THE BATTALION
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1979
Page?
E
the nation
Identity hoax vexes TV show
Elevator ride
to cost fee
in tallest hotel
■ United Press International
MADISON, Wis. — It was a hap-
py Armless little prank in a humor
less world, says zany lawyer Edward
Ben Elson, who once announced his
candidacy for district attorney in the
nude.
But there are some television ex
ecutives who don’t agree.
In [fact, Elson’s latest caper has
enraged officials of the NBC televi
sion program, “Real People,” Elson
said Thursday.
Elson’s antics, which included
selling seats on the Kohoutek Com
et, brought him enough national
attention to prompt "Real People ’ to
use him on one of their shows.
T was just up to the same old
thing,” Elson said. “They should
have known it was a hoax.
“Real People” used Elson and his
Kohoutek routine in one of its early
segments, and invited him to Los
Angeles for an anniversary party and
another taping last weekend. They
sent him a round-trip ticket.
Elson couldn’t go.
“But I wanted to give this nice,
nuclear-engineering Algerian a
pleasant sojourn in Los Angeles,”
Elson said. So, in his place, he sent
curly haired Si-Ahmed, who looks
very much like him.
“He was happy to go,” Elson said.
Elson dressed Si-Ahmed in the
suit he once wore on “Real People,”
gave him the airline ticket and gave
the Algerian his checkbook and driv
er’s license.
Si-Ahmed arrived in Los Angeles,
pulled the hoax off long enough to
get wined and dined and stay over
night in a $125-a-night room pro
vided by the television show’s offi
cials.
Do too many cooks spoil the boss?
AG served by staff of chefs
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Benjamin
CMletti has the services of four cooks, two of whom are
part time, to prepare breakfast and lunch for him and his
top deputies, says a Justice Department employee.
Osbia Hicks said he and another employee prepare
Civiletti’s breakfast daily in the handsome Williams-
burg-style dining room adjoining the attorney general’s
: ' 0l t office.
Two principal chefs come in to cook lunch for the
1 nation’s top law enforcement officer, he said.
In a recent survey of the government’s 12 depart
ments, UPI reported at least seven Cabinet secretaries
and their top lieutenants were being provided with the
seryiees of personal chefs who prepare and serve them
breakfast and lunch.
The UPI survey also found many Cabinet secretaries,
whtfcarn $69,630 a year, were paying bargain prices for
their specially prepared meals.
In that story a Justice Department spokesman said
tsii
Civiletti had two cooks, a chief chef who earns $23,000,
and an assistant who earns $17,000.
The spokesman stressed Civiletti often has “working
lunches” in which he meets with top department offi
cials over these meals.
Civiletti and his colleagues pay $1.50 for a full break
fast that, said Hicks, can include “juice, eggs, bacon,
omelets, sausage, pancakes, or French toast, and
coffee.”
“You can’t buy a breakfast for that (price) in a regular
restaurant,” Hicks said.
For a full, hot lunch, which includes beverage and
dessert, Civiletti and his top associates pay $2.50.
Hicks said he and another employee, William Moss,
“cook and serve breakfast every morning for Civiletti
and his staff, wash the dishes and do everything.”
Two other department employees, he said, also
“work in the morning to help clean up. We’ve been
making breakfast ever since Judge (former Attorney
General Griffin) Bell came here.
Team to investigate
RWA pilot training
R United Press International
. KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A team of
consultants from General Public Uti-
I i lities, the company that owns the
h Three Mile Island nuclear power
f plant in Pennsylvania, plans to ex
amine Trans World Airline’s pilot
! ’ r training center.
The consultants, scheduled to ar-
(rive Tuesday for the one-day semi
nar, Rant to learn how pilots and line
111 Tn^chim ics are trained to work safely
and efficiently under constant and
II changing pressure, and how that
1! training could be adapted to the
tafl 1 operation of nuclear power plants.
The GPU consultants will ex-
ninc the Boeing 707 and Boeing
|727 flight simulators at the center
nd will attend a number of classes
■'how pilots and line mechanics are
and trained, what kinds of
■stsjre given, and what new train-
ling is given to veteran mechanics
and pilots.
^^Bliain Kuhns, chairman of the
ptility. formed the 12-member
ifoup in July. Its goal is to find
nethods used by other industries
jlhatpan be used to improve nuclear
owlr plant safety. Group mem-
etrsf selected from the aerospace,
petrochemical, airline and telecom
munications industries and from the
Army and Air Force, are to make a
report on their findings in February.
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“He even met a nice woman,”
Elson said.
Unfortunately, Elson doesn’t have
an Algerian accent and Si-Ahmed
does. A “Real People” researcher
who interviewed the real Edward
Ben Elson a while back caught on.
“They asked Si-Ahmed to recount
a few things for the camera, but Si-
Ahmed got flustered and said he
couldn’t recall anything,” Elson
said.
Si-Ahmed made his remarks in a
thick, Algerian accent, which he
tried to pass off’ as the residue of an
intensive course in French.
“Real People” realized Si-Ahmed
was not real people. So, the nuclear
engineering student was soon on his
way back to Madison while officials
got on the phone to Elson, telling
him he better be prepared to pay for
his caper.
“They want $390 round-trip air
fare, and I told them ‘sue me,”’
Elson said. “They said I perpetrated
a fraud. They’re absolutely out
raged, very upset. But what the
heck. I was just up to the same old
thing. They could have done a de
lightful piece on the hoax.”
United Press International
DETROIT — $1 for an eleva
tor ride?
That’s the new policy at the
Detroit Plaza Hotel, the world’s
tallest.
Hotel officials said the $1 ele
vator ride to the top of the shining
glass building was instituted to
reduce the number of people
“who aren’t serious about the
view from going up and to cut
down on vandalism.”
Manager David Ling said the
hotel has been plagued by “kids
running around writing graffiti on
the walls of the Johns and the
(cocktail) pods and dropping
sugar packets on the people in the
restaurant. ”
The sugar packets, he ex
plained, are dropped from the
72nd floor observation deck,
which is between the 71st floor’s
revolving restaurant and the 73rd
floor’s lounge.
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