Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 25, 1993 TAG: 9301250111
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
& NOW THIS . . .
Spy-ing on GoodlatteCongressional newcomer Bob Goodlatte of Roanoke is already getting national media attention - though probably not the kind he wants.
\ Spy magazine, notorious for its goofy pranks on public figures, decided to have some fun with Capitol Hill's freshman class in its February issue. A Spy trickster pretending to be "Henry Rose," host of a New York talk-radio show, phoned several new members of Congress and interviewed them - "live."
Goodlatte was on the list.
"Do you know any good party games that might be used as icebreakers for your congressional orientation session?" the fake DJ asked him.
After a pause, Goodlatte replied, "No, I guess I'm going up there to learn."
Goodlatte fared better at Spy's hands than other members of Congress, who had to deny "Rose's" assertion that they were "openly gay" and who responded candidly to questions about astrology, instant replay in the NFL and "ethnic cleansing in Freedonia" - a fictitious country in the Marx Brothers' film "Duck Soup."
Reelin' in the years
Here's something to make you feel old: James Madison University's student-run radio station, WXJM-FM, features a weekly oldies show.
So what's different about that?
The name of the show is "The Reagan Years."
Walking in the woods
The number of schoolchildren touring the Explore Park - whose early 19th-century farmstead has been open to regular school tours for the past three years - more than doubled from 1991 to 1992.
Last year, 2,554 students toured Explore, up from 1,250 the year before and 196 the year before that.
Explore, by the way, recently generated its first tax revenue. It sent Roanoke County a check for $111.31 to pass on the admissions tax Explore collected when the living-history state park charged $25 per adult to help participate in its December barn-raising. "That's like Mark Twain," mused County Supervisor Harry Nickens, "if you can get people to pay to help you build a barn."
A shorter summer
Roanoke children may start back to school sooner after the summer vacation if the General Assembly approves a request from the city.
State law prohibits localities from opening schools before Labor Day.
The law is designed to help tourist attractions, such as Kings Dominion, that hire teen-agers for summer work. The tourist season does not end until Labor Day.
But it hampers school systems in Western Virginia that usually close several days each year for snow or other bad weather. As a result, the start of summer break gets pushed back sometimes to mid-June.
Roanoke City Council and the School Board have asked the General Assembly to approve a change in the city charter that would permit schools to open before Labor Day.
Grooming an iron horse
Roanokers know all about the refurbishing of Norfolk Southern Corp.'s coal cars - it's done on East Campbell Avenue in the company's East End shops.
But how about locomotives?
Every eight years or so, those black locomotives with the stylized white thoroughbred logos need to be repainted.
According to "NS Focus," the railroad's in-house magazine, it takes 10 men about 32 hours to scrape, prime and repaint a locomotive at the company's Chattanooga, Tenn., shop.
Each locomotive takes 10 gallons of glossy black paint.
Norfolk Southern has about 2,000 locomotives. Workers can spruce up four to six of them weekly.
This fan's not yellow
John Roller, a Hokie basketball fan known for waving his yellow sweater to distract the opposing team during foul shots, bought himself some new duds this year.
Roller, called "Sweater Man" or "The Bullfighter" by Virginia Tech fans, has been waving an orange sweater of late, a better match with the Hokie uniforms.
He told the Collegiate Times last week that fans had been insisting on the new purchase, so he went to Wal-Mart and complied.
Roller has had health problems of late, but he says he still plans to attend all of the season's home games.
Roller is a 1942 Tech graduate.
Shoplifted scents
Two young mothers from Tennessee spent five days in the Wythe County jail last week for pilfering perfume.
Bobbie Sue Inscore, 23, and Betty Jean Gray, 33, from Bristol, Tenn., had stopped on their way home from Radford last June at a Wytheville Super-X pharmacy to buy some cigarettes. Inscore told Circuit Judge Willis Woods that they suddenly decided to steal some perfume and cosmetics for re-sale in Bristol because they needed the money.
The women, each of whom has three children, were caught with $225 worth of perfume and $80 of cosmetics.
Woods suspended their three-year sentences for grand larceny but required them to serve five days because, he said, he wanted them "to get a good taste of what it's like in jail."