‘Shuttle’ to the Moon--Via McDonald’s
Good old McDonald’s. First they gave us McNuggets, then McDLT. Now it’s McMoon.
In an effort to get spacey, Bob Goldfarb, who runs the McDonald’s at Prairie Avenue and Century Boulevard in Inglewood, has turned the inside of the fast-food restaurant into a simulated space shuttle, McD-1.
As customers enter the dining area, they are welcomed aboard the McD-1 by recordings in English, Spanish, French, Russian and Chinese. Seats at the tables are designed to vibrate, simulating a “liftoff” of the McD-1 shuttle. Large viewing screens show original space footage from the NASA/Johnson Space Lab, Jet Propulsion Laboratory and from the PBS television series “Cosmos,” and additional footage was created especially for the Inglewood McDonald’s.
“This is the first of its kind McDonald’s in the nation,” Goldfarb said at the McD-1 opening last week. “We wanted to do something more than hamburgers and fries. Give the people a look into the future, a taste of tomorrow.”
McFabulous.
The Tooth Fairy Bag
For devoted mothers who collect and record baby’s first smile, first word, baby’s first shoes, golden locks, drawings, cards, school pictures, prom programs, graduation tassels--add something for collecting baby’s teeth. The ingenious tooth fairy took a while, but she has finally invented a tooth fairy bag.
The white felt bag is shaped like, naturally, a tooth and comes with a card so dates and descriptions may be noted. The tooth fairy also promises a reward in exchange for the tooth.
The tooth fairy lives in Arcadia and sells the little bags for $5. For more information write: The Tooth Fairy, 701 First Ave., Arcadia, 91006.
Wearing Flowers for Peace
On Mother’s Day, mothers are being asked to stand up and be counted. Cornell University’s Citizens Network is encouraging American and Canadian women to wear a red rose or carnation on Sunday as an appeal for world peace and to show compassion for the Soviet families affected by the Chernobyl nuclear accident.
“This is a simple symbol of the sanity of a world without bombs,” said Joan Bokaer, executive director of the nonprofit nuclear education organization which is part of the Center for Religious Ethics and Social Policy at Cornell. “It is pretty hard to have any illusions of safety as this nuclear cloud is traveling around the world.”
Bokaer, the mother of two children, gave up her job as a first-grade teacher two years ago to lecture to churches, colleges, scientific and community groups around the country on the dangers of nuclear warfare.
Actress Susan Clark, the mother of six children, came up with the idea of asking mothers to wear red flowers on Sunday. Said Clark: “Women are not afraid to be emotional about things they care about, about their families. We have a feeling in our stomachs--’This is wrong.’ ”
Wearing a red flower on Mother’s Day in church or at a restaurant will make others “become aware,” Clark said, “and that is a beginning.”
Pupils Who Need People
A recent nationwide survey found that the average teacher makes $25,000 a year. While teachers may not be overpaid, another survey has discovered they are appreciated, sometimes even loved, by the majority of their students.
California’s Monday Morning Books publishing firm helped sponsor a school essay contest recently in which students from kindergarten through 12th grade from all over the country expressed their feelings about having robot teachers. Of the 10,000 opinions received, 60% rejected the idea.
“A robot wasn’t a little kid once and it wouldn’t understand how hard it can be sometimes,” wrote Lisa Aday, an eighth-grader from Oklahoma and one of the second-place winners. Winners earned computer software for their schools. More girls than boys favored the human touch, as did older students.
Many of the children expressed a concern about a lack of feelings from a robot teacher. The only Southern California winner, Debbie Boyd, an eighth-grader from Thousand Oaks, put it this way in her honorable-mention entry: “I wouldn’t like to have a robot as my teacher. You would learn sufficient amounts of knowledge from both. Teachers have other qualities, though, like understanding and liking you. A computer could never help a person with a personal problem. They would just not understand the problem. It just shows you, man cannot program compassion.”
In the words of Will Green, a fourth-grader from Texas, “People communicate better with their own kind.”
Another eighth-grader, Charlie Gardner from Missouri, was one of the first-place winners. “They (robots) teach with no emotion. This would alter the feelings of men,” he said.
On the other hand, Erik Glass, an eighth-grader from Montana, thought perhaps teachers might need a rest for a couple of years. “They’re getting edgy,” he said. “I think if we had a robot, it would give the teachers some time to refresh their memories.”
Bobby Laboissonniere, a third-grader from Maryland, had another idea: “You could turn it off and play as long as you want. . . . You could call your parents and go home. You wouldn’t have any homework. There is one thing wrong. You wouldn’t get intelligent.”
Singing Son ‘Fixes’ Mom
Because Eleanor Sylvester thinks her son can do anything, “The Mother’s Day Song, Happy Mother’s Day to You” could become tomorrow’s standard.
Sylvester, a former caterer and waitress who lives in Sunland-Tujunga, has been an unsung mother most of her life. But if her son, A.E. Vea of Liberty, Ohio, has anything to say about it, she could become as famous as Whistler’s mother.
It all began last Christmas when Sylvester went back East to spend the holidays with her only child and his family. As they listened to a Christmas album, she told him that he, too, could write songs. She also chastised him for not visiting her more often and for forgetting her birthday.
Vea, a 49-year-old karate instructor, said he decided to “fix her” and started to write a song. But what began as a joke turned into a pretty good song, said Vea, who wrote the music and lyrics, came up with an arrangement and had the record produced in time for Easter. Danny Taylor, a singer from Florida, is the lead vocalist with background singing by Vea and the Youngstown International Kids Chorale.
Vea is the father of five children, including 27-year-old Andrea Vea, who works for the Los Angeles Police Department. His record is available at Pedrini Music, 210 N. Brand Ave., Glendale, 91203.
