Finger Lakes Times

Thursday, December 26,1985

11

Raising Titanic 'the last great adventure'

CHIRK, Wales (AP) - From a tender though his credentials rank remote 14th-century farmstead in him among the serious. His certainthe hills of north Wales, John ty that no one owns the wreck Pierce is planning the ultimate prodismisses a tangle of potential legal ject raising the wreck of the arguments. Titanic f r o m the depths of the He is undeterred by-those experts North Atlantic. w h o say it is impossible to haul the "It's the last great adventure left 46,328-ton liner from its seabed on Earth ... and we can do i t , " says grave nearly 2Vi miles down. the Welshman. He has passionate Skeptics include members of the feelings for the majestic ocean liner U.S.-French expedition which in which hit an iceberg and sank on September located the Titanic its maiden voyage in 1912 with the wreck, 560 miles off the coast of loss of 1,513 lives. Newfoundland. Pierce, a self-taught mechanical There is also the argument that engineer, got started on marine the Titanic is a mass grave which salvage in 1982 by bringing home should be left undisturbed, along the bell and other items from the with a possible fortune aboard in Lusitania. That ship was sunk by a jewels and other valuables. German U-boat off the coast of "Unlike the Lusitania, which Ireland in 1915, taking 1,198 peowent down in 18 minutes, the ple to their deaths. Titantic is not a mass grave," Pierce says. It sank in an agonizing two A Nov. 29 ruling by Britain's Adhours and 42 minutes on the night miralty Court that the British of April 14. Only 711 of the 2,224 government cannot claim the passengers and crew survived. Lusitania salvage means, Pierce says, he is assured of financial Scientists from the discovery exbacking for his multimillion-dollar pedition by the state-run French project. Institute for Research and Exploitation of the Sea and the Woods Hole He envisions raising the Titanic Oceanographic Institute in w i t h hydrogen-filled canvas bags Massachusetts did not announce attached to the hull by manned the exact location. deep-sea submarines. Once the wreckage is floated, Pierce says he Pierce says the expedition, w o u l d tow the hulk back to the vvhich reported finding the Titanic shipyard in Belfast, Northern ^ f t a n d i n g upright, used coordinates Ireland, where it was launched he and associates had worked out, and he knows precisely where the Pierce plans a survey of the wreck is. wreck next summer, then the building of the submarines, already Members of the discovery team d e s i g n e d l y a Canadian firm, Canhave backed a U . S . initiative aimed dive. The lift itself could be tried in at having the wreck declared a the summer of 1987, but probably memorial and getting international in 1988, he says. agreement for guidelines for research, exploration and salvage. Pierce, 44, is not the only con-

The master of the non-answer

By MICHAEL PUTZEL (AP White Vlouse Correspondent) WASHINGTON (AP) President Reagan doesn't answer questions when he doesn't want to. Sometimes he pretends not to hear or that he doesn't have time, using the sign language of a cupped ear or a finger pointing to his watch as an excuse for not stopping to talk w i t h reporters when he walks to or from his helicopter on the White House lawn. But he also has a variety of ways of making a polite escape. This week, just after signing a controversial farm bill that w i l l spend record sums as it seeks to wean farmers from government support, Reagan went to the Agriculture Department for what he called a "satellite news conference" with farm state'reporters. The president's popularity, high almost everywhere else, has sunk with the economy in the Farm Belt, w h i c h has yet to taste the recovery enjoyed throughout much of the country. The brief closed-circuit broadcast was set up in an attempt to burnish Reagan's image and offer farmers a measure of reassurance.

News analysis

Jacksonville, on a very cold winter day with a frozen field. It isn't a happy memory, particularly because we lost." And with that, he went on to the next question. Bill Kilby of the Jacksonville, III., Courier Journal was among five Reagan's staff, w h i c h has been farm state journalists selected by trying in recent years to reduce the the Agriculture Department's Agnet president's exposure to reporters Farm Network to question the while maintaining full president about provisions of the photographic coverage, picked the farm bill he had just signed. 15-minute session at the Agriculture Department for a new " M r . President," Kilby said, "the skirmish over the issue of television big question bouncing around my coverage. area at the present time is: Will this farm legislation benefit the small The major networks contend family farmer or w i l l it simply furtheir camera crews and corther subsidize the large-scale farmrespondents must be regarded as a ing operations?"' single unit, and they resist attempts to separate the picture of an event " W e believe it w i l l help the family farmer," Reagan replied, turning from its editorial content. But under Reagan, the White House to Agriculture Secretary John Blo.ck for a nod of assent. That was all staff has had some success in severing that link. Kilby got in response to his question. But Reagan didn't stop there. Early in the f t r s r t e r m r p r e s i d e s " B i l l , I hope you'll forgive me of tial spokesman Larry Speakes a little nostalgia and a little established a rule that permitted all reminiscence here," the 74-year- television cameras to record old president filibustered. "When I picture-taking sessions in the Oval saw Jacksonville, III. ,&s your home Office but barred all but one there and the Courier Journal broadcast correspondent, w h o is my last college football game was selected by rotation to represent his played against Illinois College in or her colleagues.

Having succeeded in establishing separate sessions for "stills o n l y , " meaning news photographers without reporters or television cameras present, Speakes is now trying to eliminate from at least some events that last pesky TV correspondent, who almost always tries to interrupt with a question for the president. At the Agriculture Department on Monday, Reagan, Block and the program host sat on a stage. Stillphotographers and one CBS pool camera crew without its correspondent were slipped into the studio for a few pictures just before the show began Mark Weinberg, the assistant press secretary who accompanied White H o u s e reporters and photographers to the department and barred the television correspondent from the room, said the White House chose to interpret the event as " a n Oval Office address" in which the president speaks to the nation on live television with no reporters or correspondents in the room. CBS d i d not use the tape and did not distribute it to other networks

Rodeo, movie star still dresses the part

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) He was one of the rootingest, tootingest sons of a gun w h o ever rode the range. But these days Wild Bill Cody, rodeo hero and star of more than 40 movie Westerns, lives in a nursing home at the age of 72. When visitors arrive to talk about his career, he is still the dandy. Cody dons his heavy leather boots, manuevers his thin arms into his handmade leather vest decorated with shells and metal studs, and adjusts the feathers and beads around his neck. He twists several large silver and turquoise rings on his fingers, and then the tour de force he points to one of the three cowboy hats on his dresser, has it handed to h i m and, w i t h great pomp, plops it onto his head. Fading, cracking scrapbooks are pulled from a nearby drawer, and Cody begins his story. He was born Frederick Garfield Penniman, but changed his name to honor his favorite O l d West character, Buffalo Bill Cody. He says he's three-quarters Indian, something he's immensely proud of n o w , although he quit school in Upstate New York after the fourth grade because classmates ttonsxartfy ly teased him. " I started out when I was 15 I ran away from h o m e , " he says. For many years, Cody was haunted by a police record from New York City, where he was caught w i t h a gun he found behind a speakeasy. "From then on, everytime I saw a cop, he'd spread me out," he says. "It got to be too much to take, so I got me a j o b " with the military. Later, he joined a rodeo, and that's when the makings of a legend began. " I held the championship in crack-whipping and s h a r p shooting," he says. "I'd put my wife on a spinning board and cover her with newspapers, then threw knives at her blindfolded. I knew what I was d o i n g . " Walk-on parts in the movies led to bigger roles and finally stardom. Cody stayed w i t h Columbia Pictures until 1952 and made more than 40 westerns. He then set off on a worldwide tour with other western actors as part of the " A l l American W i l d West Rodeo." " W e went to places like the Philippine Islands," he says. " I even met the king of Siam." As recently as July, Cody made a cameo appearance in "The Alien O u H a w , " a Triad*Moti<in*Ptetures production that has not been released yet. His life has had its share of sad times. In 1956, Cody underwent surgery for cancer in his voice box. Doctors said he w o u l d never talk again, but he proved them wrong Cody's third w i f e , Alice Collins Penniman, was accidently shot with her o w n gun by a curious 9year-old boy during a rodeo tour. " I had three wives, but she was the only one I ever l o v e d , " he says. "After my wife got k i l l e d , I had to have someone to look after my 7year-old daughter, so I married again. But after eight years of trying to look after that w o m a n , I gave up and got a divorce." Cody's daughter, Mary Alice, now lives in Evansville and visits her father daily. Cody moved into the nursing home earlier this year after a mild stroke, but says he'd still rather be in his trailer home in Owensboro, Ky. "This is an old man's and old woman's h o m e , " he says. With his 94-year-old mother still living in New York, Cody says he has no reason to think of himself as old. "She's doing better than I a m , " he says with a grin. " I always said she was too stubborn to d i e . "

Lincoln great-grandson, last of the line, dies

HARTFIELD, Va. (AP) - Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, the last direct descendant of Abraham Linc o l n , has died at age 81. Beckwith, the great-grandson of the 16th president, died Christmas Eve in a nursing home in Saluda, about 45 miles from Richmond, according to Charles Bristow of the Bristow-Faulkner Funeral Home in Saluda. Elizabeth Young, the family's attorney, said in later years Beckwith had been afflicted with Parkinson's disease. Miss Young, who said she had represented the family for 40 years, said Beckwith never discussed his feelings about his famous heritage. " W e didn't talk about anything like that," she said. "Socially, it's not done, and in business I talked about what I was paid to talk about." Last year, Beckwith told an interviewer for Life Magazine that in his youth he had enjoyed sailing on Chesapeake Bay, raising Black Angus cattle on his ranch in Hartfield, Va., and car racing. " I ' m a spoiled b r a t , " he said. Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd had four sons, but only one survived to manhood. Edward died in infancy, W i l l i a m Wallace died in 1862 at age 1 1 , and Thomas died in 1871 at age 18. The eldest, Robert Todd Lincoln, had a law career in Chicago, served as secretary of war under President James A . Garfield, was Minister to the Court of St. James and was president of the Pullman c o m p a n y . He died a multimillionaire in 1926 at age 82. Robert Todd Lincoln and his wife, Mary, had three children. A son, Abraham Lincoln II, died at age 16 while on a trip to Europe in 1890. Their youngest, Jessie, eloped in 1897 w i t h Warren Beckwith, a classmate and football star at Iowa Wesley an College. They had t w o children: Mary Lincoln Beckwith, w h o died in 1975, and Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, w h o was born in Riverside, III., on July 19,1904. The great-grandson received a law degree from what is now Georgetown University. He donated most of his famous forebearer's documents, artwork and furniture to the state of Illinois.

Mayor's advice: 'don't cry in public'

NEW YORK (AP) - Big girls and career women have one thing in c o m m o n , says San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein: They don't cry at least not in public. " D o not cry. No matter what. If you've got to bite your tongue off or close your eyes so tight that nobody can see what's in them, do it," she said in an interview in the January issue of Working Woman magazine. Feinstein said she often cries. " I ' l l go into the shower, I'll turn on the water, and I'll just let it all come out. And I'll turn it off the minute I turn off the water. But no one will see me c r y . " The problem, the mayor said, is that "a man can cry and somehow it doesn't bother anybody. If a woman cries, it's an immediate, destructive thing that goes out and that everybody seems to remember, no matter how bona fide the situation is."

SATELLITE TVRO
100LNA
Receives Over 100 Channels Installed On Your Base

SALE SPECIAL THIS WEEK

Itady-lMf Hot orsiblo laferier Boor
o Hallow W O S O H M J .

LOCKSETS
Passage Privacy Entry Lockset

Japanese carrier buys planes

TOKYO (AP) - All Nippon Airways, Japan's largest domestic carrier, decided to purchase 15 Boeing 767-300 aircraft in a deal that could reach $1.82 billion, company officials have announced. Spokesman Kazuki Mizuhara said today that the airline's board of directors decided to purchase the 290-seat jets over the next five years. The deal includes an option to purchase 10 more of the jets to replace ANA's aging middle-range fleet, he said. Seattle-based Boeing Co. competed w i t h Europe's Airbus for the contract. The airline plans to replace its Lockheed Tristars and Boeing 727s with new-model aircraft. Mizuhara said operation and financing costs were considered before awarding the contract to Boeing. He also noted that the 767300 shares parts and technology with the Boeing 767-200, w h i c h is already part of the airline's fleet. Flight simulators purchased for training pilots to fly the 767-200 can be used for the newer-model jet. Mizuhara said ANA may use the 767-30OS for regularly scheduled international routes it is seeking. The government recently decided to end lapan Air Lines' monopoly on overseas flights by Japanese carriers. The U.S. goverment has urged lapan to buy American aircraft to reduce the trade imbalance between the t w o countries. ANA has 11 Tristars, 17 Boeing 747s, 21 Boeing 767-200$, 12 Boeing 727s and 14 Boeing 737s. The 767-300 is a slightly longer and more technically advanced version of the 767-200 and can seat u p to 50 more people. - -

10 ft. Mesh

Iodises end fintsw All Ms. At

Works With Any T.V.

Demos Available Complete Installation Available Other Systems Available

r'29 * S

4.49*o 4.71.o . 3.99 .a

From D e l i v e r y A l w a y s A v a i l a b l e

COBLIQ LUMBER CO., *

"Quality It m * m r r * d Lena After Price I* Forgotten"

LOCATED O N BORDER CITY RD. (EXTENSION OF I . N O R T H ST.) Just P a s t t h a O e n e v o C i t y L i n e 7 8 9 - 5 6 7 0

m l M M i B

I OpwWeefcilaysM211-5.Sat.g-Nooi
*m0 l l i e ^ l l m0 11 e >

ACROSS FROM FINGERLARES MALL-AUBURN

For more information please como in or call 313-539-9233

WOOD ARD'S TV
35 V i r g i n i a St
jps

P h o n e 539-9235
Thurs

Waterloo, N Y .

Fri 9 5 30 W e d . & Sat 9 to N o o n

ZENITH SALES & SERVICE

I Tp( hnu nl Tram inn and F xppi ience in Electronic <

BOOKCASE

W STOCK A

In Clyde It's ANNE HARlfEY

Anne is our Finger Lakes Times reporter for Clyde and the ClydeSavannah schools.

PRICES IlVCLUDEi

m
Headboard. Frame, Mattress, Liner, Heater, Sheet*, Mattress Pad, Installation ft Delivery, Drain-fill Kit, Conditioner1 (Drawers Optional) "Specializing In Quality, Low Prices ft Customer Service For 11 Years e 40 BEDS ON DISPLAY e

If you have a news tip or an announcement from your club or organization to share with our readers contact Anne at 1 Montezuma St., Lyons or phone 946-4100. News items may also be left at Bramer's, Glasgow St., Clyde.

2 Locations
Ambmrm (Atram From FA. MmMf

Finger Lakes Times

Smt l$m\m.Sf.m. 253-012$ Son. limmtm-it.m. Financing Acailable FREE

3 Month Lay A Way

M-FI2 ' % ? * ' 365-251$ Smt / * Sfm.tO4 V*m\l

Untitled Document

m^mmmmmmmwmm

Thomas M. Tryniski 309 South 4th Street Fulton New York 13069

M R H

www.fultonhistory.com