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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
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