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Show Park Record Thursday, February 18, 1988 Page A13 AdM Sod Iltt (Gne BY TOW CLYDE Subscri ption cures al I ills I subscribe to a bunch of different magazines. Most of them are pretty ordinary. Maybe not the kind of thing you can buy at the convenience store news stand in Kamas, but nothing all that exotic, either. Some are about camping and outdoor sports, skiing and so on. Others are the generic news magazines, some are kind of high-brow looks at current events (they have the best cartoons). It's interesting to compare their coverage depth and timing. For example, a month after the "Atlantic" does a lengthy article on the failing American economy and the debt load we have taken on individually and as a nation, "Time" will devote three columns to the issue, in their best Readers' Digest style. The one thing they all have in common is terrible subscription service. The people sending the renewal notices have never met the people running the subscription subscrip-tion lists, even though they seem to get my address off the same computer. The publishers all hope that loyal subscribers will re-new regularly, but there must be a serious self esteem problem among publishers. None of them can handle a routine renewal. Deep down inside, they don't believe that anybody would want to renew a subscription. Even though they come right out and beg for renewals, when one comes through, there is no procedure pro-cedure for getting it entered on the computer. It's almost a sure bet that the renewal will get entered as a new subscription, and for six months, you get two copies of the same issue, plus urgent pleas to renew on both accounts. ac-counts. The folks at Time-Life are probably the most anxious of the group. It's not enough to send you an urgent telegram-style notice that the subscription will expire in 12 years. They bring out the full court press. Weekly letters let-ters start rolling in. The first renewal notice says you can save 20 percent off the news stand price. A couple of weeks later, when they really want your business, the letter announces that a special deal has been made just for you alone, and they knock a little more off the price. If that one didnt get you to mail the check, they try again. They sweeten the deal. The latest letter not only saved me 50 percent off the cover price, but they sent me a tiny little pencil in the renewal envelope so I could fill it out right then and send it back. They must think my life is so mixed up that the only reason they haven't heard from me is that I have been unable to find a pencil all these weeks. Try that excuse with the mortgage company com-pany and see how far it gets. Eventually, they claimed that the deal was as good as it was going to get. "This is your last offer" the letter started out. Of course, in the same day's mail were two other offers from Time, both better than the "Last Offer," Of-fer," and promising me trinkets, toy, whiter teeth and fresher breath if only I would renew NOW ! Finally, "Time" started calling me on the phone. I had already renewed and sent them a check. The "immunity from baldness if you renew NOW" offer finally got me. I fall for that one every time. It had already made it on the computer, and the mailing label on the cover, but they kept calling. On the third dinner time call, I was about to cancel and ask for a refund. .Other magazines try bribery. "Sports Illustrated" will send out a video tape of famous football fumbles, a digital cIocFwiffiTheiT name on it, a plastic sports equip-" ment bag they got in the produce department at Albert- sons and painted the SI logo on, plus their special com-merative com-merative issue on the Guatemalan Winter Games. Subscribing to "Sports Illustrated" is like Christmas all over again. You never saw so many presents. Of course, the maker of the 10 cent digital clocks probably paid SI to take the whole boatload off his hands. Now if they could arrange to have the magazine delivered by one of the swimsuit models... The other great magazine marketing technique is the Last Chance campaign. I got a notice from "Outside" the other day. On the outside of the envelope, big red letters let-ters announced "Last Renewal Notice?" Gosh, I was about to run out, and miss a couple of issues getting a new subscription started. It turns out that they really wanted to know if this was the last notice they would have to send me to get me to renew a subscription that doesn't expire until June of next year. If I would just mail a check today, they would leave me alone. Otherwise, Other-wise, they will have to keep dunning me with notices, tempting me with Korean made "Swiss" watches, and soon. They also tried guilt as a marketing approach. "With your help, we can save postage paper, even a few trees." They went on to tell me that they were not going to sweeten the deal, that this was it. They just wanted to give me 18 months advance notice to think about it. And, of course, to think about all the trees they will needlessly butcher to send me follow-up notices if I don't renew now. The sap of that denuded forest would be on my hands. A couple of magazines have offers of a free issue to see if you want to subscibe. This try before you buy idea is pretty good. The funny thing is that the bill for the five year subscription always arrives a month before the trial copy rattles into the box. Try before you buy kind of gets turned around here. That system of sending the bill first reminds me a great scam I read about in the paper a few years ago. Some guy was making a very nice living for himself sending sen-ding bills to large corporations. He had not provided any services or goods to IBM, General Motors, or the others on his list. He just put together a legitimate looking bill (probably offering a substantial discount for prompt payment) and sent it off to the accounting departments of the Fortune 500. His bills, like the typical magazine renewal bill, were not very big amounts. They were the kind of bill that they Accounts Payable Clerk would just pay because it was easier than figuring what the bill was for. When he got somebody who would pay regularly and not ask questions, he would set up a monthly billing. The "New Yorker" and "Atlantic" both work on that system. There is no rhyme or reason to the bills they send, except that they hope I will send them a check. If I answered even half of the renewal offers they send me, I would be paid up and receiving two copies of each for about the next 30 years. The last issue of the "Atlantic" should arrive with my first Social Security check. Of course the guy who sent random bills to the Fortune 500 companies is now in a federal prison. He committed .a Jelony.The guy who.jdecided to generate-random i magazine "renewal notices," however j got promoted to Circulation Manager. Sumrnnfflmfttt rcn uninmnimnit COMPILED BY HEIDI WEST Familiar name wins in Idaho Staff writer Heidi West is currently vacationing on some tropical island very, very far away from here. This week Jennifer Madgic compiled the best news from our neighbors. Idaho Mountain Express The name Ken McCarthy certainly is a familiar one in these parts. And it seems the Park City resident is expanding ex-panding his notority to other states, namely Idaho where he collected his second consecutive Boulder Mountain ski race title. Supporting the biggest turnout since 1973, the Boulder Mountain ski race is a 30.2-kilometer (18.7-mile) crosscountry cross-country ski tour through the Sawtooth National Recreation Recrea-tion Area of Ketchum. This year, the 13th consecutive year, 529 skiers entered the race, 396 of which finished. McCarthy finished in one hour, 16 minutes and 29 seconds, only four seconds longer than his time last year, which isn't bad considering event organizers added add-ed another 0.7 kilometers to the 1988 trail. The top female finisher was Alison Kiesel of Ketchum, who finished 35th overall with a time of 1.29:12. Both Kiesel and McCarthy walked away with an extra $75 for their performances, as well as free entries into the 1989 Boulder Mountain Ski Tour. In the men's division, Miles Minson of Victor claimed second place overall and yet another local racer, Steven Erickson claimed third with a time of 1.19: 15. Ericksen's wife, Jenny, who has claimed another of local titles in the Park City nordic scene, walked away with a third place finish herself. She finished in 1.33:27. Matthew Weatherly-White was fourth in the men's division, followed by Adam Heaney, Rob Landis, Thane Lever, Bill Hopkins, Stuart Jennings and John Allsen. All proceeds from the event went to help construction of the Murphy Memorial Bridge over the Bigwood River located on the Boulder Tour course. Tahoe World Five Tahoe skiers leave for Calgary A proud community of Tahoe bid good luck to a number of Tahoe competitors leaving for the Winter Olympics in Calgary. Athletes from North Tahoe and Truckee made up one-third of the U.S. Alpine Ski Team, Including top U.S. female competitor Tamara McKin-ney. McKin-ney. Aside from McKinney other Tahoe residents included 21-year-old Edith Thys, Bill Hudson, also 21, Bob Ormsby, Orm-sby, 24, and 19-year-old Kristin Krone. According to a SporU Illustrated article, McKinney was a long shot for the Olympics just three weeks ago. Said writer William Oscar Johnson "She will not compete com-pete in Calgary," implying U.S. coach Chip Woods believed McKinney was afraid to compete because of re-Injury re-Injury to the bone she broke in her ankle last November In Copper Mountain, Colo, while training. McKinney proved pro-ved her recovery two weeks ago at the U.S. Alpine Na tional Championships taking third in the giant slalom and first in the slalom. McKinney is the only Tahoe skier with any previous Olympic experience, a fact which was expected to hurt the U.S. team. The only other racer to join McKinney on the experience board is Tiger Shaw of Vermont. Kristin Krone also displayed some spectacular results in the Nationals, taking second in the super giant slalom, eighth in the downhill and second in the super giant slalom. She was hospitalized two days after the Nationals Na-tionals however, due to gallstones. She hoped to have ultra-sound destroy the gallstones before leaving for Calgary. Another injuried member is Ormsby who has been recovering from a severe broken leg he suffered last May. In the Nationals Ormsby took fourth in the giant slalom. He was disqualified when he ran off course in the slalom while trying to defend his national slalom title. In the Nationals, Thys walked away with a fifth in the giant slalom. She does not have much World Cup experience ex-perience and has also experienced a number of injuries over the past couple of years. Two-year Olympic team member, Bill Hudson, finished finish-ed with a pair of ninths in National competition in the downhill and super giant slalom events. Another North Tahoe contingent, Eva Twardokens, suffered a knee injury in the first World Cup race of the season and would not be competing in Calgary. Mammoth Review-Herald Sierra snowpack listed below average Reports based on the snowpack for 1988 were reporting repor-ting below average levels for this time of year for the Eastern Sierra Nevada. According to engineer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Duane Buchholz, the storm systems that haveproduced heavy rains in the southland this winter have not produced snow in the mountains. The result is a watershed of only about 80 percent. Despite the low levels Buchholz said that water supplies sup-plies should be adequate to meet demand. "While our reservoir storage supplies are still depleted from last year, we anticipate adequate water supplies to meet the needs of Los Angeles' customers," said Buchholz. According to, Jon Corey, meterologist at the National Weather Service office in Reno, "no significant storms are forecast for the next five days. Beyond that, the forecast gets quite general. The forecast for February itself calls for a little bit better chance of the precipitation precipita-tion being above normal than below normal. Although the snowpack is below normal for this date, conditions are said to better than last year's critically dry winter, when the snowpack was the lowest in the Mammoth Lakes area to date. Park City Handicapped Sports Association The Park City Handicapped Sports Association and Jans would like to thank the following supporters for the JansSalomon Handicap Challenge: Salomon Park City Ski Area Shirf Brewing Silver King Bank Tom Ligare State Farm Insurance Tanner Memorial Clinic Huntsman Chemical Help-U-Sell Mid Mountain Lodge Coldwell Banker Wee Reps (Rossignol, Marker, K2, Ellesse) Advance Reservations Homestead EIMCO Mrs. Field'sMain Street Mall Unleded Adolph's Restaurant Baja Cisero's Pizza Hut of Park City Holy Cross Family Health "The Came of Work" Jupiter Property Management Cole Sport Williams & Hart Snow HutSummit House Vie Retreat Brand X Cattle Company Cathy Pike Galleria Floral Insta Sign Albertson's Steeps at the Base Right Angle Framing Wyoming Woolens Park City Municipal Eating Establishment Scrooges Alex's Restaurant Mileti's Lloyd's Place The Yarrow Sneakers Club Texas Red's Pit Barbecue Evolution Skis We would also like to thank all of you wonderful volunteers. Without your extra help we could not have made the JansSalomon Handicap Challenge the success that it was! Park City Handicapped Sports Association P.O. Box 680286 Park City. Utah 84068 (801) 649-3991 Spectacular Horse Mini-Ranch on 3.19 acres r i .1 I r T7i"l7 ; I warmest .t :- -Jf KLV -a lJfiiAlb.; - -ff , .-.Wk. r 4 Bedrooms Approximately 3500 square feet living area Close to shopping and recreation Private location with mountain views Designer appointed interior Extra storage building, barn and corral Pasture with bridal path $450,000 Contact Ron Whaley 649-7171 or 649-9203 Coleman lAXD & IXVESTMEST real Estate Services EH 614 Main St., Box 1800, Park City, Ut. 84060 649-7171 9 j$ fr Mj,'i3'ibitt&&r&jft,& " if. |