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Show Sljc Salt Cake Sfibnnr Lifestyle Section A Wednesday Morning, January 21, 1981 Page 13 M. Truman is compass to gauge changes scarcely be imagined. I was born and grew up in an enormous house where my mother was born and still lives (Bess, 95), she says, smiling radiantly. I had a great big back yard, and Mother and Dad bought every possible plaything for me. They had a seesaw made you couldn't and it was huge. I buy 'em in those days had a slide, a trapeze, swings, and every kind of bike you can think of. Blight other little girls lived nearby, and they'd all play together in the wonderful back yard. That was a good way to grow up, Truman says. She also had a doting father. I was very spoiled, she confesses. My father never spanked me. Like most daughters, she quickly learned that an expectant look into father's eyes could yield untold dividends. During the Depression, Dad would press a scare quarter into her hand so she could go to a movie and buy an ice cream soda. Only maternal judgment kept things in perspective: "Mother unspoiled me, she recalls. She would spank me. Criticize Singing And then came Washington, first as the daughter of a senator, then a president Even in the White House, family values were foremost perhaps most famously when President Truman publicly lambasted a Washington Post music critic who dared criticize Margarets singing. I was glad chivalry wasnt dead, she says with a hearty laugh. You can go up to the second floor of the White House and have a very quiet family life, Truman remembers, though she acknowledges her father called the executive mansion the Great White Jail. She says: We had a sitting room at the end of the main hall where we would all read or entertain guests. Really, living in the White House is what you make it A history student at George Washington University for most of her White House years, she speaks of a casualness difficult to imagine in these televised, assassination-marred times. After an opera or a concert, she often invited her friends home for ice cream and cake. Wed all sit around in my living room and play records and eat ice cream, she says. Mother made sure that the kitchen on the top floor was stocked with ice cream and various goodies. Awesome Weight And, according to Trumans memory, the awesome weight of the Oval Office didnt outwardly affect her fathers chipper manner. If he made a decision, he had made that decision, and that was it, she says. And she vigorously disputes recent press reports that President Truman had nagging doubts about dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. He thought it wo'.dd save soldiers lives, which it did, Margaret says. Hundreds of thousands were and that was it. saved Although she thinks occupants of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue can have perfectly happy lives, she recalls that she always felt circumscribed there. It was an interesting place, she says thoughtfully. I didnt like it, but it was an interesting place. In particular, it nicely complemented the history courses she was taking in college. So it was relatively easy to leave Washington, easier still to renounce her by Douglas Martin Chicago Tribune It was a time of nickel Cokes, pincurls and newspaper pictures of Lauren Bacall balancing on President Harry Trumans piano as he banged out the Missouri Waltz. Newsreels showed the last pretelevision president bursting with pride as he introduced his daughter, Margaret to 350 Americas little princess" audiences in the 1948 whistlestop campaign. If a lot of things have changed since then, Margaret Truman hasn't. Im just me," she says with a shrug of her shoulders and a lilting laugh. Im still square." She is considerably more than that, despite a taste for such unabashedly corny musicals as Meredith Wilsons The Music Man." Because of her privileged vantage point, Truman, 56, has become something of a compass to gauge the changes that have shaken American society since her father last gave em hell." Because of a persistent ability to balance a traditional home life with a multifarious career, her experience is relevant to a new generation of women. Chief Cook not a womens Im libber, she asserts. Married for the last 24 years to retired New York Times editor E. Clifton Daniel Jr., she roles as proudly talks of her part-tim- e chief cook and bottle washer" in a hectic household and as the busy mother of four sons between the ages of 14 and 23. In language used by generations of homemakers, she recounts laying down the law" and demanding that her sons clean up their own cooking messes. There are millions of women who want to be housewives, and I really take my hat off to them, because that is the toughest career in the world," she says. I was way ahead of the feminists, she continues, pointing to her career as concert singer, actress, radio and television interviewer, lecturer and author. In particular, she is now busily touting her first mystery, a thriller called Murder in the White House (Arbor House, $9.95) that tells an imaginary tale of the garroting of a satyrlike secretary of state in the family quarters. Margaret Truman has become something of compass to gauge changes that have shaken American society since her his time served in White House. Whats nutrient density? By Dr. Neil Solomon Dear Dr. Solomon: I saw the phrase nutrient density used, but there was no explanation of its meaning. Can you help.? Catherine Dear Catherine: Nutrient density refers to the ratio of nutrient co- ntent to the number of calories in a serving of a par- ticular food. nutrient Dr. Solomon foods Low density includ' soda, candy, cake, honey, and other items with a high sugar or fat content. In other words, the amount of nutrition obtained from these foods, when compared with the number of calories they contain, is very low. Dear Dr. Solomon: Is there anything new on the subject of the safety of nitrite in food? I understand that the government was supposed to look into charges that nitrite causes cancer and make a report, but I havent seen anything in the papers about it. Anyway, why all the fuss about nitrite? Is it Tony really that important? Dear Tony: A group of independent scientists reviewed the claim that nitrite causes cancer in rats, and concluded that there is not enough fathers election, Odor protection After bathing or show- use either a evidence to support such a charge. As a ering, t, deodorant or an antiper-spiran- result, both the Food and Drug ministration Ad- and the United of Agriculture (USDA) have decided not to take any action at this time to see that nitrite is removed from foods. Both the FDA and the USDA have announced, however, that they are going to continue their efforts to eliminate preformed nitrosamines, which are known to cause cancer, from foods. Nitrosamines are chemicals that are formed when nitrite combines with amines, which occur naturally. A good deal of success already has been achieved in eliminating or reducing nitrosamines in such foods as bacon and beer. Concern about the cancer-causin- g potential of nitrites followed a study involving a total of almost 2,000 rats. On the basis of that study, it was concluded that rats that were fed nitrite had a significantly increased rate of cancer of the lymph system. The reason nitrite is so important rests upon both health and economic considerations. From a health standpoint, nitrite inhibits the growth of bacteria, thereby preventing the formation of a toxin that can result in a deadly form of food poisoning called botulism. From an economic standpoint, it is estimated that nitrite is added to $12.5 billion worth of food, an amount equal to 7 percent of our total food supply. (FDA) States Department kind depending on the of protection needed. A deodorant inhibits the growth of bacteria and helps prevent odor. An antiperspirant helps stop perspiration. I had my own career, and went out on my own, long before anybody ever heard of womens lib, she declares, the musical quality of her voice almost obscuring the remnants of a Missouri twang. She readily admits she had a couple of advantages: a president for a father and a New York Times executive for a husband. I was lucky, she says. We were able to afford a nurse and a housekeeper, and I think thats inhere Im not typical. Maintain Values If Margaret Truman knows who she is, its partly because she remembers where she came from. Since the days she sang in the choir at Trinity Episcopal Church in then a small town of Independence, Mo. 10,000 people, now a bustling Kansas City she has firmly believed suburb of 110,000 that its important to maintain basic good values." And values, she says, come from family. A sunnier, more loving childhood could position as elected royalty. Somebody once asked me if I felt like Princess Elizabeth, and I said, Certainly not, because Im going to get out of here; she has it for life. Her intended destination, Truman says, was always the Big Apple. She exudes: music, Everythings in New York theater, everything I was interested in. By contrast, Washington seemed insufferably dull. There are three categories of people in Washington, and you see the same people all the time, she observes. There are politicians, diplomats and newspapermen and thats it. That's what makes the town run its a company town. You see the same people all the time. same Every time you go to a party people. They're nice, I mean, perfectly all right. But in New York you see lots of different kinds of people." So why did she write a novel set in the pristine prison of the White House, the trendy, pricey restaurants of Washingtons increasingly slick downtown, and various other landmarks on the political-diplomatcircuit she was so intent on escaping? Well, it seems her publishers had a hunch that a book about murder and mayhem in the president's most inner circle, considering its author, would attract a large audience. She explains that she had become less than enthralled with another book she was wrestling with about children in the White House, and so informed her agent and publisher during lunch at a swank Manhattan restaurant White House Murder I said, How about a mystery about murder in the White House? Id never thought about it before. And they both leaped up an said, Thats it? Truman then fought a nasty case of writers block for months and months. You start with an outline, she says. And then, if youre me, you put everything off until tomorrow. Isnt that terrible?" But with help from her editors in structuring the book, advice from White House curator Clem Conger on the exact floor plan of the mansion, and despite procrastination so constant she compares herself to Scarlett g OHara, she put together a tale. Listen to a few lines: The blood so much of it soaked his trousers, the chair, even the carpet beneath the chair. His throat had been cut. The wound circled his throat just above the glistening red collar, and the blood still oozed from it. Ron felt the presidents grip on his arm. Then he heard his barely audible voice My God . . . murder in the White House. Then, gracefully, she parries a reporters graceless question about sexual mores into a discussion about White House furniture. But before racing off to autograph 500 books, she makes a pitch for the Truman Scholarship Foundation, which furthers her fathers ideals by helping educate bright youngsters to serve in government The aim, in part, is to avoid future Watergates by creating a better breed of politicians. Im just glad that Dad didnt live to see He had such she says. Watergate, respect for the offiice of the presidency that I think it would have broken his heart. ic blood-curdlin- ... HOLY LAND and A diamond she'll always have in her heart. EGYPT Satisfy her hearts desire with our diamond pendant in 18 karat yellow April 17th gold, $325. Bethlehem Galilee lerusalem the places Jesus Capernum Gelhsemane walked still tell His story best. Murdock Travel invites you to join a special limited tour of this hallowed area You'll relive the sacred past as the Holy Land unfolds before you It's an experience that will enrich your study, your memories and your life. . . 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