Copters Chase Them Down a Tree

--When Bill and Leslie Compher and their two children wanted to get away from it all, they used to climb up to their 16-by-16-foot tree house built in the branches of a giant cedar 50 feet above the forest floor in Ashford, Wash. There, they could relax on the deck or stay cozy by the wood stove, enjoying the sweeping view of nearby Mt. Rainier from the picture windows. But no longer. Their serenity has been shattered by the drone of military helicopters. “They swoop out of the sky and circle the treetops, sometimes at no more than 75 to 100 feet,” Compher complained. Tired of feeling like a sideshow attraction, Compher fired off letters to the Ft. Lewis military base south of Tacoma, where the helicopters take off for flights to the Yakima Firing Range. He has asked the Federal Aviation Administration to intervene and has even called the Pentagon. But the choppers still come. Capt. Lawrence Furphy, Ft. Lewis spokesman, said a special order has been issued requiring pilots to fly north of the tree house. But, he admitted: “Human nature being what it is, the tree house sort of excites the imagination, doesn’t it? A pilot just might want to have a look for himself.”

--Postal employees in Valentine, Neb., have a heart. So they’re working overtime to sort the thousands of Valentine’s Day cards sent there from around the world to be postmarked in “Heart City.” Postmaster John F. Cunning said his staff will cancel about 10,000 pieces of Valentine mail this year. There is no charge for the service. Rick Bordeaux, who has worked at the Valentine post office for 17 years, said valentines sent through that office are guaranteed to achieve their intended romantic effect.

--Pat Christie, who minds the p’s and q’s in Montana’s Office of Public Instruction, is concerned that a method of teaching kindergartners the alphabet by assigning male names to consonants and female names to vowels is reinforcing sexist stereotypes. To make her case, she singled out the letter K, represented by a kicking football player, which she says reinforces the perception that boys like to play football and, by implication, girls don’t. Nonsense, says Helena kindergarten teacher Karl Wolf. For one thing, “There has been a real effort to revise texts and publications to remove sexual stereotyping.” For another, he said, he finds it difficult to distinguish between the sexes in the “Alpha Time” program. A is Miss Achoo, E is Miss Exercise, I is Miss Itch, O is Miss Obstinate and U is Miss Umbrella. “Contrast that with Mr. Funny Feet and Mr. Cotton Candy. It’s hard to take that real seriously.”