15,18
local / state
Battalion/Page 5
February 15, 1983
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ristin t
Trucker fined
for giving ride
Cultural!
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Pram,
United Press International
AMARILLO — A truck
driver says he learned that
helping stranded people
Entenim "along the highway can be
hwHeti more costly than just the time
it takes to give them a ride.
Tom Sweeney, 41, of Here
ford got a $100 ticket last
week for picking up two
stranded motorists in Ari
zona.
“I was just trying to help
somebody out,” he said. “If
that makes me a bad guy,
that’s just how it’s got to be.”
Sweeney said he was travel
ing between Flagstaff and
Holbrook, Ariz., Wednesday
at about 7 a.m. when he spot
ted a man and a woman in a
^rest area about 15 miles from
.Flagstaff.
“It was cold, below 20 de
grees,” he said. "They were
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shivering from the cold. I took
them into the cab and gave
them some coffee to warm
them up.”
Sweeney said the pair
apparently had suitcases but
no vehicle.
Sweeney said when he let
the pair out of the cab, an Ari
zona highway patrolman pre
sented him a $100 ticket for
carrying unauthorized pas
sengers.
Arizona highway patrol su
perintendent Ed Ray said the
situation sounded like a mis
understanding.
“The Arizona highway pat
rol absolutely does not ticket
truck drivers who carry pas
sengers in what is obviously an
emergency situation,” Ray
said. “Even our patrolmen do
that (take stranded travelers
to help).”
Local Eastern Onion entertains
Messenger loves singing her tune
by Kathy Wiesepape
Battalion Reporter
Janus Retterer slips into the
doctors’ office, tiptoes to the
front desk and whispers to the
nurse. The people in the waiting
room stare and giggle as she
waits patiently and pretends
she’s not a novelty. But as soon
as the doctor enters the room,
her quiet manner disappears.
“Eastern Onion singing tele
gram!” she announces in a circus
barker’s voice, before blowing a
piercing siren whistle.
In honor of Valentine’s Day,
she’s dressed in red and white
tights and a huge stuffed silk
heart costume, with a red heart
painted on her cheek. She’s
flashy — from her rainbow ear
rings and black sequined bow tie
to her white high-topped sneak
ers with red sequined stripes.
Retterer places a bright red
party hat on the doctor’s head
and launches into a Valentine’s
tune, accompanied by the cym
bals of her wind-up monkey.
To most people, she’s some
thing of a clown, an actress who
entertains and then disappears.
But there’s a real person behind
the smiles and songs.
“You can’t be up all the time,”
Retterer said. Sometimes she’s
down and the last thing she feels
like doing is smiling, singing and
dancing, she said. But even if
she’s having a bad day, making
people happy cheers her up.
That’s the best part of her job,
she said. Every group is diffe
rent, and she never knows what
kind of reaction she’ll get.
“Some people laugh so hard
they cry,” she said. Some have
been nervous and almost afraid
of her, some have been bold and
some have even been downright
rude.
“But for the most part they
enjoy it,” she said. “I don’t think
I was embarrassed very many
times. If someone delivered one
to me, I’d be embarrassed. But
when I’m giving one, it’s like
being an actor. I’m per
forming.”
But she does remember one
bad experience.
“I wasn’t embarrassed for me,
but for the person I was singing
to,” Retterer said. The recipient,
she said, would not cooperate.
He was in a restaurant and he
wouldn’t stand up, smile or ack
nowledge that he was the person
she was singing for, she said.
“I really felt sorry for the peo
ple who had paid for the tele
gram for him,” she said.
Retterer has enjoyed most of
her assignments, she said. Some
of her favorites include deliver
ing a telegram to the A&M Con
solidated High School football
team from the cheerleaders at
their pep rally; singing to a
veterinarian while he was oper
ating on a cat; and delivering a
“belly-gram,” complete with a
belly dancer, to one of the Texas
A&M baseball pitchers on the
baseball Field during practice.
The belly-grams and macho-
man-a-grams come with a sing
ing messenger and either a belly
dancer or a male dancer.
They’re the most expensive tele
grams offered by Eastern On
ion. Retterer said they’re also
the most fun to deliver.
When she’s delivering a belly-
gram, Retterer said, she sings
the message first to “set them up
for the dancer.”
Then, when the person is
thinking that the embarrass
ment is over, she turns on her
tape recorder and in comes the
belly dancer.
Eastern Onion offers songs
for every occasion, Retterer
said.
“People can write their own
messages, but they usually don’t
need to,” she said. “We have
songs for everything — birthday
songs, divorce songs, I love you,
I hate you, we just bought a
home, I want your business,
please give me a job — every
thing anyone could possibly
think of.”
“Some people have tried this
and just couldn’t take it,” she
said. “I guess you have to be
pretty crazy.”
But Retterer said she loves
her job. Her bright blue eyes
shine and she smiles broadly as
she finishes out the song.
“You’ll gain a lot of weight
from all the sweets you ate, but
thank your stars above, now that
there’s more to love. Oh, Happy
Valentine’s!”
eal with extortionist may be dismissed
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United Press International
HOUSTON — A co
defendant in the $15 million
a recontBiOulf Oil Chemicals Co. extor
tion case says the alleged master
mind knew all Five bombs
planted at a Houston area plant
Irad been found before he began
negotiating with authorities.
r jr. Timothy Justice, 30, testified
Monday before U.S. District
Judge Gabrielle McDonald in a
pre-trial hearing on motions to
Suppress evidence against all
fjve Colorado defendants and to
dismiss charges against co
defendant Jill Bird.
Assistant U.S Attorney Ron
Woods contends a deal federal
agents made with Bird’s com
mon-law husband and alleged
ringleader, John McBride, 46,
should not be honored because
McBride was not honest with
federal agents.
The deal for Bird’s dismissal
from the case called for McBride
to tell agents where other bombs
were. But Woods argues
McBride knew there were no
irsi
j
Rare books found in UT buy
United Press International
AUSTIN — University of
Texas researchers have found
two rare books among the Gloria
Swanson archives purchased by
he university in 1982, UT offi-
ials said.
Decherd Turner, director of
he Humanities Research On
er, said “Jim’s Book: A Collec-
ion of Poems and Short Stor
ies,” by James Merrill, and a First
edition of James Joyce’s “Ulys
ses” were discovered in De
cember.
“Jim’s Book,” is one of the
most difficult of Merrill’s books
to find since there were only 200
copies printed in the early
1940s, said Turner. The copy of
“Ulysses” is one of the first 1,000
editions printed in 1922.
more bombs to be found when
he made the deal, so it cannot be
binding.
Justice testified McBride —
who stayed in Durango, Colo.,
while Justice and others went to
plant bombs and mail a letter
demanding $15 million — had
heard newscasts all five bombs
put in GulFs Cedar Bayou plant
were found Sept. 28.
Justice said that in a meeting
with McBride in Durango Oct. 1
— after the bombs were found
but before McBride negotiated
with authorities — Justice
affirmed for McBride what was
said in the newscasts.
“I said they had found all
five,” Justice said. “He said it
didn’t make any difference be
cause they still believe there’s
more (because of the extortion
letter saying there were 10).”
Defense lawyers are asking
Judge McDonald to enforce the
deal and dismiss Bird from the
case because, they say, federal
agents got what they wanted
from McBride, namely, an
assurance that there were no
other bombs.
The judge deferred ruling on
all 40 pre-trial motions and
ordered attorneys to submit
briefs by Friday. No trial date
has been set.
Justice has agreed to testify
against his four co-defendants
in exchange for dismissal of 10
of 12 counts against him in the
case. He could receive as much
as 15 years in prison on his guilty
plea to those two remaining
counts.
The bombs were found and
rendered harmless. No payoff
was made.
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WINNER! BEST MUSICAL!
7 TONY AWARDS • 1980
N.Y. DRAMA CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD
6 DRAMA DESK AWARDS
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EVITA
The Intemationai Musical Hit
iPresented by MSC Town Hall-Broadway
February 14, 15 & 16 at 8:00 p.m.
Rudder Auditorium-Texas A&M Univ.
Available at MSC Box Office
Phone (713) 845-1234
Ticket price* $14, $18, $22
Mastercard & Visa accepted
Fountain Forum
presents
Christianity on Trial
is Christianity credible in today’s world?
— you be the judge —
Hear such relevant issues discussed as:
— Christianity & the academics: contradiction or agreement?
— What is a Christian?
— Who is Jesus Christ?
— Is the Bible reliable?
— Are all religions basically the same?
— Is there a God?
— Could a caring God allow war & suffering?
— Would a loving God send people to hell?
This Week: Christianity & Psychology — God’s solution to psychology’s
depression
When: Every Wednesday 12:00-1:00
February 16-March 23 (Except March 16)
Where: Rudder Fountain
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