When the Lady Decides That’s It, That’s It
It’s springtime, when thoughts of love fill the air, and so it was that Dillon and Mulinda--a pair of black rhinos at the San Diego Zoo--chose to manifest what comes oh so naturally.
The Sunday-afternoon crowd of zoo visitors watched shamelessly as Dillon, standing atop his monumental tippie-toes, and Mulinda enjoyed several minutes of breathless intimacy.
But alas, enough was enough, and when Mulinda’s connubial instincts were sated, she didn’t wiggle her ears or lower her snout or roll over in the dirt. Dillon might have preferred such subtlety.
Rather, she rumbled through the pair’s enclosure, slowly gathering speed, and--with Dillon unavoidably in tow--ran for the low, arched walkway at the rear of the enclosure.
Mulinda ducked. Dillon didn’t.
Dillon, high and mighty, took a hard blow both to his horn and his pride, and collapsed onto all fours as Mulinda waddled away, a free lady.
The onlookers took due note of the maneuver, and more women than men applauded.
Just Came to Talk
No one on Robinson Avenue in Hillcrest much liked George Van Dieken ) except maybe Helen Hostetler-Arzaga, who had been his postal letter carrier for five or six years.
“He was a gruff old German, and it took him almost a year to warm up to me,” Hostetler-Arzaga said. “One day when it was real hot I asked him if I could take a drink out of his hose and he invited me in for a glass of water.”
The following day and from that day on, he had a pitcher of iced tea ready for her. She began spending her last 10-minute break of the day on his front porch, talking to him.
They became the best of friends. Van Dieken attended her wedding and became known as “Papa” to the couple’s two children. They would call him every night at 8 to say good night. The family took him to plays and out to dinner; at Christmas time, they would bring a tree to his home and help him decorate it.
Van Dieken, a widower, passed away last year at the age of 86; he had no immediate family, and willed his entire estate, including the house, to Hostetler-Arzaga and her husband, Dan Arzaga.
“My mouth must have dropped to the ground when he told me I was going to be the executor and sole heir to his estate,” she said. To her objections, he answered, “Shut up. I can give it to whoever I want to. You’ve never asked me for anything. You didn’t look to see what I had when you visited me, you just came to talk.”
In August, the young family will move into Van Dieken’s home on Robinson Avenue, and she’ll sit on the front porch and sip iced tea.
Getting the Word Out
In our Department of Education, these two items:
- Laura Brown, a fourth-grader at La Jolla’s Country Day, was one of 150 students at a science fair who sent helium balloons aloft, their names and addresses on a postcard dangling on the string.
Her balloon was discovered the next day, half-inflated, dancing on a Kansas farm field 1,500 miles away.
- In an era where television is blamed for making an educationally lazy video generation, maybe you’ll see some irony here: MiraCosta College is joining 1,000 or so community and technical colleges and school districts around the country for a conference on illiteracy. It’ll be a tele-conference, with the panel members being video-fed onto 1,000 screens around the country from a studio in Washington.
Ladies’ Drawing Room
Jill Crusey, who teaches advanced research at United States International University, had some of her graduate students double-check some national research on graffiti by studying local bathroom walls.
Some 40 local restaurants were selected, ranging from all-night coffee shops to the decidely upscale George’s at the Cove in La Jolla. In virtually every eatery, there was more graffiti in the women’s room than the men’s. It verified the national findings. The women’s artwork was somewhat more tasteful than men’s, with the ladies leaning heavily toward flowers, clouds and hearts, Crusey’s students found. And the women’s notations were more poetic and romantic, they found.
The caliber of the joint didn’t affect the caliber of the graffiti, the students found. “The graffiti crossed classes,” Crusey said. “There was no relevancy to how much you paid for dinner.”
Sweets to the Swiss
Finally, these items, about food in Escondido.
- T.J. Cinnamons and the Muffin Break sweeteries are co-tenants in a building that also features, appropriately enough, an exercise salon called Body Shapers.
- The Chez Orleans restaurant’s latest coupon special instructs the patron to present it “to your waitperson.”
- We’re not sure what ethnic leanings to assign this restaurant. The new La Jolla Seafood Co. (which is not in La Jolla but in Escondido) says in an ad that it offers “Swiss & Italian Cuisine.” So we’ll let you figure it out: This week’s special is mahi mahi.
