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Show Park Record Thursday, February 25, 1988 Page A1 1 Aymcffl Sod lltt (Gap! ' o o o BY TOM CLYDE A match made in heaven My newspaper reading habits are probably symptomatic symp-tomatic of some kind of serious mental disfunction. I never look at the front page in any more detail than a quick glance at the lead headline. I think it was George Carlin who defined a homeowner as a person who will read the headline "World to End Tuesday," then turn to the hardware ads. I'm that bad, although for me, the real appeal is not the hardware ads. The stuff I read is the little filler pieces that come in from all over the world. The three paragraph stories from Hogswallow, Arkansas, or just about anything in a national publication dealing with Utah are my favorites. The front page is more or less a re-run of bombings in Lebanon. To really take the pulse of the world, and reassure myself that everything is still about half a bubble bub-ble out of plumb, I read the fillers, Dear Abby, letters to the editor, and any of the columns where readers' questions ques-tions are answered. I especially like the letters to the editor in the Deseret News, where feelings run a little deeper than other papers. There was a letter last week attacking KSL weatherman Bob Welti on a pretty personal level for his unfounded attack on the tradition of Groundhog day. Welti pointed out that the Groundhog was only about 26 percent accurate, shattering the beliefs of the writer. Actually, old Bob's odds are not much better than that. That's the kind of stuff I love to read. The rest of the news I ignore. But with me, it doesn't end with reading the junk. My warped brain tries to tie all of the loose ends together, digest the collective insanity reported each day, and draw some cosmic conclusions concerning concern-ing the state of the world based on the problems presented to Dear Abby and Miss Manners. Get your butterfly nets ready. Here are two priceless items I saw last week. First, in the consumer ombudsman column in the Deseret News, a most indignant Mrs. D.L. from Bountiful, Boun-tiful, UT. wrote to complain about a Salt Lake appliance store. She had been required to put down a deposit of $91.35 on a special order replacement part. She had placed plac-ed the order clear back in October, and the part still wasn't there. Mrs. D.L. was pretty torqued. Well, I thought, October to February is kind of a long time to wait for a replacement part for her oven. Maybe old Mrs. D.L. had a point. I could picture her there in the kitchen kit-chen wearing her tool belt, ovenless, with the bread rising. ris-ing. She might even have been bamboozled by this store, who had no intention of delivering her oven part. rrM . . l : il j a I inc t uiiBumer auvucaie repneu uiai mere was a ueiau missing from the long-suffering Mrs. D.L.'s letter. It seems that Mrs. D.L. was looking for a part for an oven built in 1958. While Mrs. D.L. may think it is an outrage that an appliance store does not carry a complete stock of parts for 30-year-old ovens, it doesn't seem that far out of line for me. The store wasn't the only business to run low on 30-year-old oven parts. Even their distributer of antique oven parts was out of stock. They were trying to locate the manufacturer, who claimed he still made a few of them each year. It just kept getting back ordered. As if all of that was not strange enough, the manufacturer manufac-turer of antique appliance parts claims that part of the delay was the "Christmas rush." Well, that makes sense. I gave most of my close friends thermostats from 30-year-old ovens for Christmas last year. The handles from 1940's vintage refrigerators were also popular gift items. I didn't realize it had become a trend. Mrs. D.L. really struck a cord out there. A few days later, the ombudsman column had a testimonial in favor of a GE refrigerator bought just after the war that was still running. Others wrote in to say their washers had raised eight children and still worked fine. I never, realized people got so attached to their old appliances. Some of these folks should try to get out a little more often and take in a movie or walk in the park. The other item that caught my eye was the story of Albert Klein from Pasadena. Mr. Klein, really he would want to be called Al, I can tell from the picture, is the proud owner of a 1963 Volkswagon Beetle that just clocked clock-ed a million miles. That's right, one million miles. Klein is going for the world's record, now held by a 1957 Mercedes with 1,184,880 miles before it bit the dust. Klein estimates that it will take him about five more years to beat that. By then, his car will be as old as Mrs. D.L.'s oven is now. Al reports that he spends almost every spare minute driving his Beetle. He enjoys visiting friends in Bakersfield. I wish there was a way to get a picture into this format, for-mat, because Al Klein is a real prize. The only way I can describe him is to say that if he sat down on the stool next to you at the Mt. Air Cafe, the very first thing that would come to your mind is, "hey, he looks like a guy who would drive a '63 Beetle over a million miles! " You wouldn't even have to see the car to know that much about Al Klein. He claims he had documented every cent he has spent on the car, and I tend to believe him. In the same paper, Hertz announced their annual car operation expense figures. They determined that it costs $4,757 a year to own and feed a sub-compact car, based on 10,000 miles a year, and a life of five years for the car. Klein's figures are a little better. His costs are a little under $1,000, including in-cluding lots of tires a few transaxles. The only thing that really alarms me about either of these items is that my thought processes, with whatever combination of stripped gears is at work up there, immediately im-mediately put the two together. Mrs. D.L. from Bountiful Boun-tiful and Albert Klein of Pasadena are a match made in heaven. She could bake up a bread crumb meatloaf in her 30-year-old oven, then the two of them could go out for a Sunday drive in the old Beetle. Too bad it's a long distance call from Bountiful to Pasadena. They will probably pro-bably never get acquainted, but what a line up for the Letterman show. uniiimmnmtt it Soninmmmiitt COMPILED BY HEIDI WEST Man dies from hotpot burns A 24-year-old employee at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge in Yellowstone National Park died from second-degree second-degree burns after falling into a thermal pool. John Mark Williams had skied with four other employees from Old Faithful to Shoshone Lake. According Accor-ding to Park spokesperson Amy Vanderbilt, Williams was an experienced skier. The group planned to stay the night at a campsite. "He was reportedly walking alone in the Shoshone Geyser Basin on the west side of the lake near the group camp when he fell into one of the pools," Vanderbilt said. He made his way back to camp, where his friends administered first aid and raised his feet to treat him for shock. Two of the group skied back to Old Faithful to notify Park rangers of the accident, but rangers could not fly out to the area until high winds died down and visibility increased. Williams apparently stopped breathing at about 10:30 a.m. the morning after his accident. Rangers arrived at 11:30 a.m. Although both the campers and rangers administered ad-ministered CPR for more than two hours, it was to no avail. More than 20 rangers and other Park personnel participated par-ticipated in the rescue attempt. Vanderbilt noted thin crusts often surround the thermal ther-mal pools, and reminded all Park visitors of the extreme danger the pools pose. "The water in the pools can reach 190 degrees." Since the Park opened in 1872, 14 people have died from falling into hot springs within its boundaries. The cat was quarantined, but when an animal keeper was told to select a few of the crowded shelters residents to be put to sleep, she did not see a written notice of the quarantine and put the cat to death seven days after it bit Moser, By the time the mistake was realized, the cat was already buried at the local landfill. Although doctors have told the Mosers they are 95 percent per-cent safe, "that other five percent has me scared to death," said Julie Moser. The incubation period for the disease in humans can last as long as a year. "What am I supposed to do?" she asked. "Watch my family for the next year, wondering if every little symptom might be the beginning of rabies?" Herd to be halved The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued its plan to halve the number of bison in the Jackson Hole herd. The meat and hides from the slaughter will be made available to native Americans. The plan notes live trapping and relocation would be difficult because of limited facilities, low demand for buffalo and the likelihood the animals carry brucellosis a disease which causes cattle to abort. The buffalo are causing destruction to private property proper-ty and crops, competing with elk for alfalfa hay pellets and threatening public safety in the Sleigh Ride Visitor Center. Reducing the herd would even out the number of adult males and females, and create a group made up of 20 percent calves. The plan is available for a 30-day comment period which ends March 14. Jackson Hole Guide Cat bite may mean rabies shots A family which took in a stray cat is now considering an expensive series of rabies shots for all family members after one was bitten. i Although the cat was taken by the Dept. of Animal Control for quarantine until it was clear whether or not it had rabies, it was mistakenly put to sleep before the 10-day required observation period was up. That mistake means the Mosers are facing $450 per person for shots or a year of not knowing whether rabies is festering fester-ing inside them. . Jackson town administrator John Koelsch admitted the problem was the city's fault, and has offered to pay for the Inoculations. ..... Julie Moser said it all started on a very cold night in January. She was up nursing her seven-month-old child and heard a cat crying outside. "I opened the door and looked out and there was this beautiful big black cat freezing to death. I put some milk out for it, but when I looked out again 15 minutes later, the milk had frozen. I couldn't let the cat die, so I let it in the house." Although the cat seemed friendly to the children and the family's other cat, one morning it and the other cat fought. Moser said she stuck her hand in between them to break it up and the stray bit her. "The big cat bit my hand right down into an artery, and when I pulled my hand out, he was hanging there from my hand by his teeth. I thought maybe he had bitten my finger off." No more KOTO Local radio station KOTO-FM is a little angry over a memo recently issued by the Telluride Ski Company (Telco) reinforcing the company's policy to only play taped music at its various facilities. The memo, which reads "No loud music! No rock! No KOTO!" was sent to employees as a reminder of an existing ex-isting policy, says Tom Sharp, director of Telco food services. ser-vices. "My target is to provide uniformity in what we are presenting to guests," said Sharp. But radio station manager Robert Allen is convinced the memo is the result of a recent staff meeting between management officials. He said some 30 ski company employees have called the station in the past week confirming con-firming his statement. Although Allen admits Telco has "every right" to choose which music they want to play, he added "It would be nice for Telco to introduce community radio to tourists. They come here for a unique experience and KOTO is a unique radio station." ' A different story came from Terry Fernald, director of mountain services. He contends staff can play whatever music they like as long as they keep the volume down. "It's not what they are playing, it's how loud they are playing it," he said. KOTO's board of directors has sent the ski company officials a letter offering to meet one-on-one to talk about any problems. The Grub Steak For a Great Lunch We're changing our lunch menu! Sue Haygood will be preparing two "Homemade Soups" daily. The restaurant will have an all new Sandwich Buffet with all the trimmings, changing daily. Buffet includes our famous salad bar. Prices range from $ 1 .50 to $6.25 ITiTrarTO . . . Lunch Served Monday-Friday 1 1 :30 to 2:30 Saturday 12 to 2:00 Park City's Favorite Restaurant R K S I I R I at Ashton Genesis Resort 649-8060 (iQDdBBQjESIilE (Midi UGaO3!Ii1fijQSr GtidfiSsi 33JV! difSdm dftfe ta ten? ans? Wed. March 2nd 7:00 pm at the Cole Sport store on Park Ave. Women's ski equipment expert Jeannie Thoren will give a free lecture. For more information pleasacall 6494800 |