THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 28, 1995 TAG: 9508280032
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
I goofed.
Have to face it.
In a recent column, I wrote that Smith Corona Corp. had folded.
No such thing. It found protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code while it was reorganizing with the help of a $24 million loan.
So it continues manufacturing electronic typewriters and personal word processors.
For catching the error, I'm indebted to Louis P. Snyder, president of the United States Sale Corp. of Virginia Beach, exclusive manufacturer representative for Corona to the military exchange system.
That done, might as well answer some mail. . . .
Here is a note from Joe Wilber in Franklin who, with my recent views on jogging in mind, asks if I'm aware of what King Solomon said about jogging.
In Proverbs, Chapter 28, Verse 1, Solomon says: ``The wicked flee when no man pursueth.''
And from my favorite humorist, Larry Maddry, is a picture postcard from Anguilla during his vacation in the British West Indies.
Addressed to me, and scrawled on the back in ink for all to see along the way, is this message:
PLEASE SEND MONEY - WE ARE DOWN HERE TRYING TO CLEAR YOUR NAME AFTER THE HORRIBLE SCANDAL. THIS MAY TAKE LONGER THAN I THOUGHT.
Affectionately, Larry M.
That is on a par with the telegram that Robert Benchley fired to his pals at the Algonquin Round Table the day he arrived in Venice:
STREETS FILLED WITH WATER. PLEASE EXPLAIN.
From Maggie Swink comes word of a great white egret that shows up every morning at 7 in an inlet off North Shore Road on the curve just past the Church of the Good Shepherd.
He presides there an hour, fishing, preening, then takes off - great white wings unfurling, flapping like a white sheet in the wind on a clothes line; one of many amenities of life hereabouts.
You can spot the egret by his black legs and yellow bill, adds Betsy Nugent. The great egret is the most recent of his names. In other times he was called American egret and common egret. The humorless American Ornithological Society ought to be ashamed for attaching the adjective ``common.'' A prince of birds, it is anything but common.
Another thing that pleases me about the egret's present name is that in Southside Virginia, they often shorten the word great to ``gret.'' To them it is the rhyming gret egret.
A car is a good blind from which to view a bird. So don't get out. That would disturb him at his morning ablutions. As you drive by, just take a quick glance from the corner of your eyes at the gret egret. It is a restorative sight to stay with you through the day. by CNB