It’s a Bare-Bones Living but He Makes It Pay Off

Mike N. Costamagna,) 70, who wears a monocle and has a thick mustache and a big laugh, was telling the story about how he began carving soup bones for a living.

“There I was eating my soup,” Costamagna said, “when I came to the soup bone with marrow in it. Well, like so many other young people, I spent some time carving wood. So I thought, ‘Why not soup bones?’ ”

Well, one thing led to another and after a lifetime of work in public relations and as a waiter and bartender, Costamagna found a hobby, happiness and a living at age 50, carving fashionable ornamental jewelry from bones that cooks use to make soup taste great.

“It’s the same as carving ivory, except beef bones are cheaper,” he said, pointing out that there are import restrictions on elephant ivory. But then again, he notes, “There’s not much in the way of a future for a cow anyway.”

He shops for the bones in a Huntington Beach butcher shop, paying about $1 each. He later sells the finished product for $5 and up, and also carves mother-of-pearl sea shells for a change of pace.

Although he can’t document it, Costamagna believes that he’s one of a kind. “I don’t know anyone eles who carves soup bones into jewelry,” he said. His tools are dental drills, self-made small chisels, sandpaper and jeweler’s polish.

The bones he carves are first boiled to remove fat and protein, then placed in the sun to dry to a stark white. “It doesn’t hurt that I also happen to be a good cook,” he said, which is reflected in his ample girth.

Much of Costamagna’s work, especially jewelry, is sold by word of mouth, at artisan shows such as the Laguna Beach Art-A-Fair, and from his apartment, where he does his work. “I’m a walking display case,” said his wife, Heather, 34, who wears his jewelry. But Costamagna is most happy telling acquaintances that many of his carvings are bought by fellow artisans.

Not a bashful man, Costamagna says he is not an artisan. “I’m the artisan,” he said, which is the way his calling card reads.

“I’m trying to revive the art, which extends back to the Stone Age and later by Mayans who produced some magnificent urns and statues,” he said. “A lot of my work is patterned after Mayan art,” he added, on which he claims extensive research.

But why does he wear a monocle? “It’s prescription,” he said, but with a smile, added: “It does attract attention, doesn’t it?”

Wouldn’t you know an employee group at McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Co. in Huntington Beach would come up with a $6 “Out-of-This-World Cookbook” to help a “down-to-earth” group dedicated to finding missing children.

“So far,” spokeswoman Barbara Morata said, “we’ve sold 2,500 of the 5,000 we had printed.” Most of the sales, however, were to company workers. Now Morata would like to find others to buy the book to aid the financially ailing Laura Bradbury Organization for Stranger Abducted Children, the only beneficiary of the cookbook sale.

“The sale not only helps them but the recipes are really great,” said Morata. How does she know? “Some of them are mine,” she answered.

Call (714) 896-5285 to order a cookbook.

Besides giving 8-year-old William Fife of Anaheim a $50 reward, Alex Castillo, 61, of Anaheim had these kind words for the lad who found his wallet containing $1,400 in cash and returned it to him: “He’s a wonderful little boy.”

Teaching the three Rs these days means Reach, Run and Roll in Carol MacGregor’s sixth-grade physical education classes at Sowers Middle School in Huntington Beach. She believes most elementary-school children are out of shape.

But not the kids in her classes. Four days a week they get tough workouts and the fifth day they get classroom instruction on the value of exercise.

MacGregor, 41, is really the role model. She hardly looks her age, no doubt from her five-times-a-week exercise regimen plus an aerobics class and twice-weekly evening workouts at a gym.

“Most parents think their children get plenty of exercise, but that’s not really true,” said MacGregor, of Huntington Beach. “Children in elementary school only spend 10 minutes a day running around. The rest of the time they just sit and stand.”

“The people you see jogging, running and riding bikes,” she notes, “are 20 and older.”

Acknowledgments--Librarian Paulette D. Triay, after being named the City of Fullerton’s Manager of the Year and then retiring after 20 years with the Fullerton Public Library, reflected that she has often thought of her career as a librarian this way: “Next to marrying my husband (Allen), this was the best thing I ever did for myself.”