Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 24, 1994 TAG: 9404260017
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A: The air operations over the Balkan nations are done on a rotating basis, a Pentagon spokesman explained. Whoever happens to be in the air when an order to bomb comes in gets to do the bombing. The order for the latest bombing came when French planes were in the air, and if it had been a clear and sunny day, the French would have carried it out. But, according to the spokesman, the French planes were not equipped with the electronic equipment necessary to bomb in cloudy weather, so the U.S. planes were called in to substitute for the French. Otherwise, it's the luck of the draw.
Q: Has there ever been a perfect game played in Major League Baseball?
A: There have been 12, says John Zajc of the Society for American Baseball Research in Cleveland. The most recent was by Montreal's Dennis Martinez against Los Angeles in 1991. Perhaps the most famous came in the 1956 World Series when the Yankees' Don Larsen threw one against the Brooklyn Dodgers. A perfect game is one in which the pitcher retires 27 batters in a row, allowing no base runners. .
Q: What do individuals spend, on average, for health care? And what's the average the government spends per person?
A: In 1991, the last year for which exact figures are available, Americans spent $1,877 per person for hospital care, physician services and prescription drugs. That figure varied from a high of $2,177 in New England to a low of $1,567 in the Rocky Mountain states. The government spent an estimated $900 billion overall on health care that year - or well over $3,000 per person.
Q: If what the cigarette companies say is true - that they don't add nicotine to cigarettes - do they extract nicotine to make ``lights''?
A: Nicotine is not extracted from tobacco to make lights, according to an industry spokeswoman. There are four variables in making a low- nicotine cigarette. Most important is the tobacco itself: some types have higher concentrations of nicotine than others. Of the two tobaccos most used in cigarettes - burley and flue-cured - flue-cured is lower in nicotine. Weather and soil conditions also play a part, as do the types of filter and paper.
Q: How did ``cakewalk'' and ``piece of cake'' come to mean something easy?
A: Cakewalk finds its roots in the showboats and minstrel shows of the last century, and was described as a walking competition in which the couple who put on the most style ``took the cake.'' The high-stepping cakewalk was done to musical accompaniment, became a dance, and went on to mean ``generally stylish'' by the turn of the century. The British air force began using ``piece of cake'' in World War I to describe missions against weak defenses. It probably derived from cakewalk.
Q: By whose authority was Henry Kissinger in South Africa negotiating between the African National Congress and the Zulus? What does he do when he's not negotiating? What president gave him his start?
A: Nelson Mandela, president of the ANC, and Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the Zulu leader, invited Kissinger to mediate because of the role he played in the 1970s in helping bring peace and independence to nearby Zimbabwe and Namibia. Kissinger came to prominence as a protege of New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, then as Richard Nixon's national security adviser and secretary of state. For the past decade, Kissinger has jetted around the world as a highly successful (and very rich) business and political consultant.
Q: Is there anything set up so that South Africans in the United States can vote in this week's elections in that country?
A: Yes. The South African government, working with the U.S. Federal Election Commission and state governments , has set up polling booths for the South African elections in 15 cities in this country.
Q: Now that 85- year-old Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun has announced his retirement, who will become the oldest and most senior member of the high court?
A: Justice John Paul Stevens, who will turn 74 late this month, will be the oldest. But Chief Justice William Rehnquist, 69, who has sat on the high court for the past 22 years, now will assume the distinction of being the current court's longest-serving member.
Q: Regarding the Chinese-made crayons that were recalled because of lead content: Is there a law against putting lead in something like children's crayons? Is there at least a labeling law? Or do we just have to hope that the manufacturers don't do it?
A: A federal law that took effect in 1990 requires crayons and other art supplies for children to be free of toxins, including lead. Examine boxes for a label stating that the product ``conforms to ASTM D-4236'' - or a similar phrase that the product poses no chronic hazard.
by CNB