To those who sent in coupons from the Sunday ”Doonesbury” cartoon-yes, the Tribune carried it-state Comptroller John Sharp is offering tongue-in-cheek Texas residency, a la ”the Prez,” to avoid paying state income taxes. Sharp, a Democrat, has received 150 of the coupons from folks in 29 states and Brazil, too. One couple said the honor should be theirs because they own a pickup and a pair of Tony Lama cowboy boots. Cartoonist Garry Trudeau encouraged readers to become Texas residents; the cartoon included a coupon addressed to Sharp saying it was the writer`s ”intention to live in Texas at some later date.” President Bush calls a Houston hotel suite his legal residence but he hasn`t lived in Texas full-time since 1966.
THE CARP FACTOR Japan might want to toss its high-tech earthquake warning system into a chasm left by Sunday`s major tremor there in favor of keeping an eye on a 3-inch pet carp owned by Tokyo restaurant owner Sadao Hachiya. He says the carp gave an early warning Saturday by hiding inside a pipe in its tank, the same place it hid when a moderate quake hit in 1989.
MAXWELL`S WIDOW SPEAKS Elisabeth Maxwell, the widow of late publishing exec Robert Maxwell, says stories about her husband`s Mirror Group Newspapers financial dealings reveal ”a man I never knew.” In a Vanity Fair interview published in the March issue, Maxwell says, ”The only person who has actually lost her pension is me; all the others have continued to be paid . . .” The family`s assets have been frozen, and two sons, Kevin and Ian, face legal charges pending the outcome of investigations
DI`S NEW CAR RAISES DUST Princess Diana`s leasing of a $129,600 two-seater German-built Mercedes-Benz and dumping of her British-made Jaguar (the company is owned by Ford Motor Co.) has left angry feelings across England. ”This decision by the princess is at best insensitive and at worst deeply unpatriotic,” snapped Jimmy Airlie, motor industry negotiator for the engineering trade union. The Daily Mail said she fought a two-year battle to persuade Prince Charles and the royal family to let her break tradition and become the first royal to drive a foreign car. The paper quoted an insider: ”Princess Diana has longed for this model.”
HUNGARIAN TEEN BEATS FISCHER RECORD Judit Polgar, 15, of Hungary has beaten American Bobby Fischer`s title of youngest grandmaster in chess history by qualifying for the ”men`s” title at 15 years, 5 months. Fischer qualified at 15 years, 6 months in 1958, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
World champ Gary Kasparov was a comparative late starter, entering the chess stratosphere at 17.
She earned the ranking by winning the Hungarian National Championship in December, says Felix Esdadilla of the Federation in Lucerne, Switzerland. She`s been a women`s grandmaster-a lower-level honor-for some time.
Polgar is the youngest of three sisters whose parents decided to raise them as chess champions. Her sister Zsuzsa, 22, was the first woman ever to gain the rank of men`s grandmaster, and another sister, Zsofi, 17, is a top player.
Father Laszlo Polgar, also a chess player, is his daughters` manager-trainer and charges four figures for interviews.
”We started playing chess 20 years ago,” Polgar says. ”This is a business, with many risks, traps and joys.”
