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MT
by Zane Binder
‘99 MERCURY COUGAR V 6
opossum@ix.netcom.com
It costs billions to develop new cars
in these days of picayune government
regulation. Sports coupes, though,
consistently seem to pay back their
enormous investments. Such will
undoubtedly be the case with
Mercury’s new Cougar, a highly styled
state-of-the-art vehicle with lots of
flair!
Inside the mid-size Cougar, a two
door based on the Mercury
Mystique/Ford Contour platform, is
attractive. Its cloth front bucket sport
seats are good quality but uncomfort
able. The split fold-down rear bench
has room for two ... if they’re legless.
The trunk, actually a hatchback with
standard cover, is enormous.
The $17,600 base price Contour’s
standard equipment level is high for
the class. Its steering column tilts; the
power rack and pinion steering’s
mechanicals keep parking from
becoming a hassle. Dual airbags (side
ones are optional) and five-mile-per
hour bumpers make the car safer, but
instrumentation is sparse and there’s
no glovebox lock. A cleverly designed
single cupholder graces the console on
manual-shift cars; there’s one in the
rear, too. A unique for the Cougar’s
price range pollen and dust air filtra
tion system graces the dash along with
minimally adequate air conditioning.
Power front disc/rear drum brakes
(antilock is optional) supply more than
adequate stopping power. Electric win-
In spite of growing opportunities
for women in the workplace, there
is still a group of women who are
unable to break out of poverty.
Although many of them work,
they’re usually employed in the
lowest-paying jobs. These jobs
would make it difficult for them to
support themselves. But they often
also have to support children on
what they earn.
For the most part, these women
are displaced homemakers who
found themselves cut adrift when
their marriages ended. Other
EXTRA INFO
Auto Talk
dows, locks, a trip computer and an
antitheft system are standard too.
Under the hood this 2,900 pound
front-driver utilizes a smooth 2.5 liter,
170 HP “Duratec” four valve per
cylinder V 6 (a “4” is also available).
It’s a dual overhead cam design adver
tised to run without a tune-up for
100,000 miles. Zero to 60 times from
this fuel-injected, high-revving (red
lined at 6,800 rpm’s, though there’s no
markings on the “tach”!) unleaded reg
ular powerplant averaged 9.7 seconds.
Observed mileage was 19 city and 28
highway, exactly its EPA rating.
Though acceleration was no threat to
the class leaders, mileage was out
standing.
The V 6 was mated to a smooth 5-
speed manual transmission and light
clutch. They worked decently together.
One problem, though, is a Ford peren
nial: gearing. As usual, it’s not nearly
“short” enough.
The Cougar’s ride was compliant
over most surfaces but definitely
showed sport-tuning. Bumps and pot
holes were negotiated without fanfare
by the 4-wheel independent suspen
sion, but really large road irregularities
weren’t pleasant.
Handling rates very good, about
“even” with competitors such as the
Dodge Avenger. Body lean in comers
was minimal; the all-season radial tires
are satisfactory. The turning circle, at
just over 37 feet, is average.
Ford’s new Cougar is pleasant in
most ways. Ford deserves credit for a
leap forward-
© 1999 King Features Synd., Inc.
WOMEN AT WORK
were unable to take the time or
afford the cost of training for mar
ketable skills.
A report from Women Work! The
National Network for Women’s
Employment makes it clear that
most of these women do not want
welfare. Indeed, they want to work,
and they want the training that will
allow them to earn more for them
selves and their families.
Jill Miller, executive director of
Women Work!, says, “It is time for
state and federal policymakers to
support the job training and educa-
by Zane Binder
REVIEW: JEOPARDY
opossum@ix.netcom.com
Jeopardy, one of television’s most
successful game shows, has made the
chasmlike-leap to your home com
puter’s screen. Unlike most quiz
games it’s lost virtually nothing in
the translation. It’s exciting, interest
ing, and will rivet you to your chair!
Jeopardy, a Hasbro Interactive
game (www.hasbro-interactive.com),
derives its
strength from faithful adherence
to the proven TV formula. Long-time
emcee Alex Trcbek (rumored to be a
Mensa member, the international
“high IQ” society) hosts the game,
and the soundtrack (despite minor
“gargling”), is almost exactly what
you’d here were you to channel-surf.
Learning to play Jeopardy is easy,
too: the manual is just a few pages
long and almost unnecessary. If
you’ve watched TV Jeopardy, you
can just sit down at your PC and
play! That’s incredibly nice if you’ve
ever been forced to wade through a
200-page game manual before ever
booting up!
The “mechanics” of this multi
player and play-against-the-comput
er game are well
thought-out. You both hear the
answer and see it on the screen, then
type the question. It's here there may
be a problem: spell or phrase some
thing incorrectly, such as O. Henry
instead of O’Henry, and Jeopardy’s
internal parser may reject your
answer. There’s a “strictness” adjust
ment for this parameter (as there is
for question toughness and how
aggressively the computer plays), but
it may not be “loose” enough.
If Jeopardy has a real flaw, it’s in
the chintzy number of answers pro
vided. There’s just 3,500, at first
glance more than ample but not when
by TAMARA JONES
placed homemakefs and single
mothers a real chance at economic
self-sufficiency.”
Sandy Nelson, president of
Women Work!, says, “More than
ever, we need leadership on voca
tional education, child care, dislo
cated worker and other job-training
initiatives and economic develop
ment proposals to improve the
employment environment for
women who have lost financial sup
port, or who may never have had it.”
MORE on the older worker,
younger boss situation: Frances L.,
Mho says **hc supervises '* depart.-
InFolinK
■la tWst Jr
S',
Fl HR’
you consider one “consumes” more
than 50 per round! Are expansion
discs in the works? Let’s hope!
To play Jeopardy system require
ments are minimal. A Pentium 90, 16
megs of RAM, a sound card, CD
ROM, and video board with 800x600
resolution display capability are
mandatory. Installation of this S3O
game is easy, too, and there are many
Jeopardy TV show “fan” sites for
tips. Just aim your browser at
www.jeopardy.com!
FREEDRIVE - Some weeks ago
InFoLinK visited freedrive.com, an
Internet site that allows allows free,
yes free, offsite document storage. At
that time you could
get 7.5 megs merely by signing
up. Now the limit’s been raised to 20!
It’s one of the best deals around for
safeguarding critical system data! A
tip: maximize storage by compress
ing files. Get PKZIP from any share
ware site, such as ZDNET.com.
© 1999 King Features Synd., Inc.
ment largely made up of people who
are close to her in age, but which
also includes three men who have
an average of 15 years on her. She
says, “They’re very nice people, but
they have a penchant for meddling
in everybody’s personal lives. I
finally had to speak to each one sep
arately to remind them that while
people appreciate their considera
tion, they feel uncomfortable about
being asked about their problems.
Instead, they’d rather feel they can
go to them for advice from time to
time.”
' r . eV J
Entertainment extra* VB/99 thru-1/14/99»
Extra
by Evelyn Ludvigson
Q: My daughter recently took o
some books from her school libra
by the late Carl Sagan. As I we
through them with her, I remet
bered when I was growing up
Queens (New York) my older sisi
used to date a boy in her junior hi
school named Carl who was ve
bright and, as I recall, looked a 1
like photos of Carl Sagan in I
younger years. Is it possible I cou
have had him as a brother-in-law?
so, I would have been nicer to hi
when she brought him around. Ter
McG.
A: Maybe you should have tre;
ed the Carl you knew better, b
that’s not for me to say. In any ever
he couldn’t have been the Carl w
grew up to become the worl
famous astrophycist since t
Brooklyn-born Sagan attended
junior high school in t
Bensonhurst section of that vener
ble New York borough.
Q: On television these days, y<
see a lot of judge shows (Judge Jut
Judge Ed, Judge Mills, Judge Jot
My question is in two parts: Fir
are their verdicts legal as if th
were in real courtrooms? Second,
they award money to one side, ho
does the winner collect in the
instances? N.L. J.
A: The people who agree to ha
their lawsuits tried in these fonts
understand that the verdicts are ju
as binding as if they were handt
down in formal courtroont
Judgments are collected in the san
way they would be in the more trad
tional courts. The loser must pay t
or be subject to laws governing the;
matters.
Q: I recently saw an intervie
about the “Star Trek” shows th
came on after the original serif
went off the air, and got the impre
sion that William Shatner, wh
starred in the original series, doesn
think much of the spin-offs (“S'
The Next Generation,” ‘‘ST: Dec
Space Nine,” “ST: Voyager”). As
fan of all the Star Trek shows, I'
like to know if this is true. Kurt M
A: Shatner was an outspoke
admirer of the first spin-off, “Th
Next Generation,” and co-starre
with Patrick Stewart in a film th;
linked the two shows for the fir;
time. As for the other show:
Shatner has not made any publi
remarks one way or another that I'r
aware of. However, he has neve
made it a secret that he thinks th
original series is the best, simpl
because it was a ground'-breakinj
risk-taking, almost revolutionar
concept for television. Everythin
that followed flows from there.
© 1999 King Features Synd., In?
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