Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 19

INSIDE: YAH! Section ENT, Page 3 Television, Pages 4-5 Feature Page, Page 6 Call The Way We Live: 1-313-222-6610 a j. mil uic page nicci a "Nutcracker" dancer; a Pog tournament; jokes and more. Tuesday, Dec. 6, 1994 JJetrott 4firce Press -4 SUSAN ACER Detroit tries making a better motto SLO CANKERING By MARTIN F. KOHN Free Press Staff Writer ome slogans can really put a place on the map.

The Mile High City (Denver); WK Others just make you snicker. Trenton Makes The World Takes (that's the Trenton in New Jersey); A Solid Mile of Solid Citizens (Central Falls, R.I.). And then there's Detroit's new slogan: Play it Again, Sammy Search your memory and hum along with "Hello, Detroit," sung by Sammy Davis Jr. Sample lyric: "You're irresistible Hug and kissable "BE A PART OF THE HEART of Detroit," an advertising jingle sung by the Four Tops. "Stand Up and Tell 'Em You're From Detroit," a promotional jingle for WXYZ-TV, Channel 7.

More on Page 3C Making It Better for You. Unveiled last week, the slogan is the core of the city's image campaign scheduled for launch in January, assuming Detroit can come up with $1 million. Plans are afoot for TV commercials and billboards. A 1 I '''x Lapel pins bearing the new slogan already exist and finishing touches are being applied to an upbeat Motownish song based on the phrase "Making it better." City public information director Thorn Pride, the campaign's chief architect, devised the slogan. "We wanted something See SLOGAN, Page 3C Learn a Little Latin It hardly ever inspires ad campaigns, but Detroit does have an official motto, on the city seal in Latin and everything.

Speramus meliora. Ax Newt should weed the trivial remarks ore than a third of Amencans I 1 1 have used an illegal drug in their luetimes. So when Newt Gingrich claims a quarter of Bill Clinton's staff once used drugs, his huffy self-righteousness seems the wrong reaction. That's GOOD NEWS, Newt! I talked to a fellow named Joe Gfroerer (pronounced Gruh-FAIR), federal statistician for an annual drug-use survey of 30,000 Americans. In 1993, asked if they had ever used illegal drugs, 37 percent said yes.

The survey leaves out prisoners, military people and children under 12. It also does not account for underage kids who drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes illegal use of legal drugs. I asked Gfroerer about marijuana, the most commonly used illegal drug. He gave me some revealing numbers. Among people 50 and older, only 8.5 percent admit to ever using marijuana.

Among those 45 to 49, almost a third 31 percent have smoked pot. For those 40 to 44, even more have 45 percent. As ages fall, use rates rise. Slightly more than half of those 35 to 39 have smoked pot. Among those 25 to 34, the number jumps to 58 percent.

It shrinks only a few points for those 22 to 25. Bill Clinton's White House staff is generally young younger than me, younger than Bill, and younger than Newt, who is 51. Who besides Newt is surprised or upset that a number tried drugs? Experimenting a little I'm 40 and admit I smoked pot a few times, aiming to inhale so it made some noticeable difference. I didn't like it much. It left me feeling goofy and dizzy, and I feel goofy and dizzy enough without it.

It also left a terrible lingering taste in my mouth the next morning. Yecccch. Newt, the House Speaker-elect, has smoked pot, too, just like the president. But Newt says it only proved "we were alive and in graduate school in that era." To be alive is always about questioning rules and pushing the edge of limitations. But even though I know that, my middle-age fears pipe up: "For God's sake, do whatever you want without endangering anybody else!" And as a woman who loves a few children, I also think: "I hope they talk to me about their risks, so I can hold their hands through their adventures and keep them from harm." One woman friend says: "People who live by the straight and narrow tend to wind up an inch deep.

So I hope my children experiment a little with drugs, but I hope they smoke dope in my basement, instead of drinking and cruising around." The real issues Growing up means breaking others' rules, then rebuilding rules for yourself. Statistician Gfroerer says his numbers show what we know to be true: People mostly use drugs when they're young, then set them aside. They get smart. They get careful. And they find kicks in safer places, sitting on the sofa, balancing a bowl of Microwave Popcorn Lite, watching on TV the likes of Newt, whose job is to build a better America, and wondering, "What does any of this have to do with liberty and justice for all?" To leave a message for Susan Ager, call 1-313-222-6862 anytime.

Or mail GUINDON -1 It )Ti Gone, But Not Quite Forgotten Detroit has flirted with several slogans over the past two decades. How many do you remember? "Get To know Me Better" "Do It In Detroit" "Say Nice Things about Detroit." Former downtown retailer Emily Gail coined this one. That was before she moved to Hawaii. "Detroit Loves A good party." Concocted for the 1980 Republican National Convention, held in Detroit Then Mayor Coleman Young called nominee Ronald Reagan "Pruneface" Qater "President and, slogan or not, the Republicans haven't come back. "MOTOWN GOTOWN." Gannett chairman Al Neuharth offered this in 1986, the year his company bought the Detroit News.

Quoth Al: "Motown will no longer be perceived as it is now by our people as kind of a slow town. It will then be recognized as a go town. Motown, go town. That is my hope and my expectation for you and for us." The slogan was never heard again. CBS 62 FOX 2 3 Paramount 50 Wolf Song has a display in Anchorage.

But the big project to come is a 500-acre wolf observation facility outside Anchorage. The plan includes a museum, lecture hall, student housing, veterinary care center, observation facilities and habitats for predator and prey. If you're intrigued by wolves, you can join Wolf Song for $25, or buy gifts from the Wolf Song gift shop, including books, tapes, art and clothing. For children or classrooms, there's a $10 "Friend of Wolves" certificate. For information, call 1-800-243-WOLF, 1-10 p.m.

weekdays. By Judy Rose El tti Resurget cineribus. We hope for better things. It will rise from the ashes. Pioneer priest Gabriel Richard came up with the hopeful words after the 1805 fire that left much of the city in ruins.

"Making It Better for You" rises from the ashes of previous Detroit slogans. Speramus meliora, if you catch our drift. director, says he's not worried about the changes ahead. "We had no idea it was coming. But we believe it's going to be an easy transition for us," Prange says.

"Remember that Fox only broadcasts two hours a day. It's a very small part of our schedule." True enough, but Fox was a big part of Fox 50's identity. Fox's prime-time fare helped define the station and, aside from sports, drew the largest audiences of anything on WKBD. Still, Channel 50 has plenty of weapons in its programming arsenal, notably local See WKBD, Page 4C WKBD bets on sports to replace Fox By marc gunther Free Press TV Writer he news hit like a bomb at Fox 50. The station was losing Fox, the network WKBD-TV had helped build from its modest beginnings in 1986.

No more "Simpsons." "Mel rose Place," "X-Files." Once the shock wore off, Channel 50, which owned TV rights to Pistons basketball and Red Wings hockey, spent more than $25 million for the rights to Tiger baseball for five years. And Channel 50 prepared to launch yet another new network, this one begun by Paramount, WKBD's owner. The de-Foxed 50 had reinvented itself. Except now there's no hockey. No prospects for baseball, either, with spring training just months away.

And Paramount's network which debuts Jan. 16 and will broadcast only on Monday and Tuesday nights at first inevitably will struggle to catch on. What's more, Detroit's TV affiliate shuffle means that Channel 50's "Ten O'Clock News" will, for the first time, face head-to-head news competition, from Fox's new affiliate, WJBK-TV, Channel 2. Paul Prange, Channel 50's program bottom use informative howukg olves have existed for 60 million years, and have thrived in North America. Of the world's 32 subspecies of wolves, 24 are tflf native to this continent, the other eight to Eurasia.

The wolf most likely to be found in Michigan is the eastern timber wolf. Those facts come from Wolf Song, a not-for-profit Alaska-based group that sponsors education and research on wolves. The group doesn't lobby or campaign, says executive director Tom Talasz. Wolf Song just educates, mostly through displays and school programs..