The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 31

1 'bi "CD READERS UNLEASH ANGER AT PET OWNERS See Ann Landers, Page 2 DEE GEES' COillEDACK IS QUESTIONABLE Record Reviews on Page 4 COMICS 6 MOVIES 3 PUZZLES 7 TELEVISION 4,5 THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR MONDAY, JUNE 3, 1991 P- tiki COLUMN ONE I 4 I 1 1 A 1 1 ft rji, 4 it 1 I v. v. s. i i i i Giving speech easier than eating banquet roday's topic, In our series on Building Your Confidence, is: How To Give a Speech. If you are a human being or even a reasonably alert shrub, chances are that sooner or later a club or organization will ask you to give a speech.

The United States Is Infested with clubs and organizations, constantly engaging In a variety of worthwhile group activities such as: (1) eating lunch; (2) eating dinner; (3) eating breakfast; and of course (4) holding banquets. The result Is that there Is a constant demand for post-meal speakers, because otherwise all you'd hear would be the sounds of digestion. A great deal of digestion is required, because all clubs and organizations obtain their food from the U.S. Catering Cement located on a former nuclear test site in Utah. Every chicken served by U.S.

Catering Cement has completed a toughen- SV 's ill' iZ" -l W. it ft 3 A uiiiV 1 Dave Barry STAR STAPF PHOTO SUSAN PLACEMAN Brownie Troop 245 in Muncie was unsuccessful in its bid to convince the Indianapolis Motor Speedway not to release balloons on race day. KIDS TODAY Young activists tacMe issues Brownies and other "normal kids" are environmentally aware and do something about It. By TIM LUCAS STAR STAFF WRITER of litter from vacant lots in his Near Eastslde neighborhood and salvaging the recyclables. "When 1 started, it was Just me," he says.

By the final weekend, eight other volunteers all younger than 16 were pitching In. "I didn't know some of them," Jamie were Just kids who saw what I was doing and thought it would be good to clean the neighbor-; hood up." I Cathy, Sara and Jamie don't feel that done anything out of the ordinary. And they may be right. "It's not Just these kids all kids are aware of these things." says Donna Polcz, leader of Brownie. Troop 245.

"They get It at school. They get It on TV; and in books. uncie Take It from 8-year-old Cathy Fluegeman: Don't mess with a Brownie. Ing program developed by the U.S. Marine Corps.

Under it, trainees go through an Intensive program of running obstacle courses, doing push-ups, getting bad haircuts and being screamed at by grizzled veteran chickens wearing comical Smokey Bear hats. By the time they graduate, these chickens can deflect bullets with their breasts. As the speaker, you are expected to eat this food without special tools. As an additional challenge, many clubs and organizations like to put you at a "head table" up on a stage, facing the audience, so everybody can watch you One time I gave a speech to a convention of certified pension actuaries (motto: "Fun Dudes Having There were 2,000 of them, filling an enormous hotel ballroom, and, apparently as a prank, they put me at a tiny table right in the center of the stage with ONE OTHER PERSON, named Bob. It was the least-relaxed meal of my life.

Bob and I handled our food the way Bomb Disposal Squad members handle suspicious packages, because we were acutely aware that 4,000 actuarial eyeballs were monitoring our every move and commenting on our table manners He dribbled on his As big as Montana I was terrified that I'd have to go to the bathroom, because you cannot leave a table for two on a stage the size of Montana without being noticed. See BARRY Page 7 fl I At least, not when it comes to I something Important like the en- vtmnmpnt organizations and individuals across the United States and have focused national attention on the balloon-release Issue. Balloons hexed? Besides, Cathy gleefully points out, the balloons didn't go up after all. "Didn't you see it? They got caught In trees," she says. "They're calling It the Brownie Hex." Like Cathy and her friends, children throughout Central Indiana are becoming more aware of the social and environmental problems around them.

And, to a degree unheard of in past generations, they're taking action to solve them. With or without hexes on their side. Local examples abound. Sara Riddle, 9, Greenwood, started a petition drive last summer to convince two local businesses a drugstore and a video store to put In access ramps. Her grandmother, who uses a wheelchair, couldn't shop there.

"They said they'd look Into It," the soft-spoken Sara says. "But they didn't." Rather than give In, Sara returned later that week with her younger sister. Bccka, 6, and picketed the stores. After watching the small girls walk a picket line outside their shops for barely one hour, the store managers gave in. Both installed ramps.

Cleaning up others' acts Jamie Sanderson, 13, Indianapolis, spent four weekends this spring picking up about 700 pounds The pint-sized activist and her friends In Mun-cle's Brownie Troop 245 made national news in May with their request that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway not release 30,000 helium-filled balloons during "500" pre-race festivities. "Balloons are plastic. In school, we learned that when they drop down from the sky, animals may eat them and die," explains Cathy, a second-grader at Burris Laboratory School. "We didn't think the '500' should release them." Speedway officials went ahead with the release, saying that there was little evidence that balloons released into the atmosphere here have caused animals to die. Now, the Brownies may be enjoying the last laugh.

Their efforts have made them folk heroes of sorts they've received letters of support from "CI Joe has his band of Eco-Warrlors who fight villains (with names) like Cesspool. "There are even Muppet characters called the-Kids on the Block, who each have a different disability. It's everywhere." 'Just normal kids' Aside from their antl-balloon-release Polcz says her troop of 1 2 second-graders has, In the past year, participated in disability awareness, workshops, visited nursing homes and conducted; recycling surveys In their homes. "These are Just normal kids," she emphasizes. "They do normal things.

"They won second place In the (Dclawarel See YOUNG Page 7 AWARDS DEBUTING New comic 'WH1 Rogers, 'Yonkers' take Tonys focus Wl Neil Simon drama wins long list of honors for actors and author. chance to come here to the United States." I A third Tony went to Hlnton Battle, who plays the hero's best buddy In Miss I Saigon. He won for featured actor In a musical. Mercedes Ruehl, who called her role In Lost In Yonkers as a sweet-tempered, slm-1 ple-mlnded aunt "an actor's banquet," won as best actress In a play. "This Is one of the great moments of mu Hfp It's vprv hard tn hriath With all By MICHAEL KUCHWARA ASSOCIATED PRESS ew York The Will Rogers Follies, an all-American song-and-dance extravaganza, was named best musical of the due respect to the great House of Chanel, the dress doesn't make It any easier." she cracked, referring to her tight-fitting ffmirn dent when he opened the envelope.

The Will Rogers Follies, a Zlegfeld-like recreation of the life of the famous Oklahoma humorist and rope spinner, took six awards, Including two for Tommy Tune as best director and choreographer. Tune has now won nine Tony Awards during his theatrlal career. Lost In Yonkers dominated the acting prizes, winning three of the four honors for best performances In a play. Miss Saigon did the same In the musical acting categories, taking three of four awards. Jonathan Pryce, the sleazy, amoral pimp In the show, was named best actor In a musical.

He thanked "the multiracial cast of Miss Saigon." Lea Salonga, who plays the doomed title character In Miss Saigon, picked up the best actress in a musical prize. Actors Equity, the actors' union, initially denied Pryce permission to appear In the American production, but later relented. Salonga's appearance was also ques- tioned. "This can't be for real," Salonga said, thanking God "for all of His and then Actors Equity for "giving me the on modern family life eet the Fox family: I There's young Jason, III I I the klnd of kld who UlU wears glasses with round lenses. He's bored, precocious and eccentric, keeper of a pet iguana named Qulncy.

And Peter, high-school-age overlord of sister Paige the tormented and loud-mouthed middle child and of Jason. Roger, their dad, Is an overworked Implement of the corporation. He's always willing In the face of a household emergency to let Mom handle It. Sometimes, he doesn't know vijhlch is worse: gftlng to work or 1990-91 Broadway season Sunday, beating out the highly publicized Miss Saigon at the annual Tony Awards ceremonies. Lost In Yonkers.

Nell Simon's tale of a deeply troubled family, took the prize for best'play. It was the second best-play award for Simon, who won In 1 985 for Blloxl Blues. His other past Tony honors Include an award In 1965 for The Odd Couple In the now-discontinued best -author category and a special Tony in 1975. "1 was in the men's room when Anthony Qulnn was on. Did anything Interesting happen?" Simon Joked In accepting the award for Lost In Yonkers.

Qulnn, in giving the prize for best direction of a musical, named Lost In Yonkers by acci Irene Worth and Kevin Spacey, who play an Ill-tempered matriarch and her gangster son In the same show, won featured acting prizes. "I want to salute every single actor in this theater tonight and to pay tribute to all the actors who are performing all over Ua -1 4 1 nnJ I 4 11! I. coming home at the end of the day. Mom's name Is Andy. She's a writer, homemaker, peacekeeper and manager of family crises say, when Qulncy throws up on Paige's bed.

Fox Trot, Bill Amend's comic-strip chronicle of contemporary family life, begins today on Page D6. It flll appear In The Star Monday through Saturday. uit wunu, aaiu ail CAUiidiu wunn, wno ended her acceptance speech with "Long live the theater!" See TONY Page 3.