With great Brodricks, great Haggertys, great Hannas, great Hellers, great Lacostes, great Pritchards, great Scotts, great Walshes ...

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'Betsy and Me': Flint introduces itself

FLINT, Mich. -- When her Acura Integra broke down following her move to Michigan, Betsy learned a valuable lesson: It's darn near impossible to get a Japanese car serviced in what is the capitol of the U.S. car-making world.
   On her trip from New Orleans to her new home in Flint, an auto factory town just outside of Detroit, Betsy encountered trouble with her sporty little Japanese car.
   When she started calling around to get estimates for repair, she received the cold shoulder from repair shop after repair shop.
   "They would say, 'We don't do foreign models,'" she said. "And then they would hang up on me."
    When she finally got someone to work on the car, she had to foot a $400-plus repair bill.
    The difficulty did not surprise Shane, who is a longtime Flint resident. In fact, he said, Betsy should prepare herself to have her car keyed time after time by rude and territorial factory workers.
   "And he told me not to bother getting it repainted when it happens," she said. "Because it will just happen again."
   Of course, there is one sure-fire way to avoid such treatment, Shane said: Buy a new car -- an American-made car.
    That, however, won't happen any time soon. Besty finished paying for the Acura a couple of years ago, and the broken clutch was the first major problem she has had with it.
   "I'm counting on it lasting for a few more years," she said.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK: Guess who got a new scanner? That's right: Katy. And  upon opening the thing, she couldn't resist the temptation to smash her face against it.

HAIR TODAY ...
COVINGTON, La. -- It seems as if Betsy and Katy have more in common than red hair: They apparently also share a propensity for abandoning their hair-care products.
   Both recently spent a week with Mike and Lanie, helping out while Lanie was on doctor-ordered bedrest.
   When they departed, each forgot their hairbrush.
    Maybe now that they've decoded the human genome, we'll be able to find out if the problem is the result of a genetic predisposition to hairbrush abandonment.

BAGS PACKED YET?
CHICAGO -- There is less than a week to go before Bridget and Mack depart on their great Southeast Asia adventure.
   The two leave Aug. 2 for Singapore, where they will begin their plane, boat, bus and backpack tour of the region.
   Their itinerary has changed somewhat since they started planning for the trip, but that's sort of the beauty of the whole

thing: They are basically going to play it by ear. Along they way they will visit Kuala Lampur, Thailand, Cambodia,  among other places. With pirates in some native waters and the Khmer Rouge still living in the Cambondian mountains -- along with their landmines -- the trip might actually make Chicago seem tame.

FOOTBALL!
Just a couple of weeks until football season starts, and we've got some strong interest in the family's fantasy football league.
  So far, Mike Scott, Mike Walsh, Bobby, Liz, Magdi and Robbie, and Betsy have opted in. That leaves four slots open.
   Here's the important part: because the football league is administered by Yahoo!, those who do not already have a Yahoo! ID must sign up for one immediately. It is free and can be done at http://mail.yahoo.com.
   Do so and report back on the message board. We're just a couple of weeks away from draft day.

Calendar

Aug. 7
Bank holiday (Ireland)

Aug. 10
Liz's birthday

Aug. 31
Betsy's birthday

Send a postcard.

-- Mike,
July 25, 2000

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Last updated 2 p..m. CST, July 25, 2000