Page 12/The Battalion/Monday, March 26, 1985
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Gridiron
dinner has
its laughs
Reagan, others
take the stage
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President
Reagan’s work habits, Vice President
Bush’s travels and, yes, even the
deaths of Soviet leaders provided
some of the fodder for the irreve
rent fun-making at the 100th anni
versary dinner of the Gridiron Club.
With President Reagan joining in
the laughter, Treasury Secretary
James A. Baker III said Soviet lead
ers take naps just like the American
president.
The difference is, said Baker,
“They don’t wake up.”
And Geraldine Ferraro, the Dem
ocrats’ 1984 vice presidential nomi
nee, also touched on the recent
death of Soviet President Konstantin
Chernenko.
She commiserated with President
Reagan that the Soviet leader’s death
came “just as you learned to say
Chernenko.”
The Gridiron Club, with a mem
bership of 60 newspaper men and
women who work in Washington,
meets once a year for an evening of
good food and good humor. By tra
dition, world events and politicians
from the president on down are lam
pooned in speeches and in parodies
of well-known songs.
The president’s humor didn’t al
ways sit well with some of the guests,
The Washington Post reported in
Monday’s editions. The newspaper
quoted some dinner guests as saying
Reagan quipped: “I think we should
keep the gram and export the farm
ers.”
“I didn’t think it was funny, and I
didn’t laugh,” said Republican Sen.
Larry Pressler of South Dakota, one
of the states beset by the current
farm credit crisis.
Baker, who left his job as White
House chief of staff earlier this year
to take the Treasury post, rep
resented the Republican side. Fer
raro took up tne cudgel for the
Democrats.
“The last time I saw this many
S le dressed like this was at a Re
ran come-as-you-are party,”
Baker told the white-tie crowd of
more than 600.
Slouch
By Jim Earle
“Jf looks as if the gold market is solidifying, and even silver
is coming around. Maybe we should move some of our hold
ings from commons and bonds into a long position to give us
more leverage. ”
Chicken challenges beef
American diet changing
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Americans
consumed a record amount of meat
and poultry last year but may ease
back a bit in 1985, the Agriculture
Department says.
In any case, the department’s sta
tistics show that the historic domina
tion of beef in the American diet is
being challenged.
According to the most recent fig
ures, the average person ate 210.6
pounds of red meat and poultry in
1984. About 143.5 pounds of that
was red meat, mainly beef, and 67.1
pounds poultry, mainly broilers.
This year, says the department’s
Economic Research Service, Ameri
cans are expected to cut back slightly
to around 209.4 pounds each, on the
average.
Meat-eaters will consume an aver
age of 138.5 pounds, 5 pounds less
than in 1984. That would mean a
jump in poultry consumption to 70.9
pounds, an increase of 3.8 pounds.
Those are equivalent retail
weights of meat and poultry, the
packaged cuts ordinarily found in
supermarkets. The figures are based
i#.
“Almost all the signals to
broiler producers are for
increased production in
1985 — lower feed costs,
less pork and relatively
strong broiler prices given
supply levels.’' — accord
ing to a report from the
Agriculture Department.
on federally inspected slaughter re
ports.
“Since 1980, beef and turkey con
sumption have remained relatively
stable,” the agency said in a recent
report. “However, beef consump
tion is expected to decrease slightly
in 1985 to its lowest level since 1980,
and perhaps the lowest since the
mid-1960s.’’
The determining factors have
been cutbacks in cattle and hog in
ventories in recent years, reflecting
many of the problems in the agricul
tural economy and the tight profit
margins faced by producers.
On the other hand, poultry sup
plies are expected to be plentiful,
buoyed by larger corn and soybean
harvests last fall that helped ease
high prices for feed.
“Almost all the signals to broiler
producers are for increased produc
tion in 1985 — lower feed costs, less
|X)rk and relatively strong broiler
prices given supply levels/ the re
port said. “With the expanding gen
eral economy, demand for broilers
will likely remain strong.”
Looking at last year’s per capita
consumption figures, the average of
67.1 pounds rated poultry at num
ber two, below beef consumption at
about 78.5 pounds. If, as projected,
poultry consumption in 1985 risesto
70.9 pounds, it would be within flap
ping distance of beef— which is ex
pected to drop to 76.2 pounds.
T he per capita pork consumption
in 19o4 averaged about 61.6
pounds, the third straight year that
total poultry exceedea pork, This
year, pork is expected to drop to
59.4 pounds.
U.S. considers easing
imports of some cattle
Californians may soon pay
for telephone time checks
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Agricul
ture Department is considering a
proposal to certify three additional
Canadian provinces — Alberta,
Manitoba and Saskatchewan — free
of cattle brucellosis..
Bert W. Hawkins, administrator
of the department’s Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Service, said
last week that the proposal would al
low easier entry into the United
States for breeding cattle from those
provinces.
However, entry would be limited
to cattle which had passed a brucel
losis test within 30 clays prior to en
try and which originated from herds
that had been intact for at least one
year before entry.
iy.
ative brucellosis test within 30 days
before U.S. entry, cattle from non-
certified provinces must originate
from herds which have been intact
for at least two years and which have
passed a brucellosis test within the
past 12 months. Female cattle under
18 months may instead be certified
as having been vaccinated for the
disease.
Brucellosis, sometimes called
Bang’s disease, is an infectious bacte
rial disease which causes pregnant
females to abort or give birth to
weakened offspring. Brucellosis can
be transmitted to humans who come
in contact with infected animals or
who drink unpasteurized milk from
them.
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — The lady
on the line always knows what time it
is, and every year she lets 470 million
Californians know, too. Free of
charge. Just because they called.
But the telephone time announce
ment could become another head*
stone in the freebie graveyard, bur
ied alongside free directory
assistance calls and free road maps at
gasoline stations.
If Pacific Bell prevails, its 8.2 mil
lion customers will pay 20 cents ev
ery time they want to set their clocks
after a power failure or make sure
their watches are running correctly.
The plan would generate about
$31.4 million a year for the phone
company, instead of costing it $9
million a year, PacBell spokesman
Roger Orr said.
“In a recent customer survey, we
found that more than one-third of
our customers never call time,” he
said. “So this would allow those who
use it to pay for it.”
The idea, Orr said, is to keep basic
telephone costs down. The state
Public Utilities Commission, which
regulates such things, seems inclined
to agree, PUC telecommunications
specialist James McCraney said. The
PUC will hold hearings on the mat
ter, but has not yet set a date.
A major consumer group, TURN
— Toward Utility Rate Normaliza
tion — said it will tolerate the plan,
at least on a short-term basis.
“We generally oppose splitting
pieces off of basic service,” TURN’S
Jon Elliott said. “But in this case,
we’re willing to stand aside in the in
terest of trading the revenue to keep
phone rates down, and see how it
goes after the first year. We’re will
ing to hold our nose on this.”
The charge would break a 40-year
tradition that began when Bell com-
H.uaS
panics asked Atlanta entrepreneur
John Franklin to develop the hard
ware for a time announcement,
according to Jim Fuller, vice presi
dent of marketing for Franklin’s
company, Audichron.
Back then, virtually all phone
companies paid for it themselves,
i pa
Fuller said. But soon, many began to
look at the service as a revenue op
portunity, and worked with Audicn-
ron to develop announcements
sponsored by a bank or department
store, he said.
California’s time announcement
always has been a public service. But
Orr said that unaer the AT&T di
vestiture agreement, former Bel
companies are prohibited from of
fering the service themselves and
must find an alternate provider. Pa
cific Bell’s plan would turn the sen-
ice over to an independent contrac
tor selected through competitive
bids.
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