The Desert Sun from Palm Springs, California • 22

B6 THE DESERT SUN Palm Springs Calif Thursday April 22 1976 All Docile Now Owners Over Pet Rocks fflflmmwiPSfflury LOS GATOS It may be assumed that the 220000 rocks are all docile now that they have all learned their basic commands of come stay sit down and heel and that quite a number are accomplished at amusing tricks What? Has someone forgotten the care of his Christmas Pet Rock? Left it to brutal ends? Or worse yet left it sitting unloved in its little box? Rock Bottom Productions the Los Gatos Arm that created Pet Rock as the No 1 gag gift of 1975 seems to think that most Pet Rocks are doing fine in the hands of their owners -that most have followed the instructions found in Care and Training Of Your Pet only had a couple letters from people complaining about their Pet says Erick Celke public relations director for Coakley-Heagerty Inc the San Jose agency which helped package Pet Rock for Rock Bottom a lot of people write us about the fun they're having with their In Sault Ste Marie Mich citizens got together and held a Bicentennial All-Breed Pet Rock Show In Cupertino the mayor offered to create a position for Pet Rock catcher In Oregon va scholarly department of feeology and mineralogy began doing genetic analyses of Pet Rocks And both Los Angeles and North Glen Colo now have provisions for dealing with that Anal parting of master and pet ie the Pet Rock cemetery Plots in North Glen raiige from $250 to $7 and the really spifiy package includes the singing of of As for living Pet Rocks they now have their own song as recorded in January in Nashville by Chuck McCabe and entitled Old Pet Rock of "Shep sits with me at dinner I take him to the show Pet Rock is in my pocket most every place I Dr Albert Engel geologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography says people are terribly concerned about their Pet Rocks since this craze I've been deluged with Dr Engel says want to know if their rocks can hear if they have feeling how old they are where they come from" The answers to these questions starting from the rock bottom of the previous paragraph are Rosarita Beach 70 million to 140 million years and Dr Engel think so don't know for sure if rocks hear but they do tell me a few things and they are quiet unassuming and he says stroking a Pet Rock relaxes you it's cheaper than When Rock Bottom Productions began to merchandise Pet Rock late last year the suggested retail price was $495 Some stores sold them a little cheaper and some a little higher The Pet Rock sales so far have reached $11 million and Gary Dahl the advertising copywriter who put together Pet Rock over a conversation with friends about pets in a restaurant has become a millionaire He is happily supervising plunking more rocks into more boxes to the tune of about 30000 a month and has expanded the business to include Pet Rock obedience school trainer T-shirts and Pet Rock Hall of Fame posters The rocks continue to be gathered by Mexicans of Rosarita Beach where they were washed from volcanic slopes in the glacial age qualifying for Pet Rocks only if they are smooth and weigh about five ounces The going rate is about $1 for a sack of 500 Dahl does worry a bit about people collecting his rocks and copycatting his idea Other sellers include the Berkshire Sales Corp in San Francisco which manufactures a rock in a box that changes color Magic Rock) and a St Louis outfit that produces something called Stud Rock Neimann-Marcus the exclusive Dallas department store has somehow managed to embellish a rock to sell as a pet for $150 The real rock people generally have developed dislikes for Pet Rocks Collectors look upon them with disdain ripoff for just plain beach rocks mostly quartz" mutters the proprietor of Ken's Rock' Shop in La Mesa Persons and businesses named Rock haven't really taken to Pet Rocks either As the Pet Rock book points out rocks can give you nothing but Wm Rogers silverplate HOLLOWARE save 25-40 Over 30 items to choose from Limited selection on some pieces Subiect Jo stock on hand 4-pc Coffee set reg $130 88-09 5-pc Tea coffee set reg 17950 9879 Party server reg 2995 1799 Pastry stand reg S25 1849 Double vegetable dish reg 2950 2149 10" Paul Revere bowl reg 2650 1549 Tall candle sticks reg 2650 1849 pr Large shell dish reg 3050 1849 10" Gadroon round tray reg 1075 799 12" Gadroon round tray reg $14 949 13" Gallery tray reg 2250 1649 2-qt Casserole reg 5450 2949 2-qt Beverage pitcher reg $75 5649 2-qt Ice bucket reg 5550 3849 3-qt Bake and serve reg 7095 4949 2-qt Chafing dish reg 8295 5749 Scroll candy dish reg 895 a 649 6" Paul Revere bowl reg 1095 819 Compote reg 1350 1049 Bread tray reg 1350 1049 2-Llght candelabra reg 1495 1049 Napkin rings set of 4 reg $15 1049 Wine coaster reg $16 1149 Sauce bowl and ladle reg $16 1149 Relish dish reg $18 1848 Round butter dish reg $18 1248 Pie plate reg 1995 1349 Gravy boat and ladle reg 2495 1879 8" Paul Revere bowl reg $20 1449 12Vi" Chip and dip reg 2150 1619 Silver San BemardliieRlvoraldaIndlo Right Or Wrong UFO Tales Exist that flying saucers probably are the biggest space spoof of the century and exist only in the minds of exhibitionists or of those romanticists who want to believe in unidentifted flying objects Space scientists and astronomers are relieved over the -fading UFO syndrome for most of them never have subscribed to the theory that flying saucer sightings have any connection with the theory of possible life on distant plants Scientists who speculate there most likely is life some-were else perhaps even other civilizations usually apply a formula conceived in 1961 during an historic meeting of scientists at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory here Ian Redpath a British space science journalist deals with this formula in considerable detail in his new book To achieve the formula the scientists multiplied together seven factors: rate of star formation at the time of our own sun's birth the fraction of those stars with planets the percentage of such planets suitable for life the number of which life actually does exist the likelihood of intelligence among such life the desire of that life-form (whatever it is) to communicate and finally the average longevity of civilizations like our own that satisfy all these requirements The Green Bank Conference on Intelligent Extraterrestrial Life Anally came up with the conclusion that there might be from 10000 to 1000 million communicative civilizations in our galaxy But even if this is an accurate estimate Redpath points out our nearest neighbor might be so many light-years away that Pontius Pilate had asked the stars 'What do I do about the his question might be received any century now" GREEN BANK WVa One reason astronomers and space scientists like to speculate about the possibility of life on other planets is that nobody can prove they're wrong By the same token the scientists can't i prove right The approaching July centennial" landing of a Viking spaceship on the red planet Mars has stirred up considerable new discussion about whether life exists somewhere in the universe besides our own planet The first Viking spacecraft is i to go into orbit around Mars June 19 then land July 4 The second Viking is to reach orbit Aug 7 and land Sept 4 Each is equipped to pick up evidence of Martian life if 1 indeed any exists and mit it back to earth via Viking orbiters still circling the plan- et Of course there is no assur-1 ance the craft will make suc-! cessful soft landings so their metal arm-claws can reach out for specimens of Martian soil for evaluation Dr Gerald Sof- fen chief scientist for the bil-J lion-dollar Viking project con- cedes the landings will be has soft-landed any useful vehicles on Mars he points out Russians have tried four times and failed each time My fear is that we may be living under an illusion Maybe Mars isn't that easy to land Even if one or both the Viking landings are successful and the 'spacecrafts are able to relay back to earth information about the content of Martian soil the argument over other life in space will go on just as the dispute over the moon's origin and age still continues some years after 12 men landed on it As the time for the scheduled Viking landings draws near there appears to be a growing belief on the part of the public RIVERSIDEINDIO OPEN SUNDAY NOON TO 5 Riverside 684-6040lndio Highway 111 at Monroe 347-8611 (from Palm Springs 345-2677 toll free) I.