Toasting traditions

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Dec 30, 1999

BOSTON (NYT) -- As we prepare to toast the Year 2000 (known to some as the False Millennium), let's look at bygone toasting traditions in various parts of the world. The information is from A Brief History of the Raised Glass by Paul Dickson (CrownPublishers, $19).

* The Scots and Scandinavians drank from the skulls of fallen enemies. A cup of unkindness, you might say.

* The Danish used to cut the throats of Englishmen while they were drinking. This led to the expression of drinking to someone's health; in other words, you wouldn't garrote your drinking partner.

* The word "toast" was popularized in the 17th century when a piece of roasted bread was floated on the drink. No one remembers why they did that.

* The clinking of glasses was started to ward off the devil, who is said to be repelled by bell-like noises.

So let's raise a glass to Year 2000. Then let's clink those glasses and remember the words of Benjamin Franklin: "There never was a good war or a bad peace." Happy Y2K!

Tax breaks of the century

NEW YORK (AP) -- With tax-time around the corner, H&R Block has taken a fond look back at some of the best tax deductions of the century. Members of the tax research and training staff at the tax preparation service submitted their favorite tax breaks, both current and those they wish were still around.

Topping the list was Schedule W, a provision, banished in 1987, that allowed married taxpayers to claim a deduction worth 10 percent of the earned income of the spouse with the lower paycheck. Schedule G, killed in 1986, allowed any taxpayer with a big jump in income to figure the tax as if it were received over a three-year period.

Among the well-liked tax breaks still in use today... the Child Tax Credit. Qualified taxpayers get a $500 credit on their tax bill for having a dependent child under age 17.

A Y2K excess?

TOKYO (NYT) -- An underwear manufacturer in Japan has created a Millennium Bra, made from spun gold and sporting a $1.9 million, 15- carat diamond. But it's for display only; the JAL Newsletter explains: "It's not real comfortable to actually wear and it'll snag your cardigan."

Tortillas break out

AUSTIN (AP) -- Sixty years ago, Jose Guerra converted his garage into a tiny factory where he used family recipes to make tortillas and other Mexican foods to sell to his neighbors. Today, Guerra's grandsons oversee Rudy's Tortillas' 25,000-square-foot factory in Dallas, which ships its products to 15 states and generates more than $5 million in annual sales.

The Guerras are part of a growing industry sparked by an increasing Hispanic population and the surging popularity of Mexican food and culture nationwide. The tortilla-making business will be a $4 billion industry by 2000, up from $1.5 billion in 1990, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. "Corn and flour tortillas have gone from being a staple in the Mexican food diet to being a bread substitute in the American diet," said Louis Guerra, one of the grandsons now running Rudy's Tortillas.

California and Texas top the nation in production and sales of the flat, round cakes. There are more tortilla plants in Texas than anywhere else in the nation, with 70 plants shipping $176.4 million worth of products all over the world and employing more than 1,900 people, according to a recent report by state Comptroller Carol Keeton Rylander's office. California has just 58 tortilla factories, but leads the nation in production, shipping $440.2 million worth of products and employing 4,258 workers. Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico and Georgia are also big tortilla producing states.

"People crave something different," said Asima Syed, spokeswoman for Irving, Texas-based Mission Foods, the nation's leading tortilla producer. "Just like pita bread caught on several years ago this is a new way to add to your food repertoire."

Irwin Steinberg, executive director of the Tortilla Industry Association in Dallas, said the industry is growing because the product is crossing cultural lines. He also credits low costs, versatility, healthy ingredients and the "wrap mania" that has swept fast-food and other restaurant chains.

For sports fanatics

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (JR) -- Sprint PCS Wireless Web users now have FOXSports.com at their beck and call. The FOX site, the fastest- growing sports Web site, gives users of the Internet-ready Sprint PCS Phone access to the latest news and up-to-the-minute scores for major in-season sports virtually anytime, anywhere on Sprint's all- digital, all-PCS nationwide wireless network.

Launched nationwide in September, Sprint PCS Wireless Web customers can access a wide variety of news, weather, travel and information content, including Bloomberg, The Weather Channel, InfoSpace, Yahoo, GetThere.com, Mapquest.com and CNN.com.

The e-DVD threat

BOSTON (NYT) -- An effort by the movie industry to prevent illegal copying of digital video disks, or DVDs, could turn into a crucial battle over the fundamental rights of Internet users. At issue is the question of whether Web site operators can help distribute a piece of software that can defeat the security system built into millions of DVD discs, thus enabling people to make illegal copies.