Odds & Trends

LITER BEATER

Since Jan. 1, when wine and liquor bottlers began observing a federal mandate to switch to metric measurement, the cost of boozing has been confusing. Pints, fifths, quarts, half-gallons and gallons are being replaced in stores by new-size bottles. The quart, for instance, is being supplanted by a container holding 1 liter (a good slurp more than the old bottle); a half-gallon jug of vino now comes in a 1.5-liter size, while the half-gallon of hard stuff has become a 1.75-liter container. Judging the better buy between sizes is enough to drive an Einstein to drink. A handy tool to avert befuddlement is "The Liquor & Wine Pocket Saver," a small slide rule that compares prices in both standard and metric sizes. Example: if the old quart of one whisky brand went for $15.14, the 1.75-liter bottle should cost $27.99, the 4-liter model $63.95. At many liquor stores, Pocket $aver is on the house, plus $2.

RAPEREPELLER

N-butyl mercaptan is a light petroleum liquid whose skunklike odor is so foul that it is used for detecting leaks in natural-gas pipelines. Now a Texas entrepreneur named J.W. Small is promoting it as a rape repellent. Rapel, as his $9.95 product is called, is an inch-long plastic cylinder that contains a fragile glass ampoule of the obnoxious fluid. The pencil-thick device can be clipped to the inside of a dress, bra or nightgown; when pressed lightly, the ampoule breaks, releasing the ardor-killing odor. One rape crisis expert frets that Rapel "lulls the user into a false sense of security." Perhaps, but another drawback has already been solved: each package comes with a container of a neutralizing fluid that quickly dissipates the smell.

TRIP TIPPER

One of the last remaining travel bargains is a book: Eurail Guide (How to Travel Europe and All the World by Train). The 1980 edition ($9.95) describes worthwhile trips in 115 countries and details more than 50 cut-rate fares. Examples: the 1,500-mile trip from Buenos Aires to Valparaiso for $9.50, the 2,780-mile jog from Montreal to Vancouver for $35. Great stuff for train buffs, the book gives departure and arrival times for more than 9,000 rail trips worldwide, with specifics about en route scenery and service (on the Peking-Shanghai run an acupuncturist is available), as well as advice on tour planning. Authors Marvin L. Saltzman and Kathryn Saltzman Muileman even log the World's Longest Train Ride, an 8,000-mile odyssey from Lisbon across Siberia to Khabarovsk that officially takes 218 hours and on the Saltzman and Muileman trip was only 2 1/2 hours late.

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