RIQUEWIHR, France -- A quick tour of Europe without the crowds, without the hassles? The nose knows the way.
Just use the old schnozz and take a good whiff in a quaint French museum to sample the scents of the 12 countries of the European Community.
'Perfume of Europe,' a smell-a-thon exhibit at the communications museum an hour's drive from the Alsacian capital of Strasbourg, is a sure bet to clear out the clogged sinuses of even the most uptight tourist.
Billed as an 'olfactory evocation' of Europe's diversity, the exhibit features puppet theater-like displays for each country. Stick your head inside a box (a wine crate for France) and squeeze a rubber squirter bulb, then smell your way through the Old World.
Visitors to the Ireland display, for example, sample the scent of Irish whiskey in a miniature pub setting, while the drinking song, 'No, Nay, Never,' plays in the background.
The smells were mixed by an expert in biotechnology who the museum curator described as a 'sculptor of smells.' Stored in liquid form in a vial, the fragrance wafts through the display after being dispensed from the squeezed bulb.
'We don't all have the same nose,' says a sign in the museum. 'What is imperceptible for some is insufferable for others. That's why we have installed a system of individual dosage.'
Some of the chosen scents are pretty predictable: capuccino coffee for Italy, a bull for Spain, expensive perfume for France and the bouquet of port wine for Portugal.
Other aromas are less obvious: gingerbread for Germany, smoked fish for Denmark and fresh cream for Holland.
Then there are some ingenious mixtures: for Greece, a concoction of olive oil, oregano and garlic, while Belgium gets the combination of oil used to make french fries (the national snack) and beer (the national drink with 300 varieties), spiced with a touch of tobacco.
'We felt this exhibit would be a good way to get a feel for Europe,' said curator Astrid Mull. 'In French we have an expression, 'Je ne peux pas sentir,' which means 'I cannot smell' -- or get a proper feel for -- someone or something.'
Eclectic is the exhibit's feel for the United Kingdom.
The British display highlights the smell of freshly cut grass, while visitors see the model of an orange-haired punk-rock musician and listen to a song by The Sex Pistols, 'Anarchy in the U.K.'
The exhibit for tiny Luxembourg, a giant in European banking, shows a sturdy safe housing little pink piggy banks, and features the sound of a cash register. But it's odor-free.
'They didn't get any scent because they said money doesn't smell,' says the curator.
But the smell 'sculptor' said the Luxembourg display had been censored after complaints from the petit grand duchy.
'We originally put little packs that look like crack and heroin in the safe, because of the problem of banks being used to launder dirty money from the drug trade,' said Dr. Michael Moisseeff of Toulouse, an expert on how plants produce aromas.
The scent creator says he chose whiskey over Guinness for the smell of Ireland 'because the scent abstracts for Guinness were just too difficult to work with,' but most aromas were selected from his own memories.
'When you travel, what gets on your nose is the smell of food,' he said. 'You have to eat something. It can be delightful, but other times it can be terrible because you can't get used to the smell.'NEWLN:------
Perfume of Europe is on display through Nov. 11 at The Alsace Museum of Posts and Telecommunications in Riquewihr. The museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to noon and from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., except Tuesdays. During July and August, it is open every day. Admission is 18 French francs ($3.25) for adults and 7 francs ($1.25) for children and students.
Kellman pitched his theory to some of the nation's most powerful executives -- proposing a network of Corporate Community Schools of America to apply corporate management skills to foundering public school systems.
He found an ally in Vernon Loucks, chairman of Baxter International, a multi-billion-dollar hospital products corporation in suburban Deerfield.
'I think I had been aware of the problems of the educational system in the city but had never been close enough to it to really have an inside appreciation of it until Joe came along,' Loucks said.
'The bottom line, the dividend, is better students, better inputs to entry level jobs, better citizens.'
Loucks put the arm on other heavy hitters in the Chicago corporate community, and the Corporate Community School was born in August 1988.
Elaine Mosley, a petite dynamo from suburban Oak Park with a Ph.D in education and deep pride in her African-American heritage, was chosen from 200 candidates nationwide to head the school.
Mosley's staff includes eight teachers, six aides and a school nurse who doubles as community services coordinator.
'The goal really is not for us to take a piece of knowledge and give it to our children,' Mosley said. 'We want children to understand how to learn. We want to give them a process.'
Preschool starts at age 2. Other classes each consist of two age groups -- starting with 3 and 4-year-olds. The oldest class group is currently 9-and 10-year olds.
Classes are held year-round on a quarter system. There is no summer vacation. Classes start at 8:15 a.m. and end at 3:15 p.m. but the school is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. to accommodate working parents.
The school charges no tuition, and gets no support from the state of federal government -- except for the school lunch program.
CCSA pupils were selected to represent a scientific sampling of the North Lawndale community. The initial 150 pupils were chosen from some 1,200 applicants. From 1,400 applicants, the school added another 50 pupils last year.
By 1992, enrollment will increase to 300 and the school will provide a full elementary education, through the equivalent of eighth grade in graded systems, at the same average cost per pupil as Chicago public schools.
CCSA graduates will go on to public high schools.
Monthe Brown, who has a 6-year-old son at CCSA and a 14-year-old daughter in public school, describes the laboratory school as 'fantastic.'
'The attitude is totally different,' she said. 'The children care about each other. I don't see fighting I see with the public school children. I don't hear the profanity. They respect each other's property more.'
'And the parents are more concerned with what goes on because they see that the people at the school care what goes on with each child,' she said.
Brown is concerned that sending the youngsters on to public high schools will 'counteract everything that was taught to them.'
But Mosley said if she and her staff do their jobs, there is no need to worry.
'We we want their (pupils') thinking to develop, and if we can help them build that sense of power and release that power, it doesn't matter what high school they go to,' she said. 'They will learn in spite of the teacher because they will be self-propelled.'
She also predicted that, by the time her pupils are freshmen, public high schools will have improved and 'will be able to receive some powerful learners.'
Producing powerful learners, said Mosley, means building confidence and self-esteem.
'Esteem is a result of teaching values, of respecting who our children are, the group that they belong to, the history of that group,' she said.
'Self-esteem comes out of me knowing that the first multi-genius, Imhotep, the world ever knew looked like me,' she said.
Imhotep was a mathemetician, scientist and physician.
'And when children know this, then they see possibilities,' she said.
'African-American children who go through school and never know anything about their history, their people, are disadvantaged because of a lack of knowledge about their group,' she said.
'They need to understand how much our ancestors valued the development of character, truthfulness, righteousness, having a sense of balance, having a sense of focus, living in harmony,' she said.
Mosley said the school takes a 'holistic approach to instruction' that responds to children's individual needs.
There are no grades. But at the end of each quarter, parents get a detailed evaluation of each child's progress, pointing out in positive terms what a child has achieved and were improvement is needed.NEWLN: more
--Aggressive growth funds shoot for maximum price gain by investing in the stocks of new companies with bright outlooks. The payout can be very high, but so are the risks. This is no place for the novice investor. Even the seasoned investor needs a strong stomach.
--High-yield bond funds pose an even greater, and perhaps reckless, risk. They invest in 'junk bonds.' This market has been reeling in the wake of the Feb. 13 collapse of Drexel Burnham Lambert, the investment house that championed low-grade bonds issued by firms that had poor and questionable credit records but paid above average interest. Let the buyer beware.
There are also mutual funds that invest in specific industries, from electric utilities -- a traditionally conservative investment -- to the 'leisure industry,' as well as funds that invest in long-term municipal bonds, tricky stock options and foreign companies.
As far as commissions and charges go, mutual funds fall into two broad categories: 'load' and 'no load.' Load means the fund charges a commission. No load means no commission.
Both have their advantages.
Both have their winners.
Both have their losers.
Both also charge management fees of varying amounts.
Load funds are usually sold through stock brokers and financial advisers, who get a piece of the commission from that could range up to 7 or 8 percent. No-load funds are sold directly to the investor by the mutual fund company.
Advocates of load funds argue the commission is well worth the investment because the broker gives valuable investment advice. Advocates of no-load funds argue investors get more bang for the buck because all their money goes toward the purchase of shares.
There are also funds that are considered 'backloaded,' that is a fee is charged when redeeming shares.
Regardless of the fund's type or stated goal, the investor is advised to make sure the fund has a healthy track record over the long haul -- ideally five to 10 years. This can be done by checking annual and quarterly ratings in such financial publications as Barrons, Forbes, Business Week, Money, Changing Times, Financial World and others.
It is also a good idea to determine how long the fund's current management team has been in place. At some funds, one person is in charge. At others, a committee rules.
A change is management could mean a change in investment results, and rattle investors, such as the recent case of Peter Lynch, the legendary manager of the Fidelity Magellan mutual fund.
After more than a decade of racking up impressive resturns, Lynch announced he would retire at the age of 46. The jury is out on what the future holds for Magellan.
Also, many financial advisers warn investors should be cautious of new mutual funds and those with a less than five-year track record.
Although their goals may be bold, they are considered untested entities. The ride may be a bit more than one bargained for. There are quite a few funds that have been around for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years and even longer that have proven track records.
But as is the case with all funds, new and old, past performance can never ever be guaranteed.NEWLN:
When Elvis was 17, he began to change, Denson said. He paid $4 in 1954 to record a demo record at Sam Phillips' recording studio in Memphis. A year later, he recorded 'Blue Moon of Kentucky' and 'That's All Right, Mama,' and two years later, he was touring the United States.
He was still a 'sweet kid,' at that time, until he signed with Col. Tom Parker, Denson said.
'Then he started believing his press reports,' said Denson, who traveled with Elvis until 1956. 'And I think drugs changed him. He wasn't brought up to do drugs in his Pentecostal home, but once he got away, his mother had no control.
'He had six hits before Col. Parker signed him and put him on national shows. 'The Ed Sullivan Show,' that was what clinched it. They showed him from the waist up. The night after we were at the Ed Sullivan show, we were at the Plaza Hotel and knocked on Elvis's door. Col. Parker said nobody could see Elvis. We said we were his best friends, but we were run out. Elvis saw us, but he didn't do anything except hang his head and wring his hands.'
The Denson brothers never heard from Elvis again. Elvis died Aug. 16, 1977, from hypertensive heart failure and with 14 drugs in his system. Jesse Lee Denson has recorded an album entitled 'The River Shack Kid Sings Elvis,' in which several songs are dedicated to Presley.
'He never grew up and got beyond that little-boy stage. It all happened to him so fast, he didn't have to,' Denson said.
'I know there are some people who won't believe the Lauderdale Court stories, but I want some reality about him,' Denson said.
