Praising Crawdads and Corn

From the land and sea and from all of California come festivals celebrating, well, everything from garlic to the Brussels sprout. The California Department of Food and Agriculture lists more than 100 of them, designed to create new interest in a variety of foods and wines and in the places up and down California where they are produced.

Part entertainment, part marketing, these festivals seem to be a favorite of small towns.

Isleton (pop. 914), located south of Sacramento, will host the Crawdad Festival next month, May 10-12. Coachella has the King Korn Karnival coming up May 5-15, celebrating the harvest sweet corn. Then there’s Monterey’s Great Squid Festival the weekend of May 28-29, Gilroy’s summer garlic festival July 29-31 and the Delicato Winery Grape Stomp in Manteca on Sept. 5.

And of course you don’t want to miss next Saturday in Petaluma. It’s Butter and Eggs Day. The Book on Karcher

There’s nothing like a few headlines to create a best-seller.

At Michael Nutter’s garage sale the other day, hard-bound copies of “RN” by Richard M. Nixon and Henry Kissinger’s “The White House Years” went for 50 cents. But the real rush was for five copies of a slightly lesser-known work. According to Nutter, bargain hunters shelled out $5 a piece for five copies of “Making It Happen,” a privately printed, 141-page paperback that tells “The Story of Carl Karcher Enterprises.”

Nutter picked up the books--which the company gives away as a promotional tool--when he was the company’s real estate manager in 1986. But after the Securities and Exchange Commission filed an insider trading lawsuit against founder Carl N. Karcher, the book’s stock apparently has gone up. “People walked right by signed lithographs, imported art and designer flatware,” Nutter said. “The book was the first thing that went.”

In fact, Nutter was scouring his San Pedro garage last week for more copies.

Case of the Bogus Buyback

It was just a test. MCA, the parent of Universal Pictures, was just trying to find out how quickly a new computer in Los Angeles could relay a fake press release to the firm’s New York office.

But in New York, the bogus news item was inadvertently sent to Dow Jones New Service, announcing that MCA’s board had approved the repurchase of 10 million shares.

It was late Friday, so the Dow wire was unable to correct it until last Monday--too late for USA Today and other publications that failed to double check with the company. Then Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported the buyback in its “Abreast of the Market” column. Finally, the Journal laid the story to rest on the fifth day of its ill-starred life with, what else? A correction.

The Problem Is Behind Him

This is a story of seat-of-the-pants management.

The blades that mix the famous clear soap in huge vats at Neutrogena’s plant in Los Angeles have rounded edges, instead of the usual sharp ones.

That’s because 30 years ago a young worker named Lloyd E. Cotsen stripped off his clothes and climbed into a vat to shovel out a batch of soap that was too thick. Bending over, he got nicked in the seat of the pants, to put it politely.

Cotsen no longer climbs in and out of vats; he is president and chief executive of the company. But he is proud to point out that all of the blades have rounded edges.

Preference for Giant Dwarfs

The Giant warehouse stores owned by Ralphs Grocery Co. did not exactly get a morale boost from soon-to-be owner Robert Campeau, the Toronto developer who gets Ralphs as part of his purchase of Federated Department Stores.

Having toured both a 37,000-square- foot Ralphs in Manhattan Beach and a Giant in Harbor City nearly twice as big, he said: “Personally, I prefer the small ones.” Perhaps that’s why an expansion of the 15-unit Giant chain isn’t in the works, although the company plans to add 20 Ralphs stores in the next two years.