What’s up with that?

By RACHEL HERGETT Chronicle Staff Writer

A casino by any other name

The Livingston Pizza Hut at 1319 W. Park Street was quite a bit smaller as of Thursday, having given over its existing dining space to the new Yellowstone Charlie’s Gaming Parlor.

According to Pizza Hut’s area general manager, Jeff Pearce, “gaming parlor” is a souped-up name for what most would call a casino with 20 machines. The owners just “like the sound of it better than casino.”

As a result of the new casino, the Livingston Pizza Hut will no longer offer its signature buffet or on-site dining, but will still be slinging pizzas.

“Most of our business was carryout and delivery anyway,” Pearce said.

Yellowstone Charlie’s is using the existing site beverage license, which allowed for gaming, a gold mine that had, until last week, not been exploited, he said.

The dual use allows Pizza Hut customers to have their pie and eat it, too.

“It’s keeping us open, and that’s a good thing,” Pearce said.

The new use for the space may even be good for the takeout business.

“You can have a beer and play on the machines while you wait for your pizza,” Pearce said.

Or, if you are old enough, you can eat your pizza in the gaming parlor.

One thing is for sure, Pearce made clear: “It won’t be happening in Bozeman.”

Do drink the water

Despite the studies about bisphenol A, or BPA, leaching in polycarbonate plastic bottles, K.C. Lewis, a sales associate at Northern Lights still uses her classic Nalgene water bottle.

“They’re more durable and come in a wider variety of colors,” she said. “I drank out of it for 10 years and nothing’s happened to me.”

And according to two U.S.-based plastic bottle manufacturers, CamelBak and Nalgene, polycarbonate water bottles are safe, and the amount of BPA released from the plastic is well below established safety standards. They are not recalling their products.

The American Council on Science and Health has even called “water bottles cause cancer” the No. 10 scare in the Top 10 Unfounded Health Scares of 2007.

Yet, both Nalgene and CamelBak have switched the plastic in their bottles so as to label new products BPA-free.

Other companies seem to be cashing in on consumer aversion to plastics.

Sigg, a Swiss manufacturer of aluminum bottles that guarantees 0.0 percent leaching, stopped selling the product off its own Web site in May due to excessive demand. A letter on the site states this is partially due to consumers’ search for a safe alternative to plastic.

According to Lewis, Northern Lights is still selling existing stock of polycarbonate bottles, but they haven’t been very popular in the past few months.

“Right now (the plastic scare) is all the rage and people are kind of like, ‘Oh, God, I’ve got to get rid of them,’” she said. “People don’t go for Nalgenes, they go right for Siggs.”

For more information on plastic bottles and alternatives, visit the American Chemistry Council Web site at http://www.bisphenol-a.org/; or the American Council on Science and Health’s Web site at http://www.acsh.org/publications/pubID.1659/pub_detail.asp

This could be like “Jeopardy,” but questions must come first. Send them to Rachel Hergett at rhergett@dailychronicle.com or call 582-2603.

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