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Thick-Skinned Citizens

From an article in the Casper Star-Tribune on a speech Governor Jim Geringer gave at a Wyoming Taxpayers Association meeting. Geringer declared he didn't want to raise taxes on the wealthy because lower income people use more public services:" `Why not have some sense of personal accountability?' he asked. `That's where I think an income tax in Wyoming would miss the mark.... The highest consumers for services ought to have some skin in the game. They have very little right now,' Geringer said."

No Need to Read

From an article in the December 1999 issue of American Libraries magazine on a new book discussion group at a Denver Public Library branch: "Instead of reading, participants listen to sound bites from audio books. Librarian Kate Lawrence plays twenty-minute excerpts from short stories, essays, and sketches. Then the group discusses them for the remainder of the hour. `There's no preparation required,' said Lawrence. `It's for people who are too busy to read.'"

Just Bronze It!

From an ad in the Los Angeles Weekly for Artistic Forms Studio: "Beauty for eternity. We professionally cast your breasts or buttocks in bronze. We form a mold by applying a flowing layer of rubber to the area which becomes a firm, pliable mold in twenty minutes[ When removed, we have an exact impression of your form, which is then cast in bronze, detailed, and mounted on a beautiful marble base--ready to be presented to your loved one or displayed as a work of art to the world."

Forget the Bake Sale

From an Associated Press article in The Boston Globe datelined Raleigh, North Carolina, on a successful gun raffle held at the Hobgood Academy: "The rural Halifax private school expects to clear $23,000 instead of the hoped-for $4,000, as 2,500 tickets were sold for $10 each. The proceeds will help pay for a Future Farmers of America building at the school.... Doug Abernathy, the owner of Doug's Guns in Williamston, supplied the five guns at their $1,800 cost. `This being a strong sporting community, any time you give anybody a chance to win a firearm, then obviously Bubba's willing-to shell out five or ten dollars,' said Abernathy."

Life's Most Precious Thing

From an Associated Press article from the Twin Falls, Idaho, Times-News, on National Mining Association President and CEO Richard L. Lawson and his take on developing the economies of Third World countries: "Lawson said the creation of capital and wealth through mining is the solution.... `The most precious thing on this globe today is capital. That's what precludes developing countries from charging into the twentieth century.... The answer for us is to teach them how to bring poverty under control. And it all begins with digging a product out of the ground.'"

Hitler, the Ad Man

From an Associated Press on-line article datelined Taipei, Taiwan, on the Taiwanese trading firm K.E. and Kingstone's decision to pull an ad for German-made electric heaters that featured a cartoon of Hitler: "The posters had a smiling caricature of Hitler in a khaki uniform and black jackboots, his right arm raised high in a salute. Above him is a white space heater and the slogan `Declare War on the Cold Front!' Huang Chong-jung, manager of the trading firm's marketing department, said that the campaign was never intended to show support for Hitler. The company merely decided to use him to emphasize that the heaters were made in Germany. `We thought it was just a comic picture,' Huang said."

Frontiers of Free Enterprise I

From a Christian Science Monitor on-line article datelined Kyoto, Tokyo, on Japan's $76 million hygiene market: "The clean-conscious shopper can find antibacterial toothbrushes, toilet seats, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, pencils, floppy discs, and socks and underwear which come with built-in deodorizers. And then there's the human washing machine by the Avant Company.... In an eighteen-minute normal cycle that costs $9.50, the washee is showered, enveloped in an aromatic mist, steamed sauna-style, showered again, and sprayed with body lotion. Ultrasonic waves and a breeze complete the drying process.... Avant hopes the machines will one day be a standard home appliance, but since they currently cost over $17,000, the company is marketing them to hospitals, spas, and hotels for now."

Frontiers of Free Enterprise II

From an on-line Associated Press story datelined Alexandria, Virginia: "A financially struggling church is considering a deal with AT&T. Allow the company to build a 130-foot-tall cross with a hidden cellular phone tower inside, and First Christian Church will get $18,000 a year.... AT&T usually places cell phone equipment on existing buildings, but about 15 percent of the time that isn't possible, said spokesperson Alexa E. Graf. The company initially approached Alexandria's First Baptist Church, she said, but the Baptists were not interested in hiding the equipment in their steeple."

Bombs Away!

From an Associated Press article from the Wisconsin State Journal of Madison: "Chronic pain, a misery in the lives of 100 million Americans, may be controlled by a `smart bomb' drug that brings relief without the dulling side effects of narcotics, researchers report.... `What we've done is developed a molecular missile for chronic pain,' said Michael L. Nichols, a neurology researcher at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis."

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