European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 29, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 14 the stars and stripes Money matters monday August 29, 1994 today s rates following Are fixed rates at which Community banking and credit Union facilities will sell for eign currencies to . Personnel for personal use British Pound 1.59 dutch Guilder 1.59 German mark., 1.51 note the rates above apply within the Host country. Figures Are expressed in dollars to the British Pound other currencies  Dollar following Are Interbank rates that fluctuate and should be regarded As the approximate value of the . Dollar to foreign Curren cies austrian Schilling 10.8505 Bahrain Dinar 0.377 belgian franc 31.81 British Pound 1.5545 Canadian Dollar 1.371 danish Krone 6.1175 dutch Guilder 1.7321 French franc 5.291 German Mark 1.543 greek drachma. 234.30 italian lira 1,571.40 Kuwait Dinar 0.29745 norwegian Krone 6.778 portuguese escudo 157.70 saudi rial 3.7501 Spanish peseta 128.66 Swiss franc1.3023 turkish lira 32,700.00 note figures Are expressed in dollars to the British Pound other currencies to the Dollar Gold quote $383.30 an ounce Silver quote $5,24 an ounce sources merchants National Bank & Trust co. And the associated press air mystery solved for passengers Indianapolis a mall of America. Lincoln memorial. Empire state building. Depending on their interests 300 Northwest airlines passengers who found out where they were going saturday with their round trip mystery fare tickets were either glad or disappointed. They were among 1,500 people who crowded the airline s counter wednesday at inc Indianapolis International Airport. Sold on a first come first served basis the tickets Cost $59 each or $99 per Cou ple and were for one Day trips to . Cities. The catch travellers did t know where they were headed until they arrived at the Airport saturday morning. I be got one ticket to the mall of America in suburban Minneapolis. I la Trade for anything Fred Gregory yelled through the terminal. He had hoped for new Orleans. After a pause he said of the mall of America and 20  he eventually decided to Board. Another ticket Holder said he would return to bed instead of visiting Milwaukee for the Day. It s a brewery town and i Don t eve drink he said. Destinations included Washington new York Tampa Fla. St. Louis Kan Sas City and rapid City . Next time Northwest Mii it try a mys Tery weekend package and have travellers spend a night in a hotel marketing director Deb Spellman said. Be had fun with it Spellman  re disappointed that some people were disappointed but it was a random matchup. Not everyone was unhappy. Marvin Moore whose ticket read Tampa said he and two friends planned to rent a car taken some Sun and visit an amusement Park. We re from Indianapolis so Well definitely be going to the Beach Moore Ald. Is Michael Abram communicating with drive through clerks at fast food restaurants often can be a frustrating experience. Drive through speakers something to shout about by Rebecca Jones Scripps Howard news service when the mumbling Over the speaker at the drive through restaurant finally stops you place your order. One Small Taco  very loud one Small Taco  see Pha a Pic  translation the Taco costs 79 cents and you should now drive around to the pickup window. Pity the fool who does t know the routine at most fast food drive through or who needs to carry on a More extensive conversation with the drive through clerk we can Send a Man to the Moon we can place Calls to anywhere in the world from our car phones we can wonder if it s live or if it s memory cd so Why can t we create a speaker that lets us under stand what the drive through clerk is say ing i would t be telling you the truth if i said we did t have difficulty communicating through the speaker admitted Mike Boyd an operations manager for Mcdonald s corp. The Meta Box tends to take the inflections out of the voice. We coach employees along those lines. There Are times you la see Mcdonald s be Pha a pie Drine drive through speaker employees standing outside at a speaker Post listening so they can hear what i sounds  / it does t sound Good. This is not a Small problem. In terms of consumer Impact it s monumental. A recent National restaurant association study found that 78 percent of americans have purchased a meal at a drive through within the past year and three out of 10 of us do so at least once week. Statistics As to How Many of those drive through customers wondered just what the Heck the drive though clerk said to them were not us readily  we re pretty sure it s close to All of them. Some restaurants Are trying to fix the problem. One Denver Mcdonald s has abandoned speakers altogether in its drive through. Instead a human being sits in a Booth in the drive through path and takes your order it s called face to face service said store manager Larry Ettles we be had it for about a month and the people we be asked say they really like  some restaurants have taken to stationing people outside who walk up to your car window to take your order. Others give you a computer printout of your order when you reach the payment window. That Way you can at least make sure your order is Correct before driving off with it. A California company is marketing what it Hopes will be the drive through technology of the future. Called the drive thru video confirmation system it s essentially a two Way camera that lets the customer and the order taker see each other. As you place your order each item and its Cost is overlaid on the screen in front of you for your confirmation. People like it a lot said Bob Sobota operations manager for Mph video tron is maker of the system. This is a tremendous problem in the Industry. A lot of times you re not sure whether they even hear you. You scream hello hello and you never know if they re even listening. This Way when you see their face it s just like being Over  itt partnership reportedly nets Square Deal new York a a partnership of Cablevision systems inc. And . Has reportedly won the bidding War for Madison Square Garden its Cable to network and its professional basketball and hockey teams. The winning bid was close to $1.1 Bil lion according to reports in the new York times the new York daily new Sand the new York Post. The Only other bidder Liberty Media offered $1 billion. The properties including the new York kicks and new York rangers the reigning Stanley cup champions an being sold by Viacom inc., which acquired them when it purchased Par amount communications for $9.7 billion earlier this year. A formal announcement was expected late sunday or monday. An executive of Liberty Media speak ing to the associated press on the Condi Tion of anonymity said he had heard from other executives that Cablevision itt had won. Itt runs the Sheraton hotel Chain. Cablevision is the nation s fourth largest operator of Cable systems and has 2.5 Mil lion subscribers in 19 states. In the new York metropolitan area Cablevision owns the rights to telecast the hockey and baseball games of the new York islanders and mets As Well Ashe games of hockey s new Jersey devils and the new Jersey nets basketball team. The Madison Square Garden Cable network has exclusive rights to telecast kicks and rangers games and a Deal to show the new York Yankees baseball games through 2000. According to the times the network brought More Revenue in 1993 $106.7 million than the kicks and rangers combined $86.6 million