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The last word on O.J. i7>' Laura Ban The sky was blue; the clouds were cottonlike; the sun was comfortable- making the day of the Northwestern vs. Miami football game the kind people praise in loud exclamations. "What a nice day!" my mom exclaimed as we made our way inside the stadium and to our ticketed seats. Already seated there were two middle-aged-looking fans dressed from hats to socks in purple and white. They told us that a young man was in both of their seats and had refused to move. We found a place to sit two rows down. I studied the young man. Tattooed with a skull, a dagger, and a cursive "Larry" on his right arm, the man was sitting on a pack of cigarettes and griping loudly. "Ijusthad'em," he growled, "and now someone stole my smokes." Lucky for those around him, in searching for his keys to shake during the opening kickoff, Larry came across the squished pack of cigarettes. After Miami's first snap, he started hollering. "Fumbo! I wanna see a @#$%-ing fumbo!" screamed the man, flexing his muscles and showering flecks of whiskey spit onto those sitting below him. " Yeeeaaaaaaah!" The two fans who had been sitting in our seats stood up and moved several rows back. Later, I saw a boy with "Pepsi" lettered front and back on his apron walking up and down the nearest aisle yelling, "Pepsi! Cold Pepsi!" Larry said, "Why in the @#$% does that @#$% have "Pepsi" written all over 'im? Don'tcha think people would figger it out?" He laughed and yelled, "Yo, yo, yo, yo, yo!" just as the Pepsi boy turned to head back down the aisle. When the boy paused and turned around, Larry stopped yelling. After a scan of the area, steadying his tray of Pepsi's, the boy continued down the stairs. "Yo, yo, yo, yo, yo!" Larry persisted. He cackled. "Didja see that dumb @#$%?" Between the first two quarters, as an announcement was being made over the loudspeaker to remind fans that smoking is not allowed in the seating areas, I saw Larry reach for his Marlboros. He chain-smoked until the first half was over. At the break, Larry staggered down the stairs. He did not come back for the second half. Larry-like actions do not encourage me to attend future Northwestern games or other crowded events. Larry's overshadow the excitement of play on the field when they are belching obsenities. If all of these human duds stayed at home, they wouldn't get the attention they seek, but football games on nice days would be much more enjoyable for others.
-Brian O'Neill and Alison Milnamow You knew from the start that this was going to be a weird one. "I was at Tami Gudukas's house. And my mom wouldn't pick me up until it was over." -Karen Hibbeler "I was at a friend's house. We watched the whole thing." -Ian Broeker Amazing that a boring incident can galvanize America. This was not a Moon Landing, a Preidents funeral, or even a Super Bowl. This was a slow-moving white Bronco, and it was not even John Elway (one of the first jokes). It is just that a rather famous person was in it. Orenthal James Simpson, football star, movie hero, and corporate spokesman was on the run, and he was wanted for murder. Of course there was more of a reason for watching the chase than to see if he would get away.(not that he could have gotten away at twenty miles per hour). It was the fact that he had a gun to his head that kept everybody in rapt interest for the duration of the "chase". There was a morbid fascination to see if this superstar would pull to the side of the road and blow his head off in fi^ont of millions of viewers. There was also the added hope of seeing him get into a gunfight with the cops. I know, this is sick and a sure sign of the decomposistion of societal values, but isn't that why you watched? One thing that was never cleared up was why would an innocent man, as O.J. claimed he was, befleeingarrest with a gun to his head. One would think that this was a sign of guilt. Another theory is that he was upset because the women he loved was killed, he was going to be charged with murder, and most likely everything he had worked for in his whole life was sure to come crashing down on him, and therefore he was in an advanced stage of the bummers. Of course, the guilt idea seems a bit more reasonable. "I thought it was pretty good novelty, but Court T.V. is not my cup of tea" -Chris Ryan When the trial started, a majority of Americans got their first look at the judicial system. Many were upset when their soap operas were interrupted, but stayed to watch the arrainment hearings. Just about everybody tuned in at one time or another to see the spectacle. Then Lance Ito was picked and the dancing Itos arrived on Jay Leno singing O.J.L.A. The trial was ready to begin I (insert scary music)
At first it was fun. There were plenty o" charactors to keep us amused. The clown prince of these was Kato Kaelin. This long haired houseguest became an instant celeberity. He seemed to be a typical surfer dude, blond, energetic and rock hard stupid. Despite the fact that he was actually more intelligent then people gave him credit for, he was loved by the nation as if he was O. J.' s loveable dog, big smile and ready to help the master. Another bit charactor who got boosted to instant fame was Faye Resnick. This was a firiend of Nicole's who wrote a book entitled Private Diary of a Life Interrupted; The Life and Death of Nicole Brown Simpson. This book was the first best-seller of the whole O.J. affair. Despite being trashy according to most reports(we here at Commentary have not read it); it was a huge book. Resnick was on all the talk shows, and did all the required crying. Miss Resnick has faded into the depths of fourth-tier celeberties (behind 80's sitcom actors), and will probably never emerge, although she is reportedly writing a new book. Kato is about gone, but he more than outlived his Warhol-esque 15 minutes of fame, and got plenty of movie deals. Unfortunatley, knowing O.J. did not turn him into a good acti Sadly, the only two people who wer carried by the Juice into stardom were Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Oh sure, you heard a little about them now and then, but the media rarely let you realize that these were two living, innocent people who were brutally killed and ripped away fi'om thier young lives by a knife-wielding murderer. You almost never heard that. That is because the lawyers on O.J.'s dream team tried to lead you away from the actual murder, and lead you into a realm of confusion where they would use tactics of doubting experts and throw in the race card in the hopes of detracting from the facts, which all led to the verdict of guilty. And it worked. So it's over. Nobody knows what will happen to O.J. although it's assumed he will get filthy rich from this. The lawyers will get rich, the jurors will get(deservedly) rich, the Judge probably won't get rich, everybody connected with the case will make money, except the victims. Americans will take a new look at race and justice, and we will have to reevaluate how we look at the system. And now, Court-TV can get back to it's regular programming. Thank God. "The system worked. But is the syl right?" -Sean Andrews