Advertisement

Reuters news agency knew what readers elsewhere...

Share

Reuters news agency knew what readers elsewhere in the world would want to hear about Wednesday afternoon’s earthquake.

The wire service reported near the start of one bulletin that the temblor “created waves in swimming pools of stars in Beverly Hills and Malibu.”

The L.A. City Council was in session when the quake struck, by the way.

That’s right: The day the members hammered out an ethics reform bill, the earth moved.

Winner of this quake’s Kent Shocknek Award was Ed Edelman, chairman of the county Transportation Commission.

Advertisement

“Everyone under the table,” Edelman yelled.

Then, emulating the on-air move of KNBC Channel 4’s Shocknek during the Whittier quake, Edelman dove for cover.

None of the other commission members followed suit.

Even before Wednesday’s jolt there have been some tremors on the Eastside, where U.S. Rep. Matthew (Marty) Martinez appears to be having trouble with the hired help. Local politicos were chuckling over reports that the temperamental Montebello Democrat has fired four staff members in the last 18 months.

One axed aide, who may have political aspirations of his own, walked off with some Rolodexes that contained important phone numbers.

Martinez, who recovered the items but is said to have changed the locks at his Montebello office, was in no mood to talk when a Times reporter asked him about the Rolodex roundup.

“Who told you about that?” he asked. “I hope it wasn’t somebody in our office.”

He added that the incident “was a personnel matter. We have taken care of it in-house. I’ve been advised by my lawyers not to talk about it further.”

Boston Mayor Ray Flynn missed all the fun by leaving L.A. the day before the quake. But he did get to visit the scenes of two street shootings in the area on Tuesday.

Advertisement

Flynn spent the day with a sheriff’s anti-gang unit, explaining that he was seeking guidance on how authorities should deal with street violence.

Is it an insult, or a compliment, that he chose L.A. over Miami?

Barbara Pierce, a transplanted New Yorker, suffered a different kind of jolt the other day.

She was a passenger in a car that was rear-ended by a Cadillac on Palos Verdes Drive.

During the subsequent exchange of insurance info, Pierce and her companion received impromptu neck massages from the Cadillac driver.

“I saw you grab your neck (after the accident),” the motorist explained.

Pierce hasn’t gotten over it yet--not the accident, the idea of a roadside rub.

In New York a driver would be more likely to clutch another’s neck.

We know that standards of excellence seem to be falling in our society. Still, it was shocking for a county Beaches Department brochure to say that youths wishing to be junior lifeguards need to swim 100 yards in about 1 1/2 hours. That’s sort of a long time to tread water while waiting to be rescued.

After a staffer realized that they should have said 1 1/2 minutes , the county recalled as many of the brochures as it could find.

Otherwise, the junior lifeguards would be giving new meaning to the swimming term crawl .

Advertisement