Battle Creek Enquirer from Battle Creek, Michigan • Page 9

ENQUIRER Glimpses CONSUMER TIPS ere Goofing up voice mai: People with high voices are the victims of a strange new rat sr. Carson ends his 30-year reigrr as king of late-night television COMIC SIDEKICKS: Carson developed revelations began when he took over the show and has stretched through the months before his retirement, when he continued to refuse interview requests. At one point during his 30-year reign, besieged by reporters, he took to distributing a list of 10 answers, to be used with questions of tlie journalist's choice. Among them: "Yes, I did," "Only twice in my life, both times on and "No. Kumquats." The job has never been easy for him.

He has said that shows and the guests sometime run together. His greatest fear always has been that he and the audience wfll grow bored. "Maybe it looks easy to a lot of people, but sitting in that chair wfll take more out of you than if you were chopping down trees an day," he said in a 1967 Playboy interview. "If not the physical strain; it's debilitating mentally. My biggest anxiety is about the day IH know I've reached a point where I can't bring the show anything more that's new." And so, under his own time frame and playing by his own rules, Johnny Carson of Corning, Iowa, former magician and radio announcer, is taking his chair and going home.

The Associated Press BURBANK, CaKf. The desk is small, and looks cheap. The couch is tiny, but movie stars, cxxnedians and even fonnCT presidents have scrunched their egos onto it for 30 years, perched side-by-side Hke birds on a telephone wire. It doesn't matter that the 500 audience seats rise at an angle that encourages vertigo and nosebleeds; ticket supply never could keep up with demand. This is the house that Johnny buSt Small and worn at the edges, parts of Stage One at NBC's Burbank studios are as familiar to Americans as their own living rooms.

For three decades, Johnny Carson tugging at his tie and tapping his pencils has presided over toe nocturnal institution called The Tonight Show, launching thousands of careers. It is fitting that when the 66-year-old Carson steps down May 22, he wfll take the contents of Stage One with him. Intensely private, Carson has revealed himself to America only on this set Seated behind a desk measuring 59 inches long and 20Vi inches wide, Carson has given viewers glimpses, laden in self-deprecating humor, of four marriages, of mflbon-doHar divorce settlements, of trying to' kick a lifetime addiction to cigarettes. In more poignant moments, viewers also were privy to sincere but never maudlin reactions to tragedy. Carson's 39-year-old son, Ricky, was lolled in a car accident last year.

A month later, longtime friend Michael Landon lost his battle against pancreatic and Mver cancer. "Johnny's the best at what he does," Jay Leno said shortly after being anointed as Carson's replacement "No one wfll ever hold an audience for 30 years the way Johnny That was then John F. Kennedy was president when Carson took The Tonight Show mantle from Jack Paar on Oct 1, 1962. The new host MOST-WATCHED SHOW: The 1969 marriage of Tiny Tim and rT mmmmy On TV You've only one more week to see "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson as host The last show wi be 11:30 p.m. Friday, May 22 on channels 8, 10 and 16.

THE LAST GUESTS: Tonight David Letterman, Cfint Eastwood, Bob Hope Monday Bzabeth Taylor, Michael Douglas, (repeat of 2-21-92) Tuesday Met Brooks, Jack Lemmon and Tony Bennett Wednesday Roseanne Arnold, Richard Harris Thursday Bette MkJer, Robin WBams Friday Ed McMahon and Doc Severinsen. was introduced by Ed McMahon, but it was Groucho Marx who stepped onstage and delivered a rambling, opening monologue about mice, sex and cheese. But besides fiddling with the show's length and moving it to California in 1972, Carson tinkered with little else. His opening monologue remains a daily time capsule of political and social events. Politicians quickly learned that nightly blasts during Carson's warm-up mirrored the mood of voters.

His skewering of Nixon's actions during Watergate, for example, has been credited with helping to cement the former president's downfall. It wasnt easy Though Carson often poked fun during his monologues, he was not a mean interviewer. Instead, he seemed self-conscious and asked questions so obviously written beforehand that they sounded stilted. Carson's abhorrence of making personal Ed McMahon t0000' Ed McMahon QUESTIONING technology problem. Voice mail, the computerized telephone answering system, sometimes hangs up on them, or loses their messages because the computer hears their voices as a command.

That's the complaint of several big users of voce mail, which lets callers leave mes sages for office workers who aren't at then- desks or are talking on their phones. In many voice mail systems, the "pound" button the key to the right of "zero" on a phone is used to transfer calls or erase messages. If your voire happens to sound Eke the "pound" tone, you can kiss your voice mail message good-bye. 'Typically the voices that mimick that sound tend to be women voices, says Deborah Tanaka-Laude, a spokesman for Rohn, the nation's third largest maker of phone- mail systems. Not toB-free: Be wary of postcards urging you to call a toll-free 800 number to claim a sweepstakes prize.

That "free" call could cost you. Here's the latest twist from tele-marketers: The postcards are mailed to consumers. Those who call the 800 number are connect ed to a computerized voice, which tells them to stay on the hne for further instructions. They also are told they'll be billed for the rest of the cal But many consumers assume they really won't be charged because they dialed an 800 number. Others simply get contused.

A Nebraska woman, for example, was billed $15.60, according to a recent report in The New York Times. Although Allied Marketing Group of Dallas has discontinued this 800 promotion, offi cials in several states are pursuing legal action. Allied has contended it did nothing wrong. ENTERTAINMENT Singers tour Europe: Two singers from Battle Creek are touring in Europe with the 65-member University of Michigan Men's Glee Club. They are Tun Hayes, son of Frederick and Sharon Hayes, and Dan Ryan, son of James and Joyce Ryan.

The 25- day tour will include concerts Russia, Esto nia, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Germany and Austria. Conceit Change: The Blue Oyster Cult has changed the site of its upcoming area concert It will be now held May 31 at the State Theatre in Kalamazoo. Tickets are $10 if purchased before May 27 and $12 the day of the show. They're available at all Tick- etmaster locations or the theater box office at 1-345-6500. Choral conference: A conference and master classes for church choral directors will be held June 14-19 at the Terrace Inn, Bay View.

Participants win include Paul Oakley, music director of the Bach Society of Minnesota and orgamstchoirrnastfT of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Minneapolis; Dennis Jewett, choral director of Plymouth Middle School, Minneapolis, which has 15 choirs; and John Yarrington, director of music at Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church, Little Rock, and director of the Arkansas Symphony Chorus. Call 1-800-530-9898 for more information and reservations. Sweet A "Get Acquainted Night" for Harper Creek Junior and Senior High School students will be held at 7:15 pjn. Tuesday, May 19; sponsored by the Battle Creek Sweet Adelines Chorus in cooperation with Eric Hansen, schools' music director.

It will be held in the high school vocal music room. Chorus members, directed by Julie Zehnder, win give an orientation to four-part harmony singing and announce plans for a summer project open to students. There also wfll be entertainment and refreshments. HEALTH Weight training: Weight training is an integral part of fitness, experts said Wednesday at the International Conference on Physical Activity, Fitness and Health in Toronto. A Japanese study of 32 men, ages 18-26, finds those who lifted weights twice a week decreased body fat, increased heart efficiency, decreased total cholesterol and improved the balance between bad and good cholesterol.

May iS ALS month: President Bush and Congress have declared May 1992 National ALS Awareness Month. ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Lou Gehrig's disease is a terminal neuromuscular disease oat eventually leaves the body para-lyzed while leaving the brain dear and alert A cause and cure are undiscovered. Currently at 13 new cases of ALS are diagnosed each day in the United States. you have a story Mm or ojuMtlOM, cal Lmw fUrom at SSS-CSSS tftar 10 tun. 5 a cast of characters over the years.

Tonight Show timeEne 1962 Show debuts Oct 1 1964 Debut of Carson's skit characters Camac the Magnificent and Aunt Blabby. 1967 Show is reduced to 90 minutes. Doc Severinsen becomes -music conductor. 1968 Tommy Newsom is named assistant music drector. Debut of yogi Faharishi.

1971 Debut of Art Fern. 1972 Show moves from New York to Burbank, CaGf. D1977 Debut of Carson character Floyd R. Turbo. 0 1980 Show is cut to one 1983 Joan Rivers is named permanent guest host 1987 Orchestra receives a Grammy Award.

Jay Leno is named, exclusive guest host D1991 Jay Leno is named to succeed Carson, beginning May 25." FAMOUS GUESTS: Madonna (here in 1987) is one of 22,000 who have ap peared on the show. watch him roll and snort in the old leaves, scratching his back while lying upside down on the earth like a giant writhing sausage. I have fantasies that as he snorts and paws around hell unearth the mushrooms. But it never happens. He has the same land of luck I do.

Maybe he just enjoys being out there too. Still, it would be nice, just once, to come home with that filled garbage bag. Just once, to say I found mushrooms somewhere beyond the aisles of mart Less Hardin's column appMrs ch Tuesday, Friday and -J tJ 3T-r-7 THE ANSWERS: Miss Vicki was seen by 45 million viewers hands an envelope to hands an envelope to Carnac the Magnificent. A morel hunter seeks but doesn't often find CoirtlartWriting Editor The closest I ever got to finding a good-sized mushroom is a potholder I bought years ago at mart when harvest gold and orange were the rage. It had a matching dish towel That made two.

Every year about this time mushroom hunters disappear into the woods and come out gloating with secretive smiles and garbage bags brimming with giant morels. They are a cult, indentified by sensible shoes, narrowed eyes, a seriousness of purpose and, most importantly, bragging rights on mushrpoms they've already found. I long to be a member. But no matter how hard I try, scour the area microscopically, positive that more are nearby in hiding. But they never are.

I keep looking, though. The longer I look, the more I don't want to give up. The more time I invest, the more I don't want it to be wasted. Under the branches, near the rotting stumps, beneath the leaves, combing the grasses. I don't know what drives me on.

Maybe I just want the satisfaction of saying "I found mushrooms." I want that moment of triumph when I can casually unveil my find, pretend it's not a big deal and then guard the secret spot unto death. These are pretty weighty emotions considering I won't eat the morels if I find them. I'd give them away. I'm a squeamish eater and worry' that tiny bugs bide in all those crevices, and that they'll survive pre-soaking and frying. If it doesn't have FDA approval, a Saran-wrap covering or a Wendy's wrapper around it, my theory is don't swallow it Each year I promise myself I'll skip the search.

But when that sweet spring humidity dampens the air and the woods are mellowed with wild violets and dogwood, I can't stay away. I like to scrounge around, the debris of winter cushioning my steps and sunlight wanning my back. I take the dog and the most I can find are a couple of morels about the size of my pinky finger. And the old adage "where there's one, there's more" never seems to apply. In bet, it works like more of a curse.

When I find one (usually too small to pick) I'm forced to.