European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 31, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page is co fumes the stars and stripes Friday october 31,19b6 today s crossword Why accept less than excellence by Anby Rooney considering How poorly so Many things arc made and How sloppily so much work is done it s Surpris ing How Many people still recognize excellence when they Sec it. The fact thai there Are still people who prize excellence is a Good sign. Maybe there s still Hope. Excellence is rare. It Calls attention to itself wherever it exists. Last weekend we stopped by the Best Jirtle vegetable stand i know of the woman who runs it said Iney were closing. It s always a sad Day but it san inevitable one because she Sells Only what she grows and the growing season is Over. She does t bring in avocados from California oranges from Florida or melons from Colorado to stay in business. In june she begins to get raspberries and asparagus. By july she has Beans peas Green and yellow Squash potatoes and cauliflower. In August the com tomatoes and melons come hers Are the Best. The Little parking area in front of her stand is jammed with cars. People drive 10 or 12 Miles passing six or i Jet supermarkets on the Way just to get her vegetable. The thing that worries me most is thai while she May have a Hundred or More customers a Day the supermarkets with vegetables nicked a week earlier and shipped in from far away places have thousands. Excellence attracts a crowd but there s so Little fit that it s always a sellout. There arc always one or two builders in town who do excellent work. They Are always Busy. This summer we Gat hold of a Fine builder and he put a Nice Little addition on our House out behind the Kitchen. When he finished he got the Best Painter to paint it. Painting is one of those jobs that seem easy enough until you try to do it yourself. We were so pleased with the paint Job that we asked the Painter about doing one of the bedrooms. You belter make up your mind Quick if you want me he said. I m already booked through  the things i be owned that were made according to High standards of excellence stand out in my mind. Just offhand i can think of a watch two Kitchen knives a car several tools a camera and an overcoat All of which have been a great pleasure to own. You can spot excellence a mile away. Too Many americans arc settling for mediocrity. Too Many Are buying the cheapest of everything with out regard to its Quality. If they can buy in for less they take it. At the supermarket it s the lowest Quality merchandise that Sells the fastest. Stores that sell the poorest paint plywood and tools Are proliferating. Outlet stores with cheap goods Are pushing Equality department stores out of business. Alt of us ought to be putting the pressure on manufacturers o make things better not encouraging the to continue making to film cheaper. We ought to be letting them know they can t pass off their junk on us. Maybe our schools should teach courses in the appreciation of excellence. Too Many people today Aren t bothering to drive the 10 Miles to the vegetable stand incompetence in hamburger land by Russell Baker i see a nation of hamburger servers it is called . In the Days before everybody spoke in initials it would have been called the United tales of America. It is the land of the Exxon and the Home of the us. I see a Small boy a lad with shiny eyes. Perhaps it is a Small girl. It is hard to Tell. Children of the hamburger servers like the billions of hamburgers served daily across the . Are All very much the same. This Little one s shiny eyes for example Are not especially remarkable. Their Shine is produced by the secret salad dressing that most parental hamburger servers put in their children s eyes to make them look charming a Dalert. Without Charm and alertness the children Nave Little Hope of growing up to serve hamburgers across the counter thus getting the Chance to be seen by powerful hamburger caters who can make them stars. Being rejected for a counter Job May mean a life Lime spent in a lonely room with the French Fries machine or the electric Heater used for thawing the Frozen secret salad dressing. Ostensibly doomed in the French Fries chamber. Days the things then rolled a Bowling Ball Over them until they lost their spin i. Ellison s famous French Fries Wilder using nothing but a Little Cooling grease and some cleverly applied electricity revolutionized the Industry overnight. I might have mide Young Tom Rich if somebody had been Able to produce it by that Lime however manufacturing had become i forgotten skill in the . The Only thing made anymore were Golden parachutes for enriching in competent but Kumen and incredibly Bril int ruthless youths who penalized in merging acquiring Tad defraying the country s capital assets. Ass re tilt Tom Ond himself acquired u bos tile takeover engineered by a Brilliant nit Hlex  you could to two orders of French Fidei medium Sony he bad been merged with the Jam Mold Korea of Korea which immediately sold him to Quik Chik a a regional Chain in ill Infix and Lomax that was testing a new Chickc Burger made of a com Pound of Oatmeal and ground up Chicken feel Quik Chik n went bankrupt after Loo Many customers complained that its Chicke burgers had a faint taste of Chicken us disgraced executives left in Golden parachutes Worth millions and Young Tom xxi son enjoyed a wonderful week in the Best papers and magazines which had a Fine time writing of the destruction of a boy wonder. All these articles had the same theme any boy who wanted to make things in the . Instead of wanting to be Brilliant and ruthless and destroy the country s capital assets deserved to end up just As Tom xxi Souhad assistant floor Mopper in the packing room of a secret salad dressing manufacturer in Malaysia. Of course exx Ison tried to put the Best face on it it s great to be in Asia where people can still make things he Lold the fast news Magazine Burge week. In the ., All they taught us was How to thaw the things that other countries made and there s no Money m that if he work hit Way up to Journeyman maker of secret salad dressing in an asian Burger factory he May earn More than he could in the , by thaw ing cars imported from Asia or Europe. But what would Tom s children have to look for Ward to do you suppose companies anywhere out Side the  will Reward his children for growing up and becoming incompetent businessmen do you think any country except the . Will let overage College boy merge acquire and destroy its economic a Gicu so they can gel Rich without Mak ing anything see a Small child with shiny eyes. It b a child of the raw of hamburger Crven. True it May never get out of the French " a reason to be. My Fri  it amply does nothing useful for its country. By Eugene Sheffer across 1 cheer 4 " its a rubles 7 Cut firewood Izar Tinl 13 part of i.e.14 poetry counter fart ii pm alter 54 silkworm 15 airborne 5b append 41 press46 tiny bubbles Singer 47 give the Pink slip 48 Rise rapidly 2 Simian request4 ending for too Thor sleep 5 Igloo owner 52 Gurne piece 6 Mode 53 actress 7 Mineral Farouk Springs 24 tread the numb 2s Road goo26 James Bond . 28 genetic stuff 30 Barbie Beau 31 speedy iyer8 trajectory 32 hawaiian  19 misery Emit so summer pests 0 stir frying vessel87 Molnes 10 exploit 08 Spanish 11 apiece20 mask Star King 17 sprees 22 actress Down Al Kingdo Tilly 1 of ancient 23 Singer 23 hit writings super a Roadway Goi Ouon time 24  27 Tokyo once 29 Airport Purler 31 Africa nation 3t contest form 31 ill Fate satellite 37 common link 38 abound ._,39 Topper yesterday sons nor 1 sets too olb10 set a Aap example feg iving advice