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KAMU-FM offers a new prog
ram this month for lovers of
down-home type entertain
ment. "A Prairie Home Com
panion" is aired live via satellite
on Saturday nights from 7 to 9
p.m.
"A Prairie Home Compan
ion" features humor and music,
and is written and hosted by
Garrison Keillor. The broadcast
originates at the World Theater
in downtown St. Paul, Minn.
Host Keillor welcomed
KAMU to the listening audience
on last Saturday's broadcast.
Each segment features musi
cians performing traditional
jazz, bluegrass, western swing,
ethnic and old-time music on in
struments including zithers.
harpischprds, fiddles, dulcim
ers and mandolins.
"A Prairie Home Compan
ion" is broadcast weekly to more
than a hundred public radio sta
tions across the country. In
addition to Keillor's humor and
musical entertainment, listeners
hear weekly reports from Lake
Wobegon, home of program
sponsors Powdermilk Biscuits,
Jack's Auto Repair, the Sidet
rack Tap and Bertha's Kitty
Boutique.
'7azz Alive" has been moved
to Friday nights to make room
for "A Prairie Home Compan
ion," and an extra hour of jazz
has been added on Fridays.
Other new offerings from
KAMU include "The Brazilian
Hour" on Saturday morning at
10 a.m., featuring jazz and pop
music from Brazil.
Dr ama lovers can listen to
"Earplay" at 6:30 Tuesday
nights, and "Mindwebs," a sci
ence-fiction series, on
Wednesday.
Monday night, black musi
cians of the Big Band Era per
form on Bobby Bryant's "The
Black Cats Jump" at 9 p.m. Thir
teen new shows have been pro
duced in response to the recep
tion of the first series.
At 12 p.m. Sunday, classical
fans can near "Concert Guitar,"
hosted by Larry Snitzler. The
program features some of the
finest performers and compos
ers from around the world.
United Press International
CHARLESTON, W.Va. —
Rebecca McGhee had no trou
ble keeping the baby when
she and her husband split up.
But she still is fighting for cus
tody of their discount
coupons.
"When I left my husband, I
took my baby and a couple of
boxes and walked out the
door," she said.
"He has my coupon crates.
I'm going to get a court order
to get them back. I've talked to
my lawyer. We're asking for
custody of my coupons."
Mrs. McGnee is no casual
collector of coupons.
She and about 100 or so
other women in West Virgi
nia's capital city belong to a
club that scouts for, clips,
compares, and swaps the
coupons that allow them a
few cents off on an endless
string of consumer goods,
from toilet paper to Easter
bunnies.
"I only have about 150
coupons now," she says,
somewhat forlornly. "But my
mother counted hers the
other night, and she has
2,300. She netted $600 last
year."
Mrs. McGhee isn't sure
how much money she has
salted away with coupons.
"But I didn't have child
support for five months and
because of those coupons, I
managed to feed my daugh
ter," she said.
Coupon advocates leave
few stones unturned. They
roam doctor and dentist
offices, looking for well-worn
magazines long discarded by
patients.
"And we keep the streets
and parking lots clean," she
said.
"Parking lots are good
places to pick up candy wrap
pers. Say a candy company is
offering a dollar off for eight
wrappers. Postage costs you
18 cents, but you're saving 82
cents. No telling what I would
find if I had enough nerve to
look through garbage cans."
At the end of each week,
Mrs. McGhee invests half a
day updating her files of
coupons before meeting with
fellow coupon clippers.
"We clip them all, whether
we need the item or not," she
said. "Maybe my baby
doesn't need diapers any
more, but somebody's baby
does. I take what I can't use to
the meetings. We just pass
them around and you take
whatever you want."
Too much candy rots the brain
Junk foods cause bizarre behavior
United Press International
CLEVELAND — A Cleveland
Clinic pediatrician says he fears
many youngsters are gorging
themselves on high-calorie
"junk" foods and beverages that
could overload their systems
and affect their behavior.
Dr. Derrick Lonsdale says
some behavior frequently
accepted as typical of teen-agers
really might be symptoms of
what has become popularly
known as "the junk food phe
nomenon."
Lonsdale calls it marginal
malnutrition. He says it is a hid
den problem that probably
affects a lot of young people.
The results can include a wide
variety of functional symptoms
ranging from headaches to per
sonality changes, Lonsdale said.
"I think it's going unrecog
nized," Lonsdale said. "I think
it's being treated as neuroses,
nervousness, just plain bul-
Iheadedness or, 'It's his person
ality, you know, he's growing
up/"
The problem actually might
be one of a diet tipped seriously
out of balance by "junk foods,"
said Lonsdale, who heads the
biochemical genetics section at
Cleveland Clinic's Center for
Children and Youth.
"I'm referring particularly to
what dieticians and nutritionists
call naked or empty calories," he
said, "the high-carbohydrate
foods which don't contain any
vitamin or mineral supportive
qualities at all.
"I really believe that the most
dangerous aspect is the high-
calorie drinks they're taking, the
carbonated beverages, things
like powdered sweet drinks, the
fruit drinks," he said.
"All of these things are being
taken by a number of children
and adolescents in absolutely
fantastic amounts," Lonsdale
said. "I think the record I've
seen was 98 gallons of cola in
two months."
Added to that, he said, is the
wide assortment of generally
sweet "filler foods" — snack
items and candy that fill grocery
store shelves and many cup
boards and refrigerators at
home.
"I think the problem is that
kids are hungry, and that's a
normal phenomenon. They
should be," Lonsdale said.
"But they come home from
school, they indulge this natural
taste for sweet things," he said.
"Eveybody's telling them
there's no danger attached to
this fast energy."
There is a danger, Lonsdale
said.
"Scientifically we have
reason to believe that this
apjproach to diet is changing the
balance of neurological trans
mission, which is the hallmark
of the function of the brain and
the central nervous system," he
said.
"It means that the quality and
the quantity of nutrition can
change your behavior. That's
the bottom line."
In addition to the excessive
intake of calories, he said,
youngsters whose diets bulge
with junk foods don't get the
vitamins and minerals needed
to allow the body to properly
bum up what is being eaten.
"They're getting a discrepan
cy between the calories they
take and the vitamins and min
erals that should support them
in order to carry out the oxidat
ing process," he said.
"The process is very much
the same as an internal combus
tion engine which uses a spark
plug. If you have a high calorie
inhke and a poor spark plug,
you're going to choke the en
gine."
Lonsdale published a paper
for the American Journal of Cli
nical Nutrition last year in which
he described 20 patients with
"marginal malnutrition" and
labeled junk foods as a factor in
many of the cases.
Lonsdale said patients he has
treated have exhibited symp
toms such as hyperactivity,
headaches, trouble in sleeping,
chest pain, nervousness, vomit
ing and rude and aggressive be
havior.
The behavior can be extreme,
Lonsdale said.
"One kid put his first through
a plate glass window," he said.
"Another actually dove through
a plate glass window."
Lonsdale traces the "junk
food phenomenon" to the fact
that "we simply don't sit down
to family meals as civilized peo
ple. It's catch as catch can."
Many teen-agers skip break
fast and may or may not eat
lunch — which in many cases is
simply loaded with "empty
calories" anyway, Lonsdale
said. Some even skip a well-
balanced evening meal, he said.
"They're using their own
taste buds, if you will, to guide
them in what they eat," Lons
dale said.
The solution is simple he said
— a well-balanced diet, with a
vitamin supplement if neces
sary.
"Get rid of the damn junk
food," he said. "If you catch it
and recognize it for what it really
is, it's readily reversible. In
other words, it's eminently
treatable, and it doesn't require
one aspirin even."
FOCCIS
Editor Cathy Saathoff
Cartoonist Scott McCullar
Focus will accept any items submitted
for publication, although the decision
to publish lies solely with the editor.
Deadline is 5 p.m. the Thursday before
publication.