Warning: You’ve now begun reading a quarantined...
Warning: You’ve now begun reading a quarantined column containing several medfly items. Please do not eat any fruit.
The latest group to be targeted for discounts by hotels?
Malathion refugees.
Those fleeing the Medfly bombers can find sanctuary in the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza near Los Angeles International Airport, which has begun offering a daily malathion rate of $89 during the week and $74 on weekends on its $116 rooms.
“Our sales people thought of it,” said spokeswoman Debi Bishop. “They’re always thinking of new ways to get business and new markets to go after.”
Bishop added that the Holiday Inn, which had no takers on the first day, will not demand proof of refugee status, such as sticky car covers.
Near one impact zone, a Sunset Boulevard carwash recently posted this sign:
“Our spray is malathion-less. All of our flies are sterile.”
Besides offering new commercial possibilities, Medflies have inspired a new body of literature.
The winner of this week’s Malathion Poetry Contest:
Paul Chavez of Eagle Rock, for “King Malathion”:
O malathion,
Thou rule the night.
For when you fall,
We hide from sight.
Notice: You are now leaving the Malathion section of this column. You may eat fruit if you wish.
Drugs, crime, drop-outs, and teen-age pregnancies might still be problems in our schools. But one deficiency has been eliminated.
“Responding to the lack of resource material about Australia in U.S. schools,” a press release says, “Tourism South Australia and the South Australian Film Industry have joined forces to provide free information packages . . . for Los Angeles schools.”
From Our Just-One-of-Those-Days File:
A 2-year-old girl, left momentarily with her 1-year-old brother in the family car with the engine running, shifted the gears into neutral, sending the machine rolling across a four-lane street and into an apartment building in San Dimas while their 8 1/2-month pregnant mother gave chase, the Sheriff’s Department said.
No one was injured. The mother suffered labor pains and was rushed to the hospital. But she was later released without having the baby.
Among those who disapprove of the four-foot-tall “I” letters tacked on the crown of the First Interstate World Center, it turns out, is Henry Cobb, the designer of the 73-floor tower.
“Putting the logo on top of the building is embarrassing for everyone--I’m embarrassed by it,” Cobb said recently.
First Interstate defends the “I’s” as tasteful.
The debate serves as a reminder that L.A. is virtually alone in allowing signs on the tops of tall buildings; San Francisco, New York, Houston and Chicago all have restrictions.
For Cobb and others who dislike the bulging “I’s,” we offer you the vision of Jose Luis Migue, a downtown grade school youth whose moonlit Civic Center was one of the winners of a recent contest held by the Inner City Arts Center.
Jose left the crown on the World Center bare.
He did show the “I” on First Interstate’s shorter, former headquarters. It’s a start toward a cleaner skyline.