81 lines
3.9 KiB
Plaintext
81 lines
3.9 KiB
Plaintext
Date: 11 Dec 1984 20:04-PST
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To: HUMAN-NETS at MIT-MC
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Subject: Mr. Rogers in the nuclear neighborhood.
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From: the tty of Geoffrey S. Goodfellow <Geoff@SRI-CSL.ARPA>
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To: Info-Cobol@MIT-MC
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n034 1025 11 Dec 84
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BC-CHEER
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(Newhouse 002)
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(Note to editors: Karen E. Henderson is a staff writer for the
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Cleveland Plain Dealer)
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By KAREN E. HENDERSON
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Newhouse News Service
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CLEVELAND - The strains of Mister Rogers' neighborly theme song no
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longer linger on the airwaves at the Perry nuclear power plant, but
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anonymous signs on plant bulletin boards assure workers that Rogers is
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not dead.
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He has only been fired.
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Promptly at 7:30 a.m. every day for three months, plant workers
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would hear Mister Rogers' reassuring voice crooning over the public
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address system: ''It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. ... Won't
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you be my neighbor?''
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Last Wednesday, Mister Rogers sang for the last time at the
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Cleveland plant. Security guards, who had been trying to catch the
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culprit who had been playing the Rogers' tape, swooped down a flight
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of stairs and caught electrician Larry Nudelman in the act of trying
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to cheer people up.
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Officials of Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. (CEI) weren't
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laughing.
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They were especially irked when Mister Rogers came on the air
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precisely at 7:30 a.m. two weeks ago when CEI was running a mock
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disaster drill at the plant which was overseen by officials of the
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Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Federal Emergency Management
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Agency.
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Shortly after the theme was played, a CEI official came on the
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system and informed workers a test was in progress, and the public
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address system was not to be used for unauthorized business.
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Nudelman says he believes that was what really got the utility
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angry.
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Nudelman, 38, of Highland Heights, Ohio, says they took his tape
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recorder and tape. They told him to go back to work, but he was fired
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from his job with L.K Comstock Inc. two hours later.
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Nudelman says he started playing the 50-second tape to cheer
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people up and help them get started.
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''A lot of guys drive 45 minutes to get to work,'' he says. ''They
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feel like they've already worked half a day by the time they get
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there. ... It brought a little bit of something to everyone's day. I
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had only planned to do it for a week or so, but I'd hear people talk
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about it. And nobody said it was wrong or to stop doing it.'' If they
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had, he said, he would have stopped.
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''Some days it would be raining hard, and Mister Rogers would come
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on and say it was a beautiful day,'' says Nudelman. ''Then somebody
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would get on the public address system and say that Mister Rogers was
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blind.'' It was good for a laugh, he adds.
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Officials of Comstock could not be reached for comment.
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CEI spokesman Glenn Heffner says Nudelman was fired for
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unauthorized use of the public address system. ''The system is
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specifically for emergencies and plant business,'' he says.
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Nudelman says it has been used by workers in the past. ''Last
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Christmas, I guess they had a dog barking Christmas carols,'' he says.
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The system is easily accessible, with phones all over the plant.
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Security personnel began trying to isolate the area in the plant from
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which the Rogers message was being sent.
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Nudelman says the day he was caught, guards apparently had been
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stationed near many phones.
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Although Nudelman says he believes getting fired was too harsh a
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punishment, he does not plan to fight it. It is the first time he has
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been fired in 20 years, he says, but he is working at a construction
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site in Cleveland.
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''I won't play Mister Rogers over there, but we do have a radio
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going all the time,'' he says.
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Though Mister Rogers is gone, the broadcasts are not forgotten. A
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notice on a plant bulletin board offered a $1,000 reward for the
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capture of the security guards - referred to on the notice as
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''gestapo agents'' - who did away with Mister Rogers.
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JM END HENDERSON
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(DISTRIBUTED BY THE NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE)
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nyt-12-11-84 1323est
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