The Daily News Leader du lieu suivant : Staunton, Virginia • 36

4 Staunton, Leader, Wednesday, July 5, 1978 BLONDE MXIR BACK'S BEEN HI I uokicv i ct'cI I ru'T -n-ikjiuT MV PAO JUST WENT OUT! has been unleashed 'S- go our Ndr-r hoMi jfvJ SNUFFY SMITH GLORY jughaid OUGHT TO BE ON TH' OLVMPIC SKINNy-DIPPIN' Newport News Daily Press, assigned to ride the Monster and report on the experience. "I found myself hanging above the Old Country on a yellow steel pole zooming through the air like a crazed bee," wrote Ms. Skove. She reported, "Let me repeat myself. I do not like roller coasters.

But then the Loch Ness Monster isn't exactly a roller coaster." Connie and Robert Harvey drove all the way from Michigan to be among the first to test the Monster. "It's definitely one of the very best rides in the world. If I let him, Robert will spend his entire vacation riding it," declared Mrs. Harvey. "It's really wicked," said Jim Fox of nearby Langley Air Force Base.

Fox had intentionally worked the graveyard shift at the air base the night before so he could be among the first on the ride. The Monster starts with a slow, 13-story climb to the tree tops of the densly wooded theme park. Then the bottom falls out. Literally. The 24-passenger car rockets 114.2 feet in about three seconds, reaching speeds of 70 mph and pulling out at three and a half times the force of gravity-It is that first big drop that those who ride the Monster remember most vividly.

At that speed and angle of descent (55 degrees) the drop appears and feels vertical; passengers think they are in free-fall. After the pull-out from the big drop, momentum carries the car back up to 91 feet, around a 90-degree curve and down a 57-foot drop that carries it immediately through a 360-degree loop one of two that interlock. After that, the car plummets into a man-made mountain where it does three tight descending revolutions in total darkness, which, according to one rider, "seems like eternity." Blasting back into daylight again, the car grinds up a 75-foot climb, shoots through the second interlocking loop and back into the boarding station 130 seconds later. Is the Loch Ness Monster all that it was cracked up to be? As if the previous testimony isn't enough. Hank Burchard, the Washington Post reporter, concluded this way: "There are thrilling rides and there are scary rides and there are unbearable rides.

And then there is the Loch Ness Monster." Burchard was so effusive about the Loch Ness Monster and so vivid in describing his experiences that Washington's most famous youngster, Amy Carter, had to see for herself. Amy and a group of schoolmates visited the Old Country several days after the ride opened. Upon arrival, they made a bee line for the Monster. "I loved it," said Amy afterward, "but I'm not sure I want to go again." sx sj Loch Ness WILLIAMSBURG It had been one of the most carefully planned hype jobs ever. It began with a terse, bare bones announcement nearly a year ago, followed by seven months of strict secrecy.

Then, extravagant unveilings for the press corps of New York, Washington and the immediate locale. Finally, word that some of the world's "bravest and-or meanest" people would participate in the grand opening. A new car? A filmed sequel to "Gone With the Was the U.S. planning to invade Mocronesia? Hardly. The Old Country, Busch Gardens' theme park here, was celebrating the birth of the Loch Ness Monster, a new coaster ride promised as the "most awesome, terrifying and fiercest-fastest" thrill ride ever built.

Well, the Loch Ness Monster has now been unleashed, just in time to wreak its controlled maniacal mayhem on the summer throngs. Does it measure up to the advance ballyhoo? The answer comes from those who have tried it those celebrities, reporters and the public who were among the first to ride. "I thought I had three stomachs," said "Mean Joe" Greene, the goliath-like lineman of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Greene wouldn't ride a second time. "I enjoyed it most when I knew it was over," chimed fellow NFL all-pro Conrad Dobler.

Dobler, reputedly the game's meanest player should help make the 78 New Orleans Saints anything but saintly. Dobler and Greene were two of the eight sports figures who came to inaugurate the twisted steel monstrosity. Washington Redskin Pete Wysocki had another reaction: "It's been years since I felt anything like it; after that first drop I decided they ought to rename it the Loch Mess Monster." The football stars were joined on the Loch Ness inaugural Monster by race car drivers Janet Guthrie and Cale Yar-borough, hockey player Bob "Hound" Kelly, mountain cumber George Willig and by stuntwoman-land speed rec-record holder Kitty O'Neil. Anheuser-Busch Chairman and President August A. Busch III and Virginia Gov.

John Dalton were also on board. Early on, Busch Gardens officials proclaimed the Loch Ness Monster to be "the state of the art in man's eternal quest toward the fright barrier," predicting the ride would lure America's growing legions of hard-core thrill ride addicts to the park. That too came true with Coaster Con the first national roller coaster convention, held in connection with the opening of the Monster. Scores of people who will literally go anywhere and do anything to indulge their roller coaster passions attended hardened thrill seekers who have tried them aU. Their verdict? "The Loch Ness Monster is definitely the best steel coaster ride in the world," said Roy Brashears of Marlow Heights, organizer of the convention and head of the sponsoring organization, the American Coaster Enthusiasts.

Once the inaugural ride was history, members of the news media and th public got their turn. Writing in the Washington Post, reporter Hank Bur-chard said the Monster's first big drop "leaves your larynx where your liver used to be." The drop, 114 feet at a 55-degree angle, is the longest, steepest and fastest of any ride in the world. "No coaster connoisseur will be able to hold up his head until he has ridden it," Bur-chard wrote, continuing: "How bad is it? Well, they put a tape recorder in one car during a test run and it came back with nothing on the tape but the roar of the wheels and the rush of the wind. We had not been able to scream. "I do not like roller coasters," wrote Cindy Skove, a reporter for the ,1 V'--5 Itf no em Aim 7 2z4rk I yOU FINISHED THE I HAVEN'T KNOW YOv fBTIIJ CMPAWVlil lYTfnTlrty If GOING OUT MORE TVJAkJ fef WE OOf BECAUSE VOU ADE WASTIN6 YOUB TIME TRIN6 TO BE A WRITER I TMiNK THE NET IS TOO HI6H! THESE BALLS FEEL PEAP! I CAN'T PLAY ONASL0U COURT! THESE 3ALL5 ARE TOO LIVELY! I THINK THE NET IS TOO LOU B71D I.

II uV I I I I 1 11 esgpy MAPE IT MYSELF LAST SPRING OUT OF PANPELIONS THAT MEANS UJE HAVE THE SUN IN OUR EYES! DO uje always serve with the 5vn in our eyes FvNOULD 75, OOO FOR THE BLUE ANCEL INTEREST I'M GOING ON A HIKE icrrrnu uaic 1 1 1 i i i mis I TFAM MARK TRAIL BEETLE BAILEY YOU WOULPN'T BY ANY CHANCE HAVE SOME WINE, WOULP. YOU, COOKIE? PEANUTS OKAV, OJE'LL RECEIVE ON THI5 5IPE THERYATTS TAR WHAT DU IN PEP WITH YOUI? CLOTHES ON NANCY A GREAT CITV I WOlostfocestOM re-r peg" VTHAT'5 NOT FAii? BUZ SAWYER fx BUY FOR AN ARAB) PRINCE'S OROHP 7 i I I TELL YOU? XWBAW0OOftE COMPLAINS ABOUT EVERYTHING! VLL. jpp i JiMt T7ru try! WOULD VOU CABLE Help Wanted For Drinking Problem PR. MERLIN AN OFFER OF iiav yes LOCH NESS MONSTER The world's most awesome and terrifying thrill ride opened recently at the Old Country in Busch Gardens, Williamsburg. The ride cannot be photographed in its entirety.

This view shows riders going through the second of two interlocking vertical loops. v1 AN' I WANT TO GET IT'LL BE MM BB PPE65ED AH' THOSE FAULT IP I'M i i n. i i i I -vii jftflty WHtn rajAAi it Many Factors in Lester Coleman. M.D. Four members of my Immediate family and three people in my husband's family became sick after a picnic They had nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

I was the only one who didn't get sick. Since I prepared the food I feel terrible. I'm a good, clean, careful cook and housekeeper. How could this happen to me Mrs. L.S., N.J.

Dear Mrs. The fact that you were fortunate enough not to get sick has probably increased your guilt about the experience. Even with the greatest care, bacteria can inadvertently get into some foods and flourish there. The staphylococcus germ, the salmonella, and a whole range of culprits may be responsible for food poisoning. By Abigail Van Buren 1978 Dy Chicago Tribune News Synd tnc DEAR ABBY: I don't know which way to turn.

My husband started having a cocktail before dinner every night. Then it was two. Then doubles. Now, he sometimes gets so drunk, he falls asleep at the table. (Thank God our children are grown and gone.) Now he has taken to drinking on weekends, and if I say anything to him about it, he becomes hostile and even abusive.

He never used to be this way, Abby. When he sobers up and I tell him what he has said and done, he can't believe it. Then he begs me to forgive him and promises it won't ever happen again. But it does. I've suggested Alcoholics Anonymous, but he insists he isn't an alcoholic.

It's a mystery to me how he can function so well in his business. When he's not drinking I couldn't want a more wonderful, loving, caring, considerate husband, but his personality changes completely when he drinks. How can I help him, Abby? He's getting worse. DESPERATE WIFE DEAR WIFE: I recently came upon a wonderful little booklet titled "Alcohol. A Family Affair," by John E.

Keller. It's written in plain, everyday language and is by far the best thing I've ever read about how to deal with a drinking problem (yours, or that of someone you care fori. Write to: OPERATION CORK P.O. Box 9550 SAN DIEGO, CALIF. 92109 Ask for the booklet, and please enclose $1 to help defray the cost of publishing and mailing.

If you can't afford $1, they will send you the booklet anyway. (They are a nonprofit organization.) Good luck and God bless. And please let me hear from you again. I care. DKAK ABBY: We have received an invitation to an anniversary celebration for 25 years of marriage -to three different wives' The first is deceased, the second divorced and the third is the present wife The invitation reads: "Don't try to understand me-just love me." What is vnur opinion of this type of celebration? PUZZLED DEAR PUZZLED: If your friend wants to celebrate the total number of years he has been married, that's his privilege But it can't be properly considered a "25th wedding anniversary" unless all the 25 years of marriage were spent with the same spouse.

If you love him, don't try to understand him; he's just doing his ow thing. DEAR ABBY: For centuries the Catholic Church did not permit its members to join the Masons, but in 1974, Pope Paul VI ruled that Catholics can now be Masons, except in Communist countries. Thought you should know. A CATHOLIC MASON DEAR MASON: I should know. And now I do.

Thank you. Food Poisoning One of the reasons that group infections occur after parties or picnics is because of improper refrigeration. Normally, in the home, refrigeration of eggs, custards, potato salad or other dishes prepared with mayonnaise routinely protects them from the heat. A moderate amount of carelessness creeps in when these foods are transported and kept exposed to summer heat. Another factor to be considered is that hands are not washed as regularly outdoors as when cooking and serving at home.

Germs can thus be introduced into the foods and produce the havoc you describe. It is very likely that you will recall that you refrained from eating one of the foods that all the others did eat. I hanks and SIO In Bub llollt) nf Kalia. A for Send your entry lo; United Feature Syndicate 230 East 42nd Street (2) NfwYort.N 10017 (Jl Mllsnlt SI Ml 1.1 lIMI IS IS 111 1 III I Us I mil ISWIs I flit III I sIHftsNt VOM CUBBY BY TRICKY RICKY I'LL GIVE HIM I WON'T NEED THE I "e- WH AT AM AWFUL I HIS FREEDOM BOWL ANy MORE -Jfm LIFE LIVING IN vrCS W- A LITTLE BOWL JP Jfc M-M 0 arl THE PHANTOM g4-ai 1LLM cmMMAia euiay 1 Vim cage me thxt'8 THE 6ENEWL WISHEsA I I I "i I f. I50" 15 KfX RIDICULOUS' YOU TO SEE THIS I 1 I ATTEMPT ON 1 EO I J.

J-j jjj jrj I. MiMahon staled (I ltlt 2. Clastic pork (I) II lomlin in a ridiculous mood in 4. Indas's happ winner (2) 5. leeth on lease (2) 6.

Iranian interpretation (2) LLT 7. Him the tuba plays "wake lilt til II II IKK 1 til HIM I I Mil up".