Call Them Mr. and Mrs. Lucky

First they found wealth, then they found each other. A couple who each had won more than a million dollars in the Illinois lottery were married after meeting at a reunion given by the state for the lucky few. Tony Chernetsky, 40, who won nearly $1.59 million last February, and Jonell Walts, 39, who won $3.3 million in March of 1985, fittingly chose the city of instant riches, Las Vegas, for their wedding ceremony. “It’s been a lucky year,” Chernetsky said. Both quit their jobs after hitting the jackpot; he had been the head of an electrical worker’s union in Davenport, Iowa, and she worked at J. C. Penney’s in Evansville. “We just hit it off right away,” said Chernetsky, who has been married twice before and whose 14-year-old son lives with the couple.

--Some people just have to smell alcohol and they’re drunk. For example, there’s the arresting story of a truck driver stopped in Indianapolis for driving under the influence. Phillip Swanson, a driver for Shamrock Co., swore to the state trooper who had stopped him that he hadn’t been drinking. But officials couldn’t account for his intoxicated state until they went back to the truck and found that Swanson had been breathing the fumes from an alcohol-fueled heater in the cab. Drunken driving charges against Swanson were dropped and he was taken by police to a motel room to sleep it off.

--It was 87 degrees outside, but inside conferees were talking about the best ways to manage ice and snow. There was “universal disbelief” when Kailua-Kona on the island of Hawaii was chosen for the site of a meeting of engineering specialists for Snow Control Institute ‘87, said Don Walker of Wisconsin, one of the conference organizers. The sun-struck island was chosen, however, because of its appeal for those who normally toil under adverse weather conditions, said Ronald Tabler, technical director of the Snow Control Institute. Under study are topics such as geometry and density of snowdrifts, design of snow fences, and road and building design.

--Conferees at the snow control seminar may want to meet with postal workers on Japan’s snowbound island of Hokkaido, who have been selling snow to those who rarely see the stuff. The Hayakita Post Office, near the city of Chitose, is currently dealing in ready-made snowmen, with a 14-inch model going for the equivalent of $18. Apparently there is no dearth of orders. “We’ve had 160 orders since we started taking orders today,” said postal worker Toshihiko Taniguchi. “We expect to sell at least 1,000 by mid-March.” The snowman, which is packed in Styrofoam for its air journey to such cities as Tokyo, will last about three hours in mid-70s heat, Taniguchi said.