Fun_People Archive
8 Jun
WhiteBoardness - 6/8/96

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Sat,  8 Jun 96 20:38:51 -0700
To: Fun_People
Subject: WhiteBoardness - 6/8/96

Excerpted-from: WhiteBoard News for Saturday, June 08, 1996

Costa Mesa, California:

A vegetarian bus driver has been suspended for, as he views it, refusing to
hurt a cow.

Bruce Anderson, a five-year veteran driver for the Orange County
Transportation Authority, said Wednesday he was ordered off his bus and put
on unpaid suspension after refusing to hand out coupons to riders for free
hamburgers at Carl's Jr. restaurants.

He didn't expect to become an advertisement for vegetarianism when he went
to work early Wednesday, but as he was about to leave the depot, a
supervisor gave him a stack of coupons to give passengers, each worth a free
hamburger.

The giveaway, Anderson was told, is part of a promotion to encourage people
to take the bus by offering them free hamburgers each Wednesday through
June.

The 38-year-old Anderson refused to take the coupons.

"I told them that I don't eat dead cows and no one else needs to either,"
said Anderson, a strict vegetarian, or "vegan," whose beliefs also preclude
him from eating dairy products or wearing leather.  "I told him that I
wouldn't support Carl's Jr. in the slaughtering of cows."

Transportation officials were not amused.

Half an hour later, according to Anderson, transit authority officials met
him at a bus stop with a replacement driver, ordered him off the bus in
front of his passengers and suspended him indefinitely without pay for
insubordination.  Anderson makes $16.60 an hour.

Anderson said that as much as he wants to keep his job, he never will cave
in to the hamburger interest.

"What I did," he said, "probably saved at least half a cow."

==========

Seattle, Washington:

Now that the Seattle Sonics are in the National Basketball Association's
playoffs, shooting guard Hersey Hawkins is not necessarily amused by the
adulation his young sons have for the rival Chicago Bulls and Michael
Jordan.

"They tell me, 'You can't beat the Bulls.'"

"I tell them, 'I can send you to your room.'"

==========

"Today, President Clinton endorsed mandatory 8 PM curfews for teenagers
under 17.  Also today, Chelsea Clinton endorsed Bob Dole."

Conan O'Brien, host of NBC's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien."

==========

Philip Morris Company send Lily Masters a letter asking her as a smoker to
thank her state senator for voting against a cigarette-tax hike.  Her family
received it seven months after she died of lung cancer.

© 1996 Peter Langston