Editorials

Earwax, you’re history 

BEND, Ore. — Justin Letlow’s invention lets people peer where many don’t care to look: into the ear, and upon the things that dwell there. 

The 39-year-old from Bend invented the Ear Mirror, a device for inspecting and cleaning the outer ears. 

Letlow has received a patent for the Ear Mirror, which resembles a dental instrument with two round, small, adjustable mirrors joined by a flexible plastic handle. 

Holding one mirror close to the ear and the other in front of the eye, the user can see quite clearly into every nook and cranny. 

“I invented it to prevent earwax embarrassment,” Letlow says. 

He hopes his invention will soon be de rigueur in toiletry kits. 

“Everybody has two ears,” says Letlow. “I can’t think how many times I’ve been watching a game on TV, and they zoom in on the coach, and here’s this big old piece of earwax.” 

Taxi ride to jail  

NEW YORK — Two burglars fleeing from an apartment with stolen goods hailed the wrong taxicab — namely, the one driven by an undercover police officer, police said. 

Lt. Jagdeshwar Jaskaran, on routine patrol in a yellow cab, stopped for two men who were acting suspicious as they tried frantically to hail a taxi on Tuesday. Jaskaran said they drew attention to themselves because one was on a bicycle and the other appeared to be hiding behind a van. 

The man hiding behind the van approached the cab and told Jaskaran he wanted to go to the Bronx. When Jaskaran identified himself as a police officer, the man on the bicycle fled. 

The first suspect, a 17-year-old, was arrested carrying a video camera that was allegedly stolen, police said. 

Jaskaran said the two suspects and one other had just broken into an apartment by climbing from the roof to the fire escape, where they removed an air conditioner and pried the security bars from a window. 

In addition to the video camera, the burglars took a VCR, a stereo and jewelry from the apartment, Jaskaran said. 

Police were looking for the two missing suspects. 

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LOGAN, Utah (AP) — Thirty years after enrolling at Utah State University, an Idaho dentist — who happens to be a congressman — will finally get his undergraduate degree next month. 

On May 4, Rep. Mike Simpson will don cap and gown and with 3,236 other graduates will be awarded a diploma. His will read “bachelor’s of science in pre-dentistry.” 

“I was accepted to dental school while still an undergraduate,” said Simpson, 52. “I’d always intended to complete the paperwork needed to finish my bachelor’s degree. But I was busy with dental school, then dental practice, family, and starting a political career, and, well, the years just flew by.” 

The Republican entered the Washington University School of Dental Medicine in St. Louis in 1974, and, upon graduation, joined his father and uncle in the family practice in Blackfoot, Idaho. His political career began in 1980, when he was elected to the Blackfoot City Council. 

Simpson was missing some credits at Utah State, said Randy Simmons, a political science professor who learned of the congressman’s situation while touring Capitol Hill to promote his school. 

Simmons said transfer agreements already were in place to give Simpson undergraduate credit for classes he took at Washington University. 

“No strings were pulled,” Simmons said. 

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DETROIT (AP) — Attention bargain-basement car enthusiasts: The Yugo is back. Sort of. 

A decade after the discount car was last imported to the United States from Yugoslavia, an American entrepreneur plans to import a successor to the Yugo — tentatively called the ZMW. 

Malcolm Bricklin, who first brought the Yugo to the United States in 1985, said he has signed a deal with former Yugo manufacturer Zastava Motor Works of Serbia, Forbes reported on its Web site. 

Bricklin, 63, said he expects to import the first ZMWs in about a year. He said his new company, to be called Zastava Motor Works USA and headquartered in New York, could sell 60,000 cars in its first year. 

The ZMWs will come in a two-door, four-door, convertible and pickup truck models, ranging in price from $5,000 to $10,000, Bricklin said. 

That would make the ZMW the cheapest car on the market, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association in McLean, Va. The lowest-priced cars currently sold in the United States cost more than $9,000. 

“This will be the first time in the last decade that someone could go out and buy a new car with a new car warranty for half the price of the lowest-priced car out there,” said Bricklin.