Let them eat grass

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Nov 28, 2000

RIO GRANDE, Ohio (AP) -- Retired restaurateur Bob Evans has a simple message for struggling cattle farmers: Let them eat grass.

Evans, who once ran a chain of 445 restaurants, points to research showing that farmers can save money by grazing cattle on new types of grass that can endure winter weather. "If I were 20 again, I never would have started a restaurant," said Evans, 82. "This is going to make money, boy."

Because the new grasses are largely self-sustaining, farmers can avoid labor and equipment costs, Evans said. The grasses also are far cheaper to grow than the corn and soybeans usually used for feed.

At Evans' Ohio farm, experiments are also being done on turnips that yield leafy, cattle-pleasing tops. "It costs 16 cents a day to keep a cow on turnips instead of 75 cents to $1.50 a day on more traditional management systems," said Evans' assistant, Ed Vollborn.

Ad mascot outlives the firm

NEW YORK (NYT) -- Pets.com has closed down, but the company, an online purveyor of pet information and supplies, still has at least one potentially valuable asset: Sock Puppet. The puppet, the mouthy Pets.com mascot that became popular on a series of TV commercials, had already spawned its own line of dolls -- whose sales outpaced any of the company's other products and services. And now other retailers are said to be considering buying the rights to the character, raising this marketing question: Can a spokesdog associated with a failed company successfully shill for a new master without carrying the scent of failure?

To represent Sock Puppet, the company has retained a licensing agent, Brian P. Hakan & Associates, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Various media companies have been involved in the licensing negotiations, their intents limited only by their imaginations, said John Cummings, a spokesman for Pets.com. He declined to name any of the companies in the negotiations, but suggested, as an example, that the character could provide commentary during the Super Bowl broadcast.

The puppet's proud parents include Carisa Bianchi, president and chief executive of TBWA/Chiat/Day San Francisco, the unit of the Omnicom Group's TBWA Worldwide that created the character. Sock Puppet "became part of the banter at dinner parties and cocktail parties," Bianchi contended. "We did kind of follow the fundamentals of building a brand."

But if the puppet's future looks bright, Pets.com has a few complications. The company shares royalty rights with the advertising agency, and possibly with Sullivan Perkins, a consulting firm that helped develop products tied to Sock Puppet. And Hakan, the licensing agent, said in an interview last week that he believed he had the right to keep Sock Puppet as a client even if it was no longer associated with Pets.com.

Only 25 shopping days left!

NEW YORK (AP) -- Today is the 333rd day of 2000. There are 33 days left in the year. Here are some business and legal highlights from this date in history:

In 1520, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean after passing through the South American strait that now bears his name.

In 1925, the Grand Ole Opry, Nashville's famed home of country music, made its radio debut on station WSM.

In 1943, President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin met in Tehran during World War II.

In 1964, the United States launched the space probe Mariner 4 on a course to Mars.

Smoking bans go outdoors

CHEVY CHASE, Md. (NYT) -- Smoking outdoors will soon be outlawed in a small corner of Maryland, except on private property, if the local Village Council gets its way.

In Friendship Heights, a neighborhood of about 5,000 residents in Chevy Chase, just outside Washington, the Council is seeking county approval for a ban on smoking in all public spaces that are maintained by the village. Under the ban, smoking on sidewalks, streets, patches of grass or any other area owned by the village would be punished with a $100 fine. Anyone discarding tobacco products in those areas would also be subject to the fine.

If the regulation is approved by Montgomery County, Friendship Heights will have the most far-reaching ban on outdoor smoking in the nation, according to Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights, a group that works to limit the exposure of nonsmokers to secondhand smoke. Some 60 jurisdictions nationwide already ban outdoor smoking in some form, but none of the bans extend beyond enclosed public spaces -- like stadiums, beaches or parks -- to the sidewalks and streets outside, the group says.

The County Council is expected to vote on the measure on Dec.12.

Billionaire Bridge

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- Billionaires Warren Buffet and Bill Gates will be among the more than 200 people competing this week in the "Sectional Tournament at the Clubs," a local-level bridge tournament that runs through Dec. 4. Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, invited Gates, chairman of Microsoft, to play in the event, tournament director Jim Nash said. They will be joined by Buffett's longtime bridge partner and two-time world champion Sharon Osberg, an executive vice president for Online Financial Services Group at Wells Fargo in San Francisco.