I’ll Drink to That, Whatever It Means
Service America Corp. is not ready to give up the right to sell beer after the seventh inning at Padres games.
Company Vice President George Karetas, in a recent letter to city officials, pinned the blame for drunken behavior and fan violence on tailgaters who have conducted lengthy warm-up sessions in the stadium parking lot, not the people buying beer after singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the seventh-inning stretch. Instead of cutting beer sales, he wants police and stadium management to “discourage the practice” of tailgating, saying that because of the “permissive drinking of revelers,” some tailgaters “are in no condition to watch a game.”
Karetas might be right about some of the tailgaters. But it is up to the Stadium Authority, which will decide the issue Sept. 5, to judge whether late-inning beer patrons are sober, casual imbibers or potential problem drunks.
To assist them, “San Diego at Large” turned to the World Health Organization for a one-sentence definition of problem drinking that would be simple enough for any layman at the ballgame to understand. The esteemed doctors warn that late-inning beer (or any other kind of alcohol ingestion) is inappropriate when it can be described as: “Any form of drinking which in extent goes beyond the traditional and customary dietary use, or the ordinary compliance with the social customs of the community concerned, irrespective also of the etiological factors leading to such behavior, and irrespective also of the extent to which such etiological factors are dependent upon heredity, constitution, or acquired pathological and metabolic influences.”
Kick that one around with the fans next time you’re waiting in the beer line.
And On Your Right . . .
There’s good news for all of you who have been waiting for just the right time to take that outing to Chula Vista that you’ve been putting off for so long. The City of Chula Vista has inaugurated a gala tour that, in two short hours, somehow manages to visit all of the city’s attractions--downtown, City Hall, the bayfront, Bonita, even the Otay Valley Road Redevelopment Area.
The tours will be offered once each month for the bargain price of $2 or $2.50 per person, depending on the number of people who sign up. As a special attraction, members of the Chula Vista City Council narrate the tours and conduct question-and-answer sessions about city government afterward.
Mark Cox, the city’s public information coordinator, said that August’s tour, held Friday, was a rousing success. Councilman Leonard Moore was the leader of the first tour group, composed mostly of senior citizens. No word yet on whether tour bus companies plan to horn in on this potential gold mine, or whether Arthur Frommer has yet completed the “Chula Vista on $5 a Day” guidebook.
A New Caped Crusader
The City Council forked over a salary of more than $102,000 to hire Sy Murray as San Diego’s new city manager, and it’s clear they’re expecting a lot from him.
Last week, as a City Council committee puzzled over a complicated zoning issue, Councilman Bill Mitchell sniped, “This looks like a job for Clark Kent from Cincinnati--Clark Kent Murray.”
Murray is not telling whether he will wear a cape today for his formal introduction to the San Diego press. But his superpowers will be tested Sept. 9, his first day on the job, if not before. That day, at his first council meeting, Murray will be faced with one of those complicated issues on which politicians expect bureaucratic technocrats like Murray to have instant answers--the award of the city’s medical services contract.
Rees-Stealy Medical Group and Industrial Medical Group, which are expected to share the contract, have engaged some heavy-hitting lobbyists--Nancy MacHutchin, the former fund-raiser for Mayor Roger Hedgecock, and attorney J. Michael McDade, the mayor’s former chief of staff, are working for Rees-Stealy; big-name lawyers Louis Wolfsheimer and James Milch for IMG. Hedgecock couldn’t suppress a laugh when he noted that Murray would have to deal with the medical contract on his first day. “Well, we’ll all see what he’s made of,” Hedgecock said.
Cutting Your Throat
Could you be committing voice suicide? Dr. Morton Cooper of the UCLA Medical Center thinks so.
Cooper, who has served as a voice coach to Anne Bancroft, Joan Rivers, Cheryl Ladd, Lucille Ball, Kirk Douglas, O.J. Simpson, Diahann Carroll and Henry Fonda, warns that 25% of us misuse our voices enough to imperil our health, and another 25% “have voices so unattractive that they are social and professional liabilities.”
But fear not. Cooper, who will hold an Aug. 17 UC San Diego Extension seminar titled “Voice Make Overs--Change Your Voice, Change Your Life,” assures us that 98% of the population can have “star-quality” voices. With his help, of course.
Cooper says he is a beneficiary of voice reform. Back in 1948, he determined that his voice sounded like “high nasal, with a heavy New York accent,” so he decided to use lower, more dulcet tones. Initially, Cooper says he used improper voice techniques and was appalled when his new baritone voice, which women found “manly,” began to disappear. To find out how he got it back, you’ll have to pay $85 for his seminar.
