Show Ii C Report From Washington Washington Washington- By LAURENCE J J. J BURTON Utah R-Utah This is the season for k giving ing-giving thanks at Thanksgiving ing time giving presents at Christmas time time-a season when w we believe it is better batter to give than to receive And that in inI includes in- in I eludes Washington The nations nation's capital however however how how- I ever has that giving feeling days a year Im I'm talking about money-grants money shelled out for projects While Im I'm sure most will agree that there isa is isa a definite need for financial aid from federal to state and local levels it occurs to me that I this government giving gets t L carried away a little more than t. t I it should I Take for instance the colI college college col- col j I lege in California producing a comic book costing No Noi i i kidding The National t Jj lion tion on the Arts and Sciences C tIt awarded the grant and firmly i H I defended their action They said saidi 11 11 i the researching of comic strips was in the public Interest They s 1 said comics were a source of i information about historical progress and that the study was important to the survival and well-being well of the nation since comics affect the publics public's thinking thinking thinking think think- ing The ladies reading this report re report report re- re port may find the next bit of information most Interesting but I think it might be lost loston loston loston on male readers A grant went to the University of Florida to teach mothers how to play with their babies A grant was awarded to the Israel Institute of Applied Applied Applied Ap Ap- plied Science for a a test of husband wife husband relationships The test was for and interpersonal aspects of therole therole the therole role of a husband and wife's relationship And it also said The fhe test should be sensitive And what's the latest you know mow about Indo Australian Ants Some folks know a lot- lot or should know a lot anyway A grant was awarded to classify and find out the population biology of these ants It doesn't stop here It gets more ridiculous even though Iam I Iam Iam am sure the researchers are dead serious in what they are doing and there is a certain amount of merit In all these projects Although no one has ever totaled these grants under a heading of weird unbelievable unbelievable able able able- or ridiculous here are a few Ive I've picked up and pass along for your education Some was shelled out of bottom for the foggy speculation speculation spec spec- In Cave Beetles a grant agrant of 5 went for the compilation compilation compilation com com- of writings on the fur trade between the United States and Canada between 1770 and 1820 to LeRoi LeRol Jones and the Black Arts Theater for productions such as the one titled The fhe Toilet Tollet- and half halfa a million dol dollars tars were found not doing anything anything- in the Agency for International Development Development Devel Devel- Development so when some chap from Lebanon asked for the grant AID dished out for a which school-which didn't even exist Hows How's that for economy Vietnam has taken its share of US U.S. momey About bought 1000 TV sets for South Vietnam villages The only problem was that many of these villages weren't equipped equipped equipped equip equip- ped with electricity and many of the TV sets weren't equipped with batteries If that wasn't enough the TV sets were equipped with two channels to view-real view democracy democracy democracy racy so the people wouldn't have to watch only one chan chan- nel They set up one channel for American propaganda broadcasts The other channel could receive old cowboy films 1 I Love Lucy etc You dont don't have to use much imagination to realize what channel was watched Its It's all kind of humorous if you dont don't think about our national some debt bil- bil lion and if you forget about the fact that we went an additional 25 billion into debt this past year If U you think that all the money for unusual projects is awarded to kooky places outside outside outside out out- side the good of 01 mountain west Just let me relate a few In Instances In- In stances A University of Arizona professor professor professor pro pro- fessor was conducting what he thought was a very interesting experiment but he needed some money The federal coffers gave up to help him out What was he doing He wanted to know why some girl lizards can do without boy lizards Really He had found that several several several sev sev- eral distinct species found in Arizona consist of nothing but females He wanted to research the love life Ufe of whiptail lizards Our own state of Utah benefited bene bene- fitted from some of the grant aid Utah State University at Logan was awarded to research a project called by grant officials The Social Studies of Squirrels And I hope there arent aren't too many students at the University University University sity of Utah smiling over the Utah State grant because the theU theU theU U will take a back seat to tono tono tono no one when it comes to getting getting getting get get- ting grants for special The most famous I think was a grant awarded to that Salt Lake City of higher learning for forthe forthe forthe the study of the sex life of mice |