The Daily Gouge : A look at the high costs at the Atlanta Games

By BILL PLASCHKE

July 21, 1996 12 AM PT

Perhaps anticipating a need for tourists to call home with the news of the supposedly emotional torch passing, a local company set up a bank of phones at Martin Luther King Jr.’s grave site Friday afternoon.

The charge for a local call was $3.90.

We would have asked the attendant about the record gouge, but he was busy talking on a cellular phone.

You know those colorful advertising cards displayed in the front of newspaper racks?

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution was so proud of its cards promoting coverage of the opening ceremonies, vendors were selling the cards for $1.

Or twice as much as the actual newspaper.

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Bill Plaschke

Bill Plaschke, an L.A. Times sports columnist since 1996, is a member of the National Sports Media Hall of Fame and California Sports Hall of Fame. He has been named national Sports Columnist of the Year nine times by the Associated Press, and twice by the Society of Professional Journalists and National Headliner Awards. He is the author of six books, including a collection of his columns entitled “Plaschke: Good Sports, Spoilsports, Foul Balls and Oddballs.” Plaschke is also a panelist on the popular ESPN daily talk show, “Around the Horn.” He is in the national Big Brothers/Big Sisters Alumni Hall of Fame and has been named Man of the Year by the Los Angeles Big Brothers/Big Sisters as well as receiving a Pursuit of Justice Award from the California Women’s Law Center. Plaschke has appeared in a movie (“Ali”), a dramatic HBO series (“Luck”) and, in a crowning cultural moment he still does not quite understand, his name can be found in a rap song “Females Welcome” by Asher Roth.

The Daily Gouge : A look at the high costs at the Atlanta Games

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