The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 17

SIk oimrr-onrnal Wednesday, October 8, 1975 1 accenting the consumer section, TO. 'parts of a ssi CHICKEN Carpets yanked under public Staff cartoon by Stevt Durbln One consumer's quest for truth chicken wing white meat? By YVONNE EATON Courier-Journal Staff Writer The rug has been pulled out from under consumers who have complaints about their rugs and carpets. After more than two years of operation, the Carpet and Rug Industry Consumer Action Pane! (CRICAP) has been discontinued for economic reasons. CRICAP tried to resolve consumer complaints which had not been settled satisfactorily by the retail firm or manufacturers. The recommendations made by CRICAP, however, were not binding.

Any action taken was voluntary. F. E. (Mike) Masland III said that with the declining fortunes in the carpet industry during the economic recession, the Carpet and Rug Institute lost its financial means to support CRICAP. The consumer panel had a 1975 budget of $112,000.

Masland is president of the Carpet and Rug Institute. Several companies dropped out of the trade association, some for financial reasons, Masland said. More than 70 per cent of the carpet industry joined the association, he said, although some of the big companies had never joined. But CRICAP handled complaints about all companies. So the association was paying for what the non-member companies were getting for free, Masland said.

Even if the economic conditions had not brought the end to CRICAP, the new federal Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act might have, according to Masland. The act directs the Federal Trade Commission to set certain rules, including the minimum standards for certain procedures used by voluntary groups such as those resolving disputes. The FTC has proposed that disputes be resolved by these groups within 40 days. Because CRICAP received complaints that were not easy to resolve, Masland said there was no way that CRICAP could settle disputes in 40 days. Often six or seven complaints could mean 100 letters of correspondence, especially if the consumer failed to give all the pertinent information in the first correspondence.

And there were no means set up whereby CRICAP's panel members could go into the field to investigate. Masland also said it was impossible for the panel members who were from all over the country and served in a voluntary capacity to meet frequently enough to resolve disputes any sooner then they did. Those complicated disputes could go on as long as 180 days, Masland said. Another spokesman for CRICAP said that about 85 per cent of the complaints were handled by CRICAP's office staff, without the dispute having to be sent to the panel members to resolve. While many disputes were settled in much less time than six months.

40 days for settlement would be unrealistic, the spokesman said. When CRICAP closed shop in August, 1,006 complaints had been received and 351, including new complaints, were still in the active file, the spokesman said. Of course, those files that were closed didn't necessarily mean a complaint had been resolved to the satisfaction of the consumer. Even though CRICAP is no longer, the Carpet and Rug Institute is still receiving complaints. Complaints received by the Carpet and Rug Institute in Dalton, will be forwarded to the person it feels will be of most help, a spokesman said.

The institute won't follow through on the complaint as before and it won't have the panel to mediate as a last resort as when CRICAP existed, he explained. Is a By DAN KAUFFMAN Courier-Journal Staff Writer Is a chicken wing white meat? Kenneth White thinks no. The Kentucky Fried Chicken Corp. thinks yes. And a University of Kentucky poultry expert says maybe yes and maybe no.

Although without doubt there are historical antecedents, for our purposes this whole chicken wing controversy started last summer in a suburban St. Louis motel room. Ken White, an honorary Kentucky colonels, had returned to his room intent on eaiting a meal he has "enjoyed with gusto" hundreds of times. The meal: "Two boxes (three-piece order) of (Kentucky Fried) all-white meat chicken, along with a fine bottle of wine." White, of course, had paid extra for the white meat. He was on his way back to California from Newport, Ky.

Earlier in Newport he had twice consumed the same meal of all-white meat and he thought this one would please him as much. But the St. Louis boxes each had a wing in it. He concluded a mistake had been made and returned to the KFC store for two more pieces of "real" white meat. But the store manager assured him that no mistake had been made.

A wing is white meat. His back up, White fired off a three-page letter to a fellow colonel THE Colonel that lacked any of the civility usually associated with men of such station. By the third page White was drawing parallels between the St. Louis perfidy and some past actions of the CIA. But Col.

Harland Sanders said White fired at the wrong man. The Colonel said he never saw the letter. It went, instead, to the KFC public relations department. And, anyway, he agrees with White's contention that a per son paying for all white meat shouldn't get the wing. "When you pay extra for white meat you don't want to get no damn wing.

That should just be throwed in," said the Colonel. But having said that, the Colonel added that the wing is without doubt white meat. That's right, said John Cox, spokesman for Kentucky Fried Chicken, a wing is definitely white. So how do you go about determining what's white? "Anything above the waist is," said Cox, "if you can imagine a chicken's waist." But White says the wing-as-white-meat theory flies directly in the face of his street research. Since the St.

Louis incident, White claims he has "personally asked over one hundred people, at all levels of society, and not one of them holds that a wing is white meat." That clearly leaves the issue unresolved. Perhaps a scholarly, objective opinion might help. Well, began the University of Kentucky's Dr. John Begin, it all depends which end of the wing you're talking about. Begin, who has a doctor's degree because he knows about such things, said there is indeed some white meat on the end of the wing that is attached to the body of the chicken.

Begin continued: "The sole purpose of the breast is to move the wing. Since a chicken doesn't fly the muscle doesn't have much use, so not many red blood cells are in it. The breast muscle runs into the first joint of the wing so I guess if you stretch the definition you could consider that joint white." But scholarly detachment can be maintained only so long on a question of such importance. some "sludge and sell it for 65 or 75 cents a pint. There's no nutrition in it and they ought not to be allowed to sell it." And another thing.

That new "crispy recipe is nothing in the world but a damn fried doughball stuck on some chicken." Anyway, upon learning of White's situation, the Colonel promised to dig out his letter and send him some gift certificates. The company has already sent White $3 worth of certificates and apologized for "disappointing" him. To all that, Cox, the KFC head of public relations, said that since a wing is white meat the store owner has the right to serve it in all-white meat orders. But he also said, "Generally speaking the wing is not included in a three-piece all-white meat order. But that's just because it's a smaller piece." Cox said they have no control over the store owner as long as he stays within certain guidelines.

There is no guideline that prohibits wings in a white-meat order. As to the Colonel's views of the gravy and the crispy recipe, Cox says they just grin and bear. The Colonel and KFC recently settled out of court multimillion-dollar lawsuits involving issues of who has the right to various kinds of trademarks. But Cox won't really respond publicly to the Colonel's charges of sloppy company practices. Nor will KFC be able to stop the Colonel from making such statements.

"Look. The Colonel is a perfectionist living in an imperfect world. Most people don't like gravy as spicy as he does," is about all Cox says. The company can hardly clamp down on a man who has a face more widely recognized than that of the president of the United States, according to some surveys. "Besides, how could you fire your grandfather," Cox said.

Especially if he is making you millions of dollars, Cox could have added but didn't. In the end Begin adopted a strong position: "Even if there is some white muscle meat on the wing," the scholar concluded, "it really shouldn't be considered as white meat." That's exactly right, said White. In fact, he contended that the wing isn't really worth eating. In his best colonel-like manner, White wrote, "Up until now I have considered the wing right next to backs and necks as throwaway parts of the chicken or parts you give to poor families or the help." But he shouldn't have said that. If Col.

Sanders took his side against the company up until now, White lost the support when he threw off on the savoriness of the wing. "The wing is my favorite piece," said THE Colonel. "It's much juicier. I guess it's the underlay of fat." Really, Sanders said, it's the breast that's not worth eating. But even though the wing is best, the Colonel said, he knows that people don't expect to get it when they pay for all-white meat.

"They want that big keel bone and pieces they can bite into. "The company would do a lot better to make (the stores) cut out serving wings with white-meat orders. You can't flimflam the customers. You've got to give them value for their money." And while he was on the subject of something Kentucky Fried Chicken should do differently, the Colonel thought of a few other things. The stuff on the mashed potatoes, for instance.

"My God, that gravy is horrible. They buy tap water for 15 or 20 cents a thousand gallons and then they mix it with flour and starch and end up with pure wallpaper paste. And I know wallpaper paste, by God, because I've seen my mother make it." To the "wallpaper paste" they add the consumer almanac The commission said it never had uncovered an instance of a manufacturer's refusing to honor a warranty because such a card was not mailed in, provided that the customer had some proof of the date of purchase. The qualification, however, is that a manufacturer could refuse to honor a warranty if the card were not mailed in, and the consumer might face a legal battle. drugs but also for drugstores.

It points out that certain over-the-counter and prescription medicines don't mix and says the large, economy size just might not be economical if the drugs stand unused for a long time drugs can lose or gain potency during storage. The address to write: Consumer Information, Dept. 53, Pueblo, Colo. 81009. Warren Payne, staff writer Warranty cards Many consumer products, particularly small appliances, come packed with "warranty registration" cards.

These cards, typically, state that in order to be covered under the warranty, the buyer must send the card to the manufacturer within a specified number of days. But the buyer does not have to send in the card to be covered under the i warranty, according to the Federal Trade Commission's bureau of consumer has issued its first proposed safety standard under the Consumer Product Safety Act, a set of requirements for swimming pool slides. A commission spokeswoman said this proposal soon would be followed by others related to architectural glass, book matches, power mowers, television sets and playground equipment. She said the long delay in proposing a standard was the need for detailed engineering studies and studies of the economic effect of the proposed standard to insure that its adoption would not destroy an industry. The proposed mandatory safety standard for swimming pool slides specifies a "low angle of entry into the water," in an effort to prevent injuries the commission says resulted from adults sliding head first at a steep angle into shallow water.

It also includes labeling requirements. If the standard becomes law, it will affect all pool slides made in this ctfUntry or imported. -A'eir York Times fievci Servict Clothing needed The Fifth District Parent-Teacher Association is holding a clothing drive through Friday. The drive is being held mainly in schools within the city limits of Louisville, and usable clothing should be brought to the school nearest your home. The PTA people say they especially need coats and jackets and clothes for small boys.

Deliverance Four, two-hour classes in Preparing Parents for Parenthood will be held at St. Anthony Hospital, located on St. Anthony Place near the intersection of Barret Avenue and Broadway. The classes, free and open to all expecting parents, will be held from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, beginning today and running Oct.

15, 22 and 29. To take the classes, all you have to do is show up tonight: There is no advance registration. Getting on in years A new pamphlet, "Sex After Sixty-five," is now available from the Public Affairs Committee, 381 Park Avenue South, New York City 10016, for 35 cents. The book goes into the physiological and psychological elements involved in aging, and the healthy and normal continuance of sexual activity into old age. A pharmacopoeia The federal General Services Adminis-tion's Consumer Information Center is offering a free Primer on Medicine to those who write for it.

Te pamphlet offers a great deal of good advice. For example, it goes into comparison shopping not only for where no advertising is permitted, the lowest price for similar, but not necessarily identical items, is $22. One frame that sold for $32 in Louisiana, which likewise prohibits advertising, could be purchased for $18.90 across the Sabine River in Texas, a state that allows limited advertising by opticians, but not optometrists. These figures come primarily from a pioneering study done by Lee Benham, professor of economics at Washington University. Opticians make or sell glasses and optometrists examine the eyes.

Percy asked that the commission ban all price restrictions, and thus annul all existing restrictive state laws. The commission has not yet responded to Percy, but his proposal is being studied, according to a spokesman. A sliding scale The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in existence since May 1973 Ads for glasses In 36 states, the prices of eyeglasses and contact lenses may not be advertised. As a result, consumers are paying 25 to 100 per cent more than they should be, Sen.

Charles H. Percy, charged in a recent letter to the Federal Trade Commission. According to Percy, in Arizona, where price advertising is permittecT, lenses and frames can be purchased for as little as $16.50, while in California,.