The Minneapolis Star from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 9

A TT MffiETY The Minneapolis Star Tuesday, Jan. 5, 1982 IB Barbara Flanagan yitii lit Yl -Columnist I 11 1 rm II 1 mm II 1 MteLL a v.mv.v Mar i ak a aa mi aaaaak unimney K- II II mu rmy I bb 11 a at mm II 1 squirrel flies flue 1 lilt ArfiW I i'i r' fSi liifaiiiBiiBiiiiiliiiiiiiiw mm mw Star Graphic by J.W. Smith Before 1982 is a day older, I want to share one truth left over from 1981. It is simply this: Never allow a squirrel into your chimney. The reason isn't as obvious as you may think.

I learned by experience last year that very few people know how to cope when there is a squirrel in the chimney. It took three days to get the beast, out of our chimney. To do it, we had to call several public agencies, including the zoo. AH offered advice, but nothing more. At least one also cautioned us that it's against the law to kill a squirrel in the city, even if it is in the chimney.

During this time, the squirrel made one dash around the room before scuttling back up the chimney. To keep it there, we blocked the fireplace with a storm window. Finally, after listening to a mewling squirrel and, believe me, it really does make a catlike sound when it is trapped we called Rainville-Carlson a firm I like to think of as the "friendly roofers." A crew came with a ladder and some common sense. They removed the protective screen atop the chimney that supposedly keeps squirrels out, built a fire in the fireplace and zap the squirrel split. And we bought a new protective screen for the chimney top.

Now, then, although I think bats are worse, one is allowed to swing at them with a broom or tennis racket without breaking theIaw. Maybe the city lawmakers ought, to reconsider the squirrel ordinance if there is such a thing. If a squirrel is trapped in a think some city agency ought to be required to get it out, dead or alive, No, no, a new squirrel ordinance isn't a big item on my list of things to do in '82. 1 just thought I ought to bring it up. Two traffic ordinances that need better enforcement concern me more.

Motorists are guilty of disobeying one of them. Pedestrians ignore the other. right-turn-on-red law continues to be a hazard for all of us who have to walk across busy streets. And the "Don't Walk" signal seems to confuse many pedestriansmuch to the outrage of the motorists. So, Just as reminders, let me try to explain: The right-turn-on-red law allows motorists to turn right on a light only if no pedestrians are in the crosswalks.

It does not allow drivers to turn right on red in front of crossing pedestrians. Too many drivers assume that the law allows them to make pedestrians wait while the cars turn right. One of the worst corners for illegal right-turn-on-red drivers is at Sixth Street and S. Second Avenue. I wish police could find one patrolman or traffic aide to tag cars on that corner.

A few well-placed traffic tickets might help all motorists to better understand the law. Trying to get pedestrians not to walk on the "Don't Walk" sign may be impossible. Motorists tell me that 1981 was the worst year Flanagan Turn to Page 2B ConiiiltFy Rock helped propel Nashville sound into big time realize was that Presley and other country-bred rockers like Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers also were exposing millions of young people to country music, a style previously limited to older, rural audiences. The process continued in the 1960s and Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley weren't in it. They finally got around to electing Cash last year, but it may take a while before Presley gets in.

There's still a lot of bad feeling here. "To many people, Presley and rock almost ruined country music. But there is evidence to suggest that he and other country-influenced rockers made a lot of this growth possible." Presley has been a sore point among the old guard here ever since "Heartbreak Hotel," the 1956 smash in the country, pop and rhythm and blues fields. As record-buyers and musicians rushed to join him in rock, the bottom fell out of country music. What the Nashville establishment did not By ROBERT HILBURN Los Angeles Times NASHVILLE After rock roll hit in the late 1950s, business became so slow in this country-music center that one of the town's leading song publishers took afternoons off to play softball.

But country music is now enjoying such a boom that executives are lucky to fit in a game on weekends. Country record sales nearly have doubled in the last five years, reaching $526 million in 1980. That means one of every seven albums sold in the United States is country. Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers and other country stars are in demand in areas once closed to them: prime-time television, big-budget movies and top Las Vegas showrooms. Hoping for glimpses of their favorites, an estimated 10 million fans visit Nashville each year.

Besides touring Opryland and the Country Music Hall of Fame, they can browse at Loretta Lynn's Western-wear store or stock up in souvenir shops on such novelties as dollar bills with Waylon Jennings' photo on them or the all-day Dolly Parton suckers, the current rage. The irony of all this success is that the very factor that record-makers-here blamed for their misfortune in the 1950s has made much of the current upswing possible: rock 'n' roll. Explained William Ivey, executive director of the Country Music Foundation: "For years, the question most people asked about the Hall of Fame was why 1970s as rock artists like Bob Dylan, the Band, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt also offered inviting samples of country instrumentation and lyrics. Even now, rock fans pick up on country through songs like Bruce Springsteen's "Wreck on the Highway" or Tom Petty's "Louisiana Rain" or Elvis Costello's Music Turn to Page 3B Nashville rears own generation of designer jeans Jon Bream Music You get a choice of three different designs on the pocket of Willie jeans. But I don't really dig the white stitching down the side seams.

It makes 'em look like disco jeans, as my little brother always says. The promotional tag promises, "When the jeans are right, they fit like the words to a good song." That's a great line, Willie, but your jeans fit my derriere like a bad song. So I tried on the Kenny jeans. They have a replica of Kenny Rogers on the front watch pocket. And his name on the back pocket.

Rogers told me once that his line of jeans Clothes Turn to Page 3B NASHVILLE Singers around here, it was observed long ago, wear songs on their sleeves. Nowadays country music fans wear their favorite singers on their derri-ere. On their right, rear blue-jean pocket to be exact. That's where on your jeans and my jeans it usually says Levi's, Lee, Sasson, Gloria Vanderbilt or Calvin Klein. But if you're ready for the country, it says Willie, Kenny Rogers, Gilley's, or the Gatlin Brothers right there on your bee-hind.

Now you'd be hard-pressed to find this kind of designer jean in Minneapolis or St. The only ones I've run across in the Twin Cities are Kenny Rogers jeans. Singer like Rogers, Mickey "Urban Cowboy" Gilley and Willie Nelson have es- ily General Store. Now I figured that's the place to get Willie jeans. There are Willie ashtrays, Willie record albums, Willie photographs, Willie plaques, Willie cowboy hats, Willie baseball caps, every little Willie thing you need except a pair of Willie blue jeans with a 33-inch waist.

"We only carry the jeans for children and women," says a woman in a Willie T-shirt with a Lone Star beer behind the counter. "They've got Willie jeans down the road a piece at the shopping mall." Sure enough. In Nashville, if you want Willie or Kenny jeans, you've got to go to County Seat. They've got plenty of Willie and Kenny jeans. On sale, too.

Only $22 instead of $35. tablished veritable cottage industries marketing jeans, Western shirts, T-shirts, belt buckles, kerchiefs and other so-called souvenirs. They also sell a few records and concert tickets, too. Not far from the Grand Ole Opry in suburban Nashville is one division of Willie industries. It's called Willie Nelson and.

Fam Jim Klobuchar's column re sumes Jan. 11. Weatherman sees bright future in Sun Belt WTCN-TV has consistently and' to Atlanta, WSB made the best of nr 1 1 nrmnn V. I i w' Television Jan. 18 at WSB-TV in Atlanta, an ABC affiliate and one of the strongest television stations in the nation.

Burns, 29, will forecast the weather on WSB-TV's 6:30 a.m. and noon newscasts. He's also expected to produce science reports, as he's done at WTCN-TV. Burns' contract at Channel 11 expires next month, but his final day at the station is to be Jan. 12.

He said he hadn't begun to negotiate a new contract at Channel 11 before making the decision to leave. Burns is anything but the puckish on-air personality that some TV weathercasters are. His delivery is seamless but colorless. Yet Burns seems to be in demand. He said that "several stations called me, from San Francisco to Washington Banners on downtown light posts proclaimed a celebration as WTCN-TV (Channel 1 1) became an NBC affiliate.

On billboards across the Twin Cities, the station boldly announced that it was betting a million dollars on its news team. Anchorman Jim Dyer had his face New Face of Channel on the cover of Corporate Report magazine. That was March 1979. Curious Viewers who tuned in to watch he station's revamped news operation did see a profusion of new faces. Dyer fronted the weeknight anchor desk.

Bob Kurtz was on sports, and Glenn Burns on weather. Weekends, the front line was Stan Bohrman at anchor, Steve Pascente on sports and Keith Eichner on weather. One by one, they bailed out, or perplexingly been an also-ran in the news ratings, trailing traditional powerhouses WCCO-TV (Channel 4) and KSTP-TV (Channel 5) and even occasionally lagging behind KMSP-TV (Channel 9). WSB-TV is the top-rated news station in Atlanta. But Burns, who came to the Twin Cities from West Palm Beach, also is eager to return to the Sun Belt.

It's not the miserable winters in Minnesota; it's the rapid growth of television markets in the South and Southwest in comparison to the Northeast and Midwest. "I just thought I'd join the band-Carman Turn to Page 4B fer." Burns is slated to become WSB-TVs second-string weathercaster. WSB-TV's principal weathercaster, Johnny Beckman, switched to a rival station, WXIA-TV; and the WXIA-TV weathercaster, Russ Minshew, is swapping stations and moving to WSB-TV. Burns said the legal complications are so cloudy that he could emerge with the top job at WSB-TV. Burns acknowledged that Channel 11 has, a far more solid news operation now than in its wobbly early days as a network affiliate.

He said it has become "as good as any station in town," even though the Improvement is not reflected in the ratings. Those low ratings apparently influenced Burns' decision to quit. radio were tossed overboard, as "News-Center 11" lurched out of port and quickly took on water. Dyer ended up in Florida, Kurtz in Georgia, Bohrman in Pennsylvania, Pascente in Arizona and Eichner in New Jersey. Two years after WTCN-TV's disastrous shakedown cruise, only Burns remained.

"I'm the survivor," Burns said Monday. "The last one." But now he is leaving, too. Burns said he will start work Glenn Bums.