ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 17, 1996 TAG: 9603150029
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS/
Q: I'm reading ``Primary Colors'' and am having trouble matching the characters to real people. Can you print the fictional names and the corresponding actual models?
A: Reviewers say matching fictional characters' names with real-life people is part of the game. You don't have to guess who Jack and Susan Stanton are: the governor of a Southern state who has an image problem and his feisty lawyer wife. Also obvious are the book's narrator, Henry Burton, modeled on George Stephanopoulos, and Cashmere McLeod, corresponding to Gennifer Flowers. Kristina Brooks, who teaches English and women's studies at Agnes Scott College and who reviewed ``Primary Colors'' for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, ventured these other possibilities: The book's Lawrence Harris is Paul Tsongas; Luther Charles is Jesse Jackson; Charlie Martin is Bob Kerrey; Orlando Ozio is Mario Cuomo; Ozio's son, Jimmy, is Andrew Cuomo; Richard Jemmons is James Carville; Donnie O'Brien is Tip O'Neill; Richmond Rucker is former New York Mayor David Dinkins; Gail Powell is Lani Guinier; Daisy Green is Mandy Grunwald; A.P. Caulley is R.W. Apple Jr. of The New York Times.
Q: A recent Dave Barry column attributed the phrase ``We have nothing to fear but fear itself'' to Winston Churchill. Didn't FDR say that?
A: Well, almost. This is the exact sentence used by Franklin D. Roosevelt in his first inaugural address March 4, 1933: ``The only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.''
Q: Were any details ever released about the giant guns Iraq was supposed to be building before the Persian Gulf War?
A: A 170-foot-long, 350mm-diameter Iraqi test gun was fired several times in 1989-90, but the so-called Project Babylon collapsed after the gun's designer, Canadian ballistics expert Gerald Bull, was slain in March 1990. Israeli agents were suspected, according to a London newspaper. The superguns were to have fired a family of single- stage guided rockets with payloads of up to 220 pounds and ranges of more than 720 miles. Blueprints, prepared in 1989, were revealed in the June 1994 Flight International magazine.
Q: Wild onions are a problem in our yard. If they were edible, that would solve it. Is it safe to eat them? Are they nourishing?
A: It's not a good idea to eat wild onions. For one thing, their taste is extremely strong. For another, they can't be peeled, because nothing would be left. But the main reason to avoid them, said Wayne McLaurin, horticulture specialist at the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service, is that you don't know what has been on them. They may have absorbed herbicides and pesticides, and, because they can't be peeled, you'd be ingesting potentially dangerous chemicals.
Q: The term ``yellow dog Democrat'' was coined by a Southern politician who said he would rather vote for a yellow dog than a Republican. Who was that politician?
A: That isn't precisely how the line went. When Sen. Tom Heflin of Alabama refused to support fellow Democrat Al Smith in the 1928 election and bolted to Republican Herbert Hoover, other Alabama Democrats who disagreed with Heflin popularized the line, ``I'd vote for a yellow dog if he ran on the Democratic ticket.'' .
Q: How can fans write to Johnny Hart, creator of the comic strips B.C. and Wizard of Id?
A: Johnny Hart, Creators Syndicate, 5777 W. Century Blvd., No. 700, Los Angeles, Calif. 90045.
Q: The three U.S. servicemen convicted of rape in Okinawa, Japan, were sentenced to 6 1/2-7 years in prison. After they serve their time, will the military punish them with a harsher sentence?
A: They will be discharged for ``other than honorable reasons.'' The discharges are expected to take effect after their prison terms end.
Q: Will the three U.S. servicemen convicted of rape in Okinawa continue to get military pay and benefits during their prison terms?
A: No. Pay and allowances for all three stopped the day they were turned over to Japanese authorities, said Defense Department spokeswoman Lt. Col. Deborah Bosick. Previous laws applying to U.S. service personnel in prison might have permitted their pay to continue, she said, but the law has been changed.
Q: Whatever happened to Eliot Ness of ``The Untouchables''? Is he still alive? Can you shed any light on his background?
A: A graduate of the University of Chicago, Ness was 26 when, in 1929, he was hired as a special agent of the Department of Justice to head the Prohibition Bureau in Chicago. His sole purpose was to investigate and harass Al Capone, infamous leader of an underground network in Chicago. Hess formed a nine-member team, all men in their 20s, that became known as the Untouchables. The public learned about them when raids of breweries, speak- easies and other questionable places attracted heavy newspaper publicity. The Untouchables' infiltration of the underworld secured evidence that helped send Capone to prison for income-tax evasion. Ness later headed the Treasury Department's alcohol-tax unit and was director of public safety in Cleveland. During World War II, he was director of the Division of Social Protection of the Federal Security Agency. He went into private business after the war and died at age 54 on May 7, 1957.
Q: At the start of a basketball game, how is it determined which goal a team will defend? They don't toss a coin as in football.
A: In men's basketball, the visiting team has the choice of which goal it will shoot at for the first half, and the teams switch automatically in the second half. In women's basketball, the teams warm up and shoot at the goal farthest from their bench in the first half, then switch in the second.
Q: What were the religious convictions of the first five presidents of the United States?
A: ``The Book of Presidents'' and ``Facts About the Presidents'' agree: George Washington, Episcopalian; John Adams, Unitarian; Thomas Jefferson, no specific denomination; James Madison and James Monroe, Episcopalian. .
Q: Didn't Gerald Ford name Sen. Bob Dole as his vice presidential running mate in 1976? What were the circumstances?
A: After President Ford narrowly defeated Ronald Reagan to win the Republican nomination Aug. 19, 1976, Ford chose Dole from a list of six prospective vice presidential nominees. The others were Sen. Howard Baker of Tennessee, Treasury Secretary William Simon, Commerce Secretary Elliot Richardson, William Ruckelshaus and John Connally. He had already asked Reagan's opinion and Reagan reportedly spoke ``most warmly'' of Dole. Ford announced his selection at a news conference that same afternoon, surprising some observers who had thought Baker or Ruckelshaus, who had resigned as deputy attorney general during the Watergate scandal, were front-runners. The Ford- Dole ticket lost in the November election to Jimmy Carter, whose running mate was Walter Mondale.
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