Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 5, 1980)
THE BATTALION Page 1B WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1980 Wednesday, November 5, 1980 The Battalion B both Fairy is alive and well and on the telephone She gilds teeth, has her own hotline, and teaches children dental hygiene United Press International CHICAGO — For parents unable convince their children they ould brush their teeth, the Tooth iry is ready to lend a hand. The Tooth Fairy is Sharon Rut- s twski, 32, a dental assistant in sub ban Addison. She has established a ilephone hotline as a way of educat- ; children about dental hygiene. [‘Children have a poor attitude ab- Jjt dental health, ’ Rutkowski said, fit’s tough to get them in the habit of Tushing. I have two of my own. I low. (‘About a year ago I thought of the oth Fairy Hotline. The children i call 24 hours a day, every day. ice a week I talk to them personal- md discuss brushing, how often to dental floss and just things they to do. ‘The best way of reaching children hrough fantasy. No one ever did ich with the Tooth Fairy. No one ;w why she was picking up the !th. So I figured what better char- :er to give children some incen- e?” utkowski said most of her callers are between the ages of 3 and 12, “but I have gotten calls from teen agers and some parents call to find out what I’m telling their children. ” Calls come from as far away as California and Florida, she said. The dark-haired, dark-eyed woman, whose personal appearances outfit is a pearl crown and a white chiffon dress with wings, gives out “Official Tooth Fairy Awards” and gilds baby teeth for $2. (“I used to charge $1.50,” she said, “but gold leafing has gone up.”) Rutkowski estimates she receives an average 1,000 calls from children and gilds about 100 teeth every week. She now is looking for a sponsor to underwrite her personal appear ances, which she makes with “Mr. Brush, Mr. Tooth and Mr. Cavity.” Her presentation, usually made at schools and parks, includes the legend of the Tooth Fairy: “When I was very little, I had a lot of friends with stinky breath and yel low teeth,” she says in a high- pitched, squeaky voice. “I used to wonder why. “One day, one of my friends lost a tooth and dropped it on the ground. I picked it up. It had a lot of holes in it and I asked my dentist why. He ex plained and that’s when I decided to become a fighter against Mr. Cavity. “Mr. Sandman gave me a bag of magic dust. I sprinkled some over my head and I got wings—but I only fly between midnight and 6 a.m.” At this point she interrupted her story to say she put in that last line so children wouldn’t ask her to fly for them. “Then I sprinkled some magic dust over the tooth (pause) and it changed into a black pearl,” she con tinued. “So I went into a store to see how much I could get for it. Well, they grabbed it. “So I started leaving notes under children’s pillows saying, ‘Leave me a tooth and I’ll leave you a prize, the Tooth Fairy.’ So I sprinkled magic dust over all the teeth and the ones without cavities turned into white pearls — and stores gave me a lot more for white pearls than black pearls. “And that’s why I go from house- to-house collecting teeth.” Rutkowski said her husband, Richard, 34, has gotten quite a kick out of the whole Tooth Fairy scene and even was responsible for part of her collection of props. “I was sick one day and couldn’t answer the phone, but how can you tell a child — some of them call faith fully twice a week — that the Tooth Fairy is sick,” she said. “So Richard said he’d help out. “I don’t know what he did to his voice, but he sounded like a robot. He told the children he was Toothie- ack, my electronic robot. “So now I’ve got a little radio con trolled robot. I tell the children that when they’re bom, Toothie-ack gets the information and is programmed to send out a ticker tape to tell me where to go to collect the teeth.” The Tooth Fairy Hotline is (312) 628-0615. Paris bank looted during holiday irazilians getting more miles to the fifth United Press International RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Jen 100-percent alcohol-powered ; s went on sale in April, Brazilians Iked at buying them. Now there is ptampede to get them. ■ With the Iran-Iraq war, the Bra- fan has come to be terrified of oline and only wants to know ab- |t alcohol,” said Wolfgang Sauer, sident of Volkswagen’s giant Bra- an subsidiary. N’ew car dealers in this oil-poor intry report as many as eight or e of every 10 potential customers for an alcohol-powered model, it Ford, Chevy, Volks or Fiat, ist dealers have waiting lists. They price is the chief factor. Alcohol 1, subsidized by the government, ts the consumer barely half as Kimch as gasoline. liForthe first time there are reports the home-grown fuel may be in short supply in 1981. Brazil’s alcohol program goes back to 1975 when the military govern ment started the plan to replace ex pensive imported ojl with alcohol made from Brazilian sugar cane. First the alcohol was mixed into reg ular gasoline. Now almost 2,000 ser vice stations sell pure alcohol fuel at the pump as well as the regular gasohol. Production of alcohol cars has accelerated since the start of the year. Automakers have topped the 100,000-unit mark and have an agreement with the government to finish 1980 at 250,000 alcohol models out of an overall auto production of 1.1 million. Sales went so slowly at first that auto industry officials suggested ex tra incentives for alcohol car buyers. MSC Arts Committee is sponsoring a Juried Student Art and Crafts Competition Entries will be accepted November 17 through 19 10 a.m.-10 p.m. at the MSC Craft Shop. For rules and further information contact the MSC Craft ihop. Get your Xerox copies ON THE DOUBLE at Northgate, above Farmer’s Market Inexpensive, High-Quality Copies On Our Xerox 9400 FREE COLLATING in most cases. We specialize in REPORTS and DISSERTATIONS. Also: Self-service copying, typing, binding, resume writing, editing, translating. ONE STOP service for reports and dissertations. ON THE DOUBLE 331 University 846-3755 Open M-F, 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Sat., 9-6 « But during the year gasoline prices tripled and buyers soon disco vered it was cheaper to burn the gov ernment-subsidized alcohol than heavily taxed gasoline. Current pump prices are $2.85 per gallon for regular fuel, $1.52 per gallon for alcohol. Alcohol cars get about 20 percent fewer miles per gal lon of fuel, but the government has guaranteed that alcohol always will cost at least 35 percent less than gasoline so the alcohol car owner should always come out ahead. When the Persian Gulf War hit, Brazil was importing almost half its oil needs from Iraq. Immediately there was talk of gasoline rationing and the government hiked the price of regular another 18 percent. Government specialists reported ly fear an alcohol shortage in 1981 should current consumption rates continue. But both the industry minister and the agriculture minister denied there will be any shortage. United Press International PARIS — Thieves who apparently hid inside a bank branch before it closed for a three-day holiday weekend looted 250 safe deposit boxes and left a painted inscription that read, “Without hate, without violence, without weapons. Thank you,” police reported Tuesday. Officials at the Caisse d’Epargne branch in a fashionable residential district of the city discovered the theft when they opened for business after the All Saints Day weekend. They said they could make no im mediate estimate of losses without an inventory of the boxes’ contents, but expected the toll to involve millions of dollars worth of valuables. Investigators said an unknown number of thieves apparently hid in the bank’s offices before it closed Fri day afternoon and spent the weekend breaking into about one- third of the branch’s safe deposit boxes. They tossed aside securities that would be difficult to sell and also left some jewelry and gold ingots in a pile of discarded items on the vault floor, police said, indicating they found it impossible to carry all their booty. No signs of broken locks or forced doors were found inside the bank and it was not immediately clear how the thieves escaped. Police said it was possible they dis covered keys inside the offices that allowed them to leave by one of the doors after deactivating an alarm system. The inscription found spray- painted on the vault wall was similar to one left behind by burglars who looted 339 safe boxes at a bank in the Riviera resort city of Nice in 1976 after tunneling inside. Special Showing ]/ou arc cordially invited to an exclusive showing of a leading fiew yorl jinc of fine fashion jewelry. Kubies. emeralds, sapphires, diamonds, and more, in a broad variety of exciting new designs, wilt dazzle your senses... and fit your price range. Zhisunigue showing is for a limited time only. Please join us. driday, November 7, 1980 12: OO am- 9: OO pm Saturday, November 8, 10:00-5:00pm Register for door prize of Diamonds and Ruby Ring Value $1000°° to be given away Nov 8, 5:00 pm FLiijdsey’s Manor East Mall Mon.-Fri. 10-8:30 Sat 10-6:00