Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 36

8Q 1 DETROIT FREE PRESSSATURDAY, JAN. 28, 1984 A Jim Fitzgei aid Columnist ivith tin tongue reflects on rogue juveniles There are a few things you should know On Feb. 1, 1964, a Detroit Free Press article quoted juvenile Court Judge James Lincoln as saying; "If you ould remove only 200 boys from the Wayne County cdmmunity it would have tremendous impact on the sum total of delinquency." On Jan. 21, 1984, a Free Press article quoted Wayne County Prosecutor John O'Hair as saying: "Juvenile law enforcement officials believe that about 300 juveniles who are habitual offenders account for a disproportionate amount of crime. If those offenders were removed from the streets, there would be a significant reduction in youth crime." IN 20 YEARS, the number of hard-core juvenile criminals running loose on the streets increased by 100.

And chances are good that 1984's Dirty 300 are a completely new bunch, because a juvenile offender in 1984 probably wasn't a juvenile offender in 1964, unless I 1 1 ifez-' -iC. i. err: he was a pre-natally pre- ffrS1 cocious child. A or another' lMc overriding social these crime statistics is twofold: 1 1) The increase in the number of really rotten juvenile criminals means more bureaucrats "must be hired to count them. Money to pay Chico, a bouffon macaw, nuzzles Joe Colasanti, owner of Colasanti's Tropical Gardens.

Perched on his arm is Rock, a greenwin A tropical land lies nearby 1 t's a mecca for plant lovers, with exotic variations growing by the acre in 15 connecting greenhouses. came to Canada from Italy. In 1941, he bought a 33-acre farm to hold the expanding operation. Present owner Joe Colasanti joined his father after graduating from agricultural school. Shoppers can stop at the snack bar and relax at picnic tables and benches in a small grove of tropical fruit trees planted years ago by Alex Colasanti.

Colasanti's Tropical Gardens is open daily. Hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Sunday. Admission is free. I I faL4Mk But Colasanti's Tropical Gardens, on Highway 3 just 30 miles south ol Windsor, offers more than quietly growing plants. There's also an aviary filled with noisy, brightly colored tropical birds that lines one wall and fills an adjacent greenhouse. And a small petting zoo offers visitors the chance to come face-to-face with an assortment of four-legged creatures.

The greenhouses were started in 1924 when Alex Colasanti these new counters can be made available by laying off a few more police officers. 2) The reason newsprint yellows with age is so readers can tell a 1964 newspaper from a 1984 newspaper On Dec. 14, 1983, an Oakland County lecture series asked me to make a speech on Feb. 5, 1985. Obviously, I was asked because I'm a columnist, not because I have a golden tongue (it's tin).

So I was flattered by the show of confidence in my staying power. I worry about still having this job next week. Also, I was awed by people who plan so far ahead. Customers of that lecture series haven't heard this February's speaker yet, and next February's speaker has already been hired. But I don't have the slightest idea what I'm going to write two words after this word.

When I (I might have known it would be I) expressed surprise at planning so remarkably advanced, it was explained that the competition for celebrity speakers is fierce, and if a program chairman waits too long, he'll end up with a township supervisor behind the podium. That's when I began to suspect that the search for a Feb. 5, 1985, speaker was begun April 10, 1934. I'M REGULARLY astonished by the huge number of people willing to pay to sit and listen to someone even a genuine celebrity give a self-serving speech (there is no other kind). The modern phenomenon called "celebrity roast" is particularly puzzling.

At those dreadful affairs, literally dozens of people stand up and talk too much, one right after the other, until night turns into next Tuesday. The last time I was invited to a celebrity roast, I said I couldn't attend because I wanted to stay home that night and hang by my eyelids from a curtain rod. I prefer conversations to orations, and quiet corners to banquet halls. I'd rather write than speak, because when the words sour, readers can easily quit reading, but listeners are often too far from the exit to escape unscathed. And I'm embarrassed to be asked to speak 14 months before the speech date because a quick "Sorry, but I have another engagement that evening" has a slightly insincere ring to So I told the truth: Anyone who won't listen to a speech has no business giving one.

I don't know what celebrity will replace me Feb. 5, 1985. Probably a township supervisor's secretary. In a recent column, I quoted from Samuel Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" these two lines: "Water, water everywhere And not a drop to drink." Several readers pointed out that the second line should be "Nor any drop to drink." One reader H.B. Klein of Royal Oak even identified the number of the line 122 that I messed up.

And he added: "I hope you are now 'A sadder and a wiser man' (line 624)." Don't tell me you have to be dumb to read this column. Stinky the billy goat is part of the petting zoo at Colasanti's Tropical Gardens. For more on the gardens, see the story on Page 1C. "u.ui I 0 1 1 2 Uoe, above, patiently waits for the attention of visitors at the petting zoo. At left, Rosemary Chamberlain, of Madison Heights, who visited the gardens with a group called the Berkley Vagabonds, stops to pet a kid.

fP 0 'ill lJ (l Jj i fr i I Patricia Beck 1 lP)a a. I i names 8 faces Michael Jackson's hair catches fire 7 briefly: Lloyds break up SEPARATED: Tennis stars Chris Evert Lloyd and her husband, John Lloyd. "There's still very much a chance that we will get back together," Chris said of the trial separation announced Friday. RECOVERED: Pierce Brosnan, star of NBC's "Remington Steele," from a viral infection last week that delayed filming. CANCELED: The Motels' Feb.

4 show at the Grand Circus Theatre. Refunds will be made at the point of purchase. EDITING: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassls, a book by Michael Jackson, combining autobiography, how-to and pictures, to be published by Doubleday Co. Inc. in the spring of 1985.

COLLABORATING: Producer Jerry Welntraub and Richard Carpenter, to develop a TV movie for CBS based on the life of singer Karen Carpenter, Richard's sister, wbo died last February. CANCELED: Columbia Pictures' film distribution rights in Egypt, by the country's cultural ministry, in a continuing dispute over "Sadat," a television mini-series produced by the Ameri-can studio. Edited by GARY GRAFF Stall and wires contributed Mitchum: Sued Jackson: Burned in the business. The non-singing Jackson said he has been mistaken for his famous counterpart several times and even met him once. "He looked up at me and said, 'Where'd you get that Jackson says.

"I told him, 'I had it before ROBERT MITCHUM, according to New York attorney Joseph Ettinger, "must once and for all be taught that he cannot do offstage what he does onstage." Ettinger is representing Yvonne Hemsey, a freelance photographer who is suing Mitchum, 67, for $30 million, saying he knocked her teeth out with a basketball during a 1982 premier party for the film, "That Championship Season." "He really hurt her," said Ettinger. Mitchum and his attorney met with Ettinger Friday as preparation for a case scheduled for U.S. District Court in Manhattan this spring. VAN HALEN'S Apr 5-6 stand at Cobo Arena set new sales records Friday, with both shows more than 1 6,000 tickets selling out in about an hour and 45 minutes. In fact, the first 8,000 tickets were sold in 15 minutes.

MICHAEL JACKSON was injured Friday when his hair caught fire after an accidental explosion during filming of a Pepsi-Cola commercial in Los Angeles. Jackson, 25, was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center about 7:25 p.m., and later was transferred to the Brotman Memorial Hospital Burn Center in Culver City. His doctor said he was in good condition with a hand-sized second-degree burn on his scalp and a small third-degree burn on the back of his head, but was getting pain medication. He was expected to be hospitalized for two days; it will take several months for his hair to grow back. The explosion involved materials used to create smoke effects, said spokesman John Branca.

Jackson and his brothers were filming a concert scene at Shrine Auditorium. "Something went wrong, and it exploded, and Michael's hair caught on fire," Branca said. The accident occurred as Jackson was singing a Pepsi jingle to the tune of his hit song, "Billy Jean," a witness said. "There were canisters that let off smoke, they pop and they smoke," she said. "His hair caught on fire.

He grabbed his head and they put water on him and took him off stage." Another Lockhorns witness said Jackson appeared calm and smiling as he was taken out on a stretcher. Jackson planned to film two Pepsi commercials with his four brothers under what was said to be the tightest security in the history of TV advertising, to be telecast during the Grammy Awards show Feb. 28, a Pepsi spokesman said. MEANWHILE, another Michael Jackson has just finished the best year of his career and is carping that nobody knows, or cares, about it. This is Michael Robin Jackson, the syndicated ABC radio talk show host, heard locally 5-7 p.m.

weekdays on WXYZ-AM (1270). He's just won the Golden Mike Award for the first time In his 21 years ap enoio A clean sweep Dudley Moore whisks away a tablecloth without disturbing the plates during a recent filming of NBC's "Late Night with David Letterman." It's the same trick he performed in his 1983 film, "Lovesick." "Nsirr time ytxj decide to let veoffea-p go THAT IT'S A BOUHO TRIP." I.