Disabled Get an Equal Chance to Make Time

There are any number of dating services using questionnaires and videos and computers, and any number of gimmicks intended to attract a certain kind of clientele. We like, for instance, the one with “millionaire” in the title, even though it was addressed “Dear Occupant.”

Terry-Sue Berg, who’s 39 and divorced, started her own dating service last year in Carlsbad and called it Successful Singles. (Who would want to date an unsuccessful one?) So far, five of the matchups have ended in marriage.

Berg, however, added a twist. A gimmick, perhaps, but a twist nonetheless. She’s got a special division for physically handicapped singles who are out looking for a date or, at least, to expand their circle of friends.

The idea started, she said, when two people, both disabled as a result of crashes involving drunk drivers, came in to sign up with her dating service, looking to expand their horizons beyond the VA Hospital.

So Berg devised a category for handicapped singles, and she thinks it’s unique in San Diego County. We haven’t heard otherwise.

It turns out, Berg said, that several non-handicapped people with her dating agency don’t mind dating people who get around in wheelchairs, so she’s working especially hard on those sorts of matchups.

In charge of the division is Angie Perino, 27, of Vista, who is herself a paraplegic and who says she is sensitive to the special social and dating needs of fellow handicapped.

“We get tired of gardening,” she said, laughing. “You can only garden so much.”

City Goes Shopping

The San Diego City Council went shopping last week for some new goodies. Here are your tax dollars at work:

A “Class A” motor home, modified to serve as a Fire Department command and communications vehicle, brought a low bid of $79,383.40, including tax and terms.

If you think high-tech mobile communications can be expensive, how about this: a 1987 model beach refuse packer (a garbage truck to you and me), for $110,000.

Escondido Noise Dispute

The Escondido City Council has agreed, although hardly unanimously, to spend $37,397 for a noise-making machine at its new City Hall.

This particular machine, it seems, creates “white noise,” described as environmental background noise sounding something like mellow sshhishing coming from an air-conditioning vent. This is acceptable noise, designed to soothe over ringing telephones, tapping computer keyboards and office chitchat in large offices. “White noise” improves office efficiency, the experts say.

Mayor Jim Rady disagreed with the concept. “I can’t be convinced that the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence would have been better if there was a buzz in the background,” Rady said.

In particularly large and noisy offices, the white noise can be made louder. Then it’s called “pink noise.”

Money-Grubbing 101

The graduating class from San Diego State University’s business school was so large this year that commencement tickets were rationed, four per student. And leave it to our future capitalists to adapt to the situation. Students with extra tickets scalped them for as much as $10 each.

Wait’ll Next Month

Some Caltrans workers in San Diego did a double take when they received what seemed to be quite a formal memo from a major muckety-muck in Sacramento. Titled “Restroom Trip Policy,” the policy memo said Caltrans employees would be permitted 20 restroom trips per month, which could be accumulated from month to month.

Restroom entrances would be equipped, the memo said, with “personnel identification stations” complete with computerized voice-print identifiers.

Each Caltrans employee is instructed, the memo continued, to submit two voice prints--one under normal conditions, and one under stress--to personnel.

If an employee exhausted all 20 restroom trips in a month, he would lose access to the restroom until the beginning of the next month.

Furthermore, “all restroom stalls are being equipped with timed paper roll retractors. If the stall is occupied for more than three minutes, an alarm will sound. Thirty seconds after the alarm sounds, the roll of paper in the stall will retract, the toilet will flush and the stall door will open.”

The memo carried the signature of Pat Reames, who really is a personnel manager in Sacramento.

“I think,” said local Caltrans spokesman Jim Larson, “it must be a forgery.”