Taffies Plug In to Modern Technology, Professor Says

--There have been hippies, the alienated youth of the 1960s; yippies, the self-styled young radical activists of the Youth International Party; and yuppies, young urban professionals. Now there are taffies--technologically advanced families. Computer buffs with other electronic equipment such as videocassette recorders and satellite dishes are part of the new group making up an estimated 10% of North Carolina households, says William R. Oates, a visiting associate professor of journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “We found that taffies tend to have higher incomes and better educations than non-taffies,” Oates said. “They tend to be married and live in urban areas, have school-age children and are more likely to go to the library and to read news magazines.” Taffies also don’t like rock music, take lots of vacations and are more likely than other groups to drink alcoholic beverages, Oates said.

--Chrysler Corp. Chairman Lee A. Iacocca married advertising executive Peggy Johnson in a private ceremony at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York and the couple left to honeymoon at a secret location. Iacocca, 61, and Johnson, 35, had been engaged for more than a year. “They’ve been dating for a few years now,” Iacocca’s daughter, Kathryn Lisa, told Cable News Network after the ceremony. “She’s a great lady--very nice, outgoing, upbeat person.” Iacocca’s first wife, Mary, died in 1983.

--Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as children’s story writer Dr. Seuss, has been invited by Mayor Richard E. Neal of Springfield, Mass., to return to his native city on May 20 to help celebrate the city’s 350th birthday. The creator of “The Cat in the Hat” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” will take a tour down the avenue he made famous in “And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street.”

--Montgomery, Ala., the city where Rosa Parks once refused to give up her bus seat so a white man could sit has decided to name a street after the black civil rights activist. Residents in the mostly black area surrounding the street have protested the action, however. About 10 people from the Cleveland Avenue area have appeared at a Montgomery City Council meeting to ask that a council decision to rename the street to Rosa L. Parks Avenue be reconsidered. Ella Bell said property owners had not been consulted about the name change. She said she did not necessarily oppose the switch, but instead wanted time to gauge public opinion on the issue.