I remember back in 1999 when Pepsi put “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace” on all their products. It got to the point late in the summer when they began to put minor characters on the cans, such as Boss Nass. Now obviously, this was not the best choice, because most people probably didn’t remember who Boss Nass was in the film – he made Jar Jar a Bombad Gen-a-ral, though I could be wrong as it has been years since I saw this film. I, however, ate it up figuratively, and was excited to see the minor characters finally getting their dues. Granted, I was 14 and quite impressionable, but still, I had never been more excited to hold a Pepsi than when Watto was on the can.

From that point on, I recall never stopping, even with “Superman Returns” last year. As soon as I saw the Superman Sobe energy drink, I started buying them every time I walked into a convenience store. How convenient. So why, at the age of 21, am I still influenced to buy products because of the movie tie-ins on the front?

My answer is that it connects us to the films that we love and enjoy so much. Sure, I could have simply purchased a box of Fruit by the Foot, which I enjoyed more when I was a kid. But Fruit by the Foot had no connection to Spider-Man!

Likewise, some things have an adverse effect when placed on the front of a product. If a product were to put say, a film like Disney’s “The Wild” on the front of their package, I certainly would stay far away from it. This summer, I am making sure to stay away from products with “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” or “Shrek the Third” on them – no matter how hard you argue, those movies still suck. I was not a fan of the first movie and certainly would never support a product that endorsed the sequel. Nor will I be purchasing a ticket to see these films. While you may love these movies and you may go out and buy your boxes of cereal with Donkey or Mr. Fantastic on the box, I will stick with my Spider-Man, thank you very much.

I encourage people to support what they like. If they like a film and want to have that connectedness with it, then why not buy the products endorsed by it? I remember my parents used to say, “Oh, you just want it because Batman’s on the Cornpops. You don’t even like Cornpops.” And this was true; I did not like Cornpops at the time. After picking them up, however, and feeling the power of Batman surge through me with each sweet, sweet bite, I sure as hell enjoy them now.

Anthony Crabtree loves “Batman Forever” and Cornpops.

Joy over the University of Maine hockey team’s second straight trip to the Frozen Four may be short lived for some Black Bears fans, who must have been discouraged by the eye-popping $640 price tag on UMaine’s fan bus trip to St. Louis.

In the past, the bus – scheduled to leave Orono on Tuesday, April 3 and return after the national championship game – has been a cost-friendly way for students to follow the Black Bears to college hockey’s biggest stage. We have to wonder if $640 is simply too much for most students, who would also have to pay for hotel accommodations on top of the bus trip fare.

A quick visit to Greyhound’s Web site reveals a $168 price tag for an advance-purchased, round-trip fare to the Gateway to the West. The trip includes tickets to all three Frozen Four games, valued at $155, meaning someone lucky enough to score tickets from an outside source could take the same trip for $323 – nearly half UMaine’s $640 price tag.

We understand that UMaine has to pay more to charter a bus than Greyhound does, but that can’t possibly explain a $317 difference in cost. In the future, the university should work harder to find a realistic, cost effective way to help fans watch the Black Bears chase the national title.

Renters’ fair to address housing issues

A renters’ fair for students seeking to learn more about off-campus housing availability will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday. Representatives from local rental agencies and local landlords will be on the first floor of Memorial Union to answer students’ questions and address concerns about the often confusing process of renting housing for the first time.

This is just one in a long series of well-planned and useful programs offered by Commuter and Non-Traditional Students’ Programming. Residence Life alum Barbara Smith, who oversees CNTSP, has done a lot of work within this organization and deserves to be recognized.

Students should remember to take advantage of this opportunity. Swing by the Union Tuesday and see what the renters’ fair has to offer.

On March 17 at 10:03 p.m., officers were notified of a loud party on High Street in Old Town. When the officers arrived, they located the residents of the apartment, Andrew Connolly, 21, and Richard Price, 21. The party attendants were told to leave. Both Connolly and Price were issued disorderly conduct warnings.

Warrant for bad checks

On March 19 at 9:20 p.m., an officer picked up Shannon Campbell, 23, on a warrant arrest. The warrant was due to unpaid fines and fees for negotiating a worthless instrument.

Trio of fake IDs

On March 20 at 7:58 p.m., Ashley Sykes, 19, Leigh Russell, 19, and Kathryn Smith, 19, were all brought in and questioned because Old Town Police had been notified of three young women who had been using fake IDs to get into local bars. All three women admitted to using other people’s identification cards to enter bars. Sykes, Russell and Smith were all told to return the IDs to their proper owners and the three were issued warnings for using false identification.

Littering . that’s right, littering

On March 25 at 1:22 a.m., an officer found a young man on Middle Street in Old Town littering. The man was identified as Adam Perkins, 18. Perkins was issued a summons for littering.

Zero tolerance violation for underage driver

On March 25 at 2:12 a.m., an officer pulled over David Richardson, 19. Richardson was visibly intoxicated so the officer took him in. Richardson received a zero tolerance violation.

Review Board decides on students’ complaints

By Melanie Cyr

The Free Speech and Assembly Review Board recently concluded consideration of complaints made by the Students for a Democratic Society. Their complaints concerned university administration actions during their February 6 protest against a Dow Chemical interviewer on campus.

According to the Review Board’s statement “the principal issue involved was whether or not the University Policy on Free Speech and Assembly guarantees . the right to demonstrate within buildings other than in (officially scheduled) rooms.” What the issue raised dealt with was a concise interpretation of a certain clause in the Policy. This section denies would be demonstrators the privilege of using inside facilities unless the use of such has been “scheduled through the proper authorities.”

There were also three other aspects of the SDS complaint. One stemmed from the refusal of permission to SDS members to distribute the leaflets via an airplane flying low over the campus. The SDS charged that this decision was a “denial of free expression in general and was discriminatory . because such permission had been granted in the past.”

Secondly, SDS maintains that the “lock out” at Coburn Hall was “contrary to the spirit of the policy statement permitting free expressions of opinions on campus.”

SDS demonstrators also claimed that the campus police carried service revolvers and were “backed up” by several outside police officers. These actions, they felt, “intimidated” the protestors.

The Committee met on four occasions, February 15 through March 1. Robert B Cobb of Student Services, Larry Moskowitz of SDS and Professor Stewart Doty, among others, submitted written statements. Witnesses to the events of the day also appeared before the Board.

The conclusions reached included two recommendations to the administration, replies to the three more specific SDS charges and an interpretation of the “inside facilities” clause.

The Board agreed that the “lock out” was “not unreasonable”; however, “lock-outs” clearly border on, if they do not actually constitute, prior restraint to free expression: for this reason, the Committee recommends that they “be avoided in the future.”

The second suggestion encompassed the ill-defined question of “intimidation” by the presence of off-campus police. It included also the administration’s issuance of vague warnings of “severe disciplinary action” to those intending to disrupt Dow Chemical recruiting on campus.

In the first case, the Committee decided that the off-campus’ police did not serve to intimidate. It agreed, however, that “the failure of administration officials to specify clearly what sanctions would be imposed if the demonstrations took place in proscribed inside facilities was, in a sense, intimidating.” The Committee recommended that the “appropriate administrative officials make clear what sanctions they will seek to impose in the event of unauthorized inside demonstrations.”

Refusal to allow an airplane to be flown over the campus to drop leaflets was upheld by the Committee as “neither unreasonable nor discriminatory.”

That the campus security police were not carrying revolvers was satisfactorily determined to the Board members. And they agreed that the presence of outside police forces was “neither unreasonable nor unusual.”

Undoubtedly the most important conclusion reached was the Board’s interpretation of the Free Speech and Assembly Policy in regard to the use of inside facilities. The Board said that “the policy statement does not guarantee the right to demonstrate in corridors, lobbies, or in any other part of the building that are not normally used for scheduled meetings.” Furthermore, “these inside facilities must be made available in a non-discriminatory basis.”

The Review Board members are Richard Cohen and Paul Cote, students; James MacCampbell and H. Austin Peck, administrators; and Edward Elton and Edward Collins, faculty. Professor Collins serves as chairman.

Last week was the four-year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq in order to topple Saddam Hussein. On March 20, 2003, American forces conducted the infamous “Shock and Awe” campaign to remove Hussein’s Ba’ath Party from government. They succeeded, capturing the ousted Iraqi leader in December 2003. He was executed three years later, nearly to the day. Although the initial overthrow of the Ba’ath Party and installation of a new Iraqi government were largely successful undertakings, the problem of stability has plagued Iraq since the early stages of the war. Violence is a daily occurrence; casualty estimates range from 50,000, by former senior U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, to more than 655,000 by the British medical journal, The Lancet.

To frame the situation in Iraq today and the discussion of lessons learned, Allen read from an op-ed piece he wrote for the Bangor Daily News in February 2003, a month before the invasion. “As we prepare for war, the key points of discussion should be to assess the real threats to the United States and the best way to deal with the crisis with Iraq . Saddam Hussein and Iraq are a threat, but they are not an immediate threat.”

“There are many unstable and dictatorial regimes, some of which already possess nuclear weapons, unlike Iraq, and some of which possess far more biological and chemical weapons than Iraq, but Washington is inappropriately obsessed with Iraq to the detriment of local, state and national interests,” Allen continued.

He stated that everything the leading policymakers were saying in the months prior to the war was false, most notably Colin Powell’s testimony to the United Nations, which was built on false intelligence about mobile biological weapons labs and Iraqi links to al-Qaida. Allen questioned who could have known about the discrepancies in hindsight and who did know about them and lied.

Among the major lessons learned, Allen pointed to militarism on the part of the United States. He said that since the onset of the war, rhetoric has been altered and the United States is acting unilaterally in an apparent “arrogance of power.” American military expenditure is more than that of the rest of the world’s nations combined and the “doctrine of pre-emption has given war a new status,” according to Allen.

The consequences of war are “unpredictable and very threatening,” Allen wrote in his op-ed column. He prophetically listed these consequences as being “the likely escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; the volatile destabilization of Iraq, with Shia uprisings in the South possibly linked with Islamic militants in Iran; Kurdish uprisings in the North . and the permanent stationing of many thousands of U.S. troops in Iraq and the expenditure of many billions of dollars trying to impose foreign order on the chaos.”

At this point in Iraq, Allen said, “The best thing we can do is withdraw the troops . but then our policy should not be hands-off.” He went on to say that the United States needs to help undo some of the damage with reparations and should be working hand-in-hand with the U.N. and other countries in the region to stabilize and rebuild Iraq.

The Black Bears came out on top in the opener with a score of 4-3, but fell in their second game against the Knights by a score of 7-3. One of the many standout freshmen on this year’s squad, Alexis Souhlaris, led UMaine’s offense in the win, going 2-3 and knocking in a pair of runs. Senior Tara Vilardo also provided a lift with a solo home run to tie the score in the fifth inning. The score remained tied until the final inning, when Ashley Waters hit a single to right field to drive in outfielder Kate Joseph, who had reached with a single earlier in the inning. Getting the win was freshman pitcher Christine McGivney [4-5], who struck out two and allowed just one hit in her four innings of relief work.

Freshman catcher Whitney Spangler was the offensive leader in the second game, with a pair of RBIs, but it wasn’t enough to make up for the four-run deficit. Jenna Balent went six innings but took the loss, allowing seven runs on 14 hits.

On Sunday, the team evened their record before America East play begins, with a win over the Peahens from Saint Peter’s. Freshman pitcher Jessica Ghazali continued her fantastic rookie season, improving her record to 6-2 with the win and allowing only three hits and one walk, while striking out one batter in seven full innings of work. UMaine’s two runs were scored in the first and fifth innings, both by Vilardo. She got help with hits from Spangler and Kristie Hawkins – who got the RBI – in the first, and Spangler, who hit a double to bring Vilardo in to score in the fifth. Spangler finished the tournament with a .364 batting average and three RBIs. Waters also batted .364 in the three games.

UMaine returns to action next weekend, when it begins America East play with a three-game series at UMBC in Baltimore, MD. The series will get underway with a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at noon and the set will conclude with a single game on Sunday.

“It’s a different type of rugby,” said club president Brian St. Pierre. “You play two, sometimes three games in one day, and then won’t have another game for two weeks.”

So far this year, UMaine has played in two tournaments. The first was the Harm in the Barn tournament at the University of New Hampshire. At the tournament, the team placed second, losing to the three-time defending champions Mushroom Tattoos, a men’s club team out of New York. The team was happy with its play, beating other men’s club teams, Division I teams, as well as a few teams in their own conference.

“We went down there and gave them the hammer,” said freshman Anthony Bruneau. “You have never experienced rugby until you’ve played it in an old horse barn in February.”

UMaine also took a trip to Savannah, Ga. for the Savannah Shamrocks’ annual St. Patrick’s Day Tournament, where they faced other college teams in a two-day tournament. They again placed second in the tournament, moving past the University of Houston and Buffalo University, ultimately losing in the finals to Ohio University.

Because of their tremendous play in the fall, the team has been making some national news. In a poll put out by Rugby magazine by expert rugby analysts Timothy Goff, UMaine was ranked No. 13 in the nation for Division II. This accomplishment speaks volumes, because they are the only team in the top 25 that does not have a coach.

“We are very proud of our play,” said sophomore Tony Purpura. “But our goal is not national rankings, it is to go down to Maine Cup and show the rest of Maine what our team is all about.”

Maine Cup is the once-a-year tournament that is held in Cumberland, Maine where all the rugby teams from Maine come together and play for the right to be called the best team in Maine. Last year, UMaine came in second place to the University of Maine at Farmington, UMaine’s toughest competition this year as well. At this tournament, the best players from Maine are selected for an all-star game played against other New England teams. Five UMaine players were selected last year, the most from any team in Maine. They also had three honorable mentions.

As UMaine gears up for Maine Cup, they are also looking ahead to next year.

“We really want the UMaine campus to embrace rugby, so we are looking into having a tournament next winter in the dome,” said St. Pierre. The team also plans to release its schedule earlier, and get some games on the Maine Channel.

“Rugby is a great sport, and if people gave it a chance I think they would really like it,” said St. Pierre.

After watching his team get smacked up for four goals and tossed around by the University of Maine men’s ice hockey squad, the St. Cloud State head coach didn’t have to be prolific. Nor did he have to be poetic. He just had to be honest. And that he was.

“We’ve never seen that before,” Motzko said about what occurred on the ice inside Blue Cross Arena during UMaine’s 4-1 thwopping of the Huskies.

At the time, Motzko was talking about the performance of netminder and Hobey Baker finalist Bobby Goepfert. Yet he could have been discussing a wide array of topics – the team’s power play, their physical play, the ability to transition successfully. One thing was clear – this wasn’t the same St. Cloud State team fans had read about on paper.

But then again, this wasn’t the same UMaine team either.

After receiving little to no press last week, the Black Bears came into Rochester light years away from their woes in Amherst.

The energy was different. The mood was different. And most importantly, the play was different. Taking a cue from Cyndi Lauper, the Black Bears just wanted to have fun.

“It was nice to get back out there and play,” said netminder Ben Bishop. “It was a lot of fun. It was fun playing how we played. Everyone was playing hard. It’s fun when everyone is clicking. We didn’t have that pressure that we had at the end of the season, when we had to make the tournament. Nobody expected us to win and nobody expects us to win again, so we carry that underdog attitude with us and just have fun. The guys enjoyed this.”

From the beginning, the vibe amongst the 25 Black Bears was something freshman.

“It was a weird feeling, it almost felt like the first game of the season,” said Mike Lundin. “We’ve been off for a while. I was pretty nervous coming in, probably the most nervous I’ve been since that Minnesota game at the first of the season. We were as prepared as best as we could be.”

According to captain Michel Leveille, there were no bones about it. The layoff in between competition was an added bonus.

“As weird as it was, I think it was a great wake-up call for us to lose four in a row. It was definitely really disappointing,” Leveille said. “But knowing that we would get a chance to bounce back and actually get a chance to go to the Frozen Four was huge. The entire week we really practiced hard. Guys want to prove themselves, we wanted to do things right.”

“I thought our focus all week was unbelievable, we practiced really hard,” said junior Billy Ryan. “They were some of our hardest practices all year. Everyone has been giving it 100 percent every day and it’s starting to finally pay off.”

On Friday, that payoff came in a variety of forms, but most notably the penalty kill – shutting down the Huskies nine times.

“Tonight was probably the best game penalty kill-wise that I’ve seen in a while from us,” said Bishop. “Guys were all over them, I don’t even think they had a chance to set up. And when they did, their shots were from the point and I saw most of them. Plus, the D did a great job of clearing out rebounds.”

Arguably the biggest payoff on the kill arrived on a 5-on-3 around nine minutes into the first, when UMaine clogged up the lane and denied the Huskies any chance of getting back into the game. During the stretch Bishop also felt his confidence upgrade.

“It was right on that 5-on-3; I had quite a few shots and things started to change,” said Bishop. “I was moving around and didn’t have to wait three minutes later to make another one.”

“People think goals change the momentum of the game but a lot of times it’s the penalty kill,” said Ryan. “The coaches spend a lot of time with video on it and now it’s paying off.”

The looseness also carried over to the Black Bears’ shooting. Refusing to clutch up on their sticks, the team took it to Goepfert on a night where he only had 17 saves – a rather strange and minimal statistic for the star netminder.

“Obviously, at this point there are always great goalies, there’s no mystery on that,” said Leveille. “You just have to get shots to the net and take the goalie’s eyes away. I scored the third goal, but I shouldn’t get any credit. You got to give all the credit to Brent Shepheard. He did the dirty job in front of the net.”

“He’s a Hobey Baker finalist -an unbelievable goalie,” said Lundin. “But we crashed the net and got some ugly goals and that’s what you have to do.”

Two of the tallies came on what could be interpreted as soft goals.

“A couple plays like that -sometimes they happen,” said Motzko. “In two years, we’ve never seen that. They were fluke plays.”

Like Motzko said early on after his team’s dismissal, sometimes these things happen. From the Black Bears standpoint, it’s about time they did.

Honorable Mention: Brent Shepheard.

The Real All-Region Team: Michel Leveille, Matt Anderson, Kevin Jarmen, Mike Lundin, Bret Tyler and Ben Bishop.

Most Outstanding Player for The Maine Campus: Ben Bishop

The Real Most Outstanding Player: Michel Leveille.

Best Quote Not Said By a Player or Coach on the Weekend: “What is this Entourage?”

- CollegeHockeyNews.com Editor in Chief Adam Wodon when the Black Bears brought a whole posse of supporters [President Kennedy, Blake James, Grant Standbrook] to the Friday Night press conference.

Best Quote Said By a Player or Coach on the Weekend: “You could say that.”

- UMaine Defenseman Matt Duffy in response to the claim that despite not scoring many goals, he manages to always put a goal in during big games.

Best Sign Provided by Fan at the Regional (may not be exact): Will Maine win the East Regional? Does a Black Bear (Bleep) in the Woods.

Round of Applause: On Saturday the Black Bears’ seniors earned their third Frozen Four in four years, a remarkable feat.

“I’ll never really realize how hard it is to get to this point; it seems like we bare down when it gets to tournament time, it’s a great feeling that so many guys don’t get to feel,” said Lundin. “I’m lucky enough to get three experiences now.”

Sympathy Award: Don “Toot” Cahoon for still being gracious and appreciative after having his miracle season finish one game shy of the Frozen Four. Plus his nickname is “Toot.”

The Biggest Game Changer: Mike Hamilton’s bank shot off the shoulder blade of netminder Jon Quick, which proved luck was on UMaine’s side.

Biggest Worry of the Weekend: The sometimes disappointing lack of discipline which saw UMaine give up 17 power plays.

Easiest Way to Stay Entertained During Breaks (tie): Catch one of the many upsets going on around the tourney on a TV or watch Blake James and Tim Whitehead’s kids running around, cheering for their fathers’ program.

Best Sight of the Weekend Off the Ice: Keenan Hopson at the game and cheering on his teammates despite recent surgery.

Some Quotable Quotes:

On Keith Johnson and the seniors kicking off Saturday’s game right:

“Keith is very much an unsung hero for us,” said Whitehead. “Him, Shep and Hammy have been just fabulous in each of their own ways. Each one brings a lot of things to the table – I think that is what I like most about this senior class: They are all such complete players. They’re not one-dimensional players and as a result you see them all in power play, penalty kill, and first and last minute situations. Some of them started that way like Leveille and Lundin, and others developed into that. Great players come in all size and shapes and colors; each one is unique.”

On another Frozen Four Appearance Looming Against Michigan State:

“I think the big thing is if we keep getting those opportunities each year, hopefully something good will happen for this group,” said Whitehead. “But you have to earn it and they understand it. They understand how tough it is to even get there, let alone win, so they are prepared to pay the price to get there and win it.”

It was hilarious listening to Minutemen fans spewing venom about four straight wins against the hapless Black Bears. They were awfully confident for a bunch that had never been to the show before. “We’re undefeated in the NCAA tournament,” they’d say. But it was nothing more than a sure sign that they’d never been here before, since anyone who has recognizes one thing: Never, ever overlook UMaine.

Full disclosure merits that I mention that there’s a little thing between myself and UMass: I hate them – unconditional, unbridled hatred. I moved from Boston to the woods of Maine to get as far away from there as possible, and they’ve been my most hated Hockey East team since Jimmy Howard delivered the prize in three overtimes my freshman year.

Needless to say, I didn’t sleep a wink Friday night. I was completely terrified at the prospect that UMass could be going to St. Louis, to the Frozen Four. Maybe UMaine isn’t destined to go every single year, and I could live with that. But UMass? I’d rather lose to Air Force, or worse, to UNH.

All night I told myself, “We’re the hockey school, dammit.” I figured we’d just beaten the pants off of a St. Cloud team that was definitely better than the fraud No. 1 seed Clarkson.

But those four games lingered, mostly because UMaine had outplayed UMass and still lost. I knew the Black Bears had more talent and more experience, and I still found myself hawking my Hockey East championship tickets on Craig’s List. Coupled with the crushing defeat the Minutemen laid on the football team in November, I continually wondered if UMass was destined to ruin everything about my senior year.

The game wasn’t going well, either. It was the same story, and I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. UMaine was carrying the play but had nothing to show for it, and it seemed like a matter of time before something stupid happened and the Bears trailed 1-0. Bret Tyler put me at ease, but it was Mike Hamilton’s remarkable tally of Jon Quick’s coconut – I call it Excedrin headache No. 22 – that put the game away for me.

There were no doubts the rest of the way. UMaine was going to college hockey’s biggest stage, again. Outside the pages of The Maine Campus, NHL.com veteran Bob Snow was the only one who remembered what UMass will now never forget: The Black Bears own the regionals.

This battle-tested group just brings it this time of year. Don’t ask me how or why, just as I couldn’t explain to the 100 people who asked me, “What the hell is wrong with Maine?” over spring break. It just does. Under Tim Whitehead, the Black Bears are 8-2 in regional play, with the only two losses coming to Michigan and Minnesota on their home ice. Four Frozen Fours in six years is a dynasty in the making.

It’s only in the making because there’s no banner, no ring and no more hardware than UNH has since 1999. To paraphrase savior Ben Bishop – who looked like a completely different goalie this weekend and was jobbed for regional MVP, by the way – the mission is only half complete. Whitehead, Leveille and the gang need – and deserve – rings.

Then we can get to more important tasks, like figuring out a way to fit a “no hardware” insult into an acronym for UMass.