Odds & Trends

DENT-A-CAR

A rental car should look as if it had just wafted in from the assembly line, right? Not necessarily. There is one national outfit that actually prides itself on hiring out autos that are up to ten years old and often look it. The network, sardonically named Rent-A-Wreck, charges only $11.95 to $14.95 a day for its standard cars, depending on location. They are mechanically sound and clean, though they may sport a dent or two. (Avis' shiny, new-model cars, by comparison, can cost up to $64 a day in some cities.) Rent-A-Wreck has 120 franchised outlets nationwide, and is adding two a week. Says Founder Dave Schwartz, a former Los Angeles used-car salesman: "You drive a used car at home. The only difference is that ours are a little more used." And a lot more cheap.

NO QUESTION

For teen-age couples in Denver, the outcome of a date can be settled in advance.

Girls--and some boys--have taken to wearing lapel buttons inscribed NO. This flat statement may make for flat evenings, but the Catholic Archdiocese of Denver and a group for unwed mothers, which are distributing the buttons to students, report that the nay signs are catching on.

They are promoting the buttons with radio spots and a comic strip ad in Spanish and English that shows youngsters debating dating strategy. In case a boy doesn't get the message, one wag suggests that the coed can always remove the pin and make her point in another way.

WATER AND OIL

Like Moliere's M. Jourdain, who discovered to his astonishment that he had been speaking prose all his life, New Yorkers have learned that their ordinary tap water deserves an appellation controlee label.

According to Consumer Reports, the 1.4 billion gal. a day of H2O that gush through the city's faucets are fresher, clearer and "more stimulating" than all 37 varieties of commercial bottled water tested. For those who insist on decanting their liquids, Macy's is even selling the stuff with a spritz of carbonation under the gold label: CELEBRATED NEW YORK WATER --THE DRINK OF MILLIONS. The price:

$2.25 per 28 fluid oz., vs. 95-c- for an equivalent quantity of Perrier, and 1.50 for the same amount of water taken directly, uncarbonated, from the tap. The store says it is getting orders for its version of Big Apple juice from hydrophiles as far away as Miami and Houston.

Houstonians may be more interested in another newly bottled product: oil. Packaged in classic Bordeaux and Burgundy bottles, the black gold selections include Abu Dhabi Premium '59 ("rich and full-bodied, extraordinarily spirited"), Ghawar Valley Saudi Arabian Light '73 ("lively, complex, rich yet lean") and, for connoisseurs of domestic oilages, Texas Heavy Crude '78 ("ready for immediate enjoyment").

Bottled by San Francisco's Gusher Oil Co., the creation of a former restaurateur named David Collins, the premium petroleums are available for spot orders at fashionable department stores across the country at $8 a fifth, vs. roughly two bits for a fifth of a gallon of gasoline, minus the packaging. Though the bouquet leaves much to be desired, the body and rich color are admirable. A sound addition to cellar or garage.

GUNS FOR HIRE

For some 55,000 card-carrying members of Jim Day's 26-acre Garland Public Shooting Range outside Dallas, happiness is blasting away at junked cars with a choice of five makes of submachine gun.

A .45-cal. Thompson with 50 rounds of ammo rents for $26. Given the Thompson's firing rate of 30 rounds per 2 sec., the gunner gets less than four seconds' worth of ear-battering bliss. Entrepreneur Day is permitted by federal authorities to sell the machine guns, which cost from $500 to $3,000. For better or worse, he has found 100 buyers in three years. Day, who is convinced that the U.S. faces an impending wave of terrorism, also believes that machine-gun slinging will find nationwide acceptance as a sport. "People go bowling or skiing or skydiving," he says. "This is just another thrill."

Local police are not so euphoric.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.