
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, September 10, 1993                   TAG: 9309100166
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

PEOPLE

Poking fun at his deadly earnest image, Vice President Al Gore, the reputed stiff, revealed he has the stuff of late-night comedy.

Appearing on David Letterman's "Late Show" Wednesday, Gore made jokes and smashed government-issue ashtrays, touting the administration's plan to overhaul the government and give the boot to bureaucratic waste.

Gore even recited his own Top 10 list, his "Top 10 Good Things About Being Vice President:"

10. Police escort gets you to the movies faster.

9. You know that game tetherball? I played tetherball with the inventor of tetherball.

8. After they sign a bill, there's lots of free pens.

7. If you close your left eye, the seal on the podium reads "President of the United States."

6. I get intellectual property rights to my speeches.

5. Dan Quayle and Gerald Ford are pretty easy to beat during Vice Presidents' Week on "Jeopardy!"

4. You don't have to be funny to get invited on the Letterman show.

3. You get to eat all the french fries the president can't get to.

2. You don't have to be a good speller to get the job.

1. Secret Service code name "Buttafuoco."

Country music star Merle Haggard raised more than $3 million by selling 600 of his songs, enough to rescue him from bankruptcy.

Among the songs purchased Tuesday by Sony-Tree Publishing were: "If We Make It Through December," "I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink," "I'm Always on a Mountain When I Fall" and "Are the Good Times Really Over."

Haggard filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December.

Haggard is one of five finalists for induction this year into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

by CNB