Barefoot Woodsman Sells Knees

--Tom Gaskins, a wizened, tough-as-bark Florida woodsman who chews tar and runs barefoot to stay healthy, has cut a living out of a swamp for 50 years, hacking at cypress trees. He jogged 10 miles on his birthday Wednesday and stood on his head for five minutes. “I don’t turn 77 every day,” he said. Gaskins is an inventor, craftsman, author, health buff and businessman. In 1934, he began roaming the swamps of Florida, looking for cypress knees, which are growths on the roots of cypress trees. Over the years, he fashioned them into furniture and sold them to stores all over the country and to people who come to his Cypress Knee Museum in Palmdale, about 45 miles northeast of Fort Myers. For Gaskins, the business of running the museum does not start until late in the morning--after he finishes what he calls his “daily routine.” He runs a few miles a day and rarely wears shoes. He does push-ups and sit-ups, and he stands on his head because he heard it improves circulation.

--A tongue-in-cheek concert spoof crafted by a newspaper columnist won’t raise money for the needy, but it has raised problems for the U.S. Forest Service. The spoof, “Yemen Aid,” written by Phoenix humor columnist Barry Friedman in the New Times weekly newspaper, was billed as a gigantic benefit concert for the Middle Eastern nation. It was to be held at Canyon Lake, about 40 miles northeast of Phoenix, and feature dozens of rock stars such as Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner and the Rolling Stones performing on a floating stage March 29 and 30. But “Yemen Aid” never was and never will be--even though many readers believed it. Calls flooded the office of the U.S. Forest Service, which manages Canyon Lake in Tonto National Forest, and the New Times office. The newspaper printed a correction, but Joyce Magidson, public information officer for Tonto National Forest, said the agency’s office received about 200 calls in the last week from people wanting to purchase tickets and reserve camping space. She said the Forest Service probably will add more patrol officers for the weekend--in case people still show up.

--A Soviet schoolgirl urged American children to plant peace gardens to remind the superpowers of life that shouldn’t be destroyed, and she said she hopes her peace visit will not “be in vain.” Katerina Lycheva, 11, arriving in Washington on the seventh day of her trip to the United States, was greeted enthusiastically by students of Wheatley Elementary School. She joined them in a folk dance and then in a rousing rendition of the song “We Are the World.”