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Show ‘Whe Salt LakeTribune NATION Sunday, January 31, 1999 Legends Reflect Worries Of a Culture, Experts Say @ Continued From A-1 glued together, to make sense of their world, and for Americans, that leads directly to the Super Bowl, our great national, even transnational, celebration,” said Alan Dundes, professor of anthropology and a folklore expert at the University of California, Berkeley. For Dundes, Super Bowl whoppers are just the American variant on an ancient tendency. “Every culture's legends express that culture's values,” Dundessaid. ‘Super Bowl legends usually involve numbers and a senseof enormity. The idea of big numbers, of being bigger than other peopie, is very American.” Beyond manya goodlegend there is a kernel of fact, or a dash of hopeful thinking, and soit is with Super Bowllegends. Water wonks readily confirm that Super Bowl Sundaybringslarge-scale water usage at approximately the sametime. But theyalso notethatall but the most aged and infirm water systems should be able to withstand the down-flush and uptick with no problem. Furthermore, it is not as if Super Bowl Sundayis the only time water usage increases. For massflushing, the champ in mostcities remains the final epi- sodesof “M*A*S*H” and “Seinfeld”(no records are in yet for the televised portion of the presidential trial). It is true that a water main brokein Salt Lake City in 1984 on Super Bowl Sunday. Newsstories on the Super Bowl toilet factor routinely list that incident as proof positive of the phenomenon. Alas, Leroy Hooton, director of public utilities for Salt Lake City, says no link between the Super Bowl flushing and the 16-inch-main break wasever estab- veracity of legends, Dundesdoesnot. “As folklore, the truth of a legend is unimportant,” he said. “Leg- ends show whata culture is worried about.” Which brings us to Super Bowl week 1993, when women’s advocacy groupsreleased a study doneat Old Dominion University. It purportedly showed that more women are abused by men on Super Sunday than on any otherdayof the year and that women’s shelters receive an onslaughtof calls. Soon, however, oneof the study's authorssaid its conclusion had been distorted and, although abuse statistics seemto indicate a link between football and abusive behavior, a good deal morestudyis needed. A flap persisted for several Super Bowl seasons and there are varying opinions about whether the overreaching had served or damaged the cause of abuse prevention. “Oh, please, let’s not go through that again,” said oneleader in thefight against spousal abuse whenasked torevisit the controversy. Lawrence Wenner, a professer of communication at the University of San Francisco who has written extensively about the Super Bowl, calls the last Sun- day of January “‘a cultural high holy day” fueled by mass advertising and sports mania, two supercharged engines of modernlife. The Super Bowl comes soon after the religious holidays, he said, and in cold-weather parts of the nation it represents a final occasion for a ritualized gathering of family and friends to say farewell to winter and look forward to the hopefulness of spring. As such, Wennersaid, it’s not surprising the game is surrounded by a penumbraof mythology. “We all look for deep meaningin ourrituals,” he said. The ancients celebrated important days with im- portant meals, soit is not altogether surprising that Super Bowl hasits own food legend: that two-thirds of all avocados sold inthis country are sold within three weeks of Super Sunday. that he wantsto spend $14 millionto help close the gap between men’s and women’s wages, and he pressed Congressto toughen enforcement of equal: pay laws. “When a woman is denied equal pay, it doesn’t just hurt her,” Clinton said in his weekly radio address. “It hurts her family, and that hurts America.” Last summer, the president's Council of Economic Advisersre- ported that women earn about 75 cents for every dollar a man earns — an improvement from the 58 cents on the dollar that women earned when President Kennedy signed the 1963 Equal PayAct. “We can be proud of this progress, but 75 cents on the dollaris still only three-quarters of the way there, and Americans can't besatisfied until we're all the way there,” Clinton said. The $14 million proposal, part of the fiscal 2000 budget he will submit to Congress on Monday, @Triple the number of en- share the microphone forcement workers at the Equal Employment Opportunity Com- with the party’s state chief mission. Provide technical assistance to employers on how to comply with equal pay laws. Keating of Oklahoma executives, Gov. Frank credited his fellow Repub licans with reducing wel farerolls. “More Americans who MCreate public service an- nouncements alerting women to were once trapped in a theirrights failed welfare system are As LaborSecretary Alexis Her- achieving independence.” Keating said Saturday. “It manputit: “I have yet to goto the grocery store to buy a $1 loafof bread and have the cashier look is almost entirely the re- up andsay,‘Since you’re a wom- sult of reformscrafted by the states, underthe leadership of visionary Re an, it’s 75 cents.’ Working women pay the same — and should be paid the same.” publican governors,” that have moved welfare recipients into schools and jobs In Oklahoma, welfare cases have dropped 58 In the past several months, the Labor Department has stepped upits monitoring of pay disparities at private companies, forcing to give raises to women do- ing the same workas men. percent since 1995. Just three weeks ago, Texaco Ine. agreed to pay $3.1 million to 186 female employeesin a settle- Clinton called on the new 106! ment resulting from an audit by the Labor Department's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, which monitors affirmative action at companies that do business with the government. Congressto pass, as one of its firs! acts this year, the Paycheck Fait ness Act, which wasintroduced i the Senate by Minority Lead Tom Daschle, D-S.D. The avocado story has such currency that even Avocado Commission believe it. A marketing specialist at the commission said, when queried, the figure “sounds about right to me." very goodstory,” Hootonsaid “Therejust Clinton said Saturday In the third weekly GOP broadcast since congressional leaders agreed to Bowl Sunday, will anyone in San Diegohearit?” mon in Salt Lake City, where muchof the infrastructure is in its dotage. doesn't seem to be any truth behindit.” Speaking of good stories, here’s news you can use (if only it were true): Super Bowl Sundayis the best day of the year to visit that secular shrine called Disneyland because everybody is home watchingthe game. The parkis virtually empty and the rides just begging for customers. “That's just not true,” said Disneyland spokesman John McClintock. “We get asked that every year. Super Bowl Sunday is not much slower than any other Sunday in January.” While journalistic Pecksniffs may worry about the THE ASSOCIATEDPRESS WASHINGTON — President @ GOP Response site: “If I beat my wife with an avocado on Super some folk at the Santa Ana, Calif.-based California Still, a localtelevision station broadcasta “teaser” Clinton Asking for $14 Million To Help Close Gender Pay Gap Whichled a wiseacrelast year to combine two Super Bowl legends and muse on a Super Bowl Web lished. Water-line breaks, he notes, are not uncom- for its 11 p.m. news about the water break and the tale has beenpartof the journalistic fabric of Super Bowl lore ever since. All} Later the commission spokesmanplacedafollow- Veekend Rates REKINDLE TRE ROMANCE. up call with an erratum: Avocado sales for the Super Bowlare about5 percentof the annualtotal. Super Bowl is big — about 8 million pounds — but it’s a piker compared to Cinco de Mayo — 14 million pounds. Booky ur Doubletree Valentine's Da Weekend now. IDAHO hots But as one legend is dying, another is being born. ‘The avocado commission each year stages an Avo- Bowl. Guacamole dips are prepared thatcatch the “flavor”of therivalcities. This year the Denver dip Park dip had Georgia peaches. A taste-test is then held. In four of the last five years, the winner of the AvoBowl hasalso won the Super Bowl. The winner this year was Denver. MONTANA MISSOULA hadColorado onionsandhotsauce, andthe Atlanta OREGON HUGENE | srrixcrimin $74 MEDFORL $59 | PENDLETON $59 | UTAH SALT LAKE C1 BE A REAL EYE OPENER. WASHINGTON KELSO $49 PASCO $69 PORT ANGELES $49 RICHLAND, Tuesday, February 2, 1999at 5:45 pan. Join us for a treelaser vision correction seminar Oneof the country’s leading refractive surgeons, Dr. Francis Wapner, will share his expertise in treating a lifetimeof nearsightedness, farsightedness and & ] ‘ astigmatism. 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