People and Events

Early this century, author H.L. Mencken visited Southern California and complained afterward: “The whole place stank of orange blossoms.”

His nose probably wouldn’t recognize it today.

Nowhere are oranges mentioned in the official 1988 Crop and Livestock Report for Los Angeles County--and there’s a simple reason.

“Orange groves just don’t exist here anymore for commercial purposes,” said E. Leon Spaugy, the county agricultural commissioner. “My staff mentioned a while back that there was one grove they were familiar with, but I’m not even sure it exists.”

Spaugy, who attributed the disappearance to such factors as air pollution, the rising value of land and the increasing cost of water and packing, pointed out that the fruit is also being squeezed out of another region with an outdated name--Orange County.

Which isn’t to say that Southern California has shed its rural character.

Crop and livestock production in Los Angeles County amounted to $295 million in 1988. And the annual report lists among the county’s inhabitants 24 million chickens, 32,500 horses, 10,000 hogs and 20,792 sheep (not including freeway commuters).

Sign in a barbecue restaurant in Long Beach: “No Credit to Lawyers, Preachers, Surfers.”

You may recall that nine months ago, Harley (Lou) Cobb, a 56-year-old Pasadena widower, set out a sign on his front lawn that expressed his desire to meet an “attr. lady (40-60)” for “friendship . . . maybe more.” He also posted his phone number.

Among the hundreds of calls received by Cobb, a retired facial therapist, were four sight-unseen marriage proposals, which he rejected. He had one early false alarm--a romance that lasted only five days--then went on “more than 50 dates” with other applicants.

Now he’s sure he’s found Miss Right.

“I know what Chicken Little meant about the sky falling down,” Cobb said. “The instant I saw her, I knew she was the one.”

She’s a 43-year-old widow who also lives in Pasadena. “She’s a great cook,” Cobb said. “Boy, can she cook.”

They plan to marry June 17 in Las Vegas. Cobb and his fiancee formalized their commitment by taking down his sign.

He said they’ve known each other for about a week.

Residents in Monrovia used a construction crew’s 70-foot-tall scaffolding equipment recently to remove a cat from the top of a palm tree, where it had been meowing for four nights. Fire and animal authorities had been reluctant to handle the job themselves because of the dangers that a rescue attempt would entail.

Besides, as a veteran humane worker once told a Times reporter:

“I’ve been in this job for 25 years and I’ve never found a cat’s skeleton in a tree.”