BY HARRY RING
A riddle - Visa International reports a record 13.4 million
personal bankruptcies last year, a 20 percent jump over '95. An
apparently puzzled news report said the trend continues
"despite an increasingly prosperous population."
Another riddle - "Nationally, 86 percent of the cities surveyed recently by the U.S. Conference of Mayors reported an increased demand for emergency food assistance .. And 38 percent of those seeking food aid are employed." -News item.
Black vs. orange - After heated public debate, the Riverside, California, school board voted to name its new school after Martin Luther King Jr. Opponents had argued that the name would hinder graduates of the school from being admitted to colleges, which might think it's a "Black school."
Many prefaced their remarks with kind words for Dr. King. A number argued for a name reflecting the area's citrus heritage. (On a rare unsmoggy day, you can see where the orange groves used to be.)
Neat - Claudia Gómez, one of those arguing to name the new Riverside school after King, began by assuring, "Don't get me wrong. I like oranges."
Science and capitalism - Back at mid-century, Quaker Oats decided to match advertising claims of rival Cream of Wheat. In collaboration with prestigious MIT, radioactive cereal was fed to 100 boys -many falsely classified as retarded - at the Fernald school in Massachusetts.
It was part of an experiment to prove that oat nutrients spread throughout the body. Quaker has now agreed to pay $1.85 million to settle a damage suit.
Boom and bust - A federal panel anticipates a 50 percent increase in air travel by 2006 and warns, "A system straining at the seams of capacity is one that is also straining to be safe... Sheer growth is going to result in more accidents." The panel recommended air-port improvements and semiprivatization of air control operations.
Quotas? Nah, just numbers -The Internal Revenue Service did a self-audit, which confirmed that tax collectors are "improperly" seizing people's homes and other property. The auditors said the collectors persistently confuse "statistical benchmarks" with quotas. They said the amount of revenue raised is not an official part of job evaluations, but, informally, managers do talk about it often.
Theft for art's sake - The exhibit of priceless art works of antiquity at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts drew angry protest from the countries of origin of the works. Among museum visitors there was a variety of opinions.
Asserted one knuckle-head: "I think it's sad they were not able to protect their own culture. We certainly wouldn't want them destroyed in a revolution."
A butcher's wish - With the 1973 murder of Chile's president, Salvador Allende, Gen. Augusto Pinochet ruled for 17 bloody years. Deposed in 1990, he continued as a general. Soon he'll be quitting and will then be an unelected senator-for- life. (A clause in a constitution he wrote provides for this.) One project he wants to push in the Senate is to involve the armed forces in job training for disadvantaged youth.