It’s Music to Their Ears in Denver

The Denver Symphony Orchestra ended its 1988-89 season on a low note. Financial problems forced the Symphony Assn. Orchestra Board to cancel the final two months, and it was felt that the upcoming season would be wiped out altogether. But thanks to a recent survival plan that includes concessions from creditors to write off $3.2 million of the symphony’s $4-million debt, cutting the season by half and reducing the musicians’ salaries, the orchestra is back in business. “Although we regret the need to shorten the season, we feel this is the financially prudent way to proceed,” said John Low, board chairman. Still, there are other obstacles. City Council members have said they would oppose any debt forgiveness on the $700,000 owed to the city for back rent for Boettcher Hall. Cited as reasons for the symphony’s problems are Denver’s 10% seat tax, a too frequent turnover in management and a cash flow of $600,000 a month required to run the symphony.

--Not to be outdone by those moms who make enough food to feed the entire neighborhood, the residents of Seymour, Wis., threw a 5,520-pound hamburger patty on the grill and satisfied the appetites of about 10,000 people in hopes of gaining glory in the Guinness Book of World Records. It was no job for your average back yard barbecue chef; about 50 cooks fried up the giant burger on a specially designed grill 21 feet in diameter as a tribute to Charles (Hamburger Charlie) Nagreen, who--according to local legend--mashed a meatball and made the world’s first hamburger in 1885. According to Guinness, the burger of record weighed 5,005 pounds, 13.8 ounces and was cooked in South Africa.

--Twins Anna Marie and Mary Beth Heinz of Kansas City, Mo., were set to have their bone marrow transplants for a rare blood disease. But when the 5-year-olds’ insurance company went bankrupt, hope turned to despair. The University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha canceled the operations and said it would cost $130,000 for each transplant. A state insurance association offered to provide $100,000 for each child. Consequently, their father, Dan, has been seeking to raise at least $60,000 for the operations. To compound the family’s ordeal, Dan lost his job as a meat cutter and has been working two jobs, delivering newspapers and hauling trash, to pay the insurance premiums. “Basically, he’s been working 16-hour days for five years,” said Andy Willoughby, the girls’ uncle. “In all that time, I don’t think he’s taken more than five days off.” A fund set up by radio station KCNW in Kansas City has raised about $23,000 so far.