Artist of Different Stripe Has a Lot of Things to Paint

--Someone has been going around painting cars parked at the Allentown, Pa., airport, but there’s a problem in bringing the culprit to justice--the “victims” like his handiwork. “I’d probably thank him for a very nice job and ask him maybe about a partnership,” said Vince Gallagher, who was among three who discovered their cars painted with pin-stripes. “We had three reports but no complaints,” said airport director Jack Yohe. Gallagher, 57, said he discovered the mystery artist’s work when he returned home from a three-day trip to Bermuda. “I’m looking at a car that looks like mine but it’s got a stripe that it didn’t have when I went away,” he said. Gallagher said he wandered around the parking lot a few minutes looking for his own 1984 black Cougar before returning to the car, examining the license plate and realizing it was his. The two fine stripes along the sides of his car were exactly what he would have chosen had he selected the decoration himself. The custom work probably would have cost $60 or $70, he added. As for the law, the culprit “is doing a good job,” said a state police officer who asked not to be identified. “I’ve been thinking of parking my car up around there and getting a free paint job.”

--Folk singer Arlo Guthrie remained hospitalized in Ware, Mass., after becoming ill during a recording session last week. A spokeswoman at Mary Lane Hospital said she could not release details on Guthrie’s condition or illness. He is the son of folk singer Woody Guthrie, who died in 1967 of Huntington’s chorea, a degenerative, hereditary nervous disorder. Dr. Louis B. Grace said he was called to the Longview Farm Studio in North Brookfield and admitted the singer to the hospital. He, too, refused to divulge Guthrie’s symptoms. Arlo Guthrie, 37, lives on a farm in the western Massachusetts town of Washington.

--Bachelor Joe McSwiney has no problem meeting women. As a fingernail sculptor, the 6-foot-1, 200-pounder spends more than 50 hours a week in Arnold, Mo., holding hands with the opposite sex. “I was in construction work for seven years. That was all men,” McSwiney said. “This is all ladies, and I’ll tell you it’s a lot more fun.” McSwiney, 25, says the transition from pounding nails to sculpting them has been an easy one. “I really love my work. I started in the industry as a hair stylist and enjoyed that, but found there are a lot of opportunities for good nail sculptors,” McSwiney says. “Not to mention it’s a great way to meet the ladies.” McSwiney charges between $40 and $50 for a nail-sculpting job. The manicurist has been on the job for about eight months, and says he believes he is the only man in the profession in the country. McSwiney began his beauty career more than two years ago after he was laid off from his construction job.