Richard H. Reed, 69, has experienced the world while staying close to his home at Ferris State University.

Reed is now known as Richard the Card Swiper for the impact he has had on students while being a host for Westview Dining Center. His positive impact on students is affirmed in the 400+ member Facebook group “I Heart Richard The Card Swiper at Westview”

“I didn’t know about the group until one of the students told me there were almost 750 people on it,” Reed said. “I about dropped after hearing that.”

“He makes a point to look at your card and get your name. Not many people do that,” said college of business student, Richard Swenor.

Reed said that he is always open to listening and helping people. He loves being the host and interacting with students. Reed once unknowingly gave a tour of the campus to the great grandson of founder Woodbridge Ferris because no official tours were being held.

Reed says that he tries to give students advice if they ask for it. He will at the very least have a conversation with everyone that comes in. Over the years he has advised students about moving off campus, employment, relationships, school, and much more.

“One thing I’m very strict about is when students start talking about credit cards,” Reed said. “You’ll be surprised at how much students have in credit card debt.”

Reed once met a girl who came to him about her credit card debt. She was about to graduate and was looking for a job. Reed told her that she wouldn’t be able to rent an apartment or buy a car with all that debt. He told her the first thing she needs to do is get rid of it, as fast as possible. The next time he saw her she gave him a big hug and told him he was right. She had nearly gotten rid of all the debt.

“Richard is a really outgoing guy. He’s always asking how you’re doing,” Kevin Kikkert, a sophomore in the College of Business and fellow worker at Westview said. “He’s just a really nice old man.”

Reed came back to Big Rapids to work at Ferris shortly after he retired as a businessman and manager. His wife convinced him that he can’t sit around all day, and that he should collect meal tickets for summer orientation. He’s been doing it ever since. He tries to learn as many names as possible and become friends with everyone.

Reed grew up in Big Rapids. He saw Ferris transform from being an institution, then a college, and then when it became a university. He witnessed the fire of Old Main and has been in all of the new buildings while they were being built.

Reed went on to attend Ferris as a business administration major. He’s a third generation Ferris student in his family. After Ferris he worked at Montgomery Ward in Detroit, Mich. in their management training program. He ran his own department and worked for the man running the sporting goods department.

Before Ferris and his professional life, Reed spent four years in the United States Navy as a Coreman. He spent 15 months with the Fleet Marine Force under a Rifle Company. While serving his time he worked with a plastic surgeon and learned how to do facial sutures. Even though he wasn't a surgeon himself, he performed so well he was given the opportunity to teach all the interns.

Reed worked several other jobs in managing positions and even taught as an adjunct professor at Ferris. He eventually became a manager for the Ferris Bookstore and saw some of the bookstore’s highest ever revenues. Reed was also very involved in the design of most of Ferris’ clothing line.

Reed said that his biggest accomplishments were making it through college, managing several clothing stores, teaching, and bringing the Ferris bookstore to its high revenues while being manager. His biggest influences were his father, Bob Bruinma from the Big Rapids Town and Country store, and Mr. Lundberg of the Ferris bookstore.

An intense juggler, twisting contortionist, and a comical magician join forces as they transform Williams Auditorium into a reallife circus.

One act consists of duo Evan Young and Jonathan Burns, who have dubbed themselves the “Show Off Show.”

Young, a Missouri native, is a professional juggler who began at the age of 14 when he enrolled in the Circomedia International Circus School in Bristol, England.

Jesse Stickley, a writer for the blog Sidewalk Performers, had the chance to see Young perform on the streets in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, “Evan juggled the torches, then later added a knife and bowling ball to the juggling, all while balancing on two skateboards on top of a piece of PVC piping. Incredible skill for such a young performer,” said Stickley.

Burns, who is the other half to the two man act, is a native of Pennsylvania who started experimenting with magic at the age of 12.

When he enrolled in Pennsylvania’s Millersville University, Burns began experimenting at a whole new level with juggling, stand-up comedy, contortionism, and sideshow stunts.

Amanda Lexander, a student at Lock Haven University, also in Pennsylvania, witnessed Burns comedic contortions first hand. “He twisted his body in all sorts of positions and played a bunch of tricks on audience members,” said Lexander. But her favorite part of the show was when Burns fit his entire body through a toilet seat.

“People tell me I’m pretty skinny, but there’s no way I could have done what he did. I was shocked,” said Lexander.

According to the “Show Off Show,” the audience will witness some astonishing stunts, but they will also get the chance to become part of the action when they learn a few skills to take home.

Another contributor to the show is stand-up comedian and magician Michael Kent. Kent, an Ohio native, has performed for an array of colleges and even some corporate clients like AT&T, Honda of America and Time Warner Cable.

According to Kent’s Web site michaelkentlive.com, the audience might experience his “Chicken Trick,” which is a highly “requested and never-forgotten” skit that involves a deck of cards, a rubber chicken, an audience member and a pair of rubber gloves.

Whatever each of these three performers have in store for Ferris, it will be the needed stress reliever students are looking for before Spring Break hits.

Williams Auditorium’s circus transformation begins at 7 p.m. on March 3. It is made possible by funds as allocated by the Finance Division of Student Government. For more information, contact x2610.

Biographical information courtesy of showoffshow.com and michaelkentlive.com.

Let us women moan, groan, and please ourselves the night away.

The Vagina Monologues was a one-hit-wonder with a powerful meaning for all.

The Williams Auditorium was packed of men and women, young and old alike, waiting to see what the Vagina Monologues had in store for us this year as it makes its seventh year a full-moaned blast.

It was a phenomenal and hilarious show with many monologues of women who either had their first orgasm, first “flood,” or finally finding out that their vaginas are beautiful.

I thought it was a powerful show with a powerful message. I loved the fact that they had monologues of women and their relationships with men and monologues of women and their relationships with women. It shows how effective this event can be towards any women of any status, race, or orientation.

“It was a good show. I’ve seen it over the past three or four years now, but I always come because it is an amazing show and very effective and powerful. It sends out a good message to men and women,” said FSU student and Secondary Math Education major, Kristen Ritter.

My favorite monologue was of a “woman who gets paid to make women moan.” She talked about her life before her “whore” job and said she was a lawyer at first.

The best part was the different “moans” expressed to the audience by the Vagina Monologues member, Courtney Hass. She did an amazing and hilarious job doing multiple moans from a “German moan” to a “Machine Gun moan” that had the crowd roaring with laughter.

The other monologues were very effective and kept the audience listening.

Not only were there good experiences, but bad ones too.

Some monologues had a man who was “beaten until the girl was out of the boy.” He wanted to be a girl, but people did not like it, so hurt him for it. He joined the Marines, grew a beard, and was trying to “be a man.”

Until he finally realized who he had to be and had his first hormone shot was when “I was able to finally be myself.”

The final monologue talked about the power point they had at the beginning of the show pertaining to the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa. It was to send a message to all to help out the half a million or more women who get raped and tortured by men who use it as a tactic to control everyone.

The Vagina Monologues has been around for 11 years now and has been globally recognized to help support women everywhere.

According to its Web site vday. org, V-Day has “crafted international educational, media and PSA campaigns, launched the Karama program in the Middle East, reopened shelters, and funded over 6000 community-based anti-violence programs and safe houses in Democratic Republic Of Congo, Haiti, Kenya, South Dakota, Egypt and Iraq.”

Imagine having the urge to pack your bags and leave town, taking only the essentials and a map; only to find that your road trip has turned into a 10 year vacation in over 100 countries.

Doug Lansky is a modern day drifter who has been traveling the world since 1992. On Feb. 26, Entertainment Unlimited has made it possible for students to “Get Lost” with Lansky as he shares his stories and advice on travel.

From a man who has lived a hefty fraction of his life ice golfing, alligator wrestling, sand surfing and riding ostriches in South Africa, who could resist his guidance on simple, safe, and cheap travel?

Keppler Speakers, Lansky’s speaking bureau, describes his “Get Lost” presentation as a fastpaced visual performance that he delivers in stand-up comedy form.

A Minnesota native, Lansky graduated from Colorado College and has interned for “Late Night with David Letterman,” “Spy Magazine,” and “The New Yorker Magazine.”

According to his biography at dounglansky.com, Lansky abandoned his career as a professional intern to pursue something bigger, the planet.

In an interview with veteran travel columnist Rolf Potts, Lansky said he got the travel bug while Eurailing during a summer abroad his junior year in college.

“I wandered down to Morocco for two weeks and found a job selling carpets,” said Lansky. “That gave me a great taste for traveling in developing countries, an idea of the sort of experiences that awaited, and the confidence to pursue them.”

During his travels, Lansky wrote a weekly column called “Vagabond” and became one of America’s youngest syndicated columnists. The column reached over 10 million readers in 40 major newspapers, one being the Detroit Free Press.

Lansky has since endowed his travel expertise to the Discovery Channel, National Geographic, Esquire, and other travel publications.

In his interview with Potts, Lansky said the biggest reward of being a travel writer is the lifestyle; he can go anywhere he wants doing fun, new and exciting stuff on a daily basis.

Lansky’s global odyssey begins at 7 p.m. in Williams Auditorium. It is a five star event made possible by funds as allocated by the Finance Division of Student Government. For more information, contact x2610.

When I heard that the Obama administration wanted to delay the transition from analog to digital broadcasting, I was slightly perturbed. Consumers will now have until June 12 to upgrade their TVs.

For over a year now we have been preparing and informing the masses about the February 17 changeover. Congress even went as far as offering $40 coupons for converter boxes to make sure no one was left in the dark.

Left in the dark!? It’s not like the government was causing people’s lights to not work anymore. TV is a privilege, not a necessity. The fact that government is spending so much time and money on making sure everyone can still watch their precious tube is just depressing to me.

According to the FCC, congress passed the DTV delay act on Feb. 4, 2009. This was only two weeks before the change was supposed to go into affect, with most broadcast stations ready to make the change. In fact, some stations will be going ahead with the termination of analog broadcasting on or before February 17. But in order to do so they have to follow certain procedures set forth by the FCC.

Over the course of the past ten years we have been in the process of following in the footsteps of over a dozen European countries that already broadcast digitally. So far the government has spent over $2 billion to warn the public of the transition, according to a Washington Post article.

As the date quickly approached, congress panicked because so many people had still not upgraded their TV’s. From the get go, the plan has been filled with political confusion over how to implement the transition. If broadcasters could just switch as planned, consumers will eventually find out and make the change.

As a student in the Television and Digital Media program, the transition has been a huge topic of discussion. The fact that we have been broadcasting in analog for so long is surprising. Digital technology is leaps and bounds ahead of analog. Pictures will be clearer, there will be options for HD, sounds will be better, and there will be more channels. In the end its simply a better product, well worth the $60 it costs to upgrade a TV.

I hope that in all this extra time we have, government will stop wasting time and money and start to do things right when it comes to this broadcasting fiasco.

Last week three Torch writers picked the winners for nine categories of the Oscars. Here are the results and "accepting speeches" from each writer.

Megan Tower: 8 for 9
Indie movies always have a thing for winning the biggest award, so it came no shock to me that “Slumdog” did so well. I would have gotten seven if I would have had time to change my winner for Best Actor; Rourke had been sweeping other award shows so I thought maybe he’d get the golden statue.

Jeanette Becker: 4 for 9
I was a little upset that “Benjamin Button” didn’t take home more awards. I suppose a nomination is just as good, Pitt can’t have his cake and eat it too. I’m not surprised “Slumdog” took almost half the awards. Their PR have done an excellent job of plastering their faces on every magazine and getting them spots in every show. Way to go!

Alyssa Martuch: 3 for 9
Yes, Kate Winslet fi nally won Best Actress. She’s an amazing actress, who was very out of breath when she won, and deserved it all. “Wall-E” and “Milk” weren’t a surprise for best Animated Feature Film and Original Screenplay, respectively. Those were good movies.