ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, July 14, 1996 TAG: 9607150135
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: 4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: COX NEWS SERVICE
Q: How many five-star generals have there been in the U.S. Army, who were they, and what are the criteria for getting a fifth star?
A: The five-star rank and title General of the Army were created in World War II and awarded to Dwight D. Eisenhower, George C. Marshall, Douglas MacArthur and Henry H. ``Hap'' Arnold. On Sept. 20, 1955, Gen. Omar N. Bradley was promoted to General of the Army. Many people think John J. Pershing also had five stars, but he wore four stars, said Army spokesman Lt. Col. Bill Harkey. ``Pershing held the rank General of the Armies, and there was never an official five-star rank or five-star insignia that went along with that,'' Harkey said. If the rank had existed in World War I, Pershing most likely would have had five stars, too. There is no specific criteria for receiving a fifth star, said Griff Godwin at the Army Infantry Center at Fort Benning, but the generals chosen exemplified ``an outstanding ability to organize and lead U.S. and multi-national troops.''
Q: Five men have attainted the rank of five-star general in the Army. Does the Navy have an equivalent?
A: They Navy has had four fleet admirals: Ernest J. King, William D. Leahy, Chester Nimitz and William F. Halsey Jr.
Q: What is the official song of the Olympics? Some people say it's Gloria Estefan's ``Reach'' and others say ``The Power of the Dream.''
A: There are five official Olympic albums. One of them includes Estefan's ``Reach.'' But the official theme song of the Olympics is ``Summon the Heroes,'' composed by John Williams, said Nick Vista, spokesman for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games. ``We call it the theme of the Games,'' he said. It will be played during the opening ceremony and when athletes get their medals on the victory stand. The traditional ``Olympic Hymn'' will be performed at the closing ceremony, Vista said.
Q: My almanac says that on Sept. 20, 1902, 115 people died in a church fire in Alabama. Do you know any details?
A: On Sept. 19, 1902, a stampede occurred at Shiloh Baptist Church in Birmingham at the conclusion of an address by Booker T. Washington. The Atlanta Constitution reported the next day that 78 people were killed and ``about 80'' seriously injured. At least 2,000 people were crowded into the church when an attorney from Baltimore, identified as Judge Bilou, engaged in an altercation with the choir leader and a blow was struck. Someone in the choir shouted, ``They are fighting.'' According to the article, the congregation, mistaking the word ``fighting'' for ``fire,'' rose en masse and started for the exit. Although there was no fire, a fire alarm was turned in and fire department wagons were dispatched.
Q: Which carving is larger, the one on Stone Mountain in Georgia or the one on Mount Rushmore?
A: Stone Mountain's figures of Jefferson Davis, Gen. Robert E. Lee and Gen. Thomas ``Stonewall'' Jackson are 90 feet high. At Mount Rushmore, South Dakota, the heads of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln are about 60 feet high.
Q: I enjoyed ``Mr. Holland's Opus,'' especially the young female student with the beautiful voice who tried to entice Mr. Holland to run away with her to New York. Who is she?
A: She's Jean Louisa Kelly, a native of Massachusetts and a 1994 graduate of Columbia University. She made her Broadway debut at age 15 with Bernadette Peters in ``Into the Woods'' and her screen debut at 16 in ``Uncle Buck.'' She has appeared in the TV movies ``One More Mountain'' and ``Tad,''
Q: When and where was the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People started? Who was its first president? Who was Arthur Spingarn, often mentioned in connection with the NAACP?
A: The organization was founded Feb. 12, 1909, in New York. White progressives and black intellectuals were its first leaders, and included Jane Addams, John Dewey, W.E.B. Du Bois, Mary White Ovington and Oswald Garrison Villard. Moorfield Storey of Boston was named president. Spingarn, a white civil rights attorney, once was the NAACP's president and headed its National Legal Committee.
Q: Why is the danger of lead in miniblinds just now getting noticed?
A: It took a long time for the danger to become apparent because lead appeared only after long exposure to ultraviolet rays caused vinyl blinds to deteriorate. When that happened, lead in the vinyl ended up as a chalky dust on the blinds. So now, 20 years after vinyl miniblinds came into use, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has determined that they pose a risk to children younger than 6 who may ingest lead by touching the blinds and putting their fingers in their mouths. New lead-free models are expected later this summer.
Q: Are gay marriages recognized anywhere in the world?
A: Many countries are grappling with how to recognize gay unions. There are various degrees of recognition of homosexual cohabitation, but Noemi Masliah, an attorney and co-founder of the Lesbian and Gay Immigrant Rights Task Force in New York, said no country has yet granted full legal rights - rights that equal those for heterosexual marriages - to homosexual unions. Scandinavian countries, for example, have registered partnerships for homosexuals, but still discourage church weddings and prohibit adoption of children by gays.
Q: Where does the golf term sandbagging come from?
A: In recent years, the terms sandbagging and sandbagger have come to apply in any situation in which one craftily conceals his or her capabilities, as in golf, where a player intentionally shoots a high score to increase his or her handicap. There are several explanations of the origin. One comes from the theater where stagehands, who were master manipulators of the sandbags used as counterweights for hung scenery, would ``sandbag'' cast members who mistreated them by striking them with these counterweights. Another comes from piling sandbags along a river's banks to stem flooding.
Q: Bob Dole said marijuana use among youths has doubled during President Clinton's administration. Where did he get that?
A: An annual study by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America released in February showed teen-age marijuana use climbing. The survey of 9,341 teen-agers, preteens and parents found use of marijuana was up to levels unseen since 1988. Twenty-one percent had smoked pot in the past 30 days compared with 14 percent in 1993, the study showed. Thirty-eight percent reported experimenting with marijuana, the highest total in seven years.
Q: How did the seventh-inning stretch in baseball get started?
A: The origin isn't known. But one oft-repeated story traces it to 1910, when President William Howard Taft visited Pittsburgh and attended a baseball game. Taft stood up to stretch during the seventh inning. Thinking the president was about to leave, and to show respect for the office, the crowd also stood. Hence, the seventh-inning stretch. But baseball historians say it started much earlier, offering as proof an 1869 letter from Harry Wright of the Cincinnati Red Stockings. In it, Wright wrote: ``The spectators all arise between halves of the seventh inning, extend their legs and arms and sometimes walk about.''
Q: Under what scenario would Rep. Richard Gephardt, D- Mo., become speaker of the House?
A: The Democrats would have to become the majority party in the House. The party then would convene a caucus and elect someone, most likely Gephardt, who now is House minority leader. The Republicans also would nominate a speaker candidate - but the members vote along party lines.
Q: Has there been any update about the people who got sick on a recent Carnival Cruise Lines ship?
A: Investigation is continuing into the incident in which 52 passengers aboard the Jubilee fell ill during a weeklong trip to Mexico last month. When they returned to Los Angeles, they sought treatment for symptoms common to a stomach flu. Tom Skinner, spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the CDC is mailing questionnaires to passengers on the cruise to try to narrow down a cause.
Q: What was Atlanta's population when Gen. William T. Sherman burned the city during the Civil War? What is the population now?
A: At the beginning of 1864, Atlanta's population was about 20,000. As Sherman moved closer to the city in July, people started to evacuate, and only 2,500 remained in Atlanta during the actual siege, according to the Atlanta History Center. Population counts were for cities, not metropolitan areas back then, the Census Bureau said. The bureau's most recent population estimate for Atlanta is 396,052 (1994); for the metro area, 3,431,983 (1995).
Q: Whatever became of the woman who was so badly beaten in New York's Central Park several years ago? She survived, amazingly, but I don't recall ever seeing a follow-up.
A: The woman, an investment banker whose identity was withheld because of the nature of the crime, was jogging in Central Park in 1989 when a gang raped and beat her and left her for dead. At last report, she had resumed her job at the Wall Street investment firm Salomon Brothers, where she is a vice president. A New York Daily News item last year said she continues to jog, but stays near her home in Lower Manhattan. The item also reported that she still sends Christmas cards and contributions to the rehabilitation hospital where she recovered.
Q: An article about the election of a moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA) said the church has 171 congregations and a membership of 3 million. That works out to an average of 17,500 people per congregation. Is that correct?
A: The number 171 refers to presbyteries, not individual churches, according to a spokesman at the Chicago Presbytery. This is the denomination's organizational breakdown: 16 synods (``multi-state cells''); 171 presbyteries (groups of churches in a state or part of a state, depending on size); 11,416 churches; 3 million members. The Rev. John Buchanan of Chicago's 4th Presbyterian Church is the new moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
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