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News of the Weird

Staff
Thursday July 11, 2002

A party for you and 80 friends 

 

PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland Beavers fans: Beware of inflated scores and shredded programs. 

The Triple-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres is sponsoring “Arthur Andersen Appreciation Night” to poke fun at the beleaguered accounting firm. 

At the July 18 home game against Edmonton, anyone named “Arthur” or “Andersen” will receive free admission. And the first person named “Arthur Andersen” will get a gift package that includes a party inside a luxury suite for 80 friends. 

Fans are encouraged to bring old documents to be destroyed at several “shredding stations” throughout the park. The team also will tuck away certificates for a game of “massive debt hide-and-go-seek.” 

Arthur Andersen LLP, based in Chicago, was convicted of obstruction of justice last month related to an investigation into Enron Corp.’s complex accounting practices. 

“With all the negative stuff that’s come out of this, sooner or later you have to laugh about it,” Beavers general manager Mark Schuster said. 

Portland plays at PGE Park, named for Portland General Electric, a utility owned by Enron. 

 

Prohibition ends in Ohio town 69 years after it ended in US 

 

TALLMADGE, Ohio — Prohibition has finally ended for this Akron suburb. 

For the first time in more than 80 years, alcohol sales became legal Monday in Tallmadge, with Mayor Christopher Grimm getting things going by sipping on a microbrew beer at Delanie’s Neighborhood Grille. 

When Prohibition ended in 1933, Tallmadge refused to allow local sales, fearful of too many taverns. 

The change, approved by voters last year, was prompted by a desire to attract chain restaurants that depend on liquor sales. 

“It’s definitely not a coincidence that there are no big chain restaurants in Tallmadge,” said Delanie’s owner, Nicholas Dadich. “It’s because it has been dry.” 

 

‘Botox party’ theme too flip 

 

BALTIMORE — A “Botox Night” at a world-renowned medical center is furrowing the brows of some consumer advocates. 

A Johns Hopkins Hospital spokesman defended the event as an informational seminar, though people who attend the free event will be able to receive Botox treatments. 

“We think it’s insidious erosion of the culture of medicine being promoted by an institution that counts itself as one of the world’s leading medical centers,” Dr. Peter Lurie, deputy director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, said Tuesday. 

Gary Stephenson, a spokesman for Johns Hopkins, said the event was designed purely for Hopkins staff and employees who were interested in the purified strain of poisonous botulism used to smooth frown lines. 

He emphasized that procedures would be done by a trained physician and said Hopkins regularly holds similar events for other medical developments. 

Lurie said the reception, which includes refreshments, sounded much like Botox parties that have sprung up in spas or at upscale private homes, where alcohol and on-the-spot injections of Botox can be had. 

Stephenson said the letter about the event may have been “a bit lighthearted.” 

“We surely did not want to characterize this as a Botox party,” Stephenson said.