BY HARRY RING
Ssh - One stock market analyst burbles that in the current buyers' market, stock "values" have soared to a height exceeded only by the record years of 1923-29. Which brings to mind the Russian adage that one doesn't speak of the rope in the house of the condemned man.
A growth industry-"There are wars all over the world, bombs all over the world," notes John Hutchins, director of international services at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Medical Center. And, he adds, "casualty patients" are a new, lucrative "marketing niche." Like the 45 Ecuadorians wounded in last year's war with Peru, who are being fitted with artificial limbs at Johns Hopkins at $35,000 apiece.
So what can you do? - "It's difficult to impose a moral code, if you will, on retailers." - Jim Miller of the U.S. Agriculture Dept. trying to explain why L.A. supermarket chains charge a lot more for milk than mom n' pop groceries.
The system that works - In the past three months, 2.5 million pounds of Alaska salmon have been ground up and dumped back into the sea. Steps to maximize output had been more successful than needed. Food banks wanted in on the huge surplus but couldn't come up with the necessary cash, "It's not something we're proud of," said an embarrassed fish and game official.
Moral dilemma - "If a 17-year-old gives information on a very large drug job, do we give him [] 20,000 ($US12,600)? Do we give an informer a mountain bike, and how does he explain that to his parents? Do we tell his parent?" -An English cop who sees minuses as well as pluses in recruiting teen-age informers.
Camping tip - If you're headed for the Arctic, don't leave without a North Face Apogee-24 tent. Will take winds up to 90 mph. $850. And pack a Magellan Systems Micro Com-M satellite phone. The phone $12,800. Rates, $4.25 a minute.
Nothing's perfect - As the result of a computer system foul-up, thousands of angry customers of British Gas received shutoff warnings before they got their bills. The company denied the mess had been worsened by staff cuts.
Woke them up? - With an assist from the Indiana State Teachers Association, Willarrose Parsons was reinstated, with back pay, to the teaching position she was fired from three years ago. Administrators had her dismissed for "laughing too loudly."
Best of both worlds - Catalog item: "Jesus Night- Light...casts a warm, serene glow - makes it safer to get up at night! Sturdy plastic...$3.99."
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