese finger trap is the perfect gift for you because it will keep you mindless-ly entertained for hours and can be eas-ily hidden in the front pocket of a snow-flake embroidered sweater.

Yodeling Lessons: Your skiing plans this December will only be enhanced

by this new, exotic talent.Aqua r ius: Jan 20-Feb 17

Flashing, colored antler headband:

Capricorn: Dec 22-Jan 19A white beard: People are often distrustful of you and you find this very annoying. This sea-son, invest in a white beard, real or fake. This new adornment to your attire will have people accepting, without question, anything and ev-erything you say.

Sagittarius: Nov 22-dec 21A Chess Board: You are not very good at playing chess but you have an in-nate ability to balance odd objects on your nose this month as Saturn is in retrograde. Show off your amazing skills at the next work get-together and dazzle your boss and co-workers. Scorpio: Oct 23-Nov 21A Pet Rock: The holiday season sometimes leaves you feeling out of place and lonely. A pet rock that you can decorate with glitter, tin foil and other assorted craft items is just the thing to brighten your mood. Plus, your pet rock will never flake out on you or give you dirty looks (unless you draw a frowny face on it.)

Fruit Cake: In a lot of ways, you are a lot like the holidy fruit cake. This is the perfect gift for you and the thick, seasoned frosting, of which you will gracefully peel off and devour in just under thirty seconds, will give you the best sugar rush of the season.

Virgo: aug 23-sept 21A fire extinguisher: Mars, the fire planet, is in your fa-vor this month. This means you have a weird obsession with the smell of freshly-lit matches and campfires. A fire extinguisher will come in handy this season when you attempt to cook.

Gemini: may 20-jun 20A fake mustache. Born under the sign of the “twins,” you often have two facets to your personality which makes it difficult for those around you to predict your mood. A fake mustache placed firmly on the upper lip will help them differentiate between your “Dr.Jekyll” and “Mr.Hyde” tendencies.

leo: jul 22-aug 22A neon fanny pack: They may not be in style anymore but you’re just the person to bring them back! Invest your savings in outfits to match your fanny pack. You also have great potential to make the mullet cool again.

A beverage. A hermit at heart, you find great anxiety cancer: jun 21-jul 21

A new pair of shoes: Yet again, the luckiest part of your body proves to be the delicate arch of your feet. A good pair of kicks will keep your feet in tip-top shape for a relaxing mas-sage from a significant other or a distant relative. Your lucky items this month: The yule-log, any-thing made of brown Corduroy, and blueberries.

The Retort’s one and only horoscope writer is back after a year on haitus in Fiji watching dolphins and later to the Swiss Alps where she claims the infamous Chupacabra has claimed its nesting grounds. For The Retort’s holiday issue, she agreed to grace Retort readers with some horoscopes. Below are items each zodiac sign REALLY desires as a gift this holiday season.

This is the gift for you this holiday season. You will really be feeling lucky at the next holiday party wear-ing this hot com-

midity and the flash of light every two to

three seconds will be sure to catch everyone’s

attention in the best way!

7

CLASSIFIED SECTION

Comic courtesy of www.XKCD.com

Want to get rid

of some old

books? Post

them here.

2006 Honda Civic Hybrid 4dr, Automatic, 2WD, A/C, CD, 70K miles, Great mileage! $12000 Ask for Bailey 406-652-3314

2006 Honda Civic Hybrid for Sale

Welcome to the new Classified Section of The Retort! At this time, we are accepting classified ads to be published both online and in print for FREE!

Guidlines: Provide a heading (no more than 6 words)Provide a write-up of what you are advertising (maximum of 40 words)Provide contact info to include person of contact, email, phone number, or website for further in-

formationIf you would not like to include your name or contact info in the ad, we require that you submit one

for our records but that will not be published.Review your ad carefully before submission.(Due to space limitations, we can not guarantee that your ad will be in the printed version of The

Retort but all classified ads will be placed online. For $5.00 per ad, you can reserve a space in the print version.

Please direct questions about Classifieds to msubretort@gmail.com

MSUB students take steps to save livesMSU BILLINGSNEWS SERVICES

Photos by MSUB News Services

Capricorn: Dec 22-Jan 19

With signature and a quick swab of her cheek, Jenna Sz-

ramoski took the first step to saving a life on Tuesday.

The Montana State Uni-versity Billings junior doesn’t immediately look like a the stereotypical superhero, but a few minutes at a bone mar-row drive at the university took her and some fellow stu-dents a step closer to saving someone with blood cancers or life-threatening diseases.

Szramoski, a criminal jus-tice major from Connecti-cut, was one of 86 students, faculty, staff and communi-ty members who registered to be bone marrow donors as a part of the Be The Match pro-gram. Be The Match operates the world’s largest listing of potential marrow donors and donated cord blood units to help provide transplants to patients who have blood can-cers like leukemia and lym-phoma, sickle cell and other

PHOTOS ABOVE: Jenna Szramoski, a junior crimi-nal justice major at MSU Billings, completes docu-mentation for the bone marrow registry at a drive at the Student Union Building on Nov. 27. The drive was coordinated as a service project by students in the nursing program at City College at MSU Bill-ings and through the Office for Community Involve-ment. Nearly 90 students, faculty staff and commu-nity members took the time to complete the paper-work and do a simple cheek swab to collect DNA and become a part of the international Be The Match da-tabase. Below, nursing students Sarah Krebs, left above, and Holly Kindsfather were among those who helped fellow students get registered by gath-ering the cheek swabs.

life-threatening diseases.“I had given blood before

and wanted to do something that would help save a life,” Szramoski said.

The registration process was handled by six nursing students from City College (formerly the College of Tech-nology) as part of as service learning project for their man-agement class and coordinat-ed by the MSU Billings Office for Community Involvement. The students were on hand at the Student Union Building from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to help with paperwork and gathered DNA swabs from the inside of the cheeks of those who reg-istered for the Be The Match database.

Szramoski’s process took about five minutes from pa-perwork to mouth swab. Her information is now in a worldwide database that will be tapped when patients need lifesaving marrow transplant. If she is matched to a patient

in the future, she will be con-tacted for further tests and possible donation.

Sarah Krebs and Hol-ly Kindsfather, two nursing students gathered the swab samples, worked to encour-age passers-by to register, but also signed up themselves.

“I think the more people can do to make a difference, the better,” said Kindsfather.

Among those in attendance at the drive a local girl whose life was saved by a bone mar-row transplant and her grand-mother who has walked across the country to raise awareness for the life-saving process.

The grandmother, Jeana Moore, lives in Spokane and became a bone marrow trans-plant evangelist when her 5-year-old granddaughter was born with acute myeloid leu-kemia in 2007 and nearly died. The little girl, Jada Bascom, who now lives in Billings with her parents, had to un-dergo rounds of chemother-

apy and many blood transfu-sions just to keep her alive.

The key to saving her life, however, was a bone mar-row transplant. Nobody in the U.S. was a match, but a man in Germany provided the match that saved young Jada’s life. As a gesture of gratitude, Moore has walked across the United States and parts of Eu-rope to raise awareness and bone marrow registrations. She even arranged for the do-nor, Torsten Huber, to come to the United States and meet Jada. All three were at the university on Tuesday to en-courage others to sign up for the Be The Match registry.

For more information on service learning done by stu-dents through the Office for Community Involvement, contact Jenny Randall at 896-5827 or by e-mail at jenni-fer.randall@msubillings.edu. For more information on the Be The Match program, go to http://marrow.org/.

You can make a difference! Shop Fair Trade. Help build a more peaceful world through

economic justice.

Bring in this ad and receive a 20% discount on any one item through Dec 31, 2012 (one discount per person)

Open 10-5:30 Mon.-Fri., 10-5 on Sat.

jewelry, clothing, bags, musical instruments,

Christmas gifts—all affordable—all Fair Trade

www.globalvillagebillings.org like us on facebook

8

PAULINA CARRILLO Columnist

Co-ed bathrooms on college campuses: a good idea?

Conservatives: We’re not all that bad

Looks like I have a nem-esis in Ayn Onymous. I was surprised by his/

her inability to accept criti-cism, but not really. And now the tension has spilled over to my personal Facebook page as well. I won’t bore you with the details, but now he/ she knows who I am, yet he/she is still hiding behind the mask of anonymity. That doesn’t seem fair, now does it? It’s easy to smirk and jab behind a computer, or write under a pseudonym. It’s not easy to publicly bare your opinion as I have done.

I feel I should also clarify to everyone that I don’t con-sider myself a Republican. I work with Republicans and how I ended up doing that was based on strategy for person-al reasons. I’m certainly con-servative; I could be consid-ered a Libertarian, or, to get more radical, an anarcho-cap-italist. But even those labels fail to characterize all my be-liefs. I’m somewhat of a polit-ical outcast. I’m no stranger to personal attacks for having different views. I get verbally admonished from both sides frequently. I’m used to it and usually enjoy a good debate. I don’t want to fight. My prob-lem with Ayn Onymous’s col-umn is that it is merely an ex-tension of his/her ego. I would much rather see a conserva-tive column used as a teaching

KENDRA CARTERContributing Writer

tool or a sounding board on policy, philosophy and princi-ples. This can all be done very easily without attacking any-one…except statists.

So what do I believe in? Primarily: constitutionally restrained government, self-ownership, private proper-ty, free markets and volun-tary interaction with others. I am against the use of force against any individual, un-less their life or property is at stake. This includes taxes; tax is a method of force used to obtain the products of your la-bor which no one should be en-titled to unless the individual willingly allows. I do not be-lieve in collectivism, which is classifying any group of peo-ple by a characteristic. This includes sex, race, sexual ori-entation or religious beliefs. All individuals are entitled to the same rights as everyone else. No group deserves spe-cial rights, because liberty is universal to ALL people. I bet some of you are surprised to hear such things coming from a conservative. We’re not all that bad.

I would like to expand more on the above topics, or speak about others, but time and space are an issue. If The Retort and its readers would like to hear more, I will glad-ly oblige. It will prove to be a refreshing departure from the negativity of Ayn Onymous.

Sharing bathrooms is something we all do. Sharing a bathroom

happens at home, the mall, restaurants, truck stops, and almost everywhere else you can imagine. Normally, this kind of sharing occurs be-tween individuals of the same sex, unless you live with family member of the oppo-site gender.

But, what about those col-lege campuses that have co-ed bathrooms? Because shar-ing public bathrooms with members of the opposite sex is not something we are all normally used to, does this rule make these colleges mor-ally wrong? In my point of view, I don’t really care. As long as there are doors or cur-tains, everything should be fine.

Campuses with co-ed re-strooms and showers in-clude M.I.T, UC Berkley, and Green Mountain College. As I was reading through mes-sage boards and articles stat-ing the opinions of some of the students of these colleges, I found that most of them had positive feelings about co-ed bathrooms. For example, one student whose university had co-ed bathrooms stated

that “it just wasn’t a big deal. No one walked around naked, and no one ever saw anything. It was a little awkward for the first couple of days, but then everyone got used to it. It defi-nitely freaked out our parents, though.”

The question for those of you who live in the dorms is, would you be for or against having co-ed restrooms and showers at MSUB?

Jon Biegel, an MSUB Ac-counting major shared his opinion with us, stating,

“There should not be co-ed bathrooms on campus sim-ply because no one would use them, both sexes like their privacy, and because it in-creases the potential of sexual assaults on females.”

MSUB international stu-dent Asif Iqbal stated, “I think co-ed bathrooms on campus is a bad idea. I don’t think I would feel comfortable using the toilet when there is a girl in the stall right next to me. I would personally avoid a co-ed restroom.”

Mandy Warren, English major at MSUB, answered, “I feel it’s a bad idea. College is stressful as is when you’re a freshman, and worrying about who is in the stall next

to you shouldn’t be an addi-tion. Plus, I’m not sure how I feel about washing my hands next to a urinal.”

I guess it depends on the opinion of the campus as a

whole. If the students agree that sharing restrooms or bathrooms in such a way is fine, then go ahead and al-low it. Some campuses have a rule that requires all the floors from each dorm to hold

There are countless ways to die, some common, and some

a little more extraordinary. Here are five examples of some of the more bizarre ways people have made their final exit.

Cactus plugging is the il-legal act of shooting a sa-guaro cactus until parts of it fall off. While in the des-ert with his roommate, Da-vid Grundman suggested they start shooting at cacti. Taking aim at a century old cactus that stood 26 feet tall, Grundman fired the shot that brought down a four foot-long arm of the cactus, kill-ing him on the spot.

Lawnmowers can be more lethal than they look.

Bizarre ways to diePAULINA CARRILLOColumnist

Wesley Jarmin’s girlfriend arrived at their Missouri home to find him stuck un-derneath of his lawnmower. While the paramedics made a futile attempt to revive him, officials determined that Jar-min was attempting to push his lawnmower up a steep hill before gravity delivered a deadly blow.

Australia: the land of Crocodile Dundee, shrimp on the bar-bee and...horny camels? Instead of a nice pants suit, one woman re-ceived a camel as a 60th birthday present. The ten month-old male, not educat-ed about proper party pro-tocol, knocked the birth-day girl down and stomped on her head. Camel expert

Chris Hill suspects that the camel was trying to have sex with the woman.

Although sheep are known to be so fluffy and peaceful that they’re often called upon to induce sleep, they have a much deadlier side. In 1999, a woman packed up a bale of hay onto her motorcycle and drove out toward her seem-ingly serene flock of sheep to offer them a nice lunch. Upon spotting their meal, the hungry mob ran toward the woman in a fleecy frenzy and drove the hay-on-wheels right off the edge of a 100-foot cliff.

Although no Jaws equiv-alent has been made about these killers, vending ma-chines are actually deadlier than sharks. A Quebec stu-dent became angry with a soda machine and engaged in

physical battle, attempting to shake the machine until it spit out its wares. In a total TKO, the soda machine tipped over onto the man, crushing him to death with its weight. To add insult to injury, the toppled soda machine still refused to eject any free beverages.

Paranoia about death is usually caused by not know-ing when the Grim Reaper will come for us; but clearly, the “how” should be just as, if not more, anxiety-inducing than the “when.”

Do you have an Opinion? Of course you do! Do want to get paid for it? Of course you do! The Retort is now accepting ap-plications for the Opinion Writ-er position. Pick up an appli-cation on The Retort door, SUB room 220 or shoot us an email at msubretort@gmail.com for more info!

I’m not sure how I would feel about washing my

hands next to a urinal.

-Mandy Warren

a meeting where all of the stu-dent residents will vote anon-ymously on having co-ed bathrooms. Under this rule, it only takes one student vote to prohibit the use of co-ed bath-

rooms. For example, if all but one student vote yes on shar-ing showers and toilets, then co-ed restrooms will not be allowed. If you ask me, that is probably the best way for a college to handle this.

9

CHRIS CLAUSOnline Editor

HOLLY DANIELSContributing Writer

PAULINA CARRILLO Columnist

Black friday: A sUper fun Experience

Hunting for great buys late on Thanksgiv-ing night or early the

morning after has become an American tradition, known by many as Black Friday. Per-sonally, I love Black Friday. It is a fun experience, the sales can be really great, and it is even fun to just watch the people go crazy. Needless to say, Black Friday can also be used as an excuse to spend a lot of money on clothes or whatever it is that you want without feeling guilty.

Although I love Black Fri-day even when I am broke, many people believe that the idea of Black Friday is start-ing to take away from the Thanksgiving holiday. My ar-

gument to these people is, so what? Seriously, if you do not like the whole idea of shop-ping at 8pm on Thursday, then simply do not go out at that time. No one is forcing you to take part in Black Friday. If people want to be consumers and throw their money away on stuff they probably don’t even need, then let them.

Although Black Friday does begin earlier each year, it doesn’t really intervene with the Thanksgiving day itself. In fact, it acts as an addition to it. Who said that Thanks-giving must consist only of being at home with the fami-ly and stuffing your face with turkey? Nobody. To extend

Tobacco free: For a safer environment,

or infringement of rights?

The tobacco ban that went into effect this August was no sur-

prise to returning students. We heard about it for most of the previous year. First, there was that ridiculous “open fo-rum” that was only quietly ad-vertised enough to say it was advertised, then there were the surveys, the signs, and, if memory serves, there was even a letter sent out.

A smoke-free environment sounds like a lofty goal. Even when I used to smoke (up to two packs a day for around 10 years), I didn’t like breathing someone else’s smoke. I will concede that there are indeed health concerns associated with both smoking and sec-ondhand smoke, and that the school grounds have looked better than ever without cig-arette butts littering the place. But, none of that is at the heart of the issue, is it?

According to the tobacco-free campus policy, “Tobac-

co is defined as all tobacco-derived or containing prod-ucts, including, but not lim-ited to, cigarettes (clove, bi-dis, kreteks), cigars and cig-arillos, hookah-smoked prod-ucts, and oral tobacco (spit and spitless, smokeless, chew, snuff). Additionally, any nic-otine delivery device that has not been approved by the FDA for cessation is included in this policy.

Since when does the use of snuff or e-cigs affect the

health of anyone but their us-ers, expose anyone else to sec-ondhand smoke, or cause lit-ter? Survey says: They don’t! This ban is not, in whole, about creating a healthy envi-ronment for all of MSUB stu-dents; if it were, I wouldn’t have a problem with it. As it stands, all you are doing is bullying the minority of MSUB students that are ad-dicted to nicotine. Once the majority starts forcing their views on the minority, when it comes to something that has absolutely no effect on the majority, you go from try-ing to make this a better place, to being a totalitarian regime.

As it stands right now, you can go in your dorm room, and drink yourself into obliv-ion (Part VIII Sec. A(2) Stu-dent Handbook), as long as you’re over 21, but you can’t enjoy an electronic cigarette, which releases nothing but harmless water vapor into the air.

Does that seem right to you?

With the amount of complaining that goes on about friv-

olous spending and increased budget requests, you would think that ASMSUB would be the last organization on cam-pus to spend money on unnec-essary uses. Sadly, that is not the case.

Instead of using their funding to do something that benefits the students of MSUB, they seem to think that ASMSUB branded polo shirts would be a good pur-

Black friday: The most disturbing time of the year

For some reason Black Friday has become the traditional time of year

to skip dinner with your fam-ily and friends in order to stand in line in the freezing cold, risk death and dismem-berment, and spend money you don't have all in the name of having some piece of junk that will be obsolete in a year. Since the junk that people buy this year will be obsolete, broken, or worn out by next Black Friday, they will have an excuse to go out and do it all over again. So why do we subject ourselves to this tor-ture?

Black Friday has been hailed by the media as the busiest shopping day of the year. In a self perpetuat-ing cycle, retailers then offer sales to get more shoppers to come it, which makes it busi-er, which means the media re-ports on how busy it is, and so on and so on. Many retailers report record sales on Black Friday and now online retail-ers are beginning to get in on the sales with “Cyber Mon-day.” It used to be that the day after Thanksgiving was busy for shoppers, Thanks-giving does give a convenient reminder that Christmas is just around the corner, but now Black Friday has turned into mobs of people clamor-ing over televisions and game

consoles which are apparent-ly in short supply on one day out of the year. Shops have become so eager for these mad shoppers to spend all of their money at their store that they started opening up earli-er and earlier. First it was 6:00 am but then they noticed that people were lining up out-side the door before then, so they started opening at 5:00 or 4:00. Last year many of the big box retailers decided to open at midnight on Thanks-giving. This year was even worse, many retailers were opening the night of Thanks-giving and staying open all night with door buster sales and limited quantity items and trampled customers.

The problem is that all of this is nothing but blind con-sumerism. People are taking time away from their fami-lies and forcing the employes to take time from their fami-lies just so they can save a lit-tle money on something they don't even need. Every year people are injured or even killed by mobs of people all clamoring over the same mer-chandise. This year two peo-ple were shot after arguing over a parking spot. That's right, Black Friday has be-come so known for violence that people are now bringing guns to shop with them. So what do consumers really get

out of Black Friday? Sure you might get a great deal on a TV or a new WiiU, but is that what you want your family to remember when they think of the Holiday season?

Would it not be better to find gifts for people that are actually meaningful in-stead of mass produced junk? Maybe instead of skipping Thanksgiving dinner to get a cheap tablet computer, people should bake special cookies, or make ornaments that have a special message, or go to a craft fair and find something individual for each person. Maybe instead of giving gifts you could make a donation to a charity in a loved one's name. Think to yourself be-fore buying something, “Does this person really need a new pair of $20 headphones? Are they even going to remember who gave them these?”

There were several peo-ple missing from my Thanks-giving festivities this year be-cause they either had to work the sales or they were waiting in line for those same sales. Wouldn't it be better to stay home and spend quality time with those you love? If peo-ple would just stop showing up for Black Friday door bust-er sales, retailers would stop doing them. That way you get to stay home with your family and the employees get to have the Holiday off of work, like it should be.

the Thanksgiving celebra-tion, some people go out with their family members to take advantage of the sales. After all, isn’t spending time with your family and being grate-ful for everything the whole point of Thanksgiving? You can still do that while shop-ping, or, like most people, you can just do that before Black Friday starts.

Of course, there will al-ways be people who are against extreme consumerism and Black Friday. All i can say is too bad for them. Like it or not, Black Friday will be an event that will keep happen-ing every year, so might as well start accepting it. Who knows, maybe you love it af-ter actually experiencing it!

chase. What’s even worse, the ASMSUB Vice President, Nik Wong, was unhappy with how the polos turned out and is now spending more time and resources sending them back and having them redesigned. Is the ASMSUB going to just eat the approximately $700 it spent on the first batch of shirts? They might be able to get some of it back, but how much are they flushing down the drain all because some-body with too much “SWAG” wasn’t happy with them?

Branded Polo Shirts a good use of student fees? I think not!

What’s next? Different po-los for the executive offic-es versus the senators? Do the members of the financial board get their own polos? What about the publications board?

Where does this spending frenzy end? Will they be buy-ing their lobbyist a Gucci suit next or a flat screen television and subscription to Sports Center for the president?

I demand a complete au-dit into the spending habits of ASMSUB and its officers, but I’d also settle for a brand-ed polo of my own, preferably in an off-shade of navy blue.

CHRIS CLAUSOnline Editor

10

MSU BILLINGSMSUB Athletics

Women’s Basketball Open GNAC PlayCrayton Leads Yellowjacket Men’s Basketball to Win in Hawaii

MSU BILLINGSMSUB Athletics

Photo by MSUB Media RelationsThe Montana State Uni-versity Billings' men's basketball team picked

up a 67-61 win over Western New Mexico University in the opening game of the Naniloa Volcanoes Resort Thanksgiv-ing Tournament Monday.

The Yellowjackets (2-1) were led by Jarrell Crayton's game-high 19 points. The se-nior finished 7-for-13 from the field. David Arnold add-ed 10 points for MSUB. Rob-by Trabing and Cameron Cus-worth combined for 16 re-bounds, with both grabbing eight. The GNAC-leader in assists, Kalob Hatcher, dished out a game-high five assists.

Montana State Billings was outshot, as WNMU fin-ished 39.2 percent from the field, while the Yellowjackets were 39 percent. MSU Bill-ings had a 38-37 rebound ad-vantage. MSUB made its last field goal with 2:59 left in regulation, but hit key free throws in the final minutes. Hatcher finished 6-for-6 from the free-throw line.

The Mustangs held MSU Billings to 22 percent shoot-ing from behind the perim-eter. WNMU made six of its 20 three-point attempts. As a team, MSUB made 15 of its

24 free-throw attempts, com-pared to the Western New Mexico's 15-for-20. The Mus-tangs also had a slim 10-8 as-sist advantage. Montana State Billings committed a season-high 19 turnovers, but forced 25 WNMU turnovers.

“I'm proud of how our guys fought in the second half,” MSUB head coach Ja-mie Stevens said. “It was just one of those games where we couldn't make shots. Our de-fense kept us in the game, and probably won it for us. With our style of basketball, if we don't make shots, it's diffi-cult to win. Maybe it was the nine hours of traveling yes-terday that caused us to be so cold, but we don't make ex-cuses. We just have to go out and play.”

Western New Mexico jumped out to a 12-5 lead to open the game. MSU Billings answered with an 11-2 run over the next four minutes to take a 16-14 lead. With the Yellowjackets leading 22-17 with 8:22 left in the first half, the Mustangs had their own run ready, coming back with a 6-0 spurt with Ryan Crane starting the rally with a jump-er. After the teams tied at 27

at the 4:43 mark of the first half, WNMU dominated the rest of the half, and took a 34-28 lead into halftime. T

The Mustangs started the second half on a 7-4 run, in-cluding a 5-0 stretch, to give WNMU their largest lead, 39-30 with 18:31 to go in the game. Trailing 41-32, the Yel-lowjackets scored the next nine points to tie the game at 41. MSUB continued its mo-mentum and took a 47-44 lead with 10:49 remaining in reg-ulation.

The game's seventh and fi-nal tie, 53-53, came at the 6:27 mark of the second half. Montana State Billings slow-ly pulled away in the final six minutes, making a decisive 12-5 run in the final six min-utes.

Western New Mexico was led by Juan Suarez and Brelan Berry. Both finished with 13 points. Andy Sohlich added 12 points for the Mustangs (0-2). Chad Carter had a game-high nine rebounds. Mer-le Branch threw five assists. WNMU led by as many as nine points just into the sec-ond half.

After winning the 2012 Yellowjack-et Classic, the Mon-

tana State Billings women's basketball team is geared up and ready to enter their Great Northwest Athletic Confer-ence schedule this weekend. The Yellowjackets will host Central Washington Univer-sity and Northwest Nazarene University on Thursday and Saturday.

MSUB is currently 4-2 overall and on a two game winning streak. This past weekend the Jackets defeat-ed Dixie State College of Utah 91-87 in a highly com-petitive bout that went into overtime on Friday, Nov. 23. Junior guard Bobbi Knud-sen scored a career high 33 points to go along with eight rebounds, five assists and three steals.

Following their game against the Red Storm, the Jackets put together a dom-inating performance Satur-day, Nov. 24 against Notre Dame de Namur Universi-ty, where MSUB won 80-44. Senior guard Brooke Tolman shot the ball well from out-side, leading all scorers with 19 points.

Knudsen, Kayleen Gog-gins and Tolman all received all-tournament honors for their efforts in the Yellow-jacket Classic. Colorado State University-Pueblo's Ericka Hicks, Dixie State's Johnna Brown, and Notre Dame's Charnisha Bradley had solid outings over the weekend also earning all-tournament selections.

Scoring 44 total points en route to helping MSUB cap-ture two victories; Knud-sen was awarded the tour-nament's most valuable play-er award, and the Red Lion GNAC Player-of-the-Week. She currently leads all scor-ers in the conference with a 19.0 per game average.

Photo by MSUB Media Relations

Knudsen also leads the team in assists with 35, and is tied for the lead in steals with 13.

All of the Yellowjackets' starters average eight or more points per game, with Gog-gins and Quinn Peoples av-eraging 12.3 and 11.5 respec-tively. Janiel Olson continues to remain a force on the class, leading the team with 43 re-bounds.

Sophomore guard Annie DePuydt has provided quality depth in the back court, com-ing off the bench to average 6.5 points and 3.8 rebounds per game.

MSUB has slightly out-rebound their opposition this season, grabbing 37.8 per game compared to their oppo-nents' 36.8. The Jackets have been tenacious on defense, with a total of 63 steals and forcing teams into 19.3 turn-overs per game.

Central Washington comes into the Magic City with a 3-2 overall record, losing their most recent two contests. One of their losses came at the hands of Metropolitan State University of Denver, who was ranked No. 24 in the Nov. 20 USA Today Sports Divi-sion II Top 25 national poll.

The Wildcats have a bal-anced scoring attack with five players averaging seven or more points. Ally Schmitt leads the team in scoring, tal-lying 15.2 per game, and as-sists with 20 on the season. She also has 27 rebounds, one away from Amber Moser and Jessica VanDyke who are tied for the team lead.

Central Washington was projected to finish seventh in the GNAC this year, so they will be inspired to come away with a road victory and end their two game losing streak. The Yellowjackets and Wild-cats will square off on Thurs-day, Nov. 29 at 7:00 p.m.

After competing with Cen-

tral Washington, MSUB will compete against Northwest Nazarene on Saturday, Dec. 1 at 7:00 p.m. Northwest Naz-arene is a very talented team, that were picked to finish sixth in the preseason coach-es' poll. The Crusaders are off to a hot 5-0 start with their last victory coming over Met-ropolitan State on Nov. 24.

In the Nov. 27 USA Today Sports Division II Top nation-al poll, Northwest Nazarene received eight votes for con-sideration of being ranked. The Crusaders are also play-ing well on the road with three of their victories com-ing on their opponent's site.

MSUB will have a chal-lenge in the backcourt, the Crusaders' junior guards Me-gan Hingston and Luke Chel-sie average 16.0 and 15.6 points per game respectively. Hingston also leads the team in rebounding with an 8.4 per game average.

As a team, Northwest Naz-arene averages 70.2 points per game with a .404 shoot-ing percentage. On the glass they average 47.4 rebounds, and are active defensively av-eraging 6.8 steals per game. One area the Yellowjackets will look to take advantage of is turnovers, as the Crusaders average 17.6 per contest.

“It will be a great challenge for our team to open GNAC play against Central Wash-ington and Northwest Naza-rene,” stated head coach Kev-in Woodin. “Both teams are off to great starts this year and have very athletic and talented teams. We will need to execute on both ends of the floor in order to come out on top.”

If Yellowjacket fans are unable to attend these events they can catch all of the ac-tion live through our web streaming link listed above.

Fans Can Now Interact With Yellowjacket BasketballMSU BILLINGSMSUB Athletics

Montana State University Billings' women's and men's basketball fans can now inter-act with home broadcasts during the game.

If you have a question or comment during a Yellowjacket home contest, you can now e-mail the “Live at the Hive” broadcast team of Jeff Rosenberry and Jacob Letman and your question or comment will be shared during the game.

“This is a great way for fans to get involved in the game,” Rosenberry said. “We love broad-casting the games, but we have always felt the fans could get involved more. We encourage MSUB fans to get involved with this.”

E-mails can be sent at anytime, and Rosenberry and Letman will field the e-mails during the games.

Please send all e-mails to gamenight@msubillings.edu

11

CORY LOVECSports Writer

CORY LOVECSports Writer

Twitter in sports

In what may have been one of the more surpris-ing moves in the NBA,

the Los Angeles Lakers fired head coach Mike Brown only five games into the season. He was said to have been the

“wrong fit” for the team, and thus a different coach who could handle the superstar-filled Lakers roster would do much better. The obvious choice for new head coach?

“Phil Jackson!” the Laker Na-tion screamed. And as inevi-table as that seemed, the Lak-ers passed up on their former head coach and Hall-of-Fam-er to instead go with histori-

The sporting world is changing before our eyes. Technology, par-

ticularly social media, has made professional athletes, coaches, and owners more in touch with their fans than ever before. Twitter, Face-book, Skype, and other social media websites have provided an outlet for professional ath-letes to voice their opinions on certain topics - everything from the Presidential elec-tion to their thoughts on other athletes. The increased popu-larity of Twitter in the sport-ing world is apparent when searching “Twitter in sports” on Google, which produces 2.89 billion results. Converse-ly, searching “Barack Obama” will result in only 949 million results.

Twitter was launched July 15, 2006. In the six short years since its inception, it has be-come a worldwide phenome-non. SportsCenter on ESPN can’t go longer than a few minutes without referencing a hash tag or reading an ath-lete’s tweet. (Sidebar, Twitter has become so popular that just recently a couple named their child “Hashtag!”) In-stant access to the internet and a way to instantaneous-ly voice opinions combined with the sometimes question-able decision-making of many athletes has allowed for some has made for much back-tracking and “insert foot into mouth” moments because of

Twitter. The problem? Once a comment is in cyberspace, it’s never really gone. Also, as NBA All-Star Baron Davis (@barondavis) said, “It’s all you, so there’s not manipulat-ing the message.” Davis is a proponent of Twitter because he feels like there can be a stronger connection between he and his fans, and that the

“real” Baron Davis can voice his opinion without the media filtering what they want the world to see.

So how is Twitter affect-ing sports? Well for one thing, it changes how fans view sports. A recent study showed that 83% of sports fans mon-itor social media sites while watching games on TV, and 63% do so while watching live events. More than 9,400 people per second tweet-ed about Tim Tebow after he threw the overtime touch-down pass to knock out the Steelers in last season’s NFL Playoffs. Jeremy Lin gained more than 550,000 followers in a single month while tak-ing the NBA by storm just last year (the “Linsanity” craze). The sheer statistics involving Twitter are amazing. Cristia-no Ronaldo (winger for Read Madrid soccer) is the most-followed athlete on Twitter, with roughly 14.7 million fol-lowers. Real Madrid midfield-er Kaka is next in line, with roughly 15.5 million fol-lowers, followed by Lebron James with 6.6 million fol-

lowers. The world is watching. So is Twitter good for

sports? Well, it does allow for an increased fan-athlete expe-rience, and even allows some other figures (owners, manag-ers, etc.) who may not get as much notoriety as the players an opportunity to voice their opinions as well. One of the downfalls? Twitter has been involved in many famous

“sporting quarrels” between athletes, and has also been in a state of constant regulation; teams (and leagues in gen-eral) have set rules for when athletes can tweet, prompted by what may be the most fa-mous Twitter-related incident in which NBA player Char-lie Villanueva tweeted at the halftime of his own basket-ball game, referencing things the coach said to the team and what he himself need-ed to do better. So, is Twitter good for sports? The answer: it depends on your perspec-tive. Older people and more traditional fans have become annoyed and frustrated with this increased usage of it, not only by the athletes but by the networks (i.e. ESPN) as well. However, with the popular-ity of Twitter, it is not going anywhere, so whether or not Twitter is “good” for sports or not becomes a moot point. Twitter is here to stay.

Perfect Season in Sight: Notre Dame Football 2012-2013CORY LOVECSports Writer

Located in South Bend, Indiana, Notre Dame is an independent

football program that com-petes at the NCAA Foot-ball Bowl Subdivision. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have had a rich tradition of winning football, including 13 national championships - second to Alabama out of all FBS schools post-1900 and third all-time behind Princ-eton and Yale. Notre Dame has also had a record seven different Heisman Trophy recipients, along with a re-cord 96 consensus All-Amer-icans, and 32 unanimous All-Americans. Notre Dame has also done well sending their players into the NFL, in which there are 10 Notre Dame alumni who have been elected to the Hall of Fame - most notably Joe Montana - and 56 former alum who are currently playing. Yes, Notre Dame has been a very good football program to say the least. However, this histor-ically relevant program has not really been so in the past twenty years, and the school’s last championship was in 1988.

Many wonder if Notre Dame could ever come back into relevance, especially with the current BCS system in place in the NCAA. Notre Dame does not play in a con-ference, and thus cannot be recognized as a “conference champion/” Also, there has

been less draw to the school lately be-cause they have been a mostly average-at-best team, so the

“big-name” prospects out of high school have turned to oth-er schools - specif-ically those in the

Southeastern Conference (SEC), which has been a ma-jor powerhouse in the col-lege football ranks for a de-cade. There have been many times in that same decade that Notre Dame was project-ed to do quite well, and were nationally ranked, but ended up faltering throughout the year and disappointing many fans. A prime example of this was last year, when some ac-tually thought the Irish could go undefeated. After a dis-appointing series of several close losses, the Irish fell out of the eye of the nation, and this year they were not even ranked in the preseason Top-25 Associated Press Poll.

This has been the revela-tion year for the Irish. Tough, close games and come-from-behind victories (specifically the game against Pittsburgh) have been the hallmark of the 2012-2013 Fighting Irish. They survived - dominated, really - what most thought would be a tough game or loss against a very good Oklaho-ma team, then played a se-ries of very exciting games (nationally televised on NBC, of course) including the sea-son finale against rival USC, which began the year as the preseason #1 in the AP Poll.

Although the success of this team and all-time great-ness of it cannot be fully de-termined until the outcome of the BCS Title game is de-cided, this team has been

placed by many as one of the best teams in school history. Simply the fact that they sur-prised everyone (let’s be hon-est, even Irish fans didn’t ex-pect this at the beginning of the year) and just kept finding ways to win football games places them near the top of the list. Manti T’eo, an inspir-ing and excellent leader and linebacker for the Irish, is in-volved in what most consid-er to be a “two horse” race for the Heisman Trophy with Texas A&M freshman quar-terback Johnny “Football” Manziel. Te’o has excelled in all facets of the game this year, and has the intangibles, spirit, and leadership that coaches dream about. Indi-vidually, Te’o has 103 tack-les, 7 interceptions (second in the nation, as a linebacker no less), two fumble recover-ies, and 11 pass defenses. As a team, Notre Dame is the num-ber one defense in the nation in many different categories. To make his story even more amazing, Te’o has captured the heart of the nation by re-turning to Notre Dame and leading them on this glorious journey even after the loss of both his girlfriend and grand-mother. In terms of what the trophy is about, there is no other more deserving player to receive it. If Notre Dame does indeed win the Nation-al Championship, and Manti Te’o can take home the Heis-man Trophy, it would finish what may be the storybook tale of the decade. So, love them or hate them, there is no doubt that having Notre Dame in the National Cham-pionship game is sure to in-crease the attention surround-ing the game.

cally losing head coach Mike D’Antoni, who promised to bring the Lakers back to the

“Showtime Lakers” of the ‘80s with his high-scoring offens-es and historically poor de-fenses. Phil Jackson will in-stead be watching the games from his home. Here are a few stats and facts about the man the Lakers passed on:

•In 1996, Phil Jackson won the NBA Coach of the Year award. Surprisingly, it is the only time he received the award in his distinguished career.

•Jackson was born in Deer Lodge Montana. His par-

ents were both Assembly of God ministers, and it was as-sumed that when he grew up he would be the same.

•Phil Jackson has the best winning percentage of any coach in NBA history (.704), and also has won the most NBA Titles of any coach in history, with 11 rings (5 with the Lakers, 6 with the Bulls.)

•Jackson was also the coach for the Bulls when they set the record for regular sea-son wins in a season, when in 1995-1996 the Bulls went 72-10; the next season, the Bulls went 69-13, making this the best two-year stretch in NBA history as well.

•As a player from 1967-1980, Jackson accomplished much for himself. He was a two-time NBA Champion (1970 and 1973 with the New York Knicks).

•Including his days as a player, Phil Jackson holds the distinction of having the most

NBA Championships total, with 13 (two more than the next closest Bill Russell, who won 11 rings with the Celtics as a player.)

•Jackson has had the luxu-ry of coaching three of what most people consider to be top ten players all-time (or at least top 20): Michael Jordan, Sha-quille O’Neal, and Kobe Bry-ant; between the three players, they have won 11 NBA Finals MVPs, 7 NBA regular season MVPs, 14 scoring champion titles, rookie of the year, de-

fensive player of the year, and went to a combined 43 all-star games.

•Jackson was passed down multiple times when trying to become an NBA head coach. The reason is assumed to be that he had a reputation for be-ing sympathetic to the coun-terculture during his playing years, which NBA teams did not necessarily want to asso-ciate with.

•In 2002 and 2010 the Unit-ed States Sports Academy awarded Jackson the Amos

Alonzo Stagg Coaching Award.

•Jackson is known for his use of the so-called “trian-gle offense” as well as a ho-listic approach to coaching that he has stated as being in-fluenced by Eastern philoso-phy; this has earned him the nickname “Zen Master.” He is considered to be one of the best people in history to han-dle “superstar” athletes and their stereotypically egotisti-cal and strong-willed

12

TABBY MAUSTOutdoors Writer

forest service cabins offer a great time on a college student’s budget

The warmth and cheer of our danc-ing fire fought back

the surrounding darkness of the forest, tangible in its completeness. The four of us sat there, giggling and chatting, our poofs of marshmallows growing brown over the heat, as the wizened grandmothers of the forest, the mighty pines, creaked their old bones around us.

I, the English major in-terested in words of the past, had the log book from our cabin propped open on my lap. As I read aloud the best snippets, my breath and the smoke from our fire rose to mingle with the stars.

“We came as men, but left about 2 ½ days older!”

“We loved the feeling of peace and seclusion that is offered here.” “Saw bigfoot and a thunderbird outside the cabin—can’t remem-ber if it was before or after we drank the bottle of jager. Maybe after…” “Montana rocks!” “This place will al-ways be beautiful.”

Then there are our pag-es, immortalizing our stay forever.

Despite the fact that we took our trip in late Novem-ber, complete with a light covering of feathery snow, our pages are lined with all the traditional camp activities: fishing, hiking, campfires, playing on rope swings. Because of the weather, we also detailed board games in the chill of night, ice-skating on a fro-zen section of the river, and a snowball fight.

Although our stay at West Bridger Station in the Gallatin National For-est lasted but a few days, it will linger in my memo-ry, and the memories of my friends who joined me, for ages to come.

This adventure and all the fun that comes with it can be had by anyone who logs on to www.recreation.gov and looks at all the beautiful cabins and fire outlooks Montana has to offer. While the site also provides camp sites made for tents, the structures that it has to offer make win-ter camping possible, even for those who simply dread the cold. Over 100 cab-ins are scattered through-out the national forests of Montana; thus, you can

choose if you want to stay close to home or make a cross-state trip. This web-site is extremely informa-tive about the cabins, list-ing what equipment is sup-plied and what you’ll need to bring. This enables you to decide between a vaca-tion of roughing it or one of luxury.

The cabins range from primitive and non-electric to fully equipped and able to sleep 30 people. They even offer towering, 40-foot historic fire outlooks once used by firefighters. We chose a middle-of-the-line cabin, complete with electricity, a wood burn-ing stove for heat, and even an oven. Although we did not have running water or an inside toilet, our cab-in did have four beds, all the cooking gear we could have wanted, and plenty of games to keep us occupied.

All of these cabins are maintained by the Forest Service of Montana who you must call beforehand to receive the code for your cabin. When I called my Forest Service representa-tive, she not only gave me my code but advised me of the road conditions, in-formed me of activities in the area, and told me where the best hiking trails were.

The best part of these cabins, especially for the clique “poor college stu-dent,” is the price. A four-person cabin costs between 25 to 35 dollars a night, which is perfect for a group of friends or a family out-ing. Even if you want to take the whole gang, their largest 30-person cabin only costs 75 dollars per night. With prices this low you can afford a weekend outing with your friends, as we did, but you can also pack up your family and kids and introduce the lit-tle ones to all the outdoor beauty Montana has to of-fer.

“I’ve been looking for a place to rent for Christ-mas this year,” says Ashley Hickert, an English educa-tion major at Montana State University Billings. “These cabins are the right price for a great holiday.”

The price, numerous lo-cations, the ease of cold-weather camping, and of course the fun make the Forest Service cabins in Montana a perfect place for your next outdoor adven-ture!Photos by Tabby Maust