Let the denim wars begin

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Jul 31, 2001

"Before 1993, we were going down about 3 percent a year," Manning said of milk sales in California. If that trend had continued, he said, "we would be down today by about 122 million gallons."

The Naked Cowboy finds a home

NEW YORK (AP) -- Just when you thought Times Square had cleaned up its image and lost its wacky edge, the Naked Cowboy is back.

John Robert Burck II -- wearing nothing but cowboy boots, a cowboy hat and white briefs reading "Naked Cowboy" in bold letters on the rear -- has taken up residence in the heart of Times Square, playing a guitar and singing songs like I'm the Naked Cowboy. Nearly two years after he first appeared in Times Square on a chilly autumn day, Burck said he has come to view New York as his new home and the place where he can most likely become the "most celebrated entertainer of all time." "I'm going to be out here for six to eight hours a day, 365 days a year, playing my tunes," he said, now one month into his return gig.

Burck, 30, a muscular man with flowing blond hair and the unshaven look popularized by Don Johnson in Miami Vice, created the scantily clad persona 2.5 years ago while performing in Venice Beach, Calif. "I went out there -- fully clothed, mind you -- and I was virtually ignored," he said. "A friend suggested I play in nothing but my underwear, and I made about $150 the first day. It's just taken off from there."

Burck, a Cincinnati native, has since crisscrossed the nation, appearing at festivals and on street corners from Las Vegas to Baton Rouge, La. He said he has been arrested 44 times but has never been charged with a crime or fined.

"Mostly, they take me in, and I have my photo taken with the police chief," he said, "and then they let me go."

Why give up the excitement of the rest of America to settle down in Hackettstown, N.J., and commute to Times Square every day? "I get paid tons of money, but that's not important," said Burck, who claims to make nearly $600 a day by charging a dollar to let people take his picture. "I'm getting paid to get famous and to build up my American icon status. What could be wrong with that?"

As time goes by

NEW YORK (AP) -- Today is the 212th day of 2001. There are 153 days left in the year. Here are some business and legal highlights from this date in history:

In 1498, during his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus arrived at the island of Trinidad.

In 1777, the Marquis de Lafayette, a 19-year-old French nobleman, was made a major-general in the American Continental Army.

In 1964, the American space probe Ranger 7 transmitted pictures of the moon's surface.

In 1981, a seven-week-old Major League Baseball strike ended.

Drawn by Gothic statues

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) -- Attendance is reported up -- way up -- for tourist attractions in Cedar Rapids, mainly attributed to the American Gothic couples standing around downtown. "Those Gothic couples have been a great addition for us," says Marise McDermott, executive director of the History Center. Normally, the center sees 100 or so people on weekends, with only a few during the week. It's now seeing 50 to 100 people every day, she said.