Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / Nov. 27, 1996, edition 1 / Page 9
Part of The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
tKIje Cljarlotte ^osJt WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1996 9A LIFESTYLES Rules to cut some benefits THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WILMINGTON - It will be almost two years before North Carolina's Work First program begins taking benefits fi:nm wel fare recipients who haven't foimdjobs. But local governments already are trying to define what circumstances would jus tify extending benefits. For instance, what will hap pen to the emotionally unstable cUent who can’'t seem to hold a job? Or the woman with a dis- abihty that prevents her from working most jobs but who can't collect disability pay ments because the Social Security Administration doesn't deem the handicap serious enough? Chances are, they won't find a permanent job that can get them off welfare within two years, the time limit set by Work First. The system allows for hard ship extensions and welfare recipients who genuinely try but can't get a job that pays enough to keep them off welfare cem ask to keep getting benefits after their two years expire. Experts say it is too soon to know how many people will qualify for the extensions. The test will come in July 1998, when some people in the first crop of Work First participants find themselves unemployed and without benefits. Covmty Social Services boards must hear appeals from people whose benefits are terminated. The boards must grant an extension to anyone who has made a good-faith effort to get off welfare. But they also can grant exten sions for other reasons they will determine. The rules don't say how long an extension can be. That is up to each board. New Hanover County Social Services officials already are preparing their boar^ for that responsibility. Pat Laney, employment and adult services chief for the New Hanover County Department of Social Services, suggested the board begin writing guidelines for granting and refusing exten sions. The process is sure to be an eye-opener for Board of Social Services members, most of whom have never had to deal directly with welfare clients. “It will be the first time youTl be personally involved with clients who are teUing you why they feel they can't get a job,” Laney told the board. As a possible example of the type of dilemma the board wiU face, Laney talked about a client who dutifully takes the jobs offered to her but can't get along with co-workers. The woman has emotional problems but won't seek counseling. “It’s never her fault,” Laney said. “Within days, someone has ‘done her wrong’ and she’s out the door.” Unless something changes, she's likely to continue on- again, off-again employment and could end up before the board asking for a benefit extension. Board member Thomas Arthur thinks the reasons for extending benefits should be very hmited. Arthur, confined to a wheel chair since em automobile acci dent left him with a spinal cord injury, has httle patience with welfare recipients in general. Most people should be able to find some job within two years, he said. “I like to think I’d be fair, but I don’t think these extensions ought to be automatic,” Arthur said. Todays gifts: Not just a pair of argyle socks By Jeri Young THE CHARLOTTE POST Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year. And retailers expect it to be the best in recentmemory. According to American Express, the average shopper will spend $1,160 this holiday season. Most of that will be spent on gifts, at least $900. The res will go toward entertaining. When most of us think about gift giving, we automatically think about the ususal stuff, ties and clothes. But there are million of gifts out there, many of which can be ordered fix)m home, eliminating the need to battle traffic and checkout lines. Here are a few guaranteed to please just about everyone on your shopping list, finm the sea soned traveler to the computer geek. Travel Planning a dream trip? Think A rose is a rose. Here’s something for that hopeiess romantic, Le Vian’s $40,000 jeweied rose brooch, with ruby petals. Black Santa available at Hallmark stores. about going to Africa. According to Jon Haggins, of Haggins Tours International, an African American company that spe cializes in Aftican travel pack ages, a visit to the Motherland can be fim as well as education al. “Compare itineraries,” Haggins said. “A lot of compa nies offer lectures and seminars as a part of price of the package. It makes a difference in the price, but you don’t have to pay for these things on the spot and they are already planned out.” Haggins, a frequent traveler, recommends the following places: Egypt - The Magic Beach in Aswan. Legend has it the bright orange sand has therapeutic qualities and can cure rheuma- toidal problems. South Africa - Sun CityAThe Lost Coast, African townships. Senegal - Less than an eight- hour flight from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, Seneged and its capital, Dakar, offer great locations and beauti ful scenery. Slave markets, including the Door of No Return, the last Afiican stop for most slaves brought to the new World. Dakar is a great shop ping city. Twenty-four hour fac tories offer great deals, but remember to barter with mer chants, according to Haggins, they will usually meet your price. Ghana - Ghana hosts PanaFes, a multi-national cele- brationin August. Parades, tra ditional Afiican music, as weU as Afiican American blues and jazz make this festival one of the best in the world. For more information, call Haggins at (212) 563-2570 or caU your travel agent. Average cost is $1,400 - $4,000. Jewelry •If a $40,000 rose pendant is a little extreme, try Anthony Mark Hankins. The African American designer is launching a line of costume jewelry that looks like it costs a fortune, but will barely put a dent in the bank. Best of aU, you don’t have to leave home. His jewelry is available on the Home Shopping Network, as weU as in depart ment stores. Price Rsinge: $10- $15. Others to try - Cowry shell jewelry is available everywhere. Popular, very stylish and inex pensive, it makes a great gift with meaning. Cowry shells were originally used as money in much of Afiica. It is interwo ven into leather, copper and gold jewelry for men or women. Price remge: $5-$50. A felucca ride on the Nile cer tainly will please some. Computers For the computer fan, tons of stuff is available. Here’s a good example. Golf Tips CD-ROM: Two disks for beginning or even experi enced golfer. Covers myriad top ics from swing to judging dis tance to using woods and irons. Available at computer stores, pro shops and by calling 800- 234-2627. $59.95. MfisceUaneous •For ‘All God’s Children Collectors,’ Hallmark will release figure ornaments. This year the collectible is ‘Christy,’ Hallmark will also release, ‘A Celebration of Angels,’ the sec ond in its collector’s series, as well as ‘Making His Rounds’ an A f r i - Santa. • From the minis ter to the judge, robes by Teague Stradford - Stovall will please. The fash- i 0 n designer left Seventh Avenue to open her own cou- tare house in Atlanta and she has been going ever since. Judges and ministers firom arovmd the coim- try proudly sport robes of velvet and silk, as well as the old poly ester standby. For more infor mation, caU (770) 457-5440. •Hog’s Head Beer — A local micro-breweiy. Hogs Head Beer Cellars, has a Beer of the Month Club. Each month subscribers will receive two different six packs ofhard to find aU natural beers delivered to their door. At $15.95 a month, it’s a good deal for micro-brew speciality beer. For more information, caU (800) 992-BEER. For more Christmas gift ideas related story on page 14A Silk robe with gold thread tassle. Cartier pasha watches originally created for the the Pasha of Marrakech. He’s not just inventor, he’s also a client By Stephen Sobek THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WEST SEINECA, N.Y. - Anthony Pignataro reaches under his hair and - Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! - in less than five seconds, most of his brown locks come off into the palm of his hand. AU that remains on the top of his scalp are four gold snaps embed ded deep in the bone of his skuU. They keep what he calls his “pros thetic hair” in place. A cosmetic surgeon, Pignataro has been selling his extreme method of hair replacement since he became his own first patient and test case four years ago. About 100 other people have undergone the pro cedure since then. Pignataro claims it’s as reversible as getting an ear pierced - the snaps can just be unscrewed. Pignataro, 38, had been working to find a solution to his own bald ness problem since he began losing his own mop around age 23. He tried traditional methods of attaching hair to his head: glues, cUps, tie-downs and weaves. “Everything was an option, but nothing was good,” Pignataro said. The answer, perhaps unsurprisingly, came firom his professional experience. He had worked as an intern with artificial eyes, noses and ears, using implantology: snap-on replacement body parts that used patients’ bones as anchors. The same technique could be used for hair, he realized. “For me, it’s commonplace,” Pignataro said. “But to talk to some body who’s never hear of snapping on an eye, an ear, a nose, hair or a fingertip - it’s too science fiction.” Pignataro’s father, also a surgeon, performed the first operation on him. The first step is to implant titenimn sockets in the top of the skuU. After they fuse with the bone over a 12-week period, gold snaps are screwed into the sockets. For the hairpiece, a plsistic mold of the patient's head is taken and human hair is sewn on. A sfylist can cut the hair to fit the patient's head - it can be any color. Pigaataro said the hairpieces should last about four years, and as far as he knows, the snaps wiU never need maintenance. You cem wash the hairpiece in the shower with your real hair. Ever the salesman, Pignataro gladly demonstrates how the piece works to those that will watch - and take part in - its demonstration. “Hear them snap?” he asks as he pops the prosthesis back in place. He leans his pate over, saying, “Give it a tug.” It doesn't come off. See HAIR on page 11A Liquor ads lure alcoholics By Duncan Mansfield THE ASSOCIATED PRESS KNOXVILLE, Tenn.- Concern about the hquor industry's deci sion to drop its ban on broadcast advertising has focused on the impact on children and teen agers. Perhaps forgotten are 1.5 million recovering alcohohcs. “There are a lot of things that work as impediments to the recovering process. One of which is advertising,” says Ron Taylor, head of advertising in the University of Tennessee's College of Commimications. Taylor conducted a study two years ago involving interviews with 20 recovering alcoholics at five counseling centers in the Knoxville area. Only two of them said radio, TV, billboards or print ads had no affect on their efforts to stay sober. “We presented the findings back to the people who counsel them and they said it rang true to what they had heard in their group discussions,” he said. “But they had never really thou^t of it as an issue before.” The issue then for broadcast ers was limited to wine and beer ads. But the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States decided Nov. 7 to drop its decades-old voluntary ban on radio and TV advertising of hard hquor. CBS, ABC, NBC and the Fox networks say they will not air hquor ads. Meanwhile, local resolutions against such ads have been adopted or urged across the country. The Knoxville City Council adopted one Nov. 19. The New York-based National Council on Alcohohsm and Drug Dependence late last week urged President Clinton, Congress and the Federal Communications Commission to support “counter advertising” measures to educate the pubhc on the health and safety risks of drinking alcohol. The organization worries about the impact on young peo ple and “the milhons of men and women who already suffer firom the disease of alcohohsm.” National estimates suggest about 15 miUion Americans are alcohol abusive or dependent. About 1.5 milhon are trying to quit. Meanwhile, U.S. advertisers are spending more than $1 bil lion a year to promote beer, wine and hquor. "While almost anything may trigger the desire to drink, the triggering effects of alcoholic- beverage advertising seem par ticularly vivid and acute," Taylor and coUeagues wrote in their study pubhshed in Health Marketing Quarterly. Television and billboard ads were mentioned most often. The attractions: Seeing people having a good time while drink ing. Hearing a favorite song in the backgrovmd of a broadcast ad. Or the allure of a giant whiskey bottle on a billboard. “It (advertising) would almost make me sahvate,” one respon dent said. “It definitely made me want to drink or, in particu lar, remind me that I was not drinking.” Taylor and his colleagues made no claims their study went beyond the 20 recovering alcoholics interviewed, though their sample was representa tive. It had 15 men and five women, ranging in age finm 25 to 64, £md time in recovery finm three weeks to 20 years. “No imphcation is to be drawn ...that the effects are intention al,” the authors added.
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Nov. 27, 1996, edition 1
9
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75