If you have the feeling that we...
If you have the feeling that we Southern Californians are besieged with problems--traffic, air quality, crime and the limitations of oat bran, etc.--take heart.
A group is unveiling plans today for “a heavenly community” somewhere in L.A.--a “Maharishi City of Immortals” that is “noise-free, pollution-free, and free from crime and anxiety.”
Even free of Medflies? Perhaps the Maharishi Heaven on Earth Development Corp. will address that issue at its afternoon press conference at the Century Plaza Hotel. Invited to ascend to M.C.O.I. are any “top developers and community leaders” who wish “to participate” (another way of saying “invest”) in a community of nontoxic houses, transcendental meditation schools and “perfect health and prevention centers.”
Prices for a piece of this heaven range from about $300,000 to, well, the sky’s the limit.
L.A. has the honor of being one of 15 communities where the corporation hopes to build a City of Immortals. None are planned in Orange County, probably because that region is already blessed with Irvine, whose official motto is: “Another Day in Paradise.”
Meanwhile, back on planet Earth, a 21-foot-tall, 48-foot-long sand sculpture of famous European buildings recently opened in the Santa Anita Fashion Park mall in Arcadia.
Constructed by Todd Vander Pluym , founder of Sand Sculptors International, the work depicts such landmarks as Big Ben, St. Peter’s Cathedral and Heidelberg Castle.
It’s on display for the rest of the month--come rain or shine. As the mall’s program notes, it’s the world’s largest indoor sand sculpture.
Of Medflies and malathion: A car spotted crawling insect-like through the usual Ventura Freeway jam the other day bore the bumper sticker, “Friends Don’t Let Friends Spray Pesticide.”
Or something like that anyway. It was hard to read through the car’s haze of exhaust.
Is First Interstate having second thoughts about the giant “I’s” that it recently tacked to the crown of the otherwise majestic 73-story tower?
In recent weeks, the Downtown News has published numerous letters from Civic Center workers who said they were angry about a skyline marred by a “company billboard.” One reader even complained that he’d “nearly been blinded by the sun reflecting off those shiny gold” I’s.
Well, they can’t complain about the FIB tower depicted in a large, First Interstate ad placed in this week’s Downtown News. The crown is devoid of “I’s.”
The Greater L.A. Press Club kicked off its 44th year the other night in its current domicile, the L.A. Equestrian Center in Burbank (please, no jokes comparing the products of horses and reporters.)
L.A. Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, the guest speaker, ticked off many of the club’s highlights, including the night the cops seized the organization’s slot machines.
KTLA-TV newsman Stan Chambers, the emcee, recalled the anything-could-happen days of live TV, as exemplified by the time bandleader Spade Cooley delivered a lead-in for what was supposed to be a baby food commercial.
“Mothers, if you’re having trouble with your kids, listen to this message,” he said.
The broadcast then cut away to the studio, where an announcer added:
“Feed ‘em Snairol! It’ll kill the little pests.”
