Q-and-A on the News

Q: Does President Donald Trump wear glasses?

-- Michael Jones, Brookhaven, Ga.

A: While he isn't often seen wearing them, Trump does wear reading glasses, according to multiple media reports. In a 2015 campaign stop in South Carolina, then-candidate Trump was pictured on CNN wearing reading glasses as he read from The New York Times.

A year later, in August 2016, while reporting on a video deposition by Trump in a lawsuit he had filed against chef Geoffrey Zakarian, CBS News wrote, "When Zakarian's counsel asked Trump to read a portion of the contract out loud to ensure he understood the terms and conditions, the Republican presidential nominee blamed his poor eyesight for not being able to do so."

The story also quoted Trump as saying: "I don't have my eyeglasses on me. I am at a disadvantage because I didn't bring my glasses. This is such small writing."

More recently, Associated Press photographer Andrew Harnik shared on Twitter a photo of the president wearing reading glasses on Oct. 22, 2017, as he left Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia.

Q: I heard of a possible merger between the Campbell Soup Co. and Snyder's-Lance Inc. the other day. Who were the "Campbell," the "Snyder" and the "Lance" of these companies?

-- Lance DeLoach, Thomaston, Ga.

A: The Campbell Soup Co. announced in mid-December it would acquire snack food producer Snyder's-Lance, according to a press release. The food company, formed in 1869 in Camden, New Jersey, is named after Joseph Campbell, a fruit merchant who co-founded the business with Abraham Anderson, an ice box manufacturer.

Snyder's-Lance takes its name from Snyder's of Hanover, the pretzel company that got its start in 1909 when Harry V. Warehime began selling pretzels in Hanover, Pennsylvania, and Philip L. Lance, a North Carolina merchant whose roasted peanut business eventually became Lance Inc.

The Snyder name can be traced to the 1920s, when Eda and Edward Snyder II began selling fried potato chip snacks door-to-door and the family established a bakery in Hanover.

The Snyder family later sold its Hanover plant to the Warehime family's pretzel company. Snyder's of Hanover and Lance Inc. merged in 2010, combining their respective names into a single, hyphenated title.

Q: Were players on the Georgia football team allowed to go back home and stay before the National Championship? Were they allowed to go back to Athens (after Saturday's Media Day at Mercedes-Benz Stadium), and spend the night in their own bed and not have to stay in a hotel?

-- Horace Sanders, Chamblee, Ga.

A: Teams were asked to report to Atlanta on Friday before the College Football Playoff National Championship game. The team stayed in Atlanta the nights of Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, a spokesman for the UGA Athletic Association told Q-and-A on the News.

The team was allowed to bus back to Athens for practice on Saturday and returned to Atlanta the same day. No nights were spent in Athens, the spokesman said.

Alabama beat Georgia 26-23 in overtime for the College Football Playoff National Championship on Jan. 8.

Q: Why does the Army Corps of Engineers drop Allatoona Lake's level some 17 feet and other lakes 1 to 10 feet?

-- Don Techentien, Canton, Ga.

A: "The 17-foot draw-down prior to the wet season increases our flood-storage capacity and improves our ability to reduce flood damages downstream. Allatoona's 17-foot draw-down provides significant benefits for major flood events," Lisa Hunter, chief of public affairs for the Army Corps of Engineers' Mobile District, wrote in an email to Q-and-A on the News.

The Corps' Mobile District manages Allatoona, as well as several other Georgia lakes including Carters Lake, Lake Sidney Lanier, West Point, Walter F. George and George W. Andrews lakes.

Authorized in the early 1940s and created for the purposes of flood control and hydroelectric generation, Allatoona Lake has been in operation since 1950 and is the first reservoir as water flows from the Blue Ridge Mountains, according to the Corps.

"The level of storage space allocated for flood-control storage varies with each project and is usually defined in the project's original authorization," Hunter wrote. "One of Allatoona's major authorized purposes was flood control for downstream communities including Rome, Georgia.

"Other projects, like West Point, have smaller draw-downs, which provide moderate flood risk management benefits," Hunter continued.

Fast Copy News Service wrote this column for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Do you have a question about the news? We'll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a(at)ajc.com (include name, phone and city).

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