Country Music Singers Honored

Hank Williams Jr. was named entertainer of the year at the 21st annual Country Music Assn. Awards at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville. Former catfish cook Randy Travis won three awards, including male vocalist of the year, album of the year for “Always and Forever,” and single of the year for “Forever and Ever, Amen.” Reba McEntire won top female vocalist for an unprecedented fourth straight year, breaking the record set between 1968 and 1970 by Tammy Wynette. The Judds were voted vocal group of the year for the third straight time. In accepting the entertainer of the year award, Williams, 38, son of a country music legend, said: “This is the one. This is the one old Bocephus’ been looking for, I’ll guarantee you.” His nickname is Bocephus. Travis, 28, won his awards less than three years after working as a cook in a Nashville nightclub where he also sang. “It’s a good night for me,” Travis said in accepting his award for top male vocalist. “It’s great to be nominated with people I’ve been a fan of for years.”

--A couple of do-it-yourselfers are hoping to flood the Massachusetts Legislature with petitions to knock off the books a state law banning plumbing work by anyone but a licensed plumber. The move may come as a wrench to the Heating and Plumbing Contractor’s Union, which is trying to get the fine for illegal plumbing (in Massachusetts that means anything other than changing washers) raised from $100 to a minimum of $500 and a maximum of $5,000. But despite the opposition, Wayne Masse of Holyoke and Peter Baghdasarian of Uxbridge vow to plunge ahead. “More people are killed by automobiles than by plumbing,” said Masse in response to allegations that unlicensed plumbing may be hazardous. Baghdasarian said he is ready to go to jail to defend his right to change his own faucets.

--What’s in a name? Just plain “Rudy” worked fine for most of his 27 years in government, but the Minnesota governor is now signing himself “Rudolph G. Perpich” in an effort to spruce up his image. Not only that, Perpich has taken to calling his chief aide, Lynn Anderson, his “chief operating officer” and her assistant, Pat Johnson, “deputy chief operating officer.” “We all need to be concerned about the image we are relaying to the public,” Johnson wrote in a staff memo on professionalism. The staff has been ordered to seal up press leaks and dress more formally, all part of a strategy to advance the governor’s 1988 legislative program at a time when his popularity has been slipping.