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

DATE: SATURDAY, June 24, 1995                   TAG: 9506260033
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

BRIEFLY PUT . . .

THE ROANOKE County supervisors' recent 3-2 decision to join the Urban Partnership was accompanied by a curious debate over whether the county is predominantly urban or predominantly rural.

It depends, of course, on whether you're measuring population or land mass. But here's a clue: Rural places aren't usually characterized, as much of Roanoke County is, by shopping centers, businesses, apartment complexes, subdivisions, office buildings and crowded thoroughfares. The U.S. Census Bureau lists the county as mostly (75 percent) urban. On this point the bureau is correct.

FOR NEW York City schoolteacher Bob Black, Chivas Regal is the mother of invention. While sipping a scotch, it occurred to him that the alcohol in his drink could ruin the glue that holds spray paint to a surface. That thought developed into G-Pro, an anti-graffiti product: If coated on a structure, G-PRo is supposed to prevent spray paint from adhering well and thus to make it easy to wash off.

The product is invisible and so safe, Black told The New York Times, "you could drink the stuff."

Thanks, but we'll stay with the Chivas.

by CNB