Conspicuous Consumer WINDFALLS

For the Record

Along with Louis Kahn’s classy museum and Joe Garcia’s wondrous enchilada, Syble’s Golden Oldie Records should be a principal attraction in Fort Worth. It’s not that there isn’t a similar store in Dallas; there’s nothing quite like Syble’s anywhere.

Serious record collecting is usually restricted to mail order in a somewhat narrow musical category – jazz or opera, for example – and Syble’s does at least 40 percent of its business through the mails. The difference, though, is that Syble’s covers all pop music, and in addition to its mail service, is a huge retail store the size of a supermarket (the previous tenant in Syble’s space) full of strange sights and forgotten sounds.

In spite of the fact that the store has three million records on hand, everything is run by one person – Helen Hunter. (Syble was the store’s first manager, and everyone thought the name went well with old records, so it stuck.) Sitting behind her small desk in the back of the store, Hunter runs the show with quiet, firm efficiency.

Country is the biggest seller at Syble’s: Bob Wills, Jimmie Rodg-ers, Hank Williams, Hank Snow. Jazz and early rhythm-and-blues come a close second. Most requested artist is Elvis, and most expensive LP in the store is one of Presley’s original Sun session long-plays, priced at $300.

Syble’s prices might seem a littlehigh by discount record store standards, but that’s because we’d liketo forget that a record from ourchildhood is now something rare.Syble’s Golden Oldie Records. 5417E. Lancaster, Fort Worth/(817)457-1911. – David Ritz

Just Your Type

Whether you want to make a book or just a professional-looking flyer for your club, having it typeset can be expensive – but not if you do it yourself. Mho & Mho Works rents its Compugraphic typesetter to individuals and organizations at reasonable rates; the machine has seven typestyles, all available in six to 24 point sizes. Fees vary, but substantial discounts may be offered to non-profit organizations, and they always throw in a free half-hour’s instruction. Call 651-8908. Mho & Mho Works is located in the KCHU Building, 2516 MaPle. – Gail Garvie

Positive

Feedback

Finally there’s a computer that gives you feedback, not just back-talk: the Dallas Public Library’s APL/CAT (A Programmed Language/Community Access Tool). With its bank of information about 2,700 agencies and organizations in Dallas, the APL/CAT can tell you how to find out just about anything available in the area, from the closest swimming pool to stamp-collecting clubs. Call 748-9071 and ask for the “apple-cat.”

– Gail Garvie

Here’s the Rub

The making of brass rubbings is a 300-year-old art which, until now, was available almost nowhere except England. But Pat Fowler offers to teach the execution of brass rubbings in Dallas on Saturdays; her fee for materials and instruction ranges from $7.50 to $10, and if you happen to execute an imperfect rubbing, no charge is made for an extra.

Group appointments can be arranged by calling Fowler at (512) 658-3838 or her Dallas representatives, Peter and Kay Chichilla at 374-0683. Ten percent discounts are made to groups.

– Gail Garvie

Conspicuous Consumer

Getting Engaged



In the old days when you needed an engagement book, you waited for your insurance agent to send you the little black one with his company’s name printed on it, which you used until January 12 or so and then promptly lost. Those days are gone. One glance at any bookstore will tell you that calendars are now big business. We have sorted through the 1977 offerings and show you here ones that we think stand out. All are available at most area bookstores.



A. Quilt Engagement Calendar. Fifty-six color reproductions of splendidnineteenth and twentieth century American quilts illustrate each week.When the year’s over, remove the calendar pages and add the book toyour library. $5.95.

B. Eat and Run – Your 1977 Diet, Exercise & Engagement Calendar.Each day is mercilessly broken down into columns for recording what youate, its calorie count, your exercise that day, and engagements. On Mondaysyou state your goals and on Sundays review your progress. Sample menus,recipes, exercises, charts and other miscellany are interspersed to keep you turning the pages. $4.95.

C. The Food Calendar. It is a cookbook as well as an engagement calendar,with pertinent information about various fruits, vegetables and fish, andrecipes for cooking with them. $4.95.

D. The Liberated Woman’s Appointment Calendar 1977. Dedicated to”the speedy ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment,” it tracks the upsand downs of the women’s movement, profiles notable and barrier-breakingwomen, and in general provides consciousness-raising material whilekeeping you amused. $3.95.

E. Jefferson, Texas Calendar-Journal 1977. Jeffersonian Erin-Jo Jurowand Dallas photographer Bob Jackson have joined efforts to produce thiscalendar with 31 black and white photographs of the interiors and exteriorsof some of the town’s historic buildings. $4.25.

F. Business Week 1977 Diary and Business Travel Planner. The firsthalf of this hardcover book is a daily appointment calendar with three daysto a page, each broken into half hours. The last part is a concise andinformative guide to 33 of the world’s most-visited cities, followed by sixpages of color maps. Great for the cosmopolitan traveling salesman. $14.95.



– Susan Hoffman

Conspicuous Consumer

What’s Up in the Marketplace?BR>The beef industry is going all out to boost sales before winter. The newly formed beef board met recently in Dallas, the Agriculture Department advises consumers to snap up those beef bargains now, and Paul Harvey is even doing beef commercials.

The abundant supply is keeping prices too low for cattlemen to profit, so they’re reducing their herds. That meat is on the market now; when it’s gone, prices should go up.

There hasn’t been much lamb around anyway, and USDA says there will be less than before. Demand never has been strong, and a lot of sheepmen are just giving it up.

So we turn to pork, which is more abundant than last year. Pork prices are predicted to come down somewhat and you can look for increasing amounts of quarter loins cut into chops. I barbecued some the other day, and although the thickness requires longer cooking, further from the flames, they’re worth the time.



Action

Bill Powers of Irving wrote that he got a bad hunk of cheese at Safeway and called the manager to have that batch taken off the shelf. The manager was unavailable, so by phone Bill went up the corporate ladder until he got W.S. Mitchell, the president of the whole shebang, in Oakland, California. Powers says he got no more satisfaction from the president than from the rest of them. With that, he called the FDA, who referred him to the state, who referred him to the city.

When Powers wrote me he was mad because he hadn’t gotten any action. By the next day, though, the city inspector had checked it out, the cheese company was investigating and the Safeway people were in touch with him. When I contacted the Safeway store in question I got the manager, who said, “Oh yeah; you talking about that guy who called everybody?” And he meant everybody.

The manager confirmed that the cheese had been removed. It had been too old, and had slipped by the stock boy who set it in the case. Consumer Powers did better than he thought.



New Products

Nabisco thought they had come up with a winner in Tuna Twist – a protein additive made from soy. They sent out tens of thousands of sample packages through the mail, got the product on the shelves, then the bottom fell out. Some people in Los Angeles got sick from it and the board of health there put out a warning. Word spread to Dallas and some people here reported being sickened.

Nabisco had to pull all the product off the shelves everywhere. I found a package in my pantry, so I put a big note on it saying “Do Not Eat.” When my wife asked why, I reported that some people were apparently having allergic reactions to it.

“I’ve been eating it for months,” she said.



Something’s Wrong Here

I opened a package of king-size Fri-tos and was nearly knocked over by a fishy, oily smell. The chips tasted okay, but I sent the chips to the Frito people for an explanation. Lab analysis showed the chips were a shade ov-ertoasted, and quality control man Cliff Pappas noted the chips had been produced the morning I bought them. Pappas termed the smell “pop-corny” and said it’s normal for any chip fried in oil. He said as time goes by the smell drops off. Well, give me a Frito that’s aged to perfection.

I sent a can of Ranch Style Beans over to the factory in Fort Worth because it was puffed out. Quality control director Ed Barrera informed me the can was some three years old. In this time the acid in the beans had reacted with the tin can to form hydrogen gas. There were no bacteria, he said.

The shelf life for a can of beans is 18 months, but how do you know if you’re getting an old can? Read the numbers stamped on the tin as the month and year the beans were canned. That code is guaranteed only for Ranch Style Beans, though. I looked at a lot of other cans, and couldn’t figure most of them out. The sure way is to ask the manager of the food store.

Incidentally, you could get a bad can that has not puffed out, if a micro-leak allowed the gas to escape. A blackened inside or a bad smell means look out.

– Tom Tully