Poster Winner One for the Book

--A 7-year-old girl who said her mother inspired a contest-winning poster and a 6-year-old devotee of books about the sea were honored in a national reading awards ceremony in Washington. Reading Is Fundamental, a private organization that has distributed more than 72 million books and encourages reading among schoolchildren, marked its 20th anniversary with the poster and reading contest. The group picked the watercolor poster painted by Cindy Bergman, 7, of Stamford, Conn., as the winner. Cindy said she herself reads “not that much.” But her mother motivated her to create her poster showing a blond-haired woman reading a book in a large blue bathtub. “My mother reads in the bathtub a lot,” Cindy said. Christopher Andrews, 6, a kindergartner from Council Bluffs, Iowa, was selected the 1986 “Reader of the Year” for his love of the sea. At the award ceremony under a balloon-bedecked tent on the Mall, Education Secretary William J. Bennett told a gathering of about 200 children: “Reading is the most important thing you can learn to do. . . . Reading is important and it’s fundamental.” Barbara Bush, wife of Vice President George Bush, presented the two youngsters with $500 savings bonds and plaques.

--”Don’t Honk” signs appeared on New York’s streets, which are already bristling with such admonitions as “No Standing,” “No Stopping” and “Don’t Even Think of Parking Here.” The signs went up in eight neighborhoods where noise complaints have been numerous. The Traffic Bureau plans dozens more, Mayor Edward I. Koch said in a statement. “All motorists should show consideration for their fellow New Yorkers and think before they beep,” he said. And if they don’t, the fine for violations is $125 and could go up to $500 for repeat offenders. Under the city’s noise code, honking is prohibited except in cases of imminent danger.

--Chasing the washday blues and taking the sun go hand in hand at the Sunshine Laundry Co. Customers find four tanning beds and a tanning cabinet in addition to the 36 washers at the coin-operated laundry downtown in Iowa City, Iowa. “We were interested in the tanning for a few years and interested in the laundry, so we just ended up putting them together. It’s worked out really well for us,” said part-owner Mike Hodge. The laundry also has a lounge, pinball and video games and an area for watching large-screen cable television. A children’s playhouse sits in a corner near the washers. “We’ve got a little bit for everybody,” Hodge said. Attendant Randi Allen added: “We get all kinds. People who tan and don’t wash. People who wash and don’t tan. People who do both.”