The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • Page 103

The Orlando Sentinel Diamond Girls follow when singer Neil's on tour, F-2 Sunday, August 26, 1984 If tVJJ 7 ie baby boom's buying power A better life doesn't seem good enough Kulture By Jeff Kunerth OF THE SENTINEL STAFF 1 1 1 1 1 1 i wsmsr j-I 2 fif I -y "f.iw iTamut aK. Jj-iraitBiilfiBiiHi ij jaiOTt With his salary of $35,000, Lloyd Targer has an annual income, at the age of 36, that his father waited a lifetime to attain. Yet Targer, a research associate with the Institute for Socioeconomic Studies in White Plains, N.Y., feels less prosperous than his parents. "Even though I'm making five times what my father was making at my age, my standard of living is significantly lower than his was," says Targer. "The type of home that my parents have, which is a traditional single-family house, I just couldn't afford on my Income.

I certainly expected to have at least what my parents had." Targer is a member of the most affluent generation in American history, but like many baby boomers he has a hard time believing it. Although the 76 million people born between 1946 and 1964 have more spending power than their parents did at the same age, their earnings haven't kept up with their expectations. The baby-boom generation's entry into the labor force during a time of unrelenting Inflation and high interest rates has convinced them that they are economically deprived. Targer and others view the emergence of the two-income family as proof of their economic backsliding. "My mother didn't work.

We didn't need It," says Targer, who is single and rents a one-bedroom apartment. "It's against our tradition to have two-income families. That's an indicator of a declining standard of living the inability to live on a single income." Several studies on the baby boom and the economy, however, have concluded that the post-World War II generation is doing far better than most people imagined. The large numbers of young people beginning their careers in the late 1960s and the 1970s did cause starting salaries to fall and unemployment to rise, but those disadvantages tended to disap-Please see BOOM, F-11 JON BEARD8LEYSENTINEL Flower children changed their minds Median Income for families with parents eges 25-34 (1833 dollars) In thousands of dollars 30' By Jeff Kunerth OF THE SENTINEL STAFF 25 20 came the young adults of the '70s are now emulating their parents of the '50s. The baby-boom generation's shift in attitudes came in two stages, says Irving Le-venson, director of research for the Hudson Strategy Group, a firm in Groton, N.Y., that conducts studies for business and government.

Between 1974 and 1978, he says, baby boomers faced financial discouragement and a scramble for survival during an age of oil crises, rising unemployment and persistent inflation. The college degrees they earned in record numbers didn't translate into the high-paying jobs they expected. Many found that getting any job after college was far more difficult than they imagined. "Inflation and unemployment from two recessions had a shock effect. Initially, Please see YUPPIES, F-11 15H The generation epitomized these days by the status-seeking "yuppies," or young urban professionals, is the same generation that was characterized in the 1960s as anti-materialistic.

During the decade of protest, baby boomers rebelled as much against their parents' prosperity as they did against war and injustice. They detected an emptiness in their parents' pursuit of suburban homes, two-car garages and household appliances. It was a time when young people accused their parents of "conspicuous consumption." The hard economic times of the 1970s took the bloom off the flower-power generation. The children of the '60s who be 1H LISANNE RENNER Pop Shakespeare into your Sony A classic, said writer Mark Twain, is a book which people praise and don't read. He made that observation decades before the creation 26 years ago of Cliffs Notes, the black-and-yellow paperback summaries of digested criticism that layabout scholars read rather than reading the classic itself.

One can only imagine what Twain would think of the newest twist on Cliffs Notes Cliffs Cassettes. These audio tapes that discuss literary classics can be popped into a car tape deck (listen to Huck Finn meander along the Mississippi River while you zip along the freeway). Or carried in a Walkman Gog to the tragic drama of Macbeth). Or played on the home stereo (listen to Frankenstein while cooking dinner). Twain would probably classify these newfangled interpretations of literature among "all the modern inconveniences." Cliffs Cassettes are called companions to the classics.

"A Cliffs Cassette is not a reading of the book. It's not a reading of a Cliffs Notes," says Jerry Bobrow, who produces the tapes for Cliffs Notes Inc. through Bobrow Educational Services in Woodland Hills, Calif. "It's entertaining, enriching commentary spiced with dramatic moments. It promotes deeper thinking, questioning and better understanding of what's going on." The tapes are Intended as entertainment, says Bobrow, not shortcut study aids that replace reading a book.

Nuggets of literary wisdom concerning Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, for example, are distilled into a tape 45 minutes long. It includes quotes from protagonist Pip (read by an actor), a narrator who synopsizes the plot, background about Dickens, discussion of the novel's "deeper meanings" and dramatic sound effects. Of this extraction and commentary, Dickens might remark: "A smattering of everything, and a knowledge of nothing." Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has classic status and is among the ranks of Cliffs Cassettes. So are Canterbury Tales, Frankenstein, Hamlet, Lord of the Flies, Macbeth, Othello, The Odyssey, Romeo and Juliet, The Scarlet Letter and Wuthering Heights. Six others are being produced.

Three kinds of people are expected to buy Cliffs Cassettes ($7.95 at bookstores), says Bobrow. Avid readers will use the tapes to enhance their understanding of a book, says Bobrow, and a tape may prompt them to reread old favorites. Selective readers will use the tapes to choose what books they want to read. Light readers will listen to the tapes to get a "little taste of what the classics are all about," which will encourage them to do more reading, says Bobrow. One suspects that a fourth type of person will also buy Cliffs Cassettes the same type who buys Cliffs Notes with no intention of reading anything else.

These people want a book summarized and spoon-fed to them on tape. No matter if they miss an author's nuances and style by not actually reading the entire book. No matter if they don't form their own ideas about a book and ask their own questions they are happy to glean literature's "deeper meanings" from a tape prepared by "literary scholars." Were he alive today, it's unlikely that Twain would grant the copyright for the deeper meanings of his books to be explained on tape. Before the invention of cassette tapes, Twain wrote this notice, "by order of the author," in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: "Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot." 1853 1963 1973 1883 Oourf: Corwut Buru Movie review Emotion-packed 'El Norte' is a simple beauty By Jay Boyar SENTINEL MOVIE CRITIC 'El Norte' Cast: Zaide Silvia Gutierrez, David Villalpando Direction: Gregory Nava Screenplay: Gregory Nava, Anna Thomas Cinematography: James Glennon Theater: 21st Century Theatre Lounge Times: 4:30 p.m. today and Sept.

1 and 7:30 p.m. Monday and Sept. 3 Running time: 2 hours, 19 minutes Reviewer's evaluation: Reviewing key excellent, good, average, poor, awful This emotional movie is also fair-minded. It presents vivid descriptions of the variety of trouble Enrique and Rosa face in Guatemala, Mexico and the United States. That their personal and political experiences are shown to affect each other is yet another way this film differs from most Hollywood products.

One thing El Norte shares with more ordinary films is that its story unfolds simply. This should come as good news to viewers Please see NORTE, F-11 ents for unlawful political activity, Rosa (Zaide Silvia Gutierrez) and Enrique (David Villalpando) fear further violence. Although they don't appear to be much older than high school students, they decide to leave their Mayan village. Brother and sister make a perilous journey to the North, or, as they reverently say, "el Norte." The movie follows their progress through Mexico and, eventually, to Los Angeles. Every step of the way, you are made to understand their plight and to feel their affection for each other.

the United States because it was filmed mainly in Spanish and is presented with English subtitles. El Norte was produced by Anna Thomas, directed by Gregory Nava (her husband) and written by them both. Working with unknown actors and under difficult circumstances, Thomas and Nava have managed to buck the system and create, on a shoestring budget, a satisfying film for adults. The story begins in Guatemala and focuses on Rosa and Enrique, a sister and brother in a poor family. After police murder their par Familial love and economic oppression are themes that American movies rarely explore with any depth.

Although these topics are certainly on our minds, Hollywood seems to believe that people go to the movies to escape them. Although El Norte was created by two Los Angeles-based filmmakers, it offers a serious consideration of these themes. It is also an unusual movie to come from Bombardier has a way of ruining predator's appetite By Denise Salvaggio OF THE SENTINEL STAFF the posterior end of its abdomen, the beetle has a unique way of repelling enemies. When threatened, the beetle ejects from the sac rapid spurts of foul-smelling fluid. Unlike the similar secretions of other ground-beetle species, the bombardier beetle's fluid vaporizes upon contact with air, causing a series of loud explosions accompanied by hot puffs of smoke.

This combination of smoke screen and noise is usually impressive enough to send the potential predator scurrying at top speed in the opposite direction. When it's not warding off attacks, the bombardier beetle is an aggressive yet beneficial hunter that dines on such garden pests as cutworms, cankerworms and caterpillars. Like students who takj their Oriental master's advice to be modest about their When people want to acquire self-defense skills, they take classes in such popular Oriental disciplines as karate, judo and TaeKwon-Do. Insects, however, must be hatched into the world with the ability to keep potential predators at antenna's length. The caustic secretions of whip scorpions and stink bugs, for example, have the same deterrent effect on intruders as a well-placed karate chop.

But as formidable as these mighty mites may be, the bombardier beetle (Brachinus) makes them look as vulnerable as babes in the woods. Like the best masters of martial arts, the bombardier does not seem threatening. Its reddish-yellow body and dark blue, black or blue-green wings allow the beetle to disappear beneath rocks and organic debris in moist, cool areas. 4 There is likewise nothing awe-iri-iring -about the bombardier beetle's phpique. prowess, the bombardier beetle does not swagger around the garden making a big deal about its unusual ability.

Although the peaceful insect would just as soon avoid confrontations, it perhaps enjoys the security of knowing that it can take care of itself should the occasion arise. Its silhouette is the slender, leggy look common to its fellow ground beetles, of which there are more than 20,000 species throughout the world. No, this seemingly simple arthropod's talent is more than skin deep. Despite its soft-walking manner, the bombardier beetle is a one-insect arsenal that is more than a match for any bird or bug tlifSt tries to mug it. Equipped with a special sac at i NEXT WEEK: The chinch bug..