Move over, Dave Letterman, the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau has once again compiled its annual list of the "1993 Top Ten Strange Visitor Questions," and it contains some beauties.
The bureau is referring to strange questions, of course, not strange visitors, although maybe it takes a strange visitor to ask a strange question and visitors are usually strangers. Whatever.Jeri Cartwright, communications director for the bureau, said the list was compiled from questions asked of its 68 volunteers who staff the bureau's visitors centers.
The volunteers, called "information specialists," answer visitors' questions throughout the year at three bureau centers: on the grounds of the Salt Palace, inside Terminal 2 at Salt Lake International Airport and near Saltair at the Great Salt Lake.
Every December, the bureau hosts a luncheon to thank the volunteers for their work, estimated to total 8,700 hours this year. The total of visitors served at the centers during 1993 is estimated at more than 400,000.
Here, in descending Letterman style, are the top 10 strange visitor questions for 1993:
10. "Don't the Mormons dress only in black and white?"
9. Commenting on the salt flats, a visitor was heard to report, "That's where Chuck Yeager set the land speed record on the X-15."
8. "Can you tell me where the jet stream is coming from?"
7. Looking over wildlife postcards in a gift shop, a visitor asked, "Do you paint your bears?"
6. A visitor asked to see some American Indians and was directed by a bureau volunteer to the Indian Walk-In Center, a community services center. He shortly returned and complained that "the Indians were dressed in Levi's and T-shirts."
5. "Do you have shoe stores in Salt Lake?"
4. "Can I get a cup of coffee in Salt Lake?"
3. A visitor told a volunteer at the bureau's visitors center at 200 S. West Temple that he wanted to see the Salt Palace. The volunteer sent him outside for a look at the large building right behind the visitors center. The man stormed back in and informed the volunteer huffily, "There's no palace out there!"
2. A man walked into the airport visitors center and stared at the state map. "Where is the town of Bourbon?" he asked the volunteer. "I don't believe there is a Bourbon, Utah," she replied. "Utah!" he gasped. "Isn't this St. Louis?" He was last seen running back down the D concourse.
1. Pointing to the Wasatch Mountains, a visitor inquired, "What's all that white stuff? Salt?"