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McHenry Plaindealer (McHenry, IL), 5 Aug 1985, p. 10

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P«M 2 NORTHWEST HERALD Section B Monday* August 5, IMS Advice Donald Kaul Donald Kaul is a syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services Another strike and you're really out! Like most of you, I'm getting fed up. With practicaliyeverything. -- With Yahoos on both sides of the Iron Curtain who can't seem to figure out that 20,000 or so nuclear warheads are enough. Every time one side offers even the most meager gesture of conciliation, the other claps its hands over its ears and dashes from the negotiation table crying: "It must be a trick." -- With a Congress that refuses to take responsibility for policies that have been instrumental in giving us the largest trade deficits in our history. Sometime within the next year we shall become the most in- debt nation on earth and Congress's chief reaction is to blame the Japanese and threaten them with a trade war. -- With a President who touts a balanced budget amendment on the one hand, yet cuts a cyncial, sleazy deal with House Democrats that guarantees us disastrous $200 billion-a-year budget deficits as far as the eye can see. Asked why he committed so craven an act, he replied: "I don't want to be the skunk at the picnic." -- And most of all -- because I expect more from it than from diplomats and politicians -- I am fed up with baseball, players and owners both. Major-league baseball players, who earn an average of $390,000 a year, are threatening to go on strike for more money. Say it ain't so, Joe. Say it ain't so. Man and boy, I've been a baseball fan for 40 years, ever since that day in 1945 when Hank Greenberg hit a home run to win the pennant for the Detroit Tigers. I've been faithful to baseball in general, and the Tigers in particular, ever since. Faithful enough, as a matter of fact, to draw the derision of my wife, who can't understand why a grown man would throw a shoe across the room because a group of strangers in a distant place fail to excel. "You don't understand," I tell her churlishly. "You've never been a boy." "Doesn't the statute of limitations run out on boyhood when you get to be SO or so?" she once asked. I did not dignify that question with an answer, largely because I couldn't think of one, but I'm beginning to think she was right. I am about to leave my boyhood behind. If the players go on strike next week, I'm going on strike too. I shall give up baseball and devote the rest of my summer to reading the late novels of Herman Melville. Next summer, who knows? Perhaps Proust. My career as a baseball fan will be forever ended. That is no idle threat; I mean it. 1 can't do anything about those incompetents in Helsinki, and the clucks in Washington are beyond my reach. But if baseball strikes on me, I'm going to take revenge. And I won't be alone. The Summer Game will be a long time recovering from another strike, mark me. I was for the players during the last strike, four years ago. I thought they had a right to sell their services to the highest bidder, which the baseball rules of the time prohibited them from doing. So what if they were making a lot of money, a principle was involved. They were on the side of free enterprise; the owners were on the side of owning. This time, however, there is no principle involved in the dispute between the owners and players. The fight is over money, nothing else. The players want a bigger cut of the television money, the owners want. some sort of artificial check on players' escalating salaries because they can't seem to say no on their own. Who cares? Underlying the love a baseball fan has of the game is the fiction that it is, at bottom, a game; the same innocent game that he played for fun when he was 12, that filled his imagination with dreams of heroic deeds. For men at least, it is a powerful link between youth and middle age, a time out of war that indulges the adolescent we carry around within us. A strike shatters that fantasy. It reminds us that baseball is a business, not so very different from any other, and that everybody's in it for the change. If that were the sort of thing childish fantasies are made of, bubble gum cards would have pictures of stockbrokers on them. I don't know if baseball officials are looking for advice, but I have the solution to their problem. It's a compromise. The players should let the owners keep the TV money; let them own it, so to speak. The owners should let the players continue to operate in a free market economy, with no restrictions on salaries. That way the players would be free to gouge the owners and get their share of the TV money in the old- fashioned way, by earning it. And the owners could go on owning. But if they can't figure that out, let them be advised of this: I and others like me will not have our fantasy lives trifled with any further. You go on strike, fellows, you can stay on strike. © 1985 TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC. DEARABBY B y A b i g a i l V a n B u r e n Troy Dixon turns hero United Press International BATON ROUGE, La. -- Troy Dix­ on looked up from a gas pump to see a frantic, sobbing woman clinging to a speeding car that was pulling away with two small children in­ side. He said he thought: "The kids. I've got to catch him." Dixon, 21, said last Wednesday he was putting gas in his car at a store when he saw the mother trying to save her children. He set off a chase at speeds of 80 mph, zig-zagging through traffic, hurtling over rail­ road tracks and running red lights. The woman said she had gone into the store late Tuesday to buy cook­ ies for her children, ages 2 and 3. When she emerged, a stranger was behind the wheel of her car. "I beard the lady yell, 'My kids, my kids,"' said Dixon, an insurance salesman. "I threw the gas pump aside and jumped in my car." Dixon, who said he has carried a .25 caliber pistol since being the victim of an armed robbery, sped off after the stolen auto. "He kept on going," Dixon said. "He tried to run me off the road." Dixon said his only thought was to save the children. The chase ended when the fleeing car sideswiped a utility pole, stop­ ping in a vacant lot. The car thief jumped out and ran. Dixon fired one shot and believes he hit the man in the midsection, but the suspect escaped. The children were unharmed. Police said a search was under way for the suspect. Man, 66, shoots at naked prowler, dies United Press International r CENTREVILLE, Va. -- A 66-year-old man died of a heart attack minutes after firing gunshots at a naked prowler outside his suburban Washington home, police said. The man saw the naked prowler through the kitchen window of his Fairfax County home shortly after midnight on Wednesday. He picked up a Jt2~caliber handgun and fired several shots, police said. Single daughter's fine, thanks DEAR ABBY: I have a wonderful daughter who never caused me a moment's trouble all her growing-up years. She worked to help put herself through college, and now she has a degree and holds down a good job. She is totally self-supporting, has a beautiful apartment, lots 'of friends, and she loves her work. She is morally straight, has a great sense of humor, belts out a song like Streisand and dances up a storm. And she's pretty to boot. So what's my problem? She's 26 years old and there are no immediate prospects for mar­ riage. This does not bother me, but it seems to bother a lot of relatives, who keep nagging her about not being married yet. They seem to think that any kind of marriage would be better than none, and tend to "worry" about her because she's still single. I am not allowed to say anything because it might cause family problems, so I am asking you to deliver this message: Kindly keep your mouths shut, and give single people a break. No name or address, please. My daughter would kill me. PROUD MOTHER DEAR PROUD: Here's your letter. Let's hope It #111 reduce the number of concerned relatives who ask, "How come a nice girl like you isn't married? " DEAR ABBY: Two years ago, some girls I work with invited my husband and me to join a potluck dinner group that meets once a month. We accepted, and realized after about six mon­ ths that this group was not for us. They're all nice people, but most of them have small children, who are their mate in­ terest, naturally. We don't have children yet- and aren't planning to have any in the near future. Every month we get a phone call reminding us where to meet and what to bring. I have tried to say we couldn't make it, but I get pumped for a foolproof excuse, which I can never come up with, so we end up going. I've tried to say we are busy with other things, but I've run out of excuses. I hate to hurt anybody's feelings, but I'd really like to know how to drop out of this group. POTLUCKEDOUT DEAR POTLUCKED OUT: Don't try to come up with an "excuse"-give a reason-the real one: My husband and I nave discussed It and we've decided to drop out Period. DEAR ABBY: My husband's sister, "Lucy," offered to keep our 2-year-old son while my husband and I went away for the weekend. When we got back, my husband picked up our son, and when I saw that child I nearly fainted! Lucy had given him a haircut, and he didn't look like the same child. Abby, he had a head of beautiful golden curls, and she cut all those beautiful curls off. His father wasn't upset at all. He said the boy had looked like a girl, and it was high time he had a haircut anyway. I wasn't ready to see those curls go. I think what my sister-in-law did was unforgivable. I feel angry, resentful and betrayed. Nobody I've spoken to thinks what Lucy did was so ter­ rible. I guess I just need someone to tell me I'm not crazy for feeling the way I do. CRUSHED Your upon DEAR CRUSHED: You are not era: sister-in-law had no builnesa taking herself to give your son a haircut But his father was right It may have been Ugh time for the boy tolook likeaboy. (Every teeri-ager should know the truth about sex, drugs and how to be happy. For Abby's booklet, send your name and address clearly printed with a check or money order tor $2.50 and a long, stamped (39 cents) self-addressed envelope to: Dear Abby, Teen Booklet, P.O. Box 38923, Hollywood, Calif. 90038.) inside Illinois: People and places Hero OT>ipw° Eleven-year-old Jason Titjsler gives his three-year-old brother, Brandon Oberkamp, a piggyback ride last Thursday in front of their Overland Park, Kansas house. Wednesday, Jason pulled his brother from a burning bedroom by ripping a screen from the window (in the background) and breaking the glass with his hands. He then crawled inside and lifted Brandon to safety. By Samuel O. Hancock United Press International OLNEY, 111. -- A concerned town that counts whit squirrels more of­ ten than people will be watching results of the 10th annual census of its bushy tailed guests this fall. John Stencel, a native Chicagoan who is a biology instructor at Olney Central College, is concerned but not alarmed at the lowest white squirrel count in history last fall. Stencel, with the help of volun­ teers, began making scientific counts in 1976 in the town that boasts the world's largest colony of white squirrels. Olney, with 9,200 people, counted only 112 white squirrels last fall, down 22 percent from the previous year. Enumerators counted 384 gray squirrels, which carry albino genes, down 11 percent. Stencel said the 1983 census re­ corded 432 gray squirrels and 143 albinos. The highest count was in 1978 with 187 whites and 598 grays. Stencel belifeves the weather and cats are major factors in the declin­ ing population of white squirrels. That plus the fact that winds, light­ ning and disease have destroyed some oak and hickory trees as popu­ lar nesting places for the pink-eyed albino squirrels. Mayor Gail Lathrop says the city began a tree planting program about four years ago. Old-timers in town still put out corn and nuts for the white squirrels in the winter and build boxes for them to nest in. City Park Superintendent Robert Bemont believes the harsh winters of 1977, 1978 and 1979 cut into the white squirrel population together with a couple of dry years resulting in no production of acorns by oak trees. "I think there may have been some migration from town in search of more food." said Bemont. "We are spending from $1,500 to 12,000 a year for new trees for beau- tification and to benefit the squir­ rels," said Bemont. "We planted a few pecan trees but they are slow growers. We have cut down several dead trees in the park." Bemont said that five or six years ago, there were as many as 50 white squirrels making their home in trees or 30 boxes nn the park. "Now, there must not be more than 12 to 14," he said. "The city feeds 40 bushels of corn a year. "There was a time when we would hand-raise as many as five baby white squirrels a year that people would bring in from fallen trees. We only raised one last year." State law and a city ordinance make it illegal for people to inten­ tionally kill the white squirrels but Bemont says some legislation is needed for cat control. "Cats catch more squirrels than are ever run over by cars," said Bemont. "Any ordinance to control cats is probably years and years away, but I'd like to see one tomorrow." Many city employees wear white squirrel patches on their sleeves and albino squirrel insignia grace the doors of municipal vehicles. Officials say white squirrels have been around Olney since 1902. One story says a farmer trapped a pair and sold them to an Olney tavern owner. Another says a hunter fired into a squirrel nest and that two baby albinos fell out alive and were raised by the hunter. Fisher gets sole rights to Atocha Bargain Price'tl 1st Shew gtawit United Press International KEY WEST, Fla. - A federal judge has given the exclusive rights to a $400 million sunken treasure to Mel Fisher, who spent 16 years find­ ing it, and dismissed a rival trea­ sure hunter's claim to the booty from the Atocha. U.S. District Judge Sidney Arono- vitz, after two days of hearings, dismissed an admiralty claim filed by Richard Lightner that over­ lapped part of a claim area being worked by Fisher's Treasure Sal­ vors Inc. Aronovitz did not mince his words Wednesday in ruling against Lightner. "He is doing nothing but attempt­ ing to come in on the Atocha wreck site," the judge said. "I am satis­ fied be is simply trying to take some of the finds of the Atocha." Fisher and his divers spent 16 years and millions of dollars searching for the scattered wreck­ age of the Atocha, a Spanish galleon that sank 41 miles west of Key West during a 1622 hurricane while haul­ ing a king's ransom in gold, silver Minutes later, while recounting the incident for police, the man suddenly cried for his nitroglycerin pills and collapsed on the living room floor. He died a short time later at Commonwealth Hospital of cardiac arrest, police said, noting the man had a history of heart disease. Police, who said they received three calls overnight reporting the naked man, would not disclose the identity of the heart attack victim. The naked man showed "no intent to break into the house or anything," a police spokesman said. "It's hard to say what his intentions were." There were no suspects in the case. Police said the county prosecutor will have to decide whether to charge the suspect with homicide if he is apprehended and that prosecutors would need to prove the prowler contributed to the elderly man's death. Organ donation fears plague hospital staffs By Gino Del Guerck) * UPI Science Writer BOSTON -- The fears and superstitions of hospital staff are preventing the healthy organs of brain-dead patients from getting to those who need them, said a recently released report. Even when people have signed organ donor cards authorizing medical personnel to remove their organs if they are pronounced brain dead, hospital personnel will not do so without the permission of the patient's family. Those families are just not being asked, according to the report. "Passing laws and establishing clear-cut requirements will not necessar­ ily solve the problem," said Dr. Stuart J. Youngner, a psychiatrist writing in the New England Journal of Medicine. "We also have to deal with the feelings of superstition, prejudice or understandable reactions." Although about 20,000 Americans die each year in ways that make them ideal candidates for organ donors, only 2,500 patients donate their organs. Tens of thousands of people with kidney failure await kidney transplants and many people with failing hearts and livers wait as their lives slip away for lack of donor organs. It is estimated that 50,000 people are awaiting transplants. Youngner said inadequate attention is paid to the feelings of people performing the procedure. FIRST INSTITUTE PROFESSIONAL TRAVEL INDUSTRY TRAINING CLASSES START AUG. 12TH •15-week course •Day & evening classes •Over 170 hours of in-depth training •Hands on computer facilities Approved by the Illinois state Board of Educa tion. Owned and operated by one of tlx Pre mier Retail Travel Agencies in Illinois. 31E. Crystal Lake Ave. Crystal Lake, IL 60014 (815)459-3500 h *i*»I HI 41 M I I In yit-n I ill! 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