THE OORACLEVolume 95 | Issue 2 | Free in single copy | September 23, 2011Tennessee Tech University | Cookeville, TN | 38505

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Graduate enrollment bucks trendBy KAYLA GULLEYStaff Writer

Offi cial enrollment numbers show that Tech has reached record under-graduate enrollment for the 11th consecutive year while graduate enrollment has decreased.

The fi nal count for 2011 enrollment overall is 11,768, a 2 percent increase.

Undergraduate enroll-ment shows a 5.1 percent increase. There has also been a 9 percent increase in the number of transfer students and a 3.1 percent increase in the number of incoming freshmen.

“I believe that a pro-spective student really feels that there are a lot of people at TTU that genu-inely care about student success when he or she vis-its TTU,” Alexis Pope, as-sistant director of Admis-sions said. “I’m not sure how long we can keep it up, but we’ve managed to do more with less when it comes to informing pro-spective students about the

Tech student arrested with multiple weaponsBy WILL HOUSLEYManaging Editor

A Tech student was arrested by university police for the posses-sion of a loaded revolver, a shotgun and several knives on Sept. 21 in a Tech parking lot.

According to the university police report, Robert Erik Haggard, 19, of MS Cooper Hall, was arrested on the Posses-sion of Weapons on Cam-pus (T.C.A. 39-17-1309) charge.

Shortly after 11 p.m., Offi cer Jeffrey Bulakows-ki and Sgt. Sandy Thomp-son were patrolling the north paved lot of Jobe Hall when they noticed suspicious activity at a parked truck.

Offi cers approached two male subjects and asked them who owned the truck. One of the men claimed he didn’t know, but police continued to question the men.

While investigating, the offi cers observed what appeared to be a marijuana grinder and green leafy traces of what appeared to be marijua-na, through the truck’s window. Sgt. Thomp-son also observed a bul-let in the center console,

prompting a search of the vehicle.

After identifying Hag-gard as the vehicle owner, offi cers questioned him about the visible items in the truck. Haggard de-nied any knowledge of the items.

University police found a fully loaded .22 Mag. Heritage revolver wrapped in a green rag, a 20-gauge New England Firearms shotgun behind the driver’s seat, one 4-and-a-half inch blade buck knife, one 3-and-a-half inch blade buck knife, a switchblade, a re-volver cylinder with four rounds of ammunition, a total of 50 .22 rounds, and four 20-gauge rounds.

According to a sup-plement report, the of-fi cers also found drug paraphernalia items, including a small pipe and a large pipe. A small amount of marijuana was also found in a cigarette box.

Haggard was trans-ported and booked into the Putnam County jail, where bond was set at $1,500. According to a court affi davit, Haggard has a court date on Oct. 17.

New bike share program sees successBy LOGAN NICKLESONStaff Writer

Wheels are spinning as a result of the new bike-share program that is fos-tering both community and healthy living among the Tech population.

The free bicycle rental concept introduced this semester by the “Tree-house,” Tech’s environ-mental learning village, has been met with much interest and enthusiasm.

“Initially we thought, ‘it’s a nice idea, but is any-one going to do it?’” Andy Smith, Tech instructor of English and faculty head of the Treehouse, said. “The response has far ex-ceeded expectations.”

Caitlin Mccown, as-sistant coordinator of the Treehouse, estimated that there have been 400-500 people who have rented out bikes over the past three weeks.

A total of 14 men’s and women’s cruiser-style bicycles are available be-tween 7 a.m. and midnight daily to all Tech students, staff and faculty.

“It’s a great program for people who want bikes but don’t have them or if you have to go all the way to the STEM Center or something,” Michelle Best, a junior at Tech, said.

According to Best, the

only problem with the pro-gram is that the bikes need frequent maintenance; but even this issue is swiftly addressed.

Dedicated bike racks are located at both New Hall North—the headquar-ters of the Treehouse—and Dunn Hall. Bicycles can be rented from the front desks of either residence hall.

Each biker is required

to sign liability forms be-fore receiving an optional helmet and a key to the bi-cycle lock.

In addition to the health-related and envi-ronmental benefi ts, the bike-share provides func-tional benefi ts.

“People are always complaining about park-ing,” Smith said. “This is a great way to avoid hunt-ing for a parking spot.”

The bike-share pro-gram is funded by the Sustainability Campus Fee, which the Tech web-site defi nes as, “an $8 per semester fee to increase ef-forts for clean, renewable energy and conservation projects.”

Brittany Ritzman

Fourteen cruise-style bicycles are available to Tech students are various locations on campus.

quality education to be had here at TTU.”

The graduate numbers, however, are down 2.1 per-cent. This decrease is seen especially in the College of Business and the College of Education.

Although the College of Business overall only lost 2.9 percent of its enrolled students, its graduate pro-gram enrollment lost 8.6 percent.

The College of Educa-tion lost 4.2 percent of en-rolled students. However, the graduate program had a 22.4 percent drop in en-rollment numbers.

According to enroll-ment fi gures, the educa-tion graduate program has 227 fewer students than in 2010.

“The graduate enroll-ment is down because the College of Education has seen a signifi cant decrease this year,” Francis Otuon-ye, associate vice president of Research and Graduate Studies, said.

Otuonye said three main factors lead to the decrease in the College of

Education. The fi rst is a change the state made in the Institutional Leader-ship Program, so that many

students do not have the credentials to get in. The second factor is that the as-sistantship programs does

not have enough money. Finally, the local econ-

omy is down and profes-sionals with a bachelor’s

degree who have a job do not want to take out more loans to pay for a master’s degree.

Graphic by Meredith Purcell and Kayla Gulley

Baja team brings home 12th win

Page 2 | September 23, 2011 tntechoracle.com

NEWS Career Services Offers Resume TipsTech Students Gain Valuable Experience Abroad

More stories at www.tntechoracle.com O

techtech@eventseventsSeptember

tntech.edu/calendar

23Until SundayFamily WeekendVarious Events & Locations

All dayLast day for 25% refund

8:00 a.m.Middle TN AntiqueEngine & TractorAssociationHyder Burks Pavilion

254:30 p.m.Benefi t Organ Recital,Faculty & Guest ArtistsWattenbargerAuditorium

248:00 a.m.Middle TN AntiqueEngine & TractorAssociationHyder Burks Pavilion

7:00 p.m.Football v. SoutheastMissouri StateTucker Stadium

2711 a.m.TAB Event - FrisbeeGiveawayFirst Floor, RUC

11 a.m.Chapter 606 (SMAC) Committee MeetingRUC 224

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2 p.m.Resume ER is back!Tech Pride Room

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5 p.m.Surviving the StormDerryberry Hall Auditorium

By EMILY HAILEStaff Writer

The Society of Automotive Engi-neers’ Baja team won its 12th cham-pionship over the summer.

With this win, the team boasts a new record because it holds twice the number of championships com-pared to any other Baja team in the world.

Faculty Adviser Dale Wilson said that the team’s disadvantage when compared to the other top teams is the fi nancial situation.

“We have some students that do their University Academic Scholar-ship hours with us, but there are no scholarships,” Wilson said. “About

By WILL HOUSLEYManaging Editor

For the fi rst time, Chiddy Bang was the opening act for B.o.B at Tuesday night’s sec-ond concert in the SOLO Concert Series at the Hooper Eblen Center.

B.o.B, a mainstream hip-hop songwriter, performer and producer, headlined the con-cert. B.o.B has performed on multiple college campuses in Tennessee, including East Ten-nessee State University in April 2010.

“[When performing for college students,] it feels more like I’m performing with the peo-ple I’m attracted to,” B.o.B said. “It’s good to be back in front of people my age.”

B.o.B describes himself as a “studio nerd,” because he spent so much time in the studio producing music throughout his career. Ac-cording to B.o.B, compared to the studio set-ting, performing doesn’t come naturally to him.

B.o.B has worked with various musicians throughout the years, including Hayley Wil-liams, of Paramore, Lil Wayne, Bruno Mars, Lupe Fiasco, Eminem, and Justin Bieber.

“I had the most fun with Lupe [Fiasco],” said B.o.B. “He’s just real organic, bringing in guitars and just rocking out.”

B.o.B, 22, has been in music since the age of 15. Growing up, he listened to musicians

like Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, and James Brown.

“My brother, who was old enough to buy rap albums, got me into Snoop Dogg, Big-gie, Tupac, DMX, and Eminem,” B.o.B. said. “And, growing up in the South you’re just in-fl uenced by all of the Southern music.”

B.o.B didn’t attend college. He graduated high school and focused on pursuing his mu-sical goals.

“[Before music,] I just worked at Subway and got fi red,” B.o.B said. “So, it was music and that’s it.”

B.o.B started to gain mainstream recogni-tion in 2007 with an underground single of “Haterz Everywhere.”

“My biggest challenge as a musician is try-ing to make the music,” said B.o.B. “Instead of just allowing it to happen.”

The SOLO Concert Series is funded by tu-ition dollars to host a major concert on cam-pus every semester. Students vote on a list of artists of a certain genre, determined in ad-vance by the SOLO bill, to come to campus. Tuesday’s concert selection was the results of the hip-hop genre poll, next semester’s genre is pop.

B.o.B tells of his biggest challenge, greatest infl uences as a musician

By BRITTANY RITZMANCopy Editor

Safety concerns lead to vehicle-free main quad

University administra-tion made the decision to block Quadrangle Drive from motor vehicle traffi c effective fall 2010.

This decision was based on recommendations from the University’s Master Plans from 2001 and 2010. The two master planners agreed that the area should be closed off from personal vehicles for safety.

“A concern for me when I was visiting campus for my [hiring] interview was the ex-posure that those buildings had to emergency services,” Jack Butler, associate vice president of Facilities and Business Services, said. “My thoughts concurred with what the Master Planner had been thinking, but I was just another set of eyes.”

Vehicles were not only being driven around the main quad, they were also often left illegally parked along the sides.

“It is a fi re lane and any vehicles parked there will impede emergency vehicles trying to respond to an actual emergency,” Glenn Binkley, director of Facilities and Busi-ness Services, said.

This problem was visible just before administration de-cided to close the drive to mo-tor vehicle traffi c.

“We brought in the fi re department to do pre-plan-ning [for fi re safety plans] recently, and there was a car parked in the way,” But-ler said. “That’s a problem. [Closing the main quad] was really mitigation for safety.”

However, this change has not been implemented with-out complaint.

Faculty in Bartoo Hall and South Hall were concerned that they were not receiving package deliveries as a re-sult of Quadrangle Drive be-ing closed to delivery trucks. However, this problem has been addressed and delivery

25 percent of our funding comes from SGA, and the rest is from spon-sors.”

Each year Tech’s Baja team spends about $10,000 to build a new car for the races. Labor is free be-cause the students build the car and a lot of the parts are donated by lo-cal companies.

According to annual price re-ports, Cornell University has a bud-get of $30,000 on a team car. Cornell has only won a championship once.

Even with such a low budget compared to other schools, the Baja team still fi nishes in the top 10 at least 80 percent of the time.

According to Wilson, the advan-tage comes from being at Tech.

“The school attracts people who want to put in the time and work to be successful,” Wilson said. “The

other advantage is that each year, the students have more knowledge that they can build upon to make a better car.”

Tech’s Baja team is also known for good sportsmanship. If another team is having problems with a car, Tech helps to get it running correct-ly.

“We’re glad to help anybody get second place,” senior Tyrell Lax-ton said.

The team consistently shows that while more fi nancial support from the school would be benefi cial, money isn’t all that matters when it comes to winning. The lack of fund-ing is a disadvantage, but the team has learned how to work around the negatives and come out on top.

schedules should return to normal.

“There was confusion from UPS and FedEx on what their delivery route was,” Butler said. “We were at UPS Ground and FedEx earlier this week to make sure that these problems were put to bed.”

Though the main quad is now closed to motor vehicle traffi c, the University still al-lows bicycles, foot traffi c and student activities in the area. Butler said he even hopes that

the lack of motor vehicles will make the green space more appealing.

Accommodations can be made to assist organizations that host large special events in the main quad.

“We’re dedicating the Quad to University usage and we do what we can to help functions go smoothly,” Butler said. “We made ar-rangements for everyone to set up on the quad for all of the Week of Welcome ac-

tivities and other events but then they had to move all of their cars once they were fi n-ished.”

The sawhorses that cur-rently block the lane to motor vehicle traffi c will be replaced with spring-loaded bollards that will serve as barriers to personal vehicles but can be pushed over by emergency vehicles such as fi re trucks and ambulances. After the vehicle passes, the bollard will spring back into place.

Senior Tyrell Laxton, co-captain of the Baja team, performs maintenance on this year’s Baja vehicle.

Emily Haile

B.o.B performed at the Hooper Eblen Center Sept. 20 as a part of the SOLO Concert Series.

Will Housley

Sophomore Jared Phillips, senior Andrew Russell, freshman Matthew Bell and sophomore Shelton Neill gather on the main quad during dead hour.

Brittany Ritzman

The Upper Cumberland Race for the Cure will be held Sunday, Sept. 25. The race is a sanctioned 5K event approved by the Su-san G. Komen for the Cure organization.

Susan G. Komen for the Cure is a global leader of the breast cancer awareness move-ment, having invested more than $1 billion in research since its inception in 1982. Komen’s promise is to save lives and end breast can-cer forever by empowering people, ensuring quality care for all and energizing science to fi nd the cures.

“This year in the United States alone, more than 10,000 young women under 40 will be told that they have breast cancer,” Affi liate Coordinator Faune Nunnery said. “Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in women under age 40.

Bobbie Maynard, Race for the Cure mar-keting chair said, “Last year we had more than 1,600 participants and raised $120,000 to fi ght breast cancer in the Upper Cumber-land.

“Up to 75 percent of those funds remain in the Upper Cumberland to provide breast health research, diagnostics, screening, treat-ment, services and education for uninsured or underinsured women. The remaining 25 percent of funds raised goes to support national research to discover the causes of

breast cancer and, ultimately, its cures.”Race day events will include a breast

cancer survivor ceremony starting at 12:30 p.m., a one-mile family fun walk or run tak-ing place at 1 p.m. and the race beginning at 2 p.m. The Awards Ceremony will begin at 3:30 p.m.

The Race Village, stationed in the park-ing lot between the Hooper Eblen Center and Tucker Stadium, will open at 11 a.m. Live en-tertainment and water stations will line the raceway.

Many national and local sponsors will have interactive booths with free giveaway items, including a chance to win two Ameri-can Airlines tickets. Top local sponsors for this year’s race include host sponsor Ten-nessee Tech University, Country Giant 94.7, WCTE, Lite Rock 95.9, Cookeville Regional Medical Center, Kroger, Highways Inc., Averitt, and the Herald-Citizen.

“We are hoping to have 2,000 partici-pants this year, and it’s not too late to partici-pate,” Maynard said. “You can still register in person the day of the race.

All registered race participants will re-ceive a T-shirt. For more information about Komen Upper Cumberland and the Race for the Cure, visit www.komenuppercumber-land.org, call (931) 303-0096, or e-mail info@komenuppercumberland.org.

tntechoracle.com Page 3 | September 23, 2011

NEWS

For a daily crime report, visit www.tntech.edu/police/police-crimelogs

By JACKSON CRESSWELLStaff Writer

Tech plans to have two new learning villages on cam-pus by next fall.

Ellington and Warf Hall will be the home of the arts and media village while a global village will be located in M.S. Cooper. The arts and media village is meant to ap-peal to students involved with music, art, and commu-nication and the global village is for students interested in a global perspective.

However, students do not have to live in the residence halls in order to take advan-tage of what the learning vil-lages have to offer.

“You don’t have to live in the village to be a member,” Scott Northrup, a faculty member of the Learning Vil-lages Advisory Committee, said. “In fact, we want to reach out to commuter stu-

New learning villages decided

CRIME BRIEFSREPORTS:- Sept. 14 - 11:22 a.m. Charges: Stolen laptop from classroom (unattended) Location: Bruner Hall- Sept. 14 - 4:56 p.m. Charges: Unlawful photography Location: Bruner Hall- Sept. 19 - 7:41 a.m. Charges: Theft of books Location: RUC - Bookstore- Sept. 20 - 12:10 p.m. Charges: Theft of gasoline from vehicle Location: Facilities - Inside Gate- Sept. 21 - 4:31 a.m. Charges: Alcohol violation Location: McCord Hall- Sept. 21 - 10:10 a.m. Charges: Theft from vehicle/backpack Location: Open Lot North - Jobe Hall

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dents and people that don’t even live in Cookeville,”

Tech is already home to four other learning villages: the environmental village in New Hall North (referred to as “The Treehouse” by vil-lage members), the service learning village (which is also known as “The Service Center”) in New Hall South, a women’s village is located in Crawford Hall and an en-gineering village is currently stationed in Maddux and Mc-Cord Halls.

The learning villages are intended to have a gen-eral focus on their respective themes, but are also intended to be places on campus to so-cialize.

“The idea of these themes is not to dial in on a specifi c discipline on campus, but to try to bring in people from widely different programs that have a common theme,” Northrup said.

While students may be

familiar with the environ-mental village’s campuswide recycling initiative, the learn-ing village also offers tutors, a bike-share program, mixers, and, according to Northrup, it has even held raves for its members.

Development of the learn-ing villages will continue by adding two new villages ev-ery year. As for next year, the committee is leaning toward starting a health and well-ness village, but is still open to other suggestions.

“We’re very open to in-put from outside if people have ideas,” Northrup said. “If students have visions for what kind of villages they’d like to see started on campus, we want to be responsive to what’s out there.”

For more information on the learning villages, visit http://www.tntech.edu/re-slife/livinglearningvillages.

By SARAH DEROSSETTAsst. Ad Manager

Race for the Cure to be held Sunday afternoon

Courtesy of the Offi ce of Communications & Marketing

Runners race to the fi nish line during last year’s Race for the Cure. This year’s Race for the Cure will be Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m.

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Last Thursday, President Barack Obama spoke to a room full of donors at a campaign fundraiser in Washington D.C. sounding very confi dent of his chanc-es for re-election.

“Here’s one thing I know for certain,” Obama said. “The odds of me being re-elected are much higher than the odds of me being elected in the fi rst place [in 2008].”

News networks quickly picked up the story, with some conservative media outlets taking Obama’s statement slightly out of context, as was the case with the Fox News head-line, “Obama: Odds Are I’ll Get Re-Elected.” But while Obama may not have said exactly that, his remarks still create a narrative that is anything but helpful to him as he mounts his 2012 re-election bid.

Obama’s re-election committee plans to chart new territory in presidential campaigns by raising $1 bil-lion and unfortunately, cam-paign fi nance laws won’t allow Oprah to bankroll that by herself. It’s a fund-raising goal that may prove to be especially diffi cult in this recessionary economy

and while it’s important for any candidate to portray confi dence in their odds of success, the last thing you want to do when shaking people down for money is pronounce yourself the win-ner of an election nearly 14 months out from the day voters will actually go to the polls. Obama would be wise to frame this as a com-petitive, tight race even if all signs pointed to an easy road for his re-election. But in fact, they don’t.

A Rasmussen poll re-leased Monday indicates that only 22 percent of vot-ers strongly approve of Obama’s job performance, while a separate Gallup poll released this week also shows Obama’s approval rating at an all-time low among liberals. A quick sur-vey of recent events under the Obama administration reminds us why.

The August jobs report was published three weeks ago showing no new jobs created in that month and unemployment rates still at upwards of 9 percent. Interestingly, the Senate, where Democrats hold the majority, has a jobs bill on the calendar but is not set to discuss it until after they

return from their recess next month—got to get in a few good rounds of golf fi rst.

Additionally, Obama is now backtracking on promises he made in 2009, and, failing to see that our nation’s debt stems from a spending problem rather than a revenue problem, is proposing $1.5 trillion in new taxes on the very peo-ple who are creating jobs and putting money back into the economy. The media has now uncovered a number of fees hidden within the president’s tax package in-cluding a doubling of fed-eral security fees for airline passengers and a pay cut for federal workers.

Add to this the fact that the nation’s credit ranking was downgraded for the fi rst time in history over this sum-mer and a swelling national debt of more than $14.7 tril-lion, $4 trillion of which was accumulated on Obama’s watch, and you have a presi-dent who faces a very tough road to re-election.

If Obama wants to be a two-term president, he needs to either cut a check to Michele Bachmann’s GOP primary campaign or, perhaps the better option, level with his supporters, admit where he has erred, and humbly explain why he so badly needs their time, resources, and votes. Otherwise, his time in offi ce may be running out, and we may all be better off for it.

Page 4 | September 23, 2011 tntechoracle.com

OPINION

Weekly. Student operated.Weekly. Student operated.Tennessee Tech UniversityTennessee Tech University

TTU Box 5072TTU Box 5072Cookeville, TN 38505Cookeville, TN 38505

WILL HOUSLEYWILL HOUSLEYManaging EditorManaging EditorNICHOLAS ROLLINSNICHOLAS ROLLINSAsst. Managing EditorAsst. Managing EditorBRIDGETTE BUCHANANBRIDGETTE BUCHANANAd ManagerAd ManagerDAKOTA WEATHERFORDDAKOTA WEATHERFORDSARAH DEROSSETTSARAH DEROSSETTAd AssistantsAd AssistantsBRITTANY RITZMANBRITTANY RITZMANCopy EditorCopy EditorCASSIE TESAUROCASSIE TESAUROEditorial EditorEditorial Editor

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Obama: four more years?JONATHAN FRANK

Asst. Editorial Editor

Enough with the tests

Is it just me, or is our society obsessed with test taking?

It feels like every time I fi nish studying for sup-posedly the most important test of my life I turn around and start studying for an even more important test.

In elementary school, it was all about the TCAP. Teachers would desperately cram in as much testing ma-terial as possible to the point where they had to teach only for the test.

You want to know why fi sh have gills? Too bad. It’s not on the TCAP.

I remember one year in elementary school my teacher stopped teaching social stud-ies and history completely a month before the TCAP be-gan because so much was rid-ing on students scoring high in math.

Even at that age, I remem-ber noticing how stressed the teachers were. We would practice how to fi ll in bubble sheets all the time. At least once a day teachers would warn us about test anxiety.

I wasn’t nervous about the test at fi rst, but after the 20th time I was told not to be nervous, I started to get pret-ty anxious.

It felt like everything was riding on this test. That’s a lot of pressure for a second grader. I was sitting there trying to decide what ice and steam had in common, and all I could think was, “Don’t

be nervous! Fill in the bubble completely! Budget your time wisely!”

Years later, I entered high school. Before I even memo-rized my locker combination, I was warned about the ACT.

By sophomore year I still hadn’t purchased a prac-tice book and I started to get nervous.

As a bit of a side note, has anyone looked at the prices of standardized test practice books lately? Some of them are obscenely expensive. I have college textbooks that cost less.

Finally I gave in and bought a practice ACT book. Every Saturday I’d spend a little time working my way through the book.

Compared to the pressure to score well on the ACT, the TCAP test was nothing. There were posters up all over the school with a clear message: Want to go to college? Score high on the ACT.

Right next to that poster would be another one with the message: Want to be suc-cessful? Go to college.

The photographs on those posters always bothered me. Remember the “study hard” posters? There was a beau-tiful model in a sweater vest smiling as she highlighted terms in a brand new look-ing textbook laying on a clean desk.

I don’t know about you, but when I study for a big test I’m surrounded by books,

handouts, notes, empty soda bottles and granola bar wrap-pers. I’m wearing an old hoodie, not a sweater vest. And I am most certainly not smiling as I highlight three different names for the exact same thing.

You know what I’m talk-ing about.

“A, also known as B, is commonly referred to as C.”

I have a sneaking suspi-cion that some members of academia rename things just so they can get their name in a textbook. For my sanity’s sake, please stop. You get your name in the index. I get fi ve points taken off when I can’t remember your word.

My entire potential as a functioning member of so-ciety is narrowed down to a transcript fi lled with test scores.

If I had gotten one point higher on the ACT, my schol-arship amount would be al-most double what it is now. You have no idea how much that one point haunts me. Just one more correct answer about one more vocabu-lary word and my fi nancial burden would have almost disappeared.

In case you hadn’t al-ready guessed by the tone of this editorial, I’m once again experiencing the joys of stan-dardized test taking.

Even as a senior in college I can’t escape them. Now it’s time for the GRE.

Then again it could be worse. A lot of you are study-ing for the LSAT, the MCAT or an entrance exam created for one specifi c school.

Keep your spirits up. I’ll be with you in the library, cof-fee in one hand and calculator in the other.

LETTER TO THE EDITORPatriotism Does Not Equal Racism

I am writing this in re-sponse to a cartoon that was featured in the Sept. 16, 2011 edition of the Oracle on page four.

This drawing showed what seemed to be a gas station sign with the words, “American-Owned” on it.

I have seen several stores around Cookeville that have similar signs as this one.

The drawing included a special camera that took a pic-ture of the sign and claimed that the “blunt truth” that the sign was making is not re-ally that the store is American-owned. Rather the truth is that “American-Owned” means

“Racist Welcome.” This bothers me. Since

when is patriotism consid-ered racism? Since when is American synonymous with racist?

If the sign had said, “Americans Only,” then I could see why that could be called racist. That is not what it said, though.

The statement that these convenience stores and other businesses are mak-ing with the commonly used “American-Owned” sign is not one of racism. It is one of pa-triotism and one that needs to be said.

People have a right to know that when they spend their money, it is staying in the United States. With the economic situation that our country is in right now, money

shipped outside of these bor-ders can hurt our economy more than it helps.

To call someone a rac-ist for letting their customers know that their money is stay-ing within their country, or to call someone a racist for shop-ping at a store that does so is utterly wrong and shameful!

I am proud to be an American and want to do ev-erything I can to benefi t my country in the economic crisis we are in, including buying American-made products from American-Owned stores. If that makes me racist, some-one better rethink the defi ni-tion of racism! It is patriotism!

Greg EvansGaevans42@students.tn-

tech.eduCORRECTIONCORRECTION

In “Semester starts with construction underway” in the 9/16/11 edition,

the Henderson Hall construction completion date was printed

incorrectly. Construction is actually expected to be completed by the

end of the semester. Also, Tech Village West renovations are fi nished. A

couple of building in Tech Village East will soon undergo renovations.

The Oracle regrets the error.

O

Courtesy of whitehouse.gov

President Obama addresses the nation in the East Room of the White House.

Other - 21%

Poll of the Week: What did you do to commemorate 9/11?

The Golden Eagle football team (2-1,1-0) is set to host the defending Ohio Valley Confer-ence champions, the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks (0-2,0-0), this Saturday in its fi rst conference home game of the season.

Tech holds the lead in this series 11-8, but the Redhawks came away with the victory in their last encounter, 23-21, last season in Cape Girardeau.

“This should be a great game to watch,” Tech Head Coach Watson Brown said on Tuesday. “You better beat SEMO. They’re not a team that’s going to beat themselves. They don’t turn the ball over, they don’t have a lot of penalties, you’ve got to beat them.”

Brown said that SEMO’s 0-2 record “means nothing” as far as preparing to play them.

“[Tech’s win last weekend] means nothing to turn around and lose at home,” he said.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Tucker Stadium and the Magic 98.5 Tailgate Park opens at 4 p.m.

“I encourage everyone to come out be-cause this is such a big game,” Brown said. “I believe a good crowd could cause a seven point swing in the ballgame.”

The game will also air on WCTE-TV and the Golden Eagle Sports Network.

Although SEMO is off to an 0-2 start,

their statistics show they still have a danger-ous, high-powered offense led by senior dual-threat quarterback Matt Scheible. He is on pace to become the fi rst quarterback in OVC history to have 4,000 career passing yards and 2,000 career rushing yards. He currently has 3,587 and 1,735 respectively.

Tech is coming off a big road win last weekend where they defeated the Eastern Il-linois Panthers (1-2,0-1) in the OVC opener in Charleston.

Defense was the story in that game as they forced four turnovers and held the Panthers to negative six yards on the ground.

The defensive unit was led by senior de-fensive back Richmond Tooley, who led the team with 10 tackles and three pass defl ec-tions. Tooley was named OVC Defensive Player of the Week for his efforts.

“He’s been the best corner in our league al-ready this early in the sea-son,” Brown said of Tool-ey. “If there’s a better one, I haven’t seen him yet…I’m very proud of Richmond.”

Senior wide receiver Tim Benford re-ceived national recognition by being named to the College Football Performance Awards for the second week in a row.

Benford caught eight passes for 124 yards.

The victory also gained attention for the program as a whole as they received 41 points in The Sports Network/Fathead.com poll and seven votes in the FCS Coaches Poll.

Page 5 | September 23, 2011 tntechoracle.com

SPORTS

Golden Eagle Player Profi le

Claudia Harke

By ANDY RUTHERFORDAsst. Sports Editor

Tech soccer enters Ohio Valley Conference play this weekend with momentum fol-lowing a win over Lipscomb, in which the Golden Eagles had 23 shots, controlled pos-session throughout and won 2-1.

Coach Daniel Brizard said going into the game that he hoped his team would be able to get a win, and they were able to do so, getting goals from sophomore Ellie Iaciofano and junior Andrea Meloff. Meloff also had an as-sist in the game. Brizard said after the win was that it was important for Tech (3-6-1) to gain confi dence prior to visit-ing Eastern Illinois (1-6-2) on the road Friday.

“We needed that con-fi dence boost as a team,” Brizard said. “I think we’ve played well, I just think some-times the result hasn’t gone our way.

“To actually get the result in terms of playing well and in front of a fantastic home crowd, hopefully it will give

us some momentum we can take into this weekend.”

Starting sophomore goal-keeper Becca Toler said the key to so many offensive chances was solid team play.

“We are always strong in the back,” Toler said. “We’ve been working even harder on the attacking third, just being more creative with our for-wards and we are very close to becoming a great team.”

Iaciofano said that a slight style change had a big ef-fect on the way the forwards played during the game, which helped her notch her second goal of the season.

“We were playing more through balls, making more runs on the outside,” Iacio-fano said. “[When I scored] the ball went over the top to Andrea [Meloff]… I was just giving her an option and she gave me a nice through ball. I struck it; I thought it might go wide, but it hit post and went in.

“We had much more at-tack in the game [Sunday], and it will give us confi dence to score.”

Tech’s two opponents for the weekend are EIU, who

Tech tied last year 1-1, and Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville (2-2-1), who is in its fi rst year of offi cial OVC play. Tech and SIUE did not match up last year.

Brizard said last week that his goal for the team was to win conference champion-ships. Iaciofano said a good start was the fi rst step to-wards that goal. Tech is 8-5-2 all-time in OVC openers.

“We need to start confer-ence off with two good wins,” Iaciofano said. “We are mak-ing more chances, executing our chances is what has to happen.

“We just need to capital-ize.”

No matter what hap-pened leading up to confer-ence play, Toler said, the time to peak is now.

“It’s a fresh new start… we have confi dence. We have business to take care of,” Tol-er said.

“It starts with this week-end.”

For more information on Tech Soccer and all of Tech Athletics, please visit TTUS-ports.com.

Tech Soccer beats Lipscomb, heads into OVC this weekendBy ROSS HARVEYSports Editor

Using momentum to continue success through weekend is key, team says

Andrea Meloff (center left) and Emily Homan (center right) celebrate after Meloff scored Tech’s game-winning goal against Lipscomb Sunday. It was Meloff’s fi rst goal of the season.

Sports Information

Tooley

Tech hosts SEMO Saturday

A Bryan College rugby player is tackled as Logan O’Dell (center) and captain Brooks Robinson (right) look on. Tech defeated Bryan 82-0. Look for a recap of the Rugby Team’s weekend games at Vandy in next week’s issue of The Oracle.

Tech Rugby heads to Vanderbilt for Oak Leaf Cup Tournament following thrashing of Bryan

The former Wisconsin Softball Gatorade Player of the Year is from Appleton, in northeast Wisconsin. The junior pitcher had a 2.64 ERA in OVC games last year.

If I could play any other sport: “Basketball. I played forward for four years in high school and I like the fast-paced contact.”

Favorite Food: “Fettuccini Alfredo, from Olive Garden. It’s better from Olive Gar-den.”

Favorite NFL team: “The [Green Bay] Packers. I grew up with them; it’s in my blood. And I hate the Bears.”

Favorite Musical Artist: “Eric Church.”

Pets: “A kitten. His name is Lambeau.“ (The Packers play at Lambeau Field, named after Packers co-founder, player and coach Curly Lambeau.)

What I do when I am bored: “I watch Bravo or E! I’m obsessed with any of the ‘Real Housewives’ shows or anything Kardashian.”

Favorite Movie: “Summer Catch. Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Jessica Biel. It’s such a sappy movie, but it’s good.”

Something not many people know about me: “When I was born, my left arm was broken, and that’s the arm I pitch with now. That’s pretty cool. And also, I’m afraid of birds. I watched The Birds when I was little. Hitchcock.”

Favorite Quotation: “Lisa Fernandez (Pitcher for the USA Olympic Softball team) said, ‘Never be satisfi ed.’”

Use your smartphone to scan these QR codes to take you directly there!

For More Information:The Oracle Tech Athletics

TTUSports.com

Brown

Samantha Kendall

tntechoracle.com

SPORTSPage 6 | September 23, 2011

THE MAILBAG

Cross Country Sets Records Again

The Georgia State Invita-tional cross country race was a day of record breaking by the Tech Golden Eagles.

Between the men’s and women’s teams, seven Tech runners set new personal best times for their distances. This landed both Golden Eagle teams a fi fth place overall.

The front runner for the men’s team was John Greene, besting his record from last week with a 26:59 on the 8k course. Coming in right be-hind Greene was Matt Bishop with a time of 27:03.

Once the fi rst two Gold-en Eagles were across the line, Michael Mahan, Adam McLeod and Charlie Jordan all fi nished with new person-al best records.

The women’s team, in spite of missing two of their key runners according to Team Captain Traci Jones, set three new personal best records of their own.

“We have a young, strong group of girls that stepped it up on Saturday,” Jones said. “I’m very proud of every-one.”

Some of the standout com-petitors for the Tech women’s team were Peri Winborne, Rebecca Cline, Leah Bradley, Megan O’Donaghue, Em-ily Williams, Amelia McCoy, and Traci Jones. O’Donaghue, Cline and Jones all set new personal best records on the 6k course.

The Golden Eagle cross country teams will return home for the TTU Invita-tional on Friday, Sept. 30 at 3 p.m.

Tennis Weekend Recap

This past weekend, the members of the Tech men’s tennis team compiled more than 15 victories in a tourna-ment in Knoxville, includ-ing a win in the doubles on

the Goodfriend side of the bracket.

“Our team played pretty well for the fi rst time of the season,” Coach Kenny Doyle said.

Five of those victories came in doubles matches and the remaining 10 came in sin-gles matches.

Tech’s Justin Kirstein started the season off with a bang by winning an early Friday morning debut over Nicky Kunz of Davidson 6-2, 7-6, before his day ended in singles play losing to Xavier’s Richard Canales 6-2, 7-6(4). Kirstein teamed up with Eze-quiel Gils in doubles play and they lost to UT Chattanooga’s Pavels Girgorievs and Mi-chael Barroetavena 8-5.

Gils got off to a slow start losing his two matches on Friday the fi rst 6-2, 6-1 to Liberty University’s Tanner Brown, and the second 6-2, 6-3, to Connor Sherwood of Wake Forest.

Vasily Eremeev got off to a hot start by winning his two singles matches. Eremeev won his fi rst match 6-2, 6-3, over Xavier’s Michael Moe. He won his second match 6-2, 6-2, over Winthrop’s Luka Stanic to advance to the semi-fi nals.

Eremeev and his doubles teammate James Crawford also won their doubles match, advancing to the semifi nals. Crawford wound up splitting his singles matches losing his fi rst to Matti Bourbon in three sets 6-7(3), 6-1, 6-7(2).

Crawford regrouped and downed Winthrop’s Chase Altieri 6-2, 6-4, advancing him to the semifi nals in the consolation round.

Alex Chen and Syrym Abduhkailikov also paired up to win a doubles match Friday advancing to the semifi nals.

Chen split his singles matches losing to Brandon Fickey of Tennessee 6-1, 6-3, although he responded with a win over Eastern Kentucky’s Nik Shroeder 6-0, 6-1.

Abduhkailikov also split

his fi rst two matches, losing the fi rst to EKU’s Hugo Ki-lentovsky 6-1, 6-7, 6-3, and winning the second against Oliver Strecker of Liberty 4-2 (retired).

Saturday, Chen and Ab-duhkailikov won their semi-fi nals match 8-4, against Ten-nessee’s Peter Nagovnak and Taylor Patrick. Their win propelled them to Sunday’s fi nals in the Goodfriend Dou-bles bracket against Xavier’s Richard Canelas and Marc Pretorius.

Crawford and Eremeev continued Tech’s winning ways as they downed Jordan Faith and Orlando Lourenco.

In the doubles consola-tion match, the duo of Giles and Kirstein took a loss at the hands of East Tennessee State’s Robin Asker and Rog-erio Roberio.

In singles matches Ere-meev, Chen, Crawford, and Giles all took losses.

Abduhkailikov contin-ued marching through his side of the bracket by advanc-ing to the semifi nals because of forfeit victory over Adam Lee of Wake Forest. In the semifi nals, he defeated Da-vidson’s Ethan Kalik. He is set to take on Wake’s Daniel Kreyman in the consolation fi nals.

Sunday, Chen and Ab-duhkailikov defeated Xavi-er’s Canelas and Pretorius in Sunday’s fi nal 9-7.

The other doubles duo of Eremeev and Crawford lost to Xavier’s Mesa Mei and Michael Moe 8-6. Abduhkai-likov also competed against Wake’s Kreyman but fell short 6-3, 6-2.

The men’s tennis team plays this weekend at the Southern Intercollegiate Championships in Athens, Ga.

For more information about Tech Cross Country, Tech Tennis and all of Tech Athletics, please visit TTUS-ports.com.

Weekly Roundup This week’s sports stories at a glance

Q: What’s wrong with Chris Johnson?A: Yes, the man who received a whop-

ping $53.5 million dollar extension for the Ti-tans has averaged a paltry 2.3 yard-per-carry average this season. Yes, he has run into the back of his linemen more than he has run for fi rst downs. Yes, he’s been outplayed by multiple backup running backs. However, I wouldn’t worry about Chris Johnson. He missed the entire preseason and training camp, and although he had been “working out” during the offseason, there’s a difference between good shape and football shape. Give Johnson another few weeks and he should be fi ne. This Sunday’s game at home vs. the Broncos should be a test of how Johnson is progressing.

Q: Why doesn’t Tech have a Men’s soc-cer team?

A: The long version: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be ex-cluded from participation in, be denied the benefi ts of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity re-ceiving Federal fi nancial assistance,” in other words, Title XI, part of the Education Amend-ments of 1972.

In plain English, the basis of Title XI is that no gender can be discriminated against when it comes to college athletics. Any col-lege must provide athletic opportunities that are “substantially proportionate to the stu-dent enrollment,” or have no gender that is underrepresented. Basically, since Tech has a football team, which has the largest roster on Tech’s campus, the women’s sports have to be equal in number to the men’s sports. At this time, Tech has six men’s sports and seven women’s sports, but each gender is equally represented.Confusing?

Q: Will there be an NBA season this fall?

A: My gut says no. The NBA lockout is much different than the NFL lockout. The owners in the NBA claim that many of them are losing money due to ticket sales and other rising upkeep costs, so they are plenty content to rent out their venues to acts other than bas-ketball. The NBA is not the NFL; that is, the owners of the NFL would have lost money by missing an entire season, and the NFL has a much broader following than basketball, and the revenue split the owners have proposed will cost the players 150 million dollars of basketball-related monies (not including any salaries). Before even mentioning the salary cap issues that the NBA Players Association is dealing with, the owners and players are far apart. And with basketball executives say-ing they want a full season or no season, and with more players (the latest being Denver Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin) signing to play overseas, I say we will all be watch-ing hockey come November. But I hope I’m wrong.

Q: Who’s gonna win the MLB World Se-ries?

A: I’ll make the safe choice and say the New York Yankees will beat the Philadel-phia Phillies in six games to win the World Series. Why? Why not? Philly has just lost fi ve straight games for the fi rst time all sea-son, and the Yankees are arguably the hottest team during the second half of the season. But don’t sleep on the Texas Rangers. They have the third most potent offense in the league, and they eliminated the Yankees last year to go to the World Series. I don’t see that hap-pening again, however.

Answering this week’s questions from all around the sports world

with ROSS

HARVEY

This week’s Weekly Roundup contains stories by Staff Writers David Lane and Justin Matheney.

Weekend Schedule

Friday 9/23Women’s Soccer@ Eastern Illinois

Women’s Volleyball@ Murray State

Saturday 9/24Women’s Volleyball@ SE Missouri St.

Footballvs. SE Missouri St.

Sunday 9/25Women’s Soccer @ SIU Edwardsville

I know for most of you out there, the release of the fourth DLC for “Fallout: New Vegas” was not the biggest ti-tle to drop on Tuesday. Don’t fret; we’ll take a look at “Gears of War 3” next week after I’ve had time to log enough hours to give the game a fair shake.

In the meantime, “Lone-some Road” completes the story of New Vegas from the view of the Courier. Find-ing a new location in the Mo-jave, another courier, named Ulysses beckons you forth to explore a weapon ravaged, storm swept location known as The Divide.

With promises of explain-ing the ambiguous history between you two, the Courier plunges into The Divide after the courier bearing the Old World fl ag.

While exploring the new area, the Courier encounters several new enemies includ-ing, The Marked Men. Turned red by the radiation, the play-er fi nds members of both the New California Republic and Caesar’s Legion banded to-gether in an effort of survival. As you traverse further into the radioactive wasteland, other mutated horrors await, including everyone’s favor-ite: deathclaws.

During his travels on his lonesome road, the Courier learns more about the region and the specifi c role it plays in the Fallout universe. At the end of the campaign, the player fi nds that the ghosts of

the Old World remain active and has a momentous deci-sion to make.

As a huge geek of the Fall-out series, I have spent hours upon hours at night reading developer journals and pub-lications trying to learn ev-ery idiosyncrasy of the game universe. So when the offer of discovering the mysterious past of Ulysses, I jumped at the chance.

The plot of the expan-sion is solid throughout the experience, though as with all Fallout games, the player

decides how much he learns via the amount of explora-tion you are willing to do. By looking a bit off the beaten path, the content pack shares plenty of information that makes exploration as satisfy-ing endeavor.

Straying too far off the path is best done with ready weapons, however, as new enemies, such as the Marked Men and Tunnelers, wait for you to drop your guard. The new slew of enemies offer a tough challenge as well as the fi nal showdown with Ulyss-

es, should you choose to fi ght him.

The world is engrossing and well designed, giving the player a truly unique experi-ence. Although “Lonesome Road” is for the most part ex-cellent, a few problems plague the Courier in The Divide.

The overall length of the experience is a bit short. Ex-ploring thoroughly the new area, I logged about fi ve hours before the fi nal showdown. I understand not bloating the experience with unnecessary junk, but at the $9.99 price point, the expansion needs a bit more content.

In addition, a reoccurring problem with the title, anoth-er problem was the number of bugs and glitches I found. Nothing was earth shattering, but having to reload the game is always annoying.

“Lonesome Road” is not going to make any new fans of the series. However, the expansion, problems aside, of-fers a fi tting conclusion to the Courier’s tale before the cli-matic end of the game. Rais-ing the level cap and bring-ing new perks to the table is always nice even though you still can’t play past the Second Battle of Hoover Dam.

I recommend the DLC if you’re a fan of the series, if you’re not, you might want to hold off on purchasing or maybe wait until the ludi-crous Steam sales in Novem-ber.

Let ’s Talk About Movies With CHUCK ACHESON

Entertainment Editor

tntechoracle.com Page 7 | September 23, 2011

ENTERTAINMENT

Lonesome Road fi nishes New Vegas story

Courtesy of Bold FilmsThe main character (Ryan Gosling) talks with his neighbor from down the hall, Irene (Carey Mulligan), before her hus-band returns from prison.

The fourth downloadable content pack for “Fallout: New Vegas” offers conclusions regarding the Courier’s tale with a fl ourish at the end.

Courtesy of Obsidian Entertainment and Bethesda SoftworksUlysses, bearing the fl ag of the Old World, serves as the main antagonist in the content expansion, baiting the player onward to learn the truth of his history.

Final Grade: A+MPAA: R

Simply stated, “Drive” is a beautiful fi lm.

Getting paid to watch movies and write about them has always been a great privilege. Movies such as “Drive,” however, make me think I have the best job in the world.

Based on the 2005 James Sallis novel by the same name, “Drive” follows the story of an unnamed main character (Ryan Gosling) as he tries to do what’s right. Standing between him and freedom are a slew on west coast mobsters and a whole lot of bad luck.

In addition to working as a part time stunt driver, Gosling’s character pulls jobs as a getaway driver. The movie opens with the driver in the middle of a job that sets the pace for the rest of the movie.

After falling for the pret-ty girl, Irene (Carey Mul-ligan), a few doors down in his apartment building, Gosling agrees to help her recently paroled husband, Standard (Oscar Isaac), pull one last job to save his fam-ily. While in the joint, Stan-dard developed a hefty sum in protection money.

Surprisingly, the job goes awry, leaving the Driv-er on the wrong side of a couple mobsters, which with whom he recently went into business as a stockcar driver. The remainder of the movie deals with the Driver trying to save Irene.

Throughout the fi lm, an ethereal soundtrack guides the story from sequence to sequence with soft, smooth tones, contrasting the vi-sual elements of the movie. Planted in portions through-out the fi lm, the fi nal song of the movie, “A Real Hero” by College featuring Electric Youth, ends “Drive” on a hauntingly beautiful note.

The direction of this fi lm has only one real recent analogue for me, “The Social Network.” The pacing in the fi lm by Nicolas Winding Refn, who won “Best Direc-tor” at the Cannes Film Fes-tival for this movie, shows great poise and an appre-ciation for the understated. Simple camera shots blos-som into revealing sequenc-es, adding increasing depth as the plot progresses.

Watching “Drive” through the lens afforded us by Refn makes one thing clear, cool is back. “Drive”

oozes a sense of style that many other modern fi lms try to accomplish, yet nearly all fail. If I had to prove this point in a single example, it would be as follows: look at the main character’s jacket. Done.

In addition to the swag-ger lent by the jacket, the scorpion on the back of the jacket strikes an important thematic chord. An allusion to the fable of the scorpion and the frog, we learn that some people are going to commit certain actions, re-gardless of the outcome. To explain any further might stray into a spoiler, but it’s important to note as it helps delve into the psyche of the main character.

Continuing down the thematic road, the element of bad luck serves as an im-portant part of the fi lm. If everything went according to plan, life would be so much easier, but let’s use the tagline from another movie that explores this theme too: there are no clean getaways. Taking this line from the Coen Brother’s “No Coun-try for Old Men,” “Drive” incorporates many similar ideas that something just has to go wrong.

Something that did not go wrong was the acting. Gosling’s portrayal of the main character was nearly fl awless, nailing the stare downs with other characters perfectly. Bryan Cranston, playing Shannon, adds to the overall excellence of the acting in “Drive.”

“Drive” is absolutely fantastic. However, this movie is not for everyone. Violent sequences are few and far between but the few are quite violent. Also worth noting, the violence serves a purpose. In addi-tion to helping display the mental state of the Driver, the violence creates a star-tling contrast with the aural aspects of the movie.

“Drive” is sleek, cool and one of those rare mov-ies that excels in every facet. Unforgiving and unrelent-ing, “Drive” challenges the action movie standard with thoughtful direction and artistic style. Sure, you can write “Drive” off as art house, but you would be cheating yourself out of a rare experience at the movie theater.

Simply repeated, “Drive” is a beautiful fi lm.

By MATT KNIELING | When not trying to expose “Family Circle” as an oval, Matt Knieling writes and draws funny pictures for The Oracle. Find more of his comics at inanimateshorts.com or on Facebook at tinyurl.com/mattartfb.

By CHUCK ACHESONEntertainment Editor

Final Grade: B

Casanova Avaritia #1

Time-bending comic ‘Casanova’ begins third series: ‘Avaritia’

Continuing a very successful run, Matt Fraction and Gabriel Bá’s “Casanova” enters its third volume, “Avaritia,” with another memorable fi rst book.

Picking up the story after the climatic end to the second volume, “Gula,” the series continues down the trippy, time-bending road on which it started. Bá’s artistic direc-tion of the book compliments Frac-tion’s storytelling ability with a truly unique style.

The story follows the tale of Ca-sanova Quinn as he is abducted from one timeline into a parallel one by Chairman Xeno. After his cross time journey, the dimension of time be-gins breaking down in the present timeline causing a variety of prob-

lems that Quinn and his on again, off again allies at E.M.P.I.R.E. must fi x.

If you couldn’t tell from the last paragraph, the story is fairly complex and makes you fl ip back pages occa-sionally to make sure you didn’t miss something. Offered at the beginning of the issue, a brief synopsis brings a new reader up to speed on previous events, although I recommend a fresh reading from the start of the series.

Once you break the shell of the story, “Casanova” gives the reader a rich experience that challenges con-cepts of the comics genre. Bá, taking over art duties from his twin brother Fabio Moon, continues the strong ar-tistic element of the book.

“Casanova” is an interesting read and well worth your time and money as the third volume looks to keep up the high quality of the series.

By CHUCK ACHESONEntertainment Editor

What do we want? BRAINS! What’s even better than just collecting brains? Collecting canned goods for the needy while participating in a truly unique experience on Nashville’s streets.

In two weeks, the streets of Nashville will be crowded with the walking dead for the annual Zombie Walk 2011. The Nashville Zombie Walk is an offi cial partici-pant in World Zombie Day.The World Zombie Day or-ganization began the walks

in Pittsburgh, Penn. and now the walks have become in-ternationally recognized as events for fun and the goal of breaking the world record for the city with most zombies at one time.

Come out Oct. 8th to Riv-erfront Park with your fellow swarms of the undead to take part in this annual Nashville Zombie Walk 2011. Organiz-ers collect canned food for do-nation to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennes-see, but it is not mandatory just encouraged.

Items that are needed are peanut butter, canned tuna, canned fruits, rice, beans,

macaroni and cheese, canned vegetables, and canned meats.

Arrive early around 3 p.m. to gather, learn the route, meet, greet, photograph, and to further get drenched in blood and dismantlement.

The walk begins at 4 p.m. and lasts for about an hour as zombies parade the streets, sidewalks, block traffi c, and get glorifi ed by tourists and locals.

Now where would a good zombie mob be without sur-vivors thrown into the mix? Not only do people dress as zombies, but there are even survivors tossed into the mix,

comprising the role of movie and comic book heroes, such as, Umbrella corps, renegade cops, Bruce Campbell’s, Rick Grimes, and more.

Survivors are great not only for great video, pictures, and laughs but also where else are the zombies going to get their unquenchable crav-ing for brains?

While costume supplies already are starting to get put on the shelves for Halloween, it’s a great time to fi nd fake blood and make up. There are also many how-to-make-fake-blood articles on the internet for those who really wish to get crafty.

It is recommended to use clothes you’re not going to miss too much since they will get messed up. Zombies aren’t always the best at living the glam life unless, of course, you’re in Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” music video.

Check your closets for old clothes and check out some discount clothing stores for ideas. Just dress-up and act have fun. Remember, the walking dead can unexpect-edly come from anywhere.

How were you am-bushed? They got me looking snazzy last year and the two years before I was a pirate and a bearded mama zombie.

Trust me... they’ll fi nd you.Every year the walk in

Nashville grows substan-tially and this year will be no different. The walk usually last about an hour then ends where it started; people then generally take more photos and then go to the parties at the local venues dressed as zombies.

The event is free, but due to the distance factor set aside time to shop, eat, and have some fun after the walk.

Check out the Nashville Zombie Walk 2011 on Face-book for more information and directions.

tntechoracle.com Page 8 | September 23, 2011

ENTERTAINMENT

By WILL SHECKLERAsst. Entertainment Editor

Annual Nashville Zombie Walk collects canned food, stares

Stephen Yeargin

Participants in previous Zombie Walks draw numerous stares from bystanders while collecting canned food for Second Harvest. The amount of detail in costumes varies with some participants going all out.

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In two weeks, the yearly Nashville Zombie Walk will traverse the streets of Nashville, benefi ting Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee. Going on its eighth year, the event has become a staple of autumn in Nashville.