Heard on the Street

|tab|

MORE THAN BURGERS|ret||ret||tab|

With all the bad press McDonald's received as a result of its sweepstakes, it might be fair to think of the good things the restaurant has brought to this nation like nearly a million pounds of beef purchased daily. Talk about a boon to cattlemen and the economy! And what about the 4.3 million pounds of potatoes that make up the French fries and hash browns McDonald's serves every day. Or the 21,000 gallons of milk, 328,689 dozen eggs, 869,504 pounds of chicken and more than 12 million sandwich buns or 212,082 gallons of soft drinks that go into McDonald's orders every day! And with 3,000 people employed at McDonald's in the Ozarks, the economic impact doesn't just trickle, it pours.|ret||ret||tab|

|ret||ret||tab|

TIME TO LAUGH, FLUSH AWAY WOES|ret||ret||tab|

With fear and sadness in many quarters of our nation, from heart-wrenching bombing attacks to dramatic stock drops, two enterprising former dot-com employees took lemons and made lemonade. Chris Wentz and John Zappa, of Austin, Texas, formerly with Dell Computer, have created ticker tape toilet paper. Their "role of shame" lists stocks that lost 95-99 percent of their value during the dot-com collapse last year and includes names such as Priceline, Amazon, Dr. Koop and Yahoo. "From a psychological standpoint, it's healthy for people to let go of the stocks that have little value," Wentz said. "It gives people the opportunity to literally flush the worthless paper down the toilet and symbolically experience a great rush of relief." Adds Zappa, "Easy come, easy go."|ret||ret||tab|

|ret||ret||tab|

EVERYWHERE SHOULD BE LIKE THIS|ret||ret||tab|

The Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce's motto in the title to this item should extend to the city's electric rates. Our average residential sales prices per 1,000 kilowatt hours for May 2001 was just $57.79 in Springfield, courtesy of City Utilities. PowerDAT, Resources Data International and the U.S. Department of Energy compares our electric rates to the rest of the state favorably: Columbia, $66.20, Kansas City, $67.85, Joplin, $68.66, St. Joseph and Sedalia, $70.70, Independence, $74.70, Jefferson City and St. Louis, $80.72. Even more dramatic is the comparison to other cities across the nation: New York City, $178.66, Boston, $138.32, Phila-delphia, $129.16, Los Angeles, $100.32, Chicago, $96.09. |ret||ret||tab|

|ret||ret||tab|

ARTS COUNCIL EVENTS BARGAIN|ret||ret||tab|

Think you can't afford "haute couture" i.e. high class events? Think again. The Springfield Area Arts Council is offering such a deal buy a "Super Show Saver" for only $10, and save $125 on admissions to live music and theater performances in the community. With the "Super Show Saver" you'll get coupons for buy-one get-one free admissions for arts performances from the Juanita K. Hammons Hall, the Arts Council, Little Theatre, Mid-America Singers, Springfield Symphony, Sweet Adelines, the Messiah Project and the Vandivort Center Theater. Some of the performances coming up are "Peter and the Wolf," "Kiss of the Spider Woman," Death of a Salesman," "Annie," "First Night" and Handel's "Mes-siah." The passes can be bought at Dave's IGA, Dillons, Harter House, Smillie's IGA, Turner's IGA or from any of the named organization. Contact the Springfield Area Arts Council for more information.|ret||ret||tab|

|ret||ret||tab|

SLICE OF NICE|ret||ret||tab|

We can't write too much here at SBJ about the health issue of breast cancer, especially since October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. You probably know someone who has been touched by the disease that strikes one out of every eight American women, with 185,000 new cases being discovered each year. So when St. Louis Bread Co. offers the Pink Ribbon Bagel with 25 cents of the sales price going to breast cancer research and services, SBJ wants you to know about it. Through Oct. 31, the Pink Ribbon Bagel, a rosy-hued bagel packed with juicy cherry flavor, will be offered in all 17 St. Louis Bread Co./Panera Bread bakery-cafes in Spring-field, Branson, Joplin, and in Tulsa, Broken Arrow and Ed-mond, Okla., and Fayetteville, Ark. "Being involved in our communities is a cornerstone of (our) business philosophy and we believe strongly in giving back," said Jim Magers, president of the regional franchise.[[In-content Ad]]