Watercooler Stories

LATEST KENNEDY CENTER HONORS ANNOUNCED

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has just announced its latest roster of honorees for its prestigious annual awards. Organizers tell United Press International that those honored this year will be James Earl Jones (the distinguished American actor), James Levine (symphony and opera conductor), Chita Rivera (entertainer, actress, singer) and Elizabeth Taylor and Sir Paul McCartney.

The honors are carried out over a two-day period.

On the evening of Dec. 7 the awards will be handed out at a State Department dinner, hosted by Colin Powell. The following night the traditional gala will be held at the Kennedy Center. That section of the awards will be taped and aired later in the month on CBS TV.

NOW THAT IS AN OVERDUE BOOK!

Overdue books often show up in return chutes at libraries, many weeks after the due date. But the folks at one of the public libraries in Lincoln, Neb., had to take a second look at an overdue book they recently received. Library officials tell the Lincoln Journal Star newspaper that the book -- "Miss Abby Fitch-Martin" -- was first checked out of the Gere branch in the spring of 1965. They did the math and found that the book was more than 13,600 days overdue.

The book was returned to the library system, unannounced. Officials surmise that it was found among the belongings of someone who died and a surviving relative returned it.

The library notes that, if the bookmark is any indication, the borrower only got halfway through the novel, anyway.

AID GROUP GOES AFTER INK CARTRIDGES

We've all heard the radio ads in which myriad charities are asking people to donate their old car, truck, boat or RV to them. In return the donor gets a tax write-off, and the charity is able to sell the vehicle and make some money for its programs. Now the international food aid group Food For the Poor is carrying the concept one step farther.

Based in Deerfield Beach, Fla., the group is asking companies and individuals to use pre-paid mailers (it supplies) to send in used-up toner cartridges from printers and copy machines.

The charity says that the receiving recycling company then pays a "finder's fee." The donation is also tax deductible.

Each recycled cartridge can be worth as much as $4. The charity, according to Assist News Service, points out that it takes only $2 to buy 20 pounds of rice and beans to feed as many as 80 children. Even one donated cartridge, therefore, can have a real impact. For more information check out foodforthepoor.org on the Internet. The group's number is 954-427-2222.

UNIVERSITY GETS UNEXPECTED GIFT

One of the nation's best-known art historians has given a personal collection of more than 3,200 prints to an art museum on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. The Houston Chronicle is reporting that collector and art expert Leo Steinberg has donated the collection, said to be valued at more than $3.5 million, to the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art.

A curator at the museum tells the publication that the collection is thought to be the "last great collection of prints" still in private hands.

Steinberg is in his early 80s and lives in New York City. He has often been at the center of controversy in the past because of books and lectures that have dealt with his perception of sexuality and secularism in paintings usually associated with religion and the New Testament.