European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 15, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 14 the stars and stripes August 1985 getting a handle on mattresses by Baker the news these Days is mostly about anniversaries of interesting events that happened Long this for it was the Lola anniversary of the Helsinki the 40th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Japan and the 40th anniversary of japans we reach Ono of the More interesting anniversaries on on that Day 15 years the decision was made by the bedding Industry to cease putting handles on the mat tresses of that historic which was followed by All but a handful of the nations mattress was to reshape the drama of american Domestic As everyone who has since had to move a mattress possibly too spinal surgeons and manufacturers of plaster casts and steel reinforced girdles All reported Sharp increases in business within weeks after the mar Ket was flooded with new mattresses lacking the fabric handles that once had been stoutly affixed to both sides of every decent mattress in the the decision to drop the mattress Little noted at the time it was is now intensely the justification cited by the bedding Industry in 1970 was that americans were becoming dangerously soft As the nature of their work became increasingly sedentary and the tendency of their culture increasingly Glutton mattress spokesmen asserted that flabby americans were dropping like flies with diseases resulting from sissified diseases their grandparents would have been ashamed to die even had they existed in the rugged old the american bedding Council it to do our bit to save the free world from flab the mattress handles dropped from their the Opportunity we extend to our countrymen to handle Bulky and intractable mattresses without the assistance of mattress handles should encourage Mil Lions to undertake physical conditioning programs that will enable after turning their to wrestle successfully with the largest and most formidable including Industry spokesmen concede that the bedding Council saw the estimates that forecast hundreds of thousands of Back but judged it sensible to accept a Little Lumbago and a few popped vertebrae Here and there in a Trade off that would help save America from a devastating Onset of critics of the decision say this is self serving for one they at the time mattress handles were the first joggers already were in the streets and 97pound female weaklings were starting to work on weightlifting the bedding critics had no interest in improving the nations it was simply taking advantage of the new muscularity to add a few pennies to mattress profits by doing away with the arguments like this Are never not As Long As anniversaries Roll around every year giving news people a pretext for filling their space with Lively this years designed As a photo was to feature president Reagan carrying a Kin size with no from the White House base ment to the Lincoln Reagan has though on doctors and asked vice president George Bush to substitute for Bush has been visiting the National zoo after closing hours to practice by wrestling c new York times tobacco company lights up stage by Ellen Goodman Boston int it fellow at the Reynolds which has spent so Many years writing fiction into its tobacco has branched out into its very first attempt is a charming Little Vignette on the subject of smoking and printed in the latest series of Public image the script is available to any eager Road company that would like to blow smoke in the eyes of the but enough of this narration the play is the the curtain in the Reynolds theater opens after a Brief explanation from the playwright explaining his to alack and we Are these the level of social discourse Between smokers and non smokers is approaching that of a tag team wrestling we Are about to witness a scene embodying a daring solution greater Courtesy quiet in the on the Center stage Are two main a male smoker is about to Light a cigarette in the presence of the a female Here is the excerpted dialogue he excuse do you mind if i smoke she i dont mind As Long As you dont let your smoke blow in my he ill do my let me know if the smoke both ers she 1 will and thanks for he thanks for being so that the curtain goes Down to thunderous a the narrator concludes common its just crazy it might mind the dialogue that i have quoted above int up for a Tony the stakes arc much higher than the tobacco people Are fighting for air the most common scenario of real life is not necessarily like the one in Reynolds Road the same encounter reenacted in any number of american Heaters May sound More like this smoker excuse do you mind if i smoke nonsmoker i do the nonsmokers have stopped believing that they have to breathe in someone else bad is becoming As socially acceptable As spitting were running the Virginia slims reel the tobacco which do not fear lung can or heart Are positively terrified of social so the latest theatrical gambit is to treat the assertive nonsmoker As a rude the tobacco people then assume the starring role As the Sweet voice of preaching the non smokers Are to forgive me for being but understanding the smoker sharing your air rights is a bit like giving someone permission to step on your or Burn Poison Ivy its important to keep the characters the smoker is the the nonsmoker is the but Back to the Courtesy one of the great lines in this and didst even make the its a stage footnote we continue to believe in the Power of politeness to change the lord so do Over the i have tried asking the cigarette companies if they would Stop directing their advertising to Young i have asked them if they would Stop pretending that cigarettes didst cause lung pretty i have Ever so suggested that they should Stop Selling a product that is irrefutably to be i dont think its civil to sell lung nor is it courteous to produce heart it must surely be impolite to be responsible for Cigar rett related deaths a year in the United id like to read a Little play about people who push cigarettes All Day and How they sleep at i wonder if the Reynolds troupe could whip that one up for maybe if i asked them after we non smokers have to watch our manners these ill say please with sugar on c Boston glob Washington Post by Eugene Sheffer across 1 statesman Eban 5 Mist 8 script contents 12 evil look 13 Lennon widow 14 come up 15 Moss Type 16 buttons of film 17 Cains sibling 18 Zebra feature 20 Dan shape 22 Semper tyrannies 23 language suffix 24 Soho apartment 27 infant cupid 32 actress Gardner 33 Low 34 Smidgen 35 state tree of South Carolina 38 a few 39 soak 40 witticism 42 come out 45 tooth cover 49 big Apple team 50 stroke 52 donated 53 speck 54 fury 55 Paradise 56 off in a Way 57 Detroit product 58 studies Down 1 Swiss peaks 2 for one 3 carry 4 studio worker 5 prediction 6 Singleton 7 Olympus residents 8 Laud answer to yesterdays Puzzle solution time 23 minutes 815 9 musicals Book 10 Drifting 11 holler 19 it equals about 21 each 24 track trip 25 eggs 26 High voice 28 wrestling Aid 29 mileage gauge 30 wee Cap 31 Long poem 36 Small bite of food 37 goad 38 put on 41 running 42 poet Lazarus 43 catty remark 44 heroic tale 46 created 47 Flat 48 for one 51 period 815 Hubert Repuk bowl dual Lime owing Iknou Iwu shake w m but that my for Progress a top of Pant to two overrated i Hubert place to get ripped to pud your remark n extremely Pap Small Prezto c i making Fet Turu inc a Stop Ighel