Millikan is the first franchisee of Murphy’s Lawrence-based company, Wheat State Pizza, and he has vowed to beat Murphy at his own game: he is determined to open more Wheat State Pizza shops than his friend. But the competition is an old game for the two men; And regardless of who claims victory, both expect to profit.

“That's all we've done our entire careers in the pizza business,” said Millikan, Wheat State’s former director of operations. “That's what's brought us along; that's what has picked us up. We've always battled each other. There's always been a friendly competition between the two of us.”

Millikan opened a Wheat State Pizza in September in Junction City. And though it is the seventh location to open, it is the first that is not owned by the company. The store is a symbol of Murphy’s new direction for Wheat State Pizza: franchising. And since announcing the opportunity, Murphy said the interest has come pouring in.

“We've had four different franchise groups look at us and they're all still very interested,” Murphy said. “One dropped out -- however, they're wanting to invest in the company.”

The original painting of Wheat State Pizza's logo decorates the wall of the original Lawrence location at 23rd and Louisiana streets. Photo: Sam Knowlton

But Millikan said the company is structured to help franchisees turn a profit right away. Sales at his Junction City store broke into the black -- after operating costs and a payment on the 5-year loan that financed the shop -- the very first month.

"We hit the ground running," Millikan said. "We made money the first month, we made money the second month, we made money this month.”

In fact, each of the Wheat State Pizza stores made a profit the first month, Murphy said, except one: the original Lawrence store. In Lawrence, the competition is fierce. There are 18 other restaurants that specialize in selling pizza, and that's not including restaurants like Milton's or Old Chicago.

The fact that Wheat State Pizza was able to survive and eventually thrive in Lawrence is a testament to the size of the niche that the company occupies, Murphy said. It's an example he uses often to tout Wheat State's competitive edge.

“This market is a perfect example of how we compete with major chains. We are sitting in a store right now that's tucked away in a corner, directly across the street from Papa John's and Pizza Hut that are very visible off of 23rd and Louisiana in Lawrence, Kansas,” Murphy said. “I use that as a marketing approach. I'm not afraid to compete with a major competitor. The biggest thing is to have really, really good quality.”

Murphy is expecting many more to jump at the opportunity to open their own Wheat State Pizzas in the next 18 months, but keeping the growth controlled is essential to maintaining quality and preserving the spirit of the company.

“In the next six months, I'd say we'll do at least two, possibly three in this area. After '07 I think we'll start reaching out and trying to tackle other markets like St. Louis, Omaha,” Murphy said.

There are currently seven Wheat State Pizza stores in Kansas. The first franchise opened in September in Junction City. Source: Google Maps

Luckily, Millikan believes the investment is a shoe-in, and for Wheat State Pizza, there's no telling how far it might go, he said. He is clear about his own goals, however.

“Who knows what the future holds?” Millikan said. “What do I want to do personally? I want to own 20 pizza stores, at least.”

But for Murphy, the decision to franchise his company is about more than just numbers: It’s the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. Murphy opened the first store in 2004 with $40,000 of personal loans and credit card debt and a $40,000 loan his brother-in-law took out, using his house as collateral.

Less than three years since opening, Murphy has met his lifelong goal of opening a restaurant -- six times over. So he’s refocused his ambition on developing the quality of the company’s products, and putting Wheat State Pizza in the minds, and bellies, of customers nationwide.

“That's kind of my dream -- is to expand large enough to where people are familiar with the name, familiar with the quality and the taste of it. It's real simple. It doesn't matter how many stores we have,” Murphy said. “The growth will take care of itself if people hear about it and it has a good reputation.”

And in Millikan’s eyes, it is Murphy’s dedication to quality that sets Wheat State Pizza apart from its largest competitors -- even Papa John’s, which occupies a similar niche. But Millikan’s belief in the future of Murphy’s company was strong enough to bring him back to the pizza business after he had retired from the industry. He just couldn’t find a pizza outlet where he felt his talents could be fully utilized -- until Murphy called him in 2005, asking for help with his new business.

And with Millikan and Murphy renewing their old competitive streak, the sauces are flowing like never before. Even if Murphy wins the race and opens stores more quickly, Millikan is glad to be reunited with the business and an indescribable feeling that he had been craving since he left.

“Once you’ve been in the business -- it’s kind of hard to explain -- but you really never leave it. You might take a vacation for a while,” Millikan said. “But once you’ve got that pizza sauce running through your veins, you can’t get it out.”

The study, titled “Smoking, weight loss intention and obesity-promoting behaviors in college students”, was done at Watkins Memorial Health Center form 2003 to 2005. The study looked at 300 KU students smoking and weight related behaviors. Of the 300 students, 49 percent said they had smoked and about 18 percent defined themselves as regular smokers.

The original hypothesis of Shawna L. Carroll, a KU PhD student and the projects coordinator, was different from what the results showed.

“It was different from my original hypothesis that students smoked to lose weight.” Carroll said. “Instead smoking was part of a clustering of poor health behaviors in college students.”

The results showed that those who smoked indeed did want to lose weight. However, the smokers were more likely to eat high calorie food and were less likely to exercise. The relationship between unhealthy eating and smoking was a lot closer than many would believe. The study showed that the more cigarettes an individual smokes the more high calorie food they are likely to eat, according to Carroll.

“There is a dose response between fast food and smoking.” Carroll said.

The dose response also correlated with time spent exercising at the gym. The more cigarettes and fast food eaten the less often students exercised.

This discovery was a small part of a much bigger study called “Must DO” that was funded by the American Heart Association according to Carroll. Dr. Terry Huang, Health Scientist and Program Director for the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, headed the “Must Do” study. The larger study looked at obesity behaviors in college-aged students at the University, with cigarette use being one component.

Kevin Walker, the Vice President of Advocacy for the American Heart Association, said that although it is illegal to market cigarettes to minors, cigarettes are still portrayed as cool.

“Cigarette and tobacco ad’s paint a glamorous picture of a smoker,” Walker said.

This is a problem, according to Walker, because most cigarette smokers start before the age of 18. According to a 2002 Center for Disease Control (CDC) study obesity rates for 18 to 29 year old Americans has almost doubled since 1990.

A CDC Study form 2002 shows the increase in obesity among 18 to 24 year olds.

Mary Jayne Hellebust, the Executive Director of Tobacco Free Kansas, says data from the CDC shows 21 percent of high school students in Kansas smoke.

“The overall smoking rate for adults is 19.6 percent,” Hellebust said. “The smoking rate for college students 18 to 24 in Kansas is 26.4 percent.”

With the rising levels of obesity and high levels of youth smoking the two unhealthy lifestyles are clustering. Although many young people plan on quitting smoking they find it harder than they originally planned, according to Hellebust.

“Someone who wants to quit and does successfully will try between seven and nine times over a period of a few years,” Hellebust said. “It is all about the individual and what works best for them whether it is medication, support groups, work with a physician.”

The results of this study could change the way could change they way that smoking prevention and intervention is done according to Carroll. After analyzing the research, Carroll believes, new interventions should be aware of the poor health choices clustering.

“Because poor health behaviors cluster, I recommend interventions that target the whole person,” Carroll said.

The interventions would include information on the importance of working out, an improved diet and an emphasis on quitting smoking, according to Carroll.

Walker says the idea of quitting smoking alone is only one part of reducing your health risks.

“Refraining from tobacco use, consumption of a healthy diet, and staying active all help control health risks,” Walker said.

According to the CDC more than one qaurter of 18 to 24 year old Americans smoke cigarettes.
Photo Source: London Borough of Richmond Upon Thames

Quitting smoking would make working out easier according to Don Gregory, Lawrence junior. Gregory said he began smoking with his friends in 2001 and has not quit yet. He said he exercised for the first three years of his smoking but began losing people to go to the gym with and eventually stopped going altogether.

“I definitely notice a difference,” Gregory said, “It’s harder to run.”

However Gregory does not believe that exercise would help him quit smoking, because he does most of hissmoking while drinking or out with friends. This is a common trend in smoking among young people according to Hellebust.

“Many people who smoke do so in certain social settings,” Hellebust said. “Behavioral changes and eliminating smoking from those is the key.”

Hellebust cited the Lawrence smoking ban at bars and restaurants as encouraging in the battle against college smoking, and hopes the pattern is continued nation wide.

“I think I’ve only had two people ask for a Zune,” McDougall, technology consultant for the KU Bookstore, said. Amazon.com sang a similar song; three weeks after Zune’s release, it fell from the Web site’s list of 20 most popular MP3 players. Apple products accounted for 13 of the top 20 players.

McDougall said Apple’s large market share and the iPod’s user-friendly reputation obstructed sales of the Zune.

“It’s definitely a cultural icon,” McDougall said of the iPod.

What do Zune users think about this?

Students using the Zune proved to be a rarity on campus early December. For Zune opinions, bloggers offered some perspective.

Click the image to view the slideshow

“I bought something others didn't like and have enjoyed it, simple as that,” TDavid, main contributor of makeyougohmm.com, said. “We might be buying another for our teenager this Christmas.”

McDougall, who has been selling iPods since their original release five years ago, said the Tech Shop considered selling Microsoft’s new player.

“It’s got a lot of potential, just because of the features it does have,” McDougall said. “At the moment, I just don’t see it being the iPod contender that everybody was hoping it was going to be.” Zune’s biggest innovation is wireless music sharing between users.

If you go to Best Buy, sales employees will tell you songs can be transferred from one Zune to another, where their lifespan is three days or three plays, whichever comes first. They’ll also tell you iPods are still selling better than their newest contender.

The wireless Zune loses much of its functionality, “unless everyone you know has one,” McDougall said. “It’s not like you’re able to surf websites or download music over a wireless connection. It’s really more for sharing, sort of social networking, like MySpace.”

"I'm ashamed of it. I try not to listen to music around campus now." Dan Watson, Overland Park senior

But instead of the Zune, McDougall said Apple’s new iPod shuffle generated the most consumer interest for the Tech Shop.

“Before I had two out of the box, I sold two,” he said. Apple controls over 70 percent of the MP3 player market, McDougall said. However, not every iPod user is proud of the media player.

“I just want to stop,” Dan Watson, Overland Park senior, said. “It hasn’t been a pleasurable experience, well, it’s just guilt. It’s become a massive phenomenon of isolation. Everybody’s got their iPod.”

Still, blogger TDavid thinks that among MP3 players, the Zune is a good choice.

“If you like the ability to have the greatest amount of music at your disposal, over a million songs, and don't mind a monthly rental fee, go with something like the Zune,” he said.

"Nothing has made me mad about it or made me wish I had bought a different mp3 player." Stefan Bachrodt, Algonquin senior

Alternatively to both the iPod and the Zune, Stefan Bachrodt, Algonquin, Ill. senior, decided to purchase a Zen, made by Creative. He said the Zen offered more options for a lower price.

"The iPod doesn’t seem like it’s that customizable to your own preferences,” he said. “It’s almost too utilitarian.”

Along with the Zune comes the Zune Marketplace, a store where a song costs 79 Microsoft Points – the equivalent of 99 cents. Just like when songs are downloaded from the iTunes music store, downloads are encoded with digital rights management, or DRM.

“If you don’t know what DRM is right now, you’re going know exactly what it is within the next year or so. It’s going to be a household word like iPod,” McDougall said. DRM is how copyright holders protect their intellectual property, he explained. Songs that TDavid might buy from the Zune music store can only be played on the Zune. For Watson, songs from the iTunes music store have a DRM only compatible with the iPod; Microsoft’s PlaysForSure DRM works with Bachrodt’s Creative Zen, but not with the Zune. DRMs also limit the number of computers a song can be on and the number of CDs songs can be burned to.

"It doesn’t seem to me like I need to get anything else.” Scott Pinkelman, Lenexa senior

“It’s completely restrictive,” McDougall said.

As the MP3 player market continues to expand and become more complex in many ways, some people would rather stay out of the technology tangle completely.

“It’s not a big, pressing need,” Scott Pinkelman, Lenexa senior, said. Instead of an MP3 player, Pinkelman owns a Sony Walkman ESP Max CD player. “Considering how many used CD players there are around, it doesn’t seem to me like I need to get anything else.”

“It’s a little unwieldy, a little outdated, nevertheless, enjoyable,” he said.

Despite these recent controversies about the use of tasers and other electroshock guns, more police departments are using the weapons.

Tasers and Taser International, which makes the brand the stun guns are synonymous with, have recently come under fire after several deaths and serious injuries caused by their products. But KU public safety officers stand by the weapons.

“KU Public Safety officers carry tasers for their own protection. The officers go through extended training on when to use the weapons and only use them when it is absolutely necessary,” Robert Blevins, KU Public Safety officer said.

Police officers all over Lawrence currently carry tasers with them. In addition to KU Public Safety officers, Lawrence Police officers and Kansas Highway Patrol officers currently also carry tasers with them.

The U.S. Department of Defense classifies tasers as “non-lethal” weapons but says this does not mean the weapons can not cause death but rather that it is not intended to be fatal.

In a report by The Arizona Republic the newspaper cited 73 deaths following a police taser shock from September 1999 to October 2004.

Of the 73 cases, medical examiners found eight cases where tasers were a cause, a contributing factor or could not be ruled out as the cause of death. Some cases stated pre-existing cardiovascular or other medical conditions to be a contributing factor with a taser as the direct cause. Several deaths also occurred from injuries sustained in struggles, such as head injuries from falling to the ground after being tasered.

In only 18 of these 73 cases were tasers said to not be a factor in the death.

Another danger existing with tasers is the possibility the subjects could light on fire when shocked by the weapons.

Tasers, like other electrical devices, can ignite when exposed to flammable liquids or fumes. One main concern is the use of tasers around CS gas, the gas commonly used for riot control.

Researchers in Britain tested the effects by spraying CS gas over the clothes over seven mannequins.

Tasers were then fired at the mannequins and in two of the seven trials, “the flames produced were severe and engulfed the top half of the mannequin, including the head.”

Police departments across the country are instructed to never use their tasers in a place where it could be flammable and to always be cautious when using the weapon.

“Our policy is to only use a taser when it is absolutely necessary,” Blevins said. “Officers must use their own judgment and if a suspect is putting up enough of a fight using a taser is the safest way to subdue them.”

Tasers, like the X26c shown here, are seeing increased use across the country.
Photo: Taser.com

Several states across the country, including Kansas, have recently allowed police officers in schools to carry tasers. This ruling has led to many protests from students who fear the dangers tasers can bring.

In early March, according to The NewStandard, students at Wichita West High School delivered letters to their school safety directors, their principal and the police department asking questions and raising concerns about the use of tasers in their school. The students received no answers and their protests increased when just days later police officers tasered a special ed student, 15-year-old, Jarrett McConnell, when he refused to go to in-school detention.

In November, protests began at UCLA after police tasered an Iranian-American student (Youtube.com video of the incident) , Mostafa Tabatabainejad, when he could not produce a student ID in UCLA’s Powell Library. Eyewitnesses of the event say Tabatabeinejad had gotten up to leave the library when police grabbed his arm and tasered him. Tabatabeinejad has filed a civil rights suit against the UCLA police officers.

Despite these events some students still feel it is necessary for police officers in schools to carry tasers.

Kevin Coggins, Lenexa, sophomore, went to a high school where the police officers carried tasers.

“It’s just another safety device for the police. To me the people who are worried about the tasers are the ones who might do something wrong. As long as the police are trained properly there is no reason they can’t carry them. It’s certainly better than being shot with a gun.”

In a recent article by The Toronto Star, police claim, “about 4,000 lives have been saved across the continent in the past seven years via the lesser evil of electroshock darts, although this figure is difficult to substantiate.”

The tasers often save the lives of police officers as well. Taser International’s website shows facts from the Phoenix Police Department that the use of tasers from 2002 to 2003 went from 71 to 164. During this same time period the number of officer-involved shootings went from 15 to 8.

Numbers nationally show that tasers save lives more than they cause deaths.

"Tasers are a safer option for not just police officers but for citizens as well," Blevins said.

They had succumbed to a pandemic; Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, a little understood fungus, is still killing amphibians around the globe in waves. Scientists call it “chytrid” for short.

“The chytrid arrived and wiped out all the amphibians,” said Mendelson, a 1997 University of Kansas graduate and now herpetology curator at Zoo Atlanta. “It was horrible. I’ve had them die in my hand.”

According to a document presented at the 2005 Amphibian Conservation Summit in Washington, DC, at least 122 amphibian species have gone extinct since 1980. Nearly a third of the world’s amphibians, about 1,800, are threatened with extinction. Along with habitat loss, pesticides, climate change and other afflictions, many herpetologists suspect chytrid is contributing to a worldwide amphibian die-off.

Mendelson said that he had seen chytrid kill 80 percent of a region’s amphibians in a matter of months, and eliminate half its amphibian species. He said the pandemic—some compare it to amphibian AIDS—is currently raging in California, the Rocky Mountains, Mexico, all of Central America, the Andes mountains and eastern Australia.

According to Mendelson, the fungus spreads by frog-to-frog contact. Microscopic spores lodge in the amphibians’ skins. Also, when a frog enters the water, the spores can pop out, travel downstream and infect another host.

“It’s kind of ironic, because the spores look sort of like tadpoles,” Mendelson said.

Dave McLeod, a graduate teaching assistant in biology, said some infected frogs display certain symptoms that mark the chytrid infection. These symptoms include lethargy, a generally sick disposition and other odd behaviors.

“In an infected frog, if you flip it over, it’s unable to right itself,” McLeod said.

Mendelson said he had encountered frogs so sick they wouldn’t hop away when he approached them.

McLeod explained the killer fungus afflicts cells that produce keratin, a protein found in both frog and human skin.

The Wyoming toad, which lives in only one Wyoming county, has been endangered since 1984. The chytrid fungus was recently found among its few remaining wild and captive populations. Its survival is uncertain.
Photo: Suzanne L. Collins

“Because the frog uses its skin as a respiratory surface, the infection actually prevents the frog from being able to effectively use its skin to breathe,” McLeod said. “You end up seeing frogs in these mummified states, as they’re in the process of dying or have died, where the skin is completely covered with this fungal infection.”

When the disease gets really bad, Mendelson said pieces of skin begin to fall off.

Mendelson doesn’t know if chytrid is in Kansas. Nor does Joe Collins, a herpetologist with KU’s Kansas Biological Survey.

“Everyone wants answers,” Collins said. “We don’t have answers; there’s not enough money.”

But according to Collins, a failure to fund data-collecting research in Kansas doesn’t mean chytrid is not here. North American bullfrogs are common in Kansas and can carry the disease. Bullfrogs, however, remain mysteriously chytrid-resistant. Collins called the bullfrog “the cow of the amphibians.” It is commercially farmed for frog legs and shipped around the world. Bullfrog tadpoles also can carry chytrid.

“There are bullfrog tadpoles in every fish shipment in the United States,” Collins said.

According to Collins, Kansas farmers could unknowingly introduce the fungus into their own fishing ponds, and just one infected tadpole has the potential to infect the rest of the pond’s amphibian population.

Why should farmers, or others, care about chytrid? Collins said the pandemic could lead to a situation where frogs no longer sing to signal the start of spring, similar to the events described in Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring.” Carson’s 1964 book tackled irresponsible pesticide use. Its first chapter describes a fictional town in heartland America whose springs lack not only birdsong, but also the voices of fish, bees and human children.

Meet Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, the fungus responsible for chytridiomycosis, the chytrid disease. This image shows a cluster of chytrid fungi in the epidermis of an amphibian.
Photo: North-West University, South Africa

“We may be looking at the disappearance of amphibians,” Collins said.

Rafe Brown, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, fears that may happen in the Philippines.

“If the fungus gets introduced there,” Brown said, “literally hundreds of species could go extinct in a matter of years.”

Brown, who specializes in Asian amphibians and reptiles, said the Philippines had more diversity of life than anywhere else on the planet. However, parts of this biological hot-spot have already been devastated by deforestation. In response, Brown and other researchers are currently writing a grant to document vertebrate diversity, which includes amphibians, in the Philippines. The proposed team would also research ways to combat species extinction in the region.

In another diversity hot-spot, Thailand, McLeod, graduate teaching assistant, recently tested frogs for evidence of chytrid’s spread. McLeod said bullfrogs were imported to Thai farms and markets in the 80s. Those imports, along with a thriving Southeast Asian amphibian pet-trade, could easily ignite a Thai outbreak.

Even though McLeod did not find chytrid in Thailand, he said his research was just the first effort. “It’s the beginning of momentum, I hope.”

McLeod called Asia a huge blank spot on the map of chytrid research. His 123-frog survey was the first ever done concerning chytrid and the Asian continent. It does not prove chytrid is absent from Asia.

According to McLeod, since amphibians are extremely sensitive to changes in their environments, they make good environmental indicators. As their populations are declining worldwide, he said they could be our planet’s the canary in the coalmine.

“If they’re our early warning sign,” McLeod said, “how is this going to affect us next and can we prevent it?”

According to Mendelson, the chytrid disease in frogs is eerily similar to HIV, Ebola, and other diseases like SARS, diseases that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta classifies as emerging infectious diseases.

Brown said scientists are finding that the fungus isn’t new, but is for some reason manifesting itself now.

According to Mendelson, the proposition that there could be a connection among everything from SARS to chytrid is the million-dollar question.

“We’d be stupid if we did not pay very close attention to this,” Mendelson said. “Something really terrifying is happening to the planet.”

Mary, a 2006 KU graduate who asked that her real name not be used for this story, is not alone. HPV is the most prevalent sexually transmitted disease on KU’s campus, and according to Centers for Disease Control (CDC) close to 50 percent of men and women will contract the virus at some point in their lives. By age 40, CDC estimates that 80 percent of women will have contracted the disease.

There are over one hundred different viral types of HPV, some of which have embarrassing and potentially dangerous effects.

They can cause genital warts, or, when left unchecked, can lead to cervical cancer. Others have no symptoms, no consequences, and go away on their own.

“I was diagnosed with a high-risk strand of HPV,” Mary said. “I had to ask my doctor to explain it to me. I didn’t know it meant I had an STD.”

Mary was diagnosed with a strand known to cause cervical cancer just six months before the Food and Drug Administration approved Gardasil, a vaccine that is almost 100 percent effective against two strands of HPV that cause 90 percent of all cases of genital warts and two other strands that cause 70 percent of all cases of cervical cancer.

The HPV virus under a microscope
Photo: www.inca.gov

Bill Smith, student health educator for Student Health Services, said that he gives presentations to dorms and fraternities and sororities on sexual health in general.

“When I go out to give sexual health presentations, I do mention the vaccine, and that we have it available at the Health Center,” Smith said.

“Everyone who comes into the gynecology clinic gets a pamphlet on HPV,” said Kathy Guth, nurse practioner in gynecology at Watkins.

But Mary said that she thought HPV awareness at KU was minimal, at best.

“In my four years at KU, I heard five minutes about HPV, period, in one health class,” Mary said. “My professor said close to 80 percent of people at KU probably have it, and then just moved on.”

HPV facts compiled by Jaime Netzer. source: CDC and Student Health Services

“Maybe for incoming freshman, they should be required to go to some sort of health class administered by Watkins and peer health educators,” said Dodge, who is an officer with the campus organization Students for Reproductive Rights. “A university health center has the responsibility to protect its students.”

Patty Quinlan, supervisor of Nursing at Watkins, said that because HPV is an STD, the stigma hindered Student Health Services’ ability to raise awareness.

“With meningitis, we had a student come out who was very helpful in offering a human voice for the infection,” Quinlan said. “Student Health Services would never ask someone to do that for HPV.”

Dodge also said that she thought students might be hesitant to get the vaccine for personal reasons.

“A lot of girls aren’t going to want their parents to know,” Dodge said. “If you come from a conservative background, your parents or your minister might say it will make you promiscuous, and that’s totally false.”

In fact, HPV can be passed from person to person without even engaging in sexual intercourse. Because HPV is a virus that lives in the skin or mucous membranes in genital areas, some of which aren’t covered by condoms, practicing safe sex does not completely protect against HPV.

Perhaps even more startling, no test currently is approved to detect HPV in men, and no vaccine is available for them either.

Guth said 120 women have received the vaccine since August. From CDC estimates and Fall 2006 enrollment information of full-time undergraduate students, it can be concluded that as many as 13,000 men and women on KU’s campus have or will be infected with HPV at some point in their lives.

The vaccine, which is a series of three shots, costs $148 a shot, for a total of $444 for the vaccination.

Smith said that the high expense of the shot affected some students’ decisions.

“It’s new and it’s expensive,” Smith said. “I think that could be an impediment for some students for getting it, if they don’t have insurance, or if they’re paying for their medical bills out of pocket.”

The health insurance plans available to students through Student Health Services do not cover any part of the Gardasil vaccine.

At least one major insurance company can help cover the cost.

“Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas is prepared to pay for claims for the vaccine when we start receiving them,” said Mary Beth Chambers, manager of corporate communications for BCBS.

Because the vaccine was approved for girls ages 11-26, Chambers expected requests for the vaccine to increase as awareness increases.

“We anticipate that it will become a recommended vaccine for school-aged children, and will most likely be required for middle school entrance,” Chambers said.

Until then, she said the full cost of vaccinations will be covered.

“I’m amazed at the number of women who come in and just say ‘I want it’ before they know if their insurance will cover it,” Guth said.

Annual Pap smears are the best method for early detection of HPV.

Chambers recommends that students talk with their health care providers about insurance coverage if they are interested in the HPV vaccine.

This chart shows the ADI ratings for pharmacists in all 50 states. No state is below a 3.3 making the shortage a national problem.

The pharmacist shortage in Kansas according to the ADI is currently at 4.5 and on the rise. In Kansas specifically, the lack of pharmacists is more likely to get worse before it gets better, Kenneth Audus, dean of the school of pharmacy at KU said.
“More than one-third of pharmacists in the state are older than 50, meaning there could potentially be a large drop-off of pharmacists in the next 10 years,” Audus said.
But the question that experts are now asking themselves is why?
“Part of it is hard for me to understand,” Audus said. “For the most part, pharmacists are paid well and well respected by a majority of the population.”
But not all pharmacists would agree with Audus. Some pharmacists say they feel disrespected, especially in the large chain drug stores, Dixon said.
“I mean, yes, I get paid better than probably 90 percent of people, but what made a lot of pharmacists mad was when this shortage started and the chains would offer kids right out of college more money then they were paying us for the same job. That’s a big slap in the face,” Dixon said.
Jimmy Wong, a pharmacist who used to work for CVS pharmacy, the nation’s largest pharmacy chain, cites the company itself as his reason for leaving the profession.
“The guys who run this company just don’t get it. They don’t even have pharmacy degrees and they want to tell me how to fill prescriptions and how long it should take me to do it,” Wong said.

This chart shows the average age of pharmacists in Kansas. More than 1,200 of them are already older then 50, meaning that the shortage could grow with an aging pharmacist population.

Elementary and secondary schools face a well-documented teacher shortage, and now, KU research suggests universities are struggling to find professors to train those future teachers.

The mid-range salary and research expectations of being a professor at a research university can make these teacher education jobs unattractive, and candidates who apply often lack key qualifications.

Lisa Wolf-Wendel, professor of educational leadership and policy studies in the School of Education, worked on the research. She said that the school had trouble filling faculty positions for teacher education, and she said other universities around the country had similar problems.

“There’s not enough people,” Wolf-Wendel said, “and we think that if we look in a crystal ball and look to the future, there’s going to be more need.”

Participants surveyed as part of the research described the teacher education job market as “very tight,” “abysmal” and “in grave trouble.”

Marc Mahlios, chair of the education school’s curriculum and teaching department, said the school has struggled to hire for math and science education positions in the past. He said the school eventually abandoned efforts to fill one science position.

“The number of people applying is clearly down,” Mahlios said.

Wolf-Wendel said the two big qualifications for teacher educators at research universities are teaching experience and research ability.

This data from Susan Twombly and Lisa Wolf-Wendel's research shows the characteristics that were listed most often as required or preferred qualifications for teacher education positions advertised in the Chronicle of Higher Education during the 2001-2002 academic year.

“What search committees want is people who are sort of double threats,” Wolf-Wendel said. “They want someone who’s been a teacher, who has K-12 public school experience, and they want someone who’s a really good researcher.”

Susan Twombly, professor of educational leadership and policy studies who worked on the research with Wolf-Wendel, said research universities like KU rarely hire faculty who earned doctorates at universities where faculty research is emphasized less, like Emporia State University or Pittsburg State University.

This creates problems, she said, because more people are getting doctorates at these schools.

“The expectations would be a little bit different at a place like Emporia,” Twombly said. “Places like this are more difficult, because people who go into teacher education want to be teachers. They aren’t necessarily researchers. It’s not what they love doing.”

The shortage of good teacher education candidates also affects universities without a research emphasis, though.

Tes Mehring, dean of the Emporia State Teachers College, said Emporia State struggles to attract good teacher education faculty candidates. Mehring said people with doctorates in education are often attracted to careers outside of teacher education.

“I think there are many more options today for people who pursue higher education degrees than maybe existed even a decade ago,” Mehring said.

Twombly and Wolf-Wendel found in their research that only about 41 percent of people with doctorates show interest in becoming teacher educators.

This data from Susan Twombly and Lisa Wolf-Wendel's research shows the percentage of doctorate recipients in different areas of education who reported an interest in becoming a teacher educator in the 2000 Survey of Earned Doctorates.

“It takes a special kind of person,” Ginsberg said. “You’re asking people to get out of what it is that they love, and that’s teaching kids.”

Research universities value teaching experience in teacher educators, Wolf-Wendel said, but the most experienced teachers may be the most difficult to pull away from the world of K-12 schools.

“The older people, the people with the most experience, are not going to be in a financial position or in a position in their lives where they can just drop everything, go to the best school and quit their job,” Wolf-Wendel said.

And even for people who already have doctorates, a teacher education job may not make economic sense.

Mahlios said many people who would be qualified for faculty positions can make more in K-12 schools than the $50,000 beginning salary the education school might offer an assistant professor.

“I have a former student of mine who teaches in the area whose nine-month salary is more than that $50,000,” Mahlios said. “For her to come into the University would mean a pay cut.”

Less pay, combined with the pressures of conducting research and achieving tenure, make a professorship sound unattractive compared with other jobs in education, Mahlios said.

Lizette Peter, KU assistant professor of curriculum and instruction who was hired in fall 2005, said the high-pressure push to attain tenure at a research university makes her job stressful.

“There are a lot of smart people up here on this hill, and getting tenure means proving that you belong among them,” Peter said. “So, the years as an assistant professor are filled with with anxiety, self-doubt and pressure, at least for the junior faculty members that I know.”

The availability of grant money and research opportunities can also affect interest in teacher education positions from year to year, Mike Neal, assistant dean of the education school, said.

“If research money is strong in education, then people do not mind carrying the triple load of research, teaching and service,” Neal said. “But if they’re going to spend all their time writing grant after grant after grant and no money comes in, then they’re very discouraged going into higher education or teacher education.”

Neal said that when the federal government funded more educational research, interest in educational faculty positions increased.

Universities cannot control the help they receive from the government, but Twombly said they may need to make some adjustments of their own to compensate for the lack of qualified teacher educators.

Twombly said economic principles suggest universities need to either lower expectations for teacher educators or raise salaries.

“We have to not only raise wages for people going into the profession; we have to think about how we can get more people to want to get Ph.D.’s,” Twombly said.

She said universities did not tend to adjust requirements for faculty members. However, she said that after the education school failed to fill an English education position last year, the school broadened the requirements this year and had more applicants.

Ginsberg said that if the education school cannot fill a given faculty position, the school will often hire a non-tenure-track instructor who has no research requirements. The school did this with its English education position that was not filled last year.

Neal, a former superintendent and principal, called his new career at the University his “hobby.” He said he came into academia after he had achieved financial security because he wanted to contribute more to education.

He said many other principals and superintendents would be willing to begin academic careers as he did. He said this could be a new direction for universities to look for teacher education candidates.

“I think there are plenty of superintendents and principals out there in their 50s, who could afford to come to the University, who will have 15 solid years, who are hard workers, bright people, who have a strong work ethic, who know schools inside and out,” Neal said.

Peter said a career in academia can be fulfilling. She said being a professor provides a freedom beyond that of most other professions.

“The biggest advantage to working in academia is that you are, to some extent, in control of your schedule and the kind of work you do,” Peter said.

Mahlios said that the shortage of teacher education candidates is not yet an emergency and that the field of teacher education will continue no matter what happens. He said that, while the quality of teacher education faculty may not remain as high as it is now, universities would still fill positions.

And, he said, the shortage facing education schools is not as serious as the problems public elementary and secondary schools have.

“I think the shortage is greater in the K-12 arena than it is in higher ed,” Mahlios said. “But clearly, they’re related.”

“It felt like many things I wanted involved came together around Christmas.” McCarter said. “I knew I wanted it to be around family, so on Christmas Eve with most of our family present I popped the question.”

Jewelers local, and around the nation hope many grooms are thinking like McCarter this Christmas season. Early projections fromInternational Diamond Exchange (IDEX) online research predicts December jewelry sales will exceed last year’s mark by an average of 5 percent for retail stores like JC Penny and Target. A more up-market, national chain Tiffany's, rose by 23 percent last month and expect sales totals to reach $29.1 million in December, nearly $6 million more than last year. Local stores like Kizer-Cummings located at 833 Massachusetts street hope these early figures prove accurate.

The above figures are based upon projected sales but are not actual figures. Each figure was given by the companies website.

“I’ve been here since 1981 and the sales during Christmas time are extremely important to livelihood,” Ernie Cummings, owner of Kizer-Cummings, said. “We rely heavily on people purchasing gifts for their loved ones over the next month.”

There are still some grinches in the jeweler’s Christmas this year. For local jewelers like Cumming’s, the business has become flooded with more competition in recent years. He says not only do big chain stores around Lawrence cut into jewelry sales but also the internet can hurt business as well.

A retired jeweler after 52 years, Frank Komarek agrees that being a local business in the jewelry industry has become increasingly difficult. Komarek says that the personalization given to each customer at Christmas time has been what makes business successful every year.

“You are friends with your customers. You talk to them about things outside of gold and diamonds,” Komarek says. “I pride myself on being able to befriend the customer. They remember that and they return because of the personal service."

Along with big box competition, an unlikely outsider also might hurt the jewelry industry this Christmas season. Hollywood is releasing the movie “Blood Diamond” starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The movie sheds light on the brutal practices that are used to harvest diamonds in Africa. These diamonds are known as conflict diamonds and the diamond industry has taken steps to weed out these gems. The World Diamond Council (WDC) created a website called www.diamondfacts.org to give those purchasing diamonds a better understanding of what to watch out for.

“99 percent of diamonds sold are conflict free,” Cummings says. “From the research I have done, the risk of purchasing a conflict diamond is very rare.”

Even with four retail chains competing with the local businesses in Lawrence and movie casting a negative portrayal of diamonds, there are still positive signs for December sales figures to be firmly in the green for stores like Kizer-Cummings.

The employment rate is at a five-year low, standing at 4.4 percent. In turn, consumer wealth levels are at an all time high. Consumers have amassed more assets than ever before and are using that spending power. This year precious metals like gold, silver, and platinum have soared to record setting levels according to IDEX. Gold currently sells for $647.00 an ounce, up almost $200.00 from last year at this time. With prices going up, it means businesses will not need to hold as much inventory to generate greater sales.

Hearing these figures McCarter considers himself fortunate to have already purchased his ring. He said that another good part about buying a gift like an engagement ring around the holidays is that it takes care of the need to find the perfect Christmas gift.

“It kills two birds with one stone,” McCarter says. “You spend a large amount of money, but it’s much better than giving a ring in November and having to turn around and buy a Christmas present.”

J.D. Stanfield doesn’t cook. When he is hungry, he wants something fast and convenient, which normally means a trip to McDonald’s or Burger King.

Stanfield, Hutchinson senior, also cannot have a beer without a cigarette. He said the habit started three years ago and smoking and drinking go hand-in-hand.

“When you start drinking, it’s nice to have a cigarette,” he said.
For Stanfield and other college students alike, these are a group of lifestyle choices that tend to cluster together, a recent article published in the "Journal of the American College of Nutrition” found.

The study, a part of the Monitoring University Students Tackling Diabetes and Obesity (MUST-DO) was conducted by researchers at the University of Kansas. The study surveyed 300 KU students and discovered that smoking was related to a number of poor health behaviors, including eating high-calorie foods, eating while watching television and decreased physical activity. The more students smoked, the more likely they were to engage in unhealthy behaviors.

Shawna Carroll, graduate student and originator of the smoking study, said the relationship between the number of cigarettes smoked per day in relation to the amount of fast-food consumed was surprising.

Shawna Carroll, who originated the smoking study, found a relationship between the number of cigarettes smoked each day and the amount of fast food consumed and/or T.V. watched.

“The results themselves shocked me,” said Carroll, who began the study thinking many students smoked as a means to maintain weight and to suppress the appetite. But, in reality, the results indicated the opposite. Students who smoked three cigarettes per day on average ate at restaurants serving burgers about 50 times a year. In contrast, those students who smoked 40 cigarettes per day made a fast-food run nearly 90 times each year.

Dr. Myra Strother, staff physician at Watkins Health Center, who also contributed to the MUST-DO study, said the research suggests that physicians will now have to address all of a student’s behaviors. She said that doctors cannot just say to their patients, “Don’t smoke,” because of the domino effect that will occur later on. Students push the present into the back of their minds, she said, and tend to think about these issues when they turn 40, 50 or 60.

“It’s not just a matter of smoking while in college and saying you will quit eventually,” she said. “You can’t just say, ‘Oh, I’ll get healthy someday.’ It’s all starting right now and we need to address it.”

Carroll and Strother said one key to fighting poor lifestyle behaviors was to target the pivotal period of development that occurs during the first few years away from home. Carroll said students often rebel throughout this period, and this is where most life-time habits are probably set. For example, a previous study in 2004 by Dr. Karen Saules from Eastern Michigan University reported that as many as half of self-reported adult smokers indicated they initiated smoking during their college years.

“We know that college students experiment,” Carroll said. “Depending on how you were raised, it could be easier to rebel with a bag of Doritos than an illegal substance.”

Such was the case for Stanfield, who as a wrestler in high school, he often had to watch his weight. He ate plenty of fruits and vegetables to maintain his weight class, but in college, he said he gets to eat what he wants when he wants.

Strother said physicians need to let 17 to 23 year olds know that just because they choose poor health habits now, they are not locked into an unhealthy lifestyle. She said it is easier to point out bad habits early, and the younger the student is, the more willing they are to change.

Another difficult issue to address, Strother said, is that physicians are relunctant to mention weight and smoking issues with their patients. She said that by ignoring the problem, they are allowing students to become comfortable in their lifestyle choices, which could develop into diseases such as lung cancer, emphysema and diabetes. Strother related smoking, lack of exercise and poor diet as no different than any other illness that prompts a visit to the doctor.

“If you come in frequently to be treated for a cold, and I am not asking you questions about smoking or if you are getting enough sleep, then I am not doing my job,” she said.

“We have just heard too many stories about hospitals.” John-Mark said. “It’s really just all about personal care for us.”

Births under the supervision of a midwife often seem like a practice of the prairie past, but are again growing in popularity. The Women’s Health Care Group of Lawrence and Overland Park started with just one midwife in 1994, but the group will add its sixth midwife at the end of the year in response to the growing demand for midwives in Kansas. Midwives perform a variety of women’s health procedures and they assist with in-hospital births, clinic births and at home births.

“The attitude is laid back but there is a feeling of tremendous respect for motherhood.” John-Mark said.

Certified Nurse Midwife Kathy Melton has assisted hundreds of births since she completed midwifery school in the early 90’s. Working for The Women’s Health Care group since its inception in the mid-90’s, a;; of her births were in hospitals as the group’s insurance requires.

Births in hospitals require physician supervision, but Melton says physicians trust the midwives and often never make an appearance during a birth. Relations with hospitals were not always so friendly.

“I did the first midwife delivery in a Lawrence hospital,” Melton said. “I think they thought I had horns and a tail. They didn’t want me there, and I think they had 15 people in the room during the delivery to watch me.”

Today, the midwives of Women’s Health Care Group get along just fine with doctors. Melton said doctors trust them to take care of birthing mothers and their children. Additionally, at the Women’s Health Care Group clinic, midwives provide routine women’s health care, natural family planning as well as birth preparation.

Certified Nurse Midwives complete extensive schooling from universities all over the country. The American College of Nurse-Midwives certifies the studies of students and requires at least two-years of clinic work before certification. Most midwives become nurses first and then begin midwifery training. Students complete the additional clinic work in birthing centers and women’s health facilities like the ones in Lawrence and Topeka.

The extra schooling enables midwives to do many of the same things medical doctors can do. During the birth midwives can administer some drugs and are often credited with avoiding unnecessary procedures that doctors use to speed up the birth process. But midwives cannot perform a cesarean birth or administer an epidural anesthetic. These limitation keep midwives from working with some patients.

Linda Easum, Practice Administrator of The Women’s Health Care Group, said they do not take patients who have high risk pregnancies, diabetes or previous cardiovascular problems. Even so, Melton said she has worked with patients who have had trouble during pregnancy. Having the birth at the hospital with physicians on call minimizes the danger.

The Miravalles said they are not concerned by the dangers of having a birth outside a hospital. The center where Jessica will give birth to her child sits across the street from St. Francis Hospital, and she says confidence in the care of her midwife, Todd.

“She has birthed people’s babies in a hall in their house. Plus, they can still perform minimal health procedures like provide IVs,” Jessica said.

John-Mark likes the reduced cost. Having the birth outside a hospital saves the Miravalles several thousand dollars.

“Our birth will only cost about $3,000, and that covers everything, all our visits before the birth, the birth itself and they come by twice after the baby is born.” John-Mark said. “If we had it in a hospital, it could cost as much as $8,000.”

Watkins Memorial Health Center reported that Lawrence typically sees its first cases of influenza in December, after students have returned from Thanksgiving Break. The season reaches its peak in February, after students have returned from Winter Break and had a chance to spread germs around.

The influenza virus is spread through the air by droplets created when a person who has the flu coughs or sneezes and can also be transmitted through saliva. The best way to prevent getting the flu would be for a student to be completely isolated from anyone who might be sick. Unfortunately, that is not a possibility on campus. Patty Quinlan, supervisor of nursing at Watkins, said the single best way to protect against the flu if a student does come into contact with a sick person is to get a flu vaccination. Two types of the flu vaccine are offered at Watkins at discounted rates.

But some students like Jacob Dysart aren’t planning to be vaccinated.

“I’m think it’s pretty hyped up,” Dysart, Overland Park senior, said. “I haven’t been sick in years and I’ve never had a flu shot.”

Quinlan said that being part of a healthy, young age group can give students a false sense of security.

“It’s a Russian roulette situation,” she said. “Students might not get sick, but if they do they can miss five to seven days of class. You have to ask yourself if it’s worth it.”

Quinlan also said that students could still play host to the influenza virus and pass it on to others, even if they had no physical symptoms.

This chart compares typical symptoms of the common cold to symptoms of influenza. Source: Watkins

“Usually the flu without the flu vaccine will put you on your back for three to five days,” Quinlan said. “The body aches can be so severe that you can’t make it to class.”

Amanda Mai, Hutchinson senior, changed her mind about the flu shot after she was so sick that she missed three days of school last year.

“I felt like I was going to die,” she said. “And there was nothing I could do except take Tylenol and wait.”

The flu is caused by the influenza virus, so antibiotics are not effective. Quinlan said all students could do is take acetaminophen to reduce fever, drink plenty of fluids and let the virus run its course.

Tamiflu is prescription medication that can be taken if the flu is caught early enough. Source: www.tamiflu.com

Mai said she planned to get a vaccination this year so that she doesn’t get sick again.

Each year, a new vaccine recipe is created to counteract the strains of the influenza virus that is predicted to be the most contagious. About 1,000 Kansans die from the flu or flu-related complications every year, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

Watkins offers students two types of influenza vaccination: the flu shot and the nasal-spray flu vaccine.

The flu shot costs $15 and contains inactive strains of the influenza virus so the shot can’t cause people to get the flu, Quinlan said. It is delivered through a shot to the arm. It is an inter-muscular shot, so a possible side-effect is tenderness of the arm for a few days. It can be administered to people 9-years-old or older.

The nasal spray costs $28 contains a live but weakened strains of the influenza virus. It can be given to people ages 5 to 49-years-old. Quinlan said this vaccine is slightly more effective but is not approved for everyone, so students should check with a medical professional before getting the spray.

Both options are available by appointment. It takes about two weeks for the antibodies the vaccine creates to fight the virus to develop in the body.

The vaccines are 70 to 90 percent effective at preventing the flu depending on how closely the strain of virus in the vaccine matched the strain that is circulating, according to the CDC. It is impossible to get the flu from the flu shot or the LAIV.

“Even if you get the flu and had the vaccine, it’s a milder form and you will miss less class,” Quinlan said.

Other measures students can take to protect themselves include careful hand washing and not sharing food or drink or kissing a person who has influenza. Students with healthy eating, sleeping and exercise habits are also less likely to get the flu because the body is better prepared to fight the virus.

Quinlan also said Watkins has an emergency plan in place in case there is an outbreak of an exotic strain of flu.

A middle-aged man wearing a long, black business coat places a jar of cherry edible body oil onto the checkout counter at Priscilla’s.

Manager Jennifer Terrel tells the customer the brand he selected is on special and he can grab another one for free.

“That one has a very pleasant taste,” she said.

Though Lawrence has only one other adult store, Naughty but Nice, both businesses know they are competing against each other, and also against a slew of online pornography Web sites and even people who throw home sex toy demonstrations, much like the Tupperware parties of the past.

Terrel said speaking to her customers as if each were regular shoppers-- and many of them are-- is one way she keeps them coming back to her store to buy adult novelty and sexual enhancement items.

“We try to provide a personable and pleasant staff; we have a nice atmosphere here,” Terrel said. “People can come in and ask questions and we give them answers and they don’t feel insecure.”

Richard Ofburn, manager of Naughty but Nice, said lower prices along with customer service are how his store attracts customers.

“We kill them with kindness,” he said.

Both managers agreed competition doesn’t always come from local businesses.

Adult merchandise, including toys like vibrators and dildos, pornography and even lingerie, can be purchased online from a vast market of adult novelty distributors.

Perhaps the most highly coveted adult items on the Internet are adult movies, which can be ordered off of the Internet and also downloaded from it.

Though online pornography statistics are widely disputed and often very politicized, one online research company, TopTenReviews, estimates 4.2 million pornographic Web sites exist on the Internet and there are also 68 million daily pornographic search engine requests, comprising 25 percent of all search engine requests.

Besides the Internet, satellite television services also carry adult movies on select channels, giving customers the privacy to choose the movies they want at home without the embarrassment of having to hand them to a store clerk.

“Privacy is a big issue,” Ofburn said.

Ofburn said another new source of competition for his store is the home toy party business, which provides demonstrations of adult toys at a host’s house and in front of a handful of the host’s friends, much like Tupperware parties.

Molly Easley, Lawrence junior, was one such independent consultant for Passion Parties, Inc.; a company based in Las Vegas that recruits representatives much like Avon and Mary Kay do for cosmetics.

Easley said she organized six parties from August to October this year in Lawrence, usually in front of five or six people, many of whom were college students but ranging in age from 21 to 35.

She said she became interested in the adult party business after attending one hosted by a friend who had recently broken up with her boyfriend of six years.

“Those are the three ‘Bs:’ bachelorette parties, birthdays and breakups,” Easley said.

After the party, she purchased a consultant demo kit from Passion Parties for $250. Once a consultant, Easley started organizing parties that allowed her customers to sample her merchandise and then place orders for Passion Parties through her. She would make a 40 percent commission from orders.

“You can make up to $200 a night for an average of 10 guests,” she said.

Easley said some of her products were similar to items at Naughty but Nice and Priscilla’s, but Passion Parties also sells a lot of exclusive merchandise. Prices for her items ranged from $12 for basic toys and perfumes up to $180 for a complex vibrator.

“If you pay more money for a toy, you’re going to get your money’s worth,” Easley said.

A sex swing with fitted stand for $240 is the most expensive item at Naughty but Nice, Ofburn said, and Terrel said the most expensive item at Priscilla’s is a set of bed sheets equipped with Velcro straps for $160 that allow partners to perform sexual bondage acts.

The majority of Priscilla’s sales comes from selling skimpy clothing to exotic dancers, Terrel said.

Though Naughty but Nice sells lingerie and other clothing, they are not the store's hottest items, Ofburn contrasts.

“Movies have always been our bread and butter,” he said.

A couple of unique items at Naughty but Nice are individually packaged paperclips and rubber bands. Ofburn is selling those items because he has been charged with operating an unlicensed sex shop in an unapproved location.

He said he had permission seven years ago from city hall to open his store that sits at 1741 Massachusetts St., but after an initial outcry from concerned citizens, he said the city found a 1997 Kansas law that allows the commission to relocate or close adult businesses that aren’t located on state highways.

This law allows Priscilla’s to remain open at 1206 W. 23rd St., because it is on a highway.

Ofburn said in July 2000 the city commission ordered for him to relocate or close his store within five years. Ofburn hasn't moved and will go to court in January.

Easley said she gave up the adult toy party business because she didn’t have time to schedule parties.