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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 26, 1978)
rUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1978 Th^ortoneTookies^^ 1313 S. College Bryan 822-7661 WEDNESDAY LUNCH BUFFET Rice Soup Double Wok Sliced Pork (Spicy) Egg Rolls Beef Lomein Sweet and Sour Chicken Rice Can't make it at lunch? We serve night buffet (6-7 p.m.) with reservation. ALL YOU CAN EAT NIGHT ^ BUFFET FOR $2.98 W 606 new magazines in past two years Special interests pushed in periodicals Alpha Phi Omega MUM SALES ON SALE TUESDAY THROUGH THURSDAY AT THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS: MSC LOBBY SBISA AREA COMMONS AREA OR FROM DORM SALESMEN PROFESSIONALLY MADE MUMS MANY STYLES AND PRICES TO CHOOSE FROM FREE DELIVERY ON CAMPUS SATURDAY MORNING. NEW YORK — If you are bewil dered by the array of new and seem ingly obscure magazines on your newsstand these days, you aren’t alone. The explosion of new magazines has produced 606 new titles in the past two years for an astonishing total of 9,000 to 10,000 titles, ac cording to the Magazine Publishers Association Circulation reached $264 million and advertising $2 billion last year. But the new magazines bear little resemblance to the great general magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, Life, Look, the American and others of the gol den age of magazines, says Carl Bloom of Bloom & Gelb, a New York direct response advertising , (CARROLLS BASKETS) AND [WICKER 707 Complex agency specializing in magazine launching and promotion. Most of the new magazines are based on an admittedly esoteric idea or activity that is just starting to be come popular. Only a minority are launched by established publishers. They are started by individuals or special interest groups. Few seek large circulations at low price. If people have an interest in these special periodicals they will pay more for them. New magazines still look to adver tising for their major revenue, as distinguished from the tvne of cheaper newsstand magazine that lives off circulation revenue alone, but the publisher only hopes to get 50 to 55 percent of his gross from advertising as compared to 70 to 80 percent a few years back. Another difference, Bloom said, is that many of the new magazines are backed financially, at least to some extent, by investors who re gard them as tax shelters. This may happen from the start if a wealthy individual with a social, political or literary idea he wants to nut across is involved. More likely the new magazine is started on money raised by the am bitious publisher and his relatives and friends. Writers and artists will accept stock for their contributions and printers may accept a partner ship. Then, if the first few issues show promise, venture capital in vestors looking for tax sheltered speculations may put up money. If the new magazine looks really successful, it may be snapped up at a good price by one of the estab lished publishing companies. But Bloom said his guess is that fewer than half the magazines really succeed and even if they do, it takes three to four years to turn the corner and start rolling towards real profit. Not even the best magazines are immortal. Few last a human genera tion, but even those with shorter lives may return a good profit on the investment before they die. Launching a new magazine re quires specialized knowhow as wel as capital, Bloom said. You have lo know how to test for format, for copy writing style, for price range and for allowable paper and printing costs. Bloom & Gelb currently are working on several projected ne» magazines. One called Venture is intended to appeal to persons in- terested in launching new busines ses. The others deals with aspectsof amateur photography, multi- national business and banking. The ideas for new magazines often are turned up as on-the-side ventures by youthful couples and range from “Kosher Home’ to‘Hie Wild World of Skateboarding.' 1 846-7847 WICKER TRUNKS *99 Shire horses seen as possible returnees to brewery industry RENT TO OWN! NO CREDITORS CHECKED NO DELIVERY CHARGE. NO REPAIR BILLS - SERVICE INCLUDED. STEREO CONSOLES AVAILABLE NO LONG TERM OBLIGATION! ♦ Diag. Meas. RENT TODAY... WATCH COLOR TV TONIGHT! Curtis Mathes AAA House of Curtis Mathes 779-3939 Downtown Bryan 25th St. & Main The most expensive set in America and darn well worth it.” United Press International MAIDENHEAD, England — At first it is hard to credit that these monster animals are horses at all. Stand next to the star exhibits at the Courage Shire Horse Center and you feel like a dwarf. Shires are the biggest horses in the world. “They were originally war horses,” center manager Robin Lucas said. “They were bred to carry heavy armor and an armored knight into battle.” There is still a monumental, al most warlike feeling about a full- grown shire. A cluster of them, as you can find at this center 26 miles west of London, has enough appeal to draw 150,000 visitors in an eight-month season. “This is Barley,” Lucan said, in troducing a towering brown horse. “He was hit by a train once. Didn’t do him much damage.” The impact — Barley was a stray ing two-year-old at the time — left a small scar under his tail. What hap pened to the train is not recorded. But it figures that an iron horse could meet its match in a one-ton animal whose bulging eye looms eight feet off the ground. A shire’s hindquarters are taller than a man. His silky nose is higher than many women can reach. “The breed was dying a few years ago,” Lucas said on a tour of the center’s hollow square of stables. “Almost extinct, in fact.” Now these ponderous animals are as popular as Pekinese dogs. In 1960 only 19 pedigree foals were bom in Britain. Now the country has more than 22,000 shires. ’ , - >v _ \ Some schools are more than just schools. And some banks are more than just banks. “There’s a very big export trade building up to the United States and Canada,” Lucas said. The Shire Horse Society has more than 1,000 enthusiastic members, and its pat ron is Queen Elizabeth II. A few British farms have put shires back in harness, and some of the center’s show horses do farm work in the winter “to work off a little fat,” Lucas said. Other shires Shires are the biggest horses in the world haul coal wagons or brewers’ drays. Courage, a British brewer, opened its Shire Horse Center three years ago when its old stables for heavy horse teams were re quisitioned for redevelopment. “We’ve got 13 horses here now, Lucas said. “Old Captain, the white one, is 25 years old, and Boxer, he’s 18. They’re retired now. But the others are all working. ” Ten or 11 days each month in sea son, the center hitches four huge shires to a show wagon and parades them at carnivals, fairs, horse shows and charity events all over the coun- try. “They’re all a little excited to day,” Lucas said of his charges. “They know we’ll be making a trip, and they all want to go. ” “This is Jester,” he said, striding into a corner stable. "Hey, Jester, get back there now.’’ He leaned on the horse’s flank, and it was like try ing to push over a bam. Jester is a monster even among the center’s shires. He weighs 2,464 pounds and stands 18-% hands (6 feet 2 inches) high at the shoulder. “There are four breeds of heavy horse, and the shire is the biggest of them all,” Lucas said. All pure-bred shires alive are descended from Harwich, a horse foaled in 1881, but pedigrees go back to 1700 when the shire became a distinct breed. This horse’s power is hard to comprehend. At a recent London show two shires were hitched to an 18%-ton weight to see if they could move it. One horse pulled, and the weight moved even before the sec ond shire took up the strain. Yet these are "gentle giants” — the title of a book about them. Chil dren scamper in perfect safety around "the pillared waterfalls of their legs.” Even Jester moved when Lucas shoved. Whether making an appearance or tethered in the center — there is a sound like thunder when they kick the walls — the shires always are the center of an awed crowd. “Toward the end of the season they get a bit fed up with all the petting and attention,” Lucas said. But shires have the temperament for that, too. The Shire Horse Society says they have “docility, strength, good con stitution, stamina, great power and driver, Jim Lockwood, “has a mag. nificent pair of hands” and bulging muscles from controlling four shirts with a set of reins. Blacksmith Ham Gregory gives each horse a new set of shoes every four to six weeks, "a very demanding job because of the weight," Lucas said. "There’s a very big export trade building up to the Unitel States and Canada." “They were originally war horses. . . bred to carry heavy armor and an armored knight into battle.” adaptability. They are good doers (and) live to a good ripe age. ” They also bring in bills as big as themselves. A set of harness costs $3,000, Lucas said. Their tailor-made collars are $10 an inch, and they are enor mous. Each horse eats five times a day and costs $50 a week in food. Lucas needs six grooms to care for 13 horses — “polishing a harness takes two days,” he said. Their WHAT A BARGAIN! BRASS l>; BELT BUCKLES AGGIE SPECIAL $Q98 ONLY AT THE H OftJSE OF SOOTS 112 NAGLE • IN THE GREYHOUND BUS STATION # NORTHGATE DON'T EVEN THINKING OF BUYING BOOTS UNTIL YOUVE COMPARED OUR PRICES! NOCONA BOOTS/CASUAL SHOES i ASTRO TENNIS SHOES So the Shire Horse Center runsil a loss — which is made upforii publicity and in prize ribbonsbytlie hundreds. Ribbons cram cases and cover walls in the center’s Shire Museum, in its offices, and in the Shire How Inn next door — a pub whose dean also honors this giant and appealing breed. “We’ve got lots more besidei, Lucas said. “We’ve won so many ribbons we don’t know where to put them.” Woman found in Amarillo after amnesia United Press International TULSA, Okla. — A woman wi), was found suffering from amnesiai' a traffic island at a busy intersect in Amarillo, Texas, returned home Monday with most of her memory back. “It’s a most weird feeling,” sard Linda Sue Wright, 35, whoW been dubbed “Linda Jane Doe 1) Amarillo authorities. “There ared several days I don’t remember.’ “I’m at a standstill now,” she sail “All I remember is from what I re ' memhered Saturday afternoon. Wright said the last thing sk could remember before the incident was talking to her mother on tk phone the night of Sept. 15. 1 A Tulsa detective recognized Wright’s picture in the newspaper because she was supposed to be a witness in the trial of a man accused of robbing the Matador Lounge, where Wright had worked. The trial was postponed to Oct. 2 rvben Wright failed to appear to testily. Detective Bobby Morrison notified Amarillo authorities and then found Wright’s relatives to have them call the Amarillo police. THE BAH DOES IT DAILY Monday through j Friday We’d like to be more than a bank by providing: • checking accounts • Passbook accounts and certificates of deposit paying the maximum interest permitted by law • personalized checks • convenient drive-in windows • new car loans for seniors • Worldwide Banking Service • Trust Department And travel accommodations: • travel counsel • free ticket delivery • 30-day charge • international travel planning • assistance with visa/passport • lodging reservation • rental car arrangements THE BANK OF A&M 111 University Drive / College Station Telephone: 846-5721 member fdic A&M TRAVEL SERVICE in the lobby of the Bank of A&M Telephone: 846-8881 The IN/ISO VIDEO TAPE COIVIIVIITTEE is accepting applications for membership. Dome by Room 2165 in the IN/ISC and sign up. GENERAL MEETING Tuesday, September 26, Room 352 IVISC, 7:30 PM. All new, old and prospective members PLEASE attend.