From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Aug. 29, 1988:

• About 2,500 music lovers and music-makers had gathered in Lawrence on a recent Sunday for the eighth annual Kansas State Picking and Fiddling Championships. More than 50 musicians and groups had participated in eight divisions in the event in South Park. “The weather was beautiful, The competition was stiff,” said Steve Mason, one of the organizers of the yearly event. “Better and better musicians are coming to the contest.” Top winners included the Alferd Packer Memorial Trio, fiddler Junior Marriot from Stover, Mo., banjo player Simon Danborg of Emporia, and Larry Lintner of Gardner on mandolin.
• Donald Trump, major news organizations, senators, and political candidates and their staff were all described as relying heavily on the latest office device — the telephone facsimile machine, or “fax,” described as a “breadbox-sized gizmo that makes sending a letter as easy as dialing the phone.” A spokesman for a national political campaign said that it was the most important piece of office equipment that they had, while a staff member for his candidate’s opponent added, “When our computer goes down, we’re inconvenienced. But when our fax machine isn’t working, we’re in deep doo-doo.” The 1988 machines, which transmitted documents “at speeds as fast as 12 seconds a page,” were in a fair way to render obsolete the full-time motorcycle couriers once used by big news corporations to pick up film and press releases.