H&S scene;

              Your loss, our gain
Six men in the Chicago Office are
responsible for reducing the
staff by 156 pounds. Their feat
will go down in Firm annals as
The Great Chicago Weigh-ln.
Are you ready? It's a contest of
three two-man teams who want to
trim their personal inventories
of poundage; best two out of six
with the losers to pay off the
victors at the rate of
one dollar per pound.
Competitors are partners Bob
Skeehan and John Walsh versus
principals Bob Gordon and Stu
Richardson versus office manager
John McNamara and assignment
director Bob Hafner.
Let us go back to the historic
day of Monday, January 4, 1971.
Starting weights are posted at
the scales of the Mid-Day Club of
the First National Bank Building.
The event: A two-month tug-of-war
of notched-tight beltlines.
Senior accountant Pat Daly of the
tax department is named as
referee and statistician.
The opening day lineup:
Bob Skeehan at 229 pounds and
John Walsh at 200; Bob Gordon at
184 pounds and Stu Richardson at
194; Bob Hafner at 225 and
John McNamara at 186.
They're off and panting!
Time passes. Diet theories are
studied and practiced. Martinis
and mashed potatoes are eschewed.
Exercise is stepped up.
Eight weeks go by.
It is now Monday, March 1, at the
Mid-Day Club. The contestants are
lined up and a hush greets each
man as he moves onto the scales.
Referee Pat Daly watches the
sliding weight as it moves
carefully to the proper point.
And the winner is...
What! What! Can it be...?
Yes, there's a tie for first
place! The team of Skeehan and
Walsh matches the team of
McNamara and Hafner in weight
lost: fifty-five pounds down for
each team. Despite a gallant
try going into the waist stretch,
the team of Gordon and Richardson
is edged out by a nine-pound
difference—the other two teams
split up a dollar per pound
purse of $9. Individual results:
Bob Skeehan, 196 pounds (33 pounds
lighter than before}; John Walsh,
178 pounds (22 pounds lighter);
Bob Gordon, 159 pounds (25 pounds);
Stu Richardson, 173 (21);
Bob Hafner, 192 (33);
John McNamara, 164 (22).
It is decided that the battle of
the beltline will require
additional weigh-ins in coming
months to see if the contestants
have been able to maintain
diet discipline,
Interviewed after the contest,
33-pound loser Bob Skeehan
confirmed, "I feel much better.
I have a lot more vitality,
it was something I needed to do."
He said that his training
method emphasized the now popular
Dr. Stillman's Quick Weight Loss
Diet—plenty of lean protein foods
18
and at least eight glasses of
water a day. (The Chicago Office
water fountains reportedly got a
heavier than usual play
during the competition.)
Reports are that other accountants
and staffers are emulating the
plucky contestants.
Besides, the office can
use the extra room. •
Underground man
It hasn't all been done yet.
Men have walked on the moon,
climbed to the top of Mount
Everest, and sledged to both poles.
Yet there are still places left
for the vigorous and adventurous
to explore, and some of them are
right under our feet.
Jim Kappeler, staff accountant in
the Columbus Office, is a
spelunker—an explorer of caves.
(See photo, p. 7.) As often as
possible on weekends, Jim and his
wife Judy head for Mammoth Cave
National Park in the hills of
Kentucky where they join a team
of spelunkers involved in an
ambitious program of cave
surveying. At the moment they are
working in the Flint Ridge Cave
System of the park.