Word: lac
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...caring cat owner may invest in a tiny, burglar-and rat-proof door that can be installed at the bottom of a regular house door; the cat opens it with a magnetic device worn around its neck. At Animal Kingdom in Chicago, there is the Cat-A-Lac rolling bed that sells for $34 and a kitty rocking horse to calm the freaked-out feline ($49). New York's Felines of Distinction expects to sell more than 2,000 scratching posts this year; among them is a $179 carpeted feline Xanadu called the Kitty Playground. In Los Angeles, home...
Situated on the southern shore of beautiful Lake Winnebago, the Wisconsin city of Fond du Lac (pop. 34,400) appears to be a pleasant haven far removed from the poverty and pain of the nation's recession-struck cities. Peopled mainly by second-and third-generation descendants of German immigrants, the city prides itself on being the home of the thrifty, the hard working and the tidy. Houses are neatly painted, lawns well kept, streets clean. Main Street is currently being resurfaced, and the perky detour sign reads: PARDON OUR PROGRESS...
Appearances deceive. The translation of the town's French name seems to have a hidden significance: bottom of the lake. Beneath the well-groomed composure, Fond du Lac is a scared city. Its unemployment rate has already risen above the national average of 7.8% to 10.5%. Because three of the town's main industries-outboard motors, auto parts and home-building materials-have been among the hardest hit by the current recession, the rate continues to rise. Mercury Marine, the nation's second largest outboard-engine maker (after Outboard Marine of Waukegan, Ill.), has fired or furloughed...
...declining. Even so, there consequence, real estate prices are declining. Even so, there are no buyers, which contributes to a vicious economic cycle. Because the unemployed cannot sell their houses, most of them must limit their job hunting to a radius of 30 or 40 miles from Fond du Lac...
...effects spread beyond the lakes. In some areas, humans may also be affected. In the Lac la Croix lake system of Ontario, where the Ojibway Indians fish for their livelihood, catches are showing high levels of mercury. Reason: the toxic metal, ordinarily concentrated in sediment, changes into an organic form, methyl mercury, in acid water and is then easily absorbed by the fish. While the threat to plants is not as well understood, acid rain can eat away at leaves, leach nutrients from the soil, interfere with photosynthesis, and affect the nitrogen-fixing capabilities of such plants as peas...