COLUMBIA Mo.
Ah, college life. All-night study sessions in the library. Professors challenging the conventional wisdom. Snowball battles on the quad.
Get real.
For students at the University of Missouri-Columbia, college is all about casual sex, meddling parents, foul-mouthed friendships and partying until you puke. At least that’s the portrayal in The Booze News, a new weekly newspaper that glorifies the wonders of excessive drinking.
The publication’s founders, a pair of University of Illinois graduates, call The Booze News (motto: “Today’s News … Under the Influence”) an over-the-top satire modeled after The Onion, the popular parody newspaper started by college students in Madison, Wis. that has since gone global.
But some Missouri students and local business owners aren’t laughing. A Booze News book review about interracial gay adoption that referred to the two male parents as “freaks” drew a formal protest and request that university officials censure the paper.
Several downtown business owners have thrown out the free paper, which has published four issues, afraid of offending customer sensibilities. Even some campus Greek houses deem the material too edgy for members.
