The Red and Black

Issue date: 11/28/07 Section: Opinions

Give a little bit

Donate your love, time or moolah. Maybe your heart will grow three sizes.

While many University students will be spending their holiday break giving gifts and enjoying home-cooked meals, many others will not be as fortunate. With winter break quickly approaching, now is the time to start thinking about how to give back to the Athens community because, after all, 'tis the season.

The Make-A-Wish Foundation, Toys for Tots and The Salvation Army are three organizations that would benefit this winter from both monetary and material donations and can be contacted via their Web sites.

Many Athens churches and other places of worship will host canned food drives and/or accept donations of blankets and coats, which will be given to the city's needy this winter. For those who would prefer to give their time rather than their checkbook, Athens area homeless shelters, hospitals and nursing homes can always use a helping hand.

Humanitarian projects like these are always looking for volunteers. Search the Athens charity guide for examples of such opportunities at www.charity-charities.org/charities/GA/Athens.html. Before you start singing carols and drinking eggnog, think about what you can do to make the life of someone in need just a little merrier this year. Make donating time or money number one on your holiday "to do" list this season and give back to the Athens community.

- Jacquelyn Greenwood for the editorial board.

Tan and toasted

'Tis better to sport a natural skin hue than to look like a carrot with hair.

With months of cold weather ahead, many students will hit up the tanning salon this winter in order to preserve that precious bronze coat for which they worked so hard the past six months. In the process, however, they'll place their future health in serious jeopardy as they absorb harmful UVA and UVB rays, both of which are unregulated by the FDA.

To all those tanning bed faithfuls, we ask this: is it better to spend the winter pale but protect your future well-being, or to resemble a swimsuit model now but a leather hide by the ripe age of 40?

In fact, we say embrace your whiteness, or clearness, or less-tan-than-you-would-be-if-you-went-to-the-salon-ness. Sure, you could use that artificial spray-on tan-in-a-bottle and preserve both your bronzy glow now and your precious health later. But honestly, what's the point? We say the paler, the sexier. After all, when was the last time you saw a classical painting of a nude female sporting a tan?

We're here to embrace what's natural, and we'll be the first to admit there are certain types of tans that seem unavoidable. Rather than cringing at your newly formed Teva tan or the white space on your cheek once occupied by last weekend's Georgia G, why not strive toward such natural, healthy and meaningful tans that reflect not only your humility but also your personality?

Other harmless novelty tans include the Croc tan, the driving tan, the raccoon tan, the sweatband tan and the perennial watch tan, none of which will cast doubt upon your future and all of which will exude pure, unadulterated sex.

- Matthew Grayson for the editorial board.

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