Today's Feature

"Inherit The Wind."

News Release

Stone’s Throw Dinner Theatre of Carthage, Mo will be presenting "INHERIT THE WIND". Produced by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc . Financial assistance for this production has been provided by Missouri Arts Council, and Schmidt & Associates, PC of Carthage.

Performances are scheduled for September 8,9,10,&11 and September 15,16, 17, & 18, 2005. Reservations are required and may be made by calling Stone’s Throw Theatre at 417-358-9665 or Betty Bell at 417-358-7268 or by e-mailing bbell23@ipa.net. The box office will be open beginning September 6 from 10:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon.

Special music for the shows will be from the following groups: Thurs. Sept. 8-Lighthouse, Fri. Sept. 9-Canaan Bound, Sat. Sept. 10-Saved By Grace, Sun. Sept. 11-The Halls, Thurs. Sept. 15- Duke Mason, Fri. Sept. 16-The Revelators, Sat. Sept. 17-Canaan Bound, Sun. Sept. 18-Lighthouse.

On Thursday, Friday and Saturday the Theatre doors open at 6:00 p.m. with dinner being served at 6:30 p.m. and the performance starting at 7:30 p.m. Sundays the doors open at 12:30 p.m. with dinner at 1:00p.m. and the performance starting at 2:00 p.m. Admission is $19.50 for adults, $18.50 for seniors over 55 and groups of 10 or more. Youth under 16 are $16.00, and children under 5 are free.

INHERIT THE WIND is a fictionalized version of the actual 1925 Criminal trial of, State of Tennessee vs. Scopes, which has become known as the "Scopes Monkey Trial". INHERIT THE WIND combines the sweltering heat of a 1925 courtroom and the gripping courtroom exchanges of special prosecutor, Matthew Harrison Brady and defendant Bertram Cates’ counsel, Henry Drummond, over the charged crime of teaching "Evil-ution" as Brady contends The trial, due to an over-capacity audience, was held outside on the courthouse lawn, lending itself to the Chautauqua tent revival/county fair atmosphere, which Stone’s Throw will strive to recreate.

Stench Report:
Wednesday,
08/31/05

No Odors Detected

I dutifully follow instruction comin’ from the tiny instrument and it eventually does exactly what I intended, it makes a phone call. I don’t have to remember because it stores all that information I used ta carry in my billfold and can find it.

It also carries all those pictures of grandkids and pets so my billfold is now only concerned with carryin’ what it was originally intended to do, carry bills. Course with the cost of the phone I don’t have near as many of those to worry about either.

What I need is to bring that lady that speaks to me outa the phone and put her to work ta help pay for the minutes.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

Dear Tom and Ray:

I took my car to a mechanic friend of mine. I talked to him at 11 a.m., and he said that he already had eight hours’ labor in the job. I said: "You started at 3 a.m.?" Then he said that time is not billed out based on actual clock time, but on what "the book" says is required. He said if you’re fast, you can make more money, but if you’re slow, you lose money. Is this common procedure, or is he a weasel? Just checking! - JJ

TOM: It’s actually very common. The vast majority of shops use "the book" to determine the cost of a repair job.

RAY: We prefer "The Taming of the Shrew" at our place.

TOM: The book your friend was referring to is the "flat rate book" put out by one of several independent companies like Chiltons, All-Data, Mitchells or Motor’s. The book lists a reasonable number of labor hours that it should take for an average technician to complete a job. And in a way, it does bring some predictability and fairness to the business.

RAY: So if a guy is learning a job on your car, and it takes him all day, you won’t have to pay for all the time he’s walking around scratching his head.

TOM: And the book rate rewards the guy who has done the job before, remembers which wrenches he needs, and doesn’t need to keep referring to the repair manual.

RAY: Of course, it also rewards the guy who rushes through a job and screws it up.

TOM: The vast majority of shops in this country use the flat-rate book, so we can’t say, based on the evidence you provided that he’s a weasel. But if you send testimonials from his former girlfriends or business partners, we’d be happy to reopen the case.

RACING
By Greg Zyla
Sponsored by Curry Automotive

SCCA Club Racing Stronger Than Ever

We try to report and comment on all types of racing in this column, so this week we attended the 35th-annual Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) Regional race at Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania.

I hadn’t been to an SCCA regional since way back in 1966, so it was truly a great day. Even the class E through H Production cars that ran in the ’60s were still doing battle, a la the Austin Healy Bugeye Sprite, Austin Mini Cooper and Elva Courier. Numerous Corvette, Viper, Trans-Am, Mustang and Camaro cars took to the track for high-speed action, while open-wheel fans cheered for Formula Ford, Formula 500 and Formula Vee machinery. There were race cars all over the place.

The two-day event at Pocono was very important to many racers, with double national points races helping decide a number of the Northeast Sports Car Club of America class champions. All races were run on Pocono’s 2.5-mile road course

The SCCA Double Nationals at Pocono were a bargain, with single-day tickets just $15, and $25 for the entire weekend.

Check your state’s region on the SCCA Web site (www.scca.com) and plan to attend a road race if at all possible. It’s totally different from the NASCAR and NHRA scene, and totally worth it.