< 2 Austinites feed giant tostada to elephants Nowhere else but Austin .... This time they've really outdone them selves. The circus is coming to Austin this weekend, and the teasips will accommodate the circus elephants by treating them to a 12 foot tostada. You've heard all the complaints about them getting all the good shows and concerts, while the Aggies get whatever is left. Now we know why; the Aggies just don't treat the performers right. Seven elephants will devour the tostada Saturday morning in the parking lot of Erwin Center. (Maybe it's because we don't have any parking lots that big?) The tostada will contain 800 pounds of pota toes, 100 pounds of yellow squash, nine water melons and a topping of alfalfa. But no picante sauce? It would oe hard to find that type of tostada in a Mexican food restaurant. Nowhere else but Austin .... And afterwards, the townsfolk of Austin will be treated to free elephant poop. No doubt the gardens of Austin will be much prettier after the animals leave. The dung, described in a press release as "high potency animal manure," is guaranteed to pep up an anemic garden. Mineral rich, it is produced in massive quantities by the elephants, dozens of horses, camels, llamas, donkeys and other hay-eating mammals. It makes excellent fertilizer, the release said, be cause the animals are fed a varied diet includ ing hay and grains as well as apples, carrots and other vegetables. It has a hign concentra tion of nitrogen, phosphorus calcium and other minerals that plants like. It also contains no chemicals, like commercial fertilizers. The circus people seem to have come up with a smart way to clean up after themselves in the name of public service. The gardeners who want some free fertilizer don't have it so easy. They have to provide their own poop containers, and the manure must age for several months before it turns into compost and is ready to be put on the plants. Austin's gardens may look good someday, but this could be disastrous for its air. Fredericksburg plans festival Saturday night is the 18th annual Night in Old Frederick sburg at the Hill Country town. The Fredericksburg Chamber of Commerce will host an even ing of food, dancing and con tinuous entertainment starting at 5:30 at the Gillespie County Fairgrounds, on Texas Highway 16, two miles south of Frederick sburg. Music lovers may choose from German oompah, western or bluegrass, and dancers may cut Cognac Continued from page 1 authenticity from the Daum and two brokers in the cognac re gion. That's the basic kit. The corporate kit, for which no price has been set yet, will also include a hand-cut, hex agonal crystal serving tray with four hand-cut crystal cognac glasses, all by Daum, and a Car- tier neck label in sterling ver meil. Aaron said Hardy cognacs are well known throughout Europe but only now becoming familiar to Americans. He said the first offering this fall will use about one-third of the original purchase, which was the equivalent of 4,800 bot tles. He said they plan to release a rug along with them. The exhibition hall will house German festivities in the even ing, featuring dancing with Pehl's Old time Band. Several choirs will be on hand for sing- alongs, and at 7:45 waltzers will take to the floor for a waltz con test. Other competitors may enter the horseshoe pitching contest or a washer pitching contest, or enter a chicken in the chicken flying contest. The Fritztown Squares will the rest in two lots, either annually or every two or three years until the supply is ex hausted. A friend had suggested they include a sample bottle of the cognac with each kit so the buyer — or lucky recipient — wouldn't have to open the big carafe. "We would have had to waste 150-200 bottles to make 50 milli liter splits," said Platt. "That's one decanter for every 15." "There aren't 4,800 bottles left," Aaron added, slowly and reflectively. What with tastings for distri butors — the middlemen who will handle sales to retail mer chants — and about one percent evaporation per year from the wooden casks, the level keeps dropping, the partners said. g ' ve a square dancing exhibition om 8-8:45. After that, the Jim Ed Brown Show will provide music for dancing under the stars on the dance slab. Beside the entertainment, a variety of German cuisine will be available, ranging from shish kebabs to peaches, including of course German sausage and lots of beer. Admission to the fair'is $4 for adults and $1 for children 6-12. Children under 6 are free. Inflation and recession may plague most of us, but Aaron and Platt are confident they'll have more customers than cognac. "People who are going to be buying this product go through Depressions differently from other people," Aaron said. Maybe so. After all, an up state New York wine and spirits dealer recently paid $24,000 at auction for a 12-bottle case of California cabernet sauvignon wine he hadn't even tasted. The wine bought by Charles F. Mara of Syracuse, N.Y., was the first case from the first vin tage of a joint venture involving California winemaker Robert Mondavi and Baron Philippe de Rothschild, owner of one of France's most famous vineyards. FOCUS 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. Texas E3E3Q champion to be selected Saturday Barbeque connoisseurs will be in Smithville, Texas this weekend for the 3rd annual Texas State Championship Bar- B-Q Cook-Off. The cooking teams will start setting up "camp" at 1 p.m. Fri day at the VFW grounds. There'll be dances Friday and Saturday nights in the town. which is about 42 miles east of Austin on Highway 71. Festivi ties include hogcaUing, jalapeno eating, tobacco splitting, beer drinking and harmonica and fid dling contests. Best of all, every one gets to eat the food after the contest, which will be judged Saturday afternoon. Athens to honor black-eyed pea Athens, Texas may be no cultural hot spot, but it is the self-proclaimed "Black-Eyed Pea Capitol of the World," and the small town this weekend is holding its 11th annual Jamboree celebrating the traditional Southern vegetable. Events start early Friday morning on the Henderson County Junior College campus. Also beginning Friday is judging for the Black-Eyed Pea Cook-off, with prizes given for best appetizer, salad, vegetable and main dish "reci-peas." And no black-eyed pea festival would be complete without the Pea Pickers Square Dance, Friday night in the Henderson Student Union Ballroom. If you want to get your tickets early (and everybody in Athens does), you can actually get them from the Pea Pickers Square Dance Club. Saturday is the big Jamboree day with events ranging from a powerlifting meet to the "Miss Black-Eyed Pea" Beauty Contest. The Saturday night highlight is the musical concert featuring two country groups, the Bellamy Brothers and Dave Rowland and Sugar. And Sunday is the day everyone can sample the prize winning pea dishes. And maybe get lucky the rest of the year. Festival starts Friday The 1981 Texxas World Music Festival starts Friday at Astrodo- main in Houston. The highlight of the festival is the Fourth Annual Texas Jam at 3 p.m. Saturday in the Astrodome. The Jam features REO Speed- wagon, Heart, Foghat, Blue Oyster Cult and the Rockets. REO Speedwagon's current album "Hi Infidelity" is the second biggest selling album in the history of CBS Records and has been number one in the na tion for 15 of the last 18 weeks. The Festival starts off with the 104-KRBE Rock 'n' Roll Super market at 2 p.m. Friday. The Su permarket will feature posters, t-shirts, albums and other col lector' s items. It also features a beer garden, roller rink and a movie theater. Admission to the Texxas Music Festival, which includes admission to the Supermarket, is $17 for general admission and $18 for reserved seats. Admis sion to the Supermarket alone is $2.50, but anyone with a Coka- Cola bottlecap or an empty Coke can will get in to the Supermar ket free. TV freak gets on-air glory LOS ANGELES, Calif. — It's no longer unusual to find col lege students clustered around a television set watching the soap opera "General Hospital." But there is one University of California at Los Angeles student who can be found hovering over his TV set at alomost any time. Robert Boden is a genuine television freak. The walls of his dormitory room are covered with 1,100 tickets to television tapings, along with autographed pictures of the best known hosts of game shows, Boden's particular passion. But Boden recently got his biggest thrill to date as a television aficionado — the chance to appear on TV himself. Thanks to a friend with connections and some pictures of his unusual dorm decorations, Boden was chosen to appear on "Real People" in a four-minute segment that detailed the mania. — Collegiate Heldines a> O) ns — accor