Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 14, 1995 TAG: 9505190007
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: COX NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A: The rumor has been circulating for years. ``It has no basis in fact or reality,'' said a spokeswoman at the company's New York headquarters. Donations by Liz Claiborne Inc. go to various causes and programs in the arts, humanities and education, including World Wildlife Fund and Reading Is Fundamental, the spokeswoman said. ``We find it's best to face the rumor, answer any question anyone has, and hope that someday it will die out,'' she said. You can call the company collect - 212-626-3465 - to discuss it.
Q: Why do gasoline prices always end in nine-tenths of a cent? Why not round it off? When did that practice start?
A: Credit an early version of what is now called ``marketing strategy.'' A spokeswoman for the Petroleum Council of Georgia said it began in the late 1920s when the gasoline industry was extremely competitive. At the time, gas cost 20 cents a gallon. But someone at some station - identity and location unrecorded - decided to cut the price to 19.9 cents a gallon. As every consumer knows, that same pricing strategy continues today in everything from gasoline to bread to cars. It's not likely that anyone will round off unless every competitor does.
Q: What is the name and corporate address of Pizza Hut? I'd like to write the company because it is using Rush Limbaugh to advertise pizzas, saying it's the ``right'' pizza.
A: The address: Pizza Management Inc., P.O. Box 428, Wichita, Kan. 67201.
Q: I heard that Japan has a major national holiday period called Golden Week at this time of year. Apparently almost everyone in the country goes on vacation. What is it for, and where does the name come from?
A: It's ``golden'' because it's a rare opportunity for people in Japan to take a trip. Japanese people normally don't take long vacations, said a spokeswoman at the Japanese Consulate in Atlanta. But because a number of one-day holidays have traditionally occurred within a relatively short period, people take a day or two of personal holidays to stretch it into a week. And because the weather is conducive to traveling, they do so, to the extent that non-Japanese are encouraged not to go to Japan then. Golden Week always begins on April 29. It was formerly observed as Emperor Hirohito's birthday, but since he died, it has been declared Greenery Day (similar to Earth Day in the United States, but an official holiday in Japan). The other Golden Week national holidays are Japanese Constitution Day and Children's Day. A Girl's Day and a Boy's Day are celebrated, but are not national holidays. Golden Week is Japan's second- biggest holiday period; the three days ending one year and the three days beginning the next are even bigger, but most people stay at home, so it isn't ``golden.''
Q: After Rep. Hale Boggs, D-La., disappeared in a presumed plane crash in Alaska, how did his wife assume his seat in Congress before she was elected in her own right?
A: She didn't. Boggs disappeared Oct. 16, 1972, and his seat was declared vacant Jan. 3, 1973. In a special election March 20, 1973, his wife, Corinne Claiborne ``Lindy'' Boggs, well-known in Democratic circles in her own right for many years, was elected to represent Louisiana's 2nd District. She won every election thereafter until retiring in 1990.
Q: Have the words ``under God'' always been part of the Pledge of Allegiance? If not, when were they added? What is the history of the pledge?
A: Congress mandated the addition of ``under God'' in 1954. The original version of the Pledge of Allegiance appeared in the Sept. 8, 1892, Youth Companion magazine. The authorship was disputed, but in 1939 the U.S. Flag Association declared that the pledge was the work of Francis Bellamy. Congress had mandated one other change, in 1923, substituting ``the flag of the United States of America'' for ``my flag.'' .
Q: On April 30, 1945, Adolf Hitler killed himself in his underground bunker in Berlin. What happened to the body? What happened to the bunker? Can anything be seen today?
A: Nothing remains, according to a spokeswoman for the German Information Center in New York. The bunker was destroyed some years ago. ``You can reconstruct from old city maps where it was, but there is nothing there now, for good reason,'' she said. A few locations where ``conspirators'' were hanged are the only Nazi-regime sites memorialized in Berlin, she said. An article published in connection with the 50th anniversary of the end of the Third Reich reported that Hitler and his mistress-turned-wife, Eva Braun, spent their last moments in the bunker. One version of the story relates that she took poison and he shot himself; another was that he, too, took poison, but his officers put a bullet hole in his head so it wouldn't appear that he chose what they considered a cowardly way to die. Hitler's henchmen oversaw the burning of the two bodies and their burial in a shallow grave outside the bunker's door.
Q: How did accused Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh earn a Bronze Star?
A: McVeigh was in the 1st Infantry Division, which breached the Iraqi border to start the ground fighting in the Persian Gulf War. ``It would not be unusual for someone in charge of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle to get an award,'' said Pentagon spokesman Maj. Tom LaRock. ``Not to demean the award, but a lot of folks in the Persian Gulf War got them. It wasn't for anything particularly heroic on McVeigh's part.''
Q: How can we contact Baby Richard's adoptive parents to show our support?
A: Write Kimberly and Robert Warburton in care of their attorney, Laura Kaster, Jenner & Block, 1 IBM Plaza, 43rd Floor, Chicago, Ill. 60611. The organization Hear My Voice, Protecting Our Nation's Children, supports the adoptive parents' side: Hear My Voice, P.O. Box 4142, Berrington, Ill. 60011. A recorded message at 708-238-2944 will provide an update.
You didn't ask about the biological parents, but if you wish, you can write Daniela and Otakar Kirchner in care of their attorney, Loren Heinemann, 64 Orland Square Drive, Suite 116, Orland Park, Ill. 60462; or call 708-349-6881.
Q: How does the Postal Service decide on illustrations for postage stamps? Who selects the subjects and what are the criteria?
A: For an individual to be commemorated on a stamp, postal card or stamped envelope, the person must have widespread national appeal - think Elvis, Nat ``King'' Cole and Marilyn Monroe - and must have been dead at least 10 years. The exception to the latter is U.S. presidents.
The 15- member Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee evaluates suggestions from Postal Service patrons for the various designs. It must narrow down some 30,000 suggestions each year to the 25 or 30 chosen. The chairman is Virginia Noelke, professor of history at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas.
The committee meets quarterly in Washington. Members review proposals and provide guidance on artwork and designs for stamp subjects that are scheduled to be issued. The committee works two to three years in advance to ensure adequate time for design, production and distribution.
Suggestions, in writing, are encouraged. Write: Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee, c/o Stamp Management, U.S. Postal Service, 475 L'Enfant Plaza S.W., Room 5301, Washington, D.C. 20260-2420.
by CNB