European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 17, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday september 17, 1977 the stars and stripes Page 11 Russeli Baker i wish College women would t blame their mathematics anxiety on men. As a male who was institutionalized for eight years with acute math anxiety six years in Public schools two years in a private University i can testify that this is one trauma that has nothing to do with sexual tension. It is Barking up the wrong tree for women to conclude that mathematics is More terrifying to them than to men. Yet this is the reasoning behind various Mathe Matics therapy groups now being established for women on campuses. Mccall s sums it up in a recent article girls become anxious about learning math because they View it As a male subject they do not see math As useful the wording used in problems is usually male oriented. As a result Only 10 per cent of All math doctorates Are earned by  and so More and More colleges Are of Fering math anxiety classes for  at Wesleyan University for example a woman who comes to the math clinic May be referred to math group therapy or coun seling to talk about when she first started fearing  i first started fearing math near the end of the seventh Grade. Naturally i ascribed it to adolescent male terror of women who snorted like War horses while raving about isosceles triangles for it was just such a european edition col. Billy e. Spangler Usa. Editor in chief it. Col. J. C. Taylor Usan. Deputy editor in chief Mert Proctor. Managing editor Elmer d. Frank. Production manager Henry s. Epstein. Circulation manager this newspaper is an authorized unofficial publication for . Armed forces overseas. The stars and stripes is published in conjunction with the armed forces information program of the department of defense. 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Many desperate years later i was one of that vast multitude of men who emerged from College without a doctorate in mathematics and have been scarred for life by inability to do our own income tax returns or verify the addition on restaurant checks. It was not women who did this to us however. It was the greeks. Enlighten ment came to me one Day in a calculus class while i was wrestling with Omicron. In calculus at that time students were always wrestling with Omicron. We squared Omicron divided Omicron and on really bad Days multiplied Omicron by my or what was even More terrifying by no. If you did All this correctly you could compute at which Angle to elevate a Cannon if you wanted to blast the blooms off the lilies in your neighbor s backyard. The Angle was Epsilon. On this particular Day i was wrestling with Omicron and losing As usual when i realized that i Nei ther knew nor cared what Omicron was and had not the least interest in computing effective Cannon elevations particularly since the answer came out in greek. It was t women who reduced the mathematics student to gibbering terror. It was greek. You were plunged into it Way Back there in the seventh Grade with i. One moment you were sailing right along adding 2 and 2 and getting 4 and multiply ing x and y and getting by and the next they had thrown i at you. Suddenly they were changing courses on you in Midstream. You had signed on for math and it turned out to be greek. Natu rally the student began to distrust the whole Enterprise. He had sat Down dream ing of the Day when he would have the know How to blast the neighbors Flowers with a French .75, in the nervous seizures that accompany uncertainty he began asking dumb questions like Why does anybody Ever have to know How to Square i and getting dumb answers such As dumb questions deserve like so you la know How to measure a  which led to sensible private reflections like How am i Ever going to get Rich enough to hire doctors of mathematics to do my income tax return for me if i spend my life measuring circles which led to Early suspicion that Mathe Matics was a waste of time. Not that English was t also a waste of time but in English at least you could sleep secure in the knowledge that nobody was going to sneak up behind you and shout Gamma or Omega it is this fear of sudden assault by in comprehensible tongues and symbols that lies at the heart of mathematics anxiety. If men get More doctorates than women it is surely not because mathematics is male oriented but because males with their powerful instinct toward machismo Are ashamed to admit that when it comes to i they Are Chicken. C new York times letters to the editor stamp collector s service offered i am writing in reply to a recent letter on commemorative stamp collecting. The postal service operates an automatic order service for collectors who Don t want to Chance missing an Issue. To subscribe to this service Send a de posit minimum $20 to the address below explaining what you re interested in. Then each time a new stamp comes out it will automatically be sent to you and the face value will automatically be deducted from your Deposit account. When your account reaches $5, you Are expected to make another Deposit if you wish the service to be continued. Order Blanks for previously issued Stamps Are also available. For More information write United states postal service philatelic sales uni Washington  20036 sgt. . William b. Wells Nellinger Germany same Model. Same Story when i first read a recent letter from a sergeant who had problems obtaining Auto parts from cafes i thought someone was Reading my mind. I was stewing from the same problem exactly the same Model car a 1976 Hornet the same part Brake pads and the same old tired Story from cafes. Only the location was different. After much helpful research through an outdated parts manual i was advised by the parts clerk to do one of two things get it from dad in conus or buy it on the Economy. Since the Economy route would have Cost me do 118 and a trip to Frankfurt i chose the former course of action which Cost me $9.60 plus $3 postage and a 10-Day wait. I can agree with cafes on one Point am products Are popular. That however is All the More reason for cafes to do something about a bad situation. It. Col. Frederick a. Perrenot Heidelberg Germany editor s note it. Col. Larry v. Cramer of the cafes Public relations division replies you should not have been told to get Brake pads for your Hornet from your dad or on the Economy. As we stated in a Previ Ous response the parts not immediately available in Europe Are available through our Philadelphia Liaison office. There has been one development per Taining to disc Brake pads since our Origi Nal response. We have received an updated report listing the number and models of vehicles registered in Usa eur. Based upon the number of 1976 pacers and hornets and the compatibility of Brake pads to both models we will begin stocking the Brake pads in Europe As of january. In the meantime cafes will continue to requisition the Brake pads from Phila Delphia. We regret that you were misinformed. The parts Catalon available since april does include listings for your  survivor benefits have a catch the following is extracted from retired army bulletin volume ii May june 1977 will the surviving resident alien spouse remain eligible to receive sep survivors benefits plan payments if he she returns to his her native country answer yes. However there is a non resident alien tax deduction from sep pay ments. This tax is currently 15 per cent for Canada and Australia and 30 per cent for All other foreign  i elected to take sep after i thought i knew what it was. That is i attended a briefing read the form and discussed it with the personnel officer. At no time was there a mention of a 30 per cent tax should my wife elect to live in Germany after my death. Given the Choice today i would not elect to take sep based on this knowledge. As i understand it the election for sep is final. Is it possible that because i was not informed of this tax that there is a breach of contract it sure seems to me there was for those of you with foreign wives con Sider the value of sep at 70 per cent if there is a Chance she May return to her country of birth after your death. Let the buyer  Glen e. Caldwell Augsburg Germany reminder All letters to the editor must contain full name and address of the writer and must be signed. Unsigned letters will not be considered for publication. Beach nudity mainly fad of Rich Vatican says Rome a the summer of 1977 brought More nudity than Ever to ital Ian beaches and open campaigns to give total tans to the masses but the Vatican concluded that nudity remains a phenomenon More or less of the wealthy class. The great majority of our people even today think differently from the hedonistic materialism of the minority. The Little and Middle class people did not respond and will not respond to this deafening invitation to the striptease Raimondo Manzini editor of the. Vati. Can daily l Osse Vatore Romano wrote in a front Page editorial. In fact when leftist political groups urged a massive strip on Public beaches last aug. 15 to give working class people the same rights to integral tans As those who can afford to go to secluded private beaches High noon passed almost unnoticed on most beaches packed with Holiday crowds. Nevertheless whether for sadism a fetish for a total Tan the urge to violate taboos or sheer exhibitionism the Mookini look was More in evidence than Ever on italian beaches. In a few really with it spots men and women alike stripped completely naked. There was the usual spate of denunciations by irate champions of less sophisticated morals and police operations that swooped up dozens of so called offenders of Public  one judge in Genoa cleared two Young girls last week on grounds that italians Are mature enough to look at Bare breasts without risking a break Down of morality. The metropolitan indians who spent the last school year painting their faces doing dances in the streets and demonstrating in the manner of the Yip pies of old congregated on the Island of Sardinia for the summer and decide that even Indian Loincloth were too restrictive. Local officials called for help and got a full scale military raid that round Dup those who could t grab their clothes and run fast enough to escape. One Young girl complained Here in Sardi Nia everybody goes nude Only they Don t say anything to the Rich people on the Emerald coast because they Are Consumers while our principal fault is that of not paying the vacation  in fact authorities justified the raid on grounds that the Indian tents had been set up on territory where camping was not authorized. The debate Over whether bathing suits must go to establish class Equality in Italy does not impress Manzini who rails in his editorial against those who attempt to justify the Campaign for nudity. He argued that nudity is not itself evil but respect for others demands certain standards of dress. Writers sociologists psychologists jurists politicians in fear of seeming tied to the past conjure up psychological historical and physiological rationalizations substantially in defense of total permissiveness he  thesis of the innocence and angelic nature of Man is a hypocrisy As the need of a total Tan is a