Car rental inflation

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Aug 14, 2000

NEW YORK (NYT) -- Car rental rates jumped last month, with Hertz taking the first step and the other national companies following immediately. Hertz, usually the industry pacesetter, announced a $3 daily increase for noncorporate renters, effective July 14. The weekly rate for cars reserved 21 days in advance rose $10, and the weekly rate for reservations made at shorter range generally went up $20. Lauren E.Garvey, a spokeswoman, said that rises in vehicle prices, wages and interest rates required the increases, although the company had record earnings for the most recent quarter.

A week's rental of a midsize Ford in Orlando, Fla., Garvey said, will cost $271.99 before taxes, up from $261.99, with a reservation made 21 days ahead. The same rental at La Guardia Airport in New York will be $489.99 before taxes instead of $469.99, regardless of reservation time. Avis said it was matching the rates, as did Budget and Dollar.

Bud shirt raises grades?

LAS VEGAS (NYT) -- ISwag.com, which describes itself as "a Las Vegas-based cross-enterprise application service provider of customized exchanges for business-to-business vertical markets," surveyed teenagers and found that: Teens who wear "Budweiser- related logoed clothing had a higher grade point average than those who wear any other alcohol/smoking related logoed clothing"; "boys who wear Metallica branded merchandise were two times more likely to watch Dawson's Creek than the WWF"; 13 percent of teenagers who wear Disney logoed clothing admitted to having experimented with Ecstasy."

Presto!

A hick no longer

LAS VEGAS (AP) --With the wave of a hand, Lance Burton can make a herd of elephants or a B-2 Stealth bomber disappear. He has been bound in a straitjacket and sealed in a tank filled with water. He's been chained to roller coaster tracks and he's been buried alive. But his greatest trick may have been his own unlikely transformation: from toiling in seedy adult nightclubs and rural amusement parks in Kentucky to headlining one of the most dynamic and popular shows on the Las Vegas strip.

"I feel like I'm the luckiest person alive," Burton says as he munches a quick meal between his 7 and 10 p.m. shows, which he performs five nights a week in a $27 million theater bearing his name. "I'm always waiting for that phone call: `Hello. We've just realized you're really a no-talent hillbilly. We've made a horrible mistake and we'd like you to leave now.' ... This has been like something out of a movie."

From the moment he emerges from a smoke-filled glass case until he departs the stage behind the wheel of a floating Corvette, Burton has the audience mesmerized. His down-home charm and sharp wit serve as an entertaining soundtrack to his visual showcase. "I was born and raised in Louisville, Ky.," he tells the applauding crowd. "Thank you, hillbillies. I'm actually very well known in Kentucky. I'm the only person with a tuxedo."

From there, Burton leads the audience through 90 minutes of illusions that become more and more elaborate. At one point, Burton vanishes from the stage only to materialize moments later atop a chandelier hanging in the center of the theater. "How did you do that?" yells a man in the audience as Burton returns to the stage. "Sorry, sir, but if I told you, I'd have to kill you," he replies. "Then tell my wife," the man shouts back, evoking a burst of laughter from Burton and the rest of the audience.

Burton, now 40, recently celebrated his fourth anniversary at the Monte Carlo Hotel and Casino, which signed him to an unprecedented 13- year, $100 million-plus contract and built a 1,260-seat theater to his specifications. "It's been an interesting ride," Burton says. "It's one of those things that's been so strange that no one could make it up."

The story begins 35 years ago, as a 5-year-old Burton attends a magic show at a Christmas party for the employees of Louisville's Frito-Lay plant. Magician Harry Collins needs a child from the audience to serve as an assistant. So Burton spent the next several years, with Collins as mentor, learning tricks and performing shows in the basement of his home for friends and neighbors -- for a nickel a person. By the time he reached high school, he was performing in nightclubs around Louisville. He enrolled at the University of Louisville, studying theater arts and refining his skills. Burton honed his 12-minute act at a theme park in southern Kentucky and even a downtown Louisville strip club.

At 20, he got his first big break. He won the Gold Medal Award for Excellence from the International Brotherhood of Magicians, the world's largest magic society, which brought him a two-week gig in Los Angeles. That led to the chance of a lifetime -- an invitation to perform on The Tonight Show. That appearance, in turn, got him a job with the Folies Bergere, the longest running show in Las Vegas, where he ended up staying nine years.

A landmark restored

ATHENS, Greece (AP) --The ancient Acropolis, the fortified upper part of Athens where the Parthenon was built, is getting a face lift. Teams of archaeologists are restoring and cleaning the 2,500-year- old Parthenon, the Temple of Athena Nike, the walls fortifying the Acropolis, and the Propylaia, the main entrance to the monuments. Projects also include work on the Erechtheion, with its porch of statues of young women known as Caryatids.