Odds & Ends Around the Valley
Sizing Up the Season’s Swimsuits
If you’d rather get your teeth drilled than try on a swimsuit, you’re not alone. Especially if you think all the suits in your size are too small.
“A lot of women don’t know that with a swimsuit you usually have to go a size or two larger than what you wear in your regular clothes,” said Yolanda Norwood, swimwear saleswoman at Bullock’s in Sherman Oaks Fashion Square. “If they try on a suit in their regular size they start feeling bad, thinking, ‘Oh, I can’t be that big, can I?’ So I always make it a point to tell them that, and they notice the difference when they put on the next size.”
Some women don’t mind looking bigger, as long as it’s in an area of their choosing. “Under-wires and molded stiff bras are real big in bathing suits this year, because everyone wants to look like they have a fuller bust now,” said Andrea Caplan, manager and buyer at The Bikini Shop in Encino.
Another popular item at Caplan’s shop this season is the G-string or thong bikini bottom, which leaves little to the imagination other than a question about how comfortable it could possibly be. Where do women wear these suits? “I don’t ask,” Caplan said.
The Bikini Shop--which specializes in D-cup suits--will split sizes on bikinis, but only about 25% of its customers take advantage of that offer.
Why Is This Guy Smiling?
He didn’t look like a celebrity, but everyone hanging around gate A5 at the Burbank Airport sure wanted to shake his hand and exchange a few words with him.
Herb Kelleher--president, CEO and chairman of the board of Southwest Airlines--was recently in town from Dallas headquarters for his airline’s inaugural flight from Burbank to Oakland.
Frank Lorenzo should have taken charm lessons from Kelleher. “This guy’s fantastic!” said ramp agent Noel Jones. Added David Altman: “He treats everyone the same.”
And there was Kelleher, introducing his company’s blue collars to the white collars and vice versa.
“They do the job and I get the credit,” Kelleher said. “It’s a great deal.”
Southwest Airlines moved into the airport space formerly occupied by Continental, which ceased service in September. It also built the airport’s first passenger loading bridge.
“Their whole strategy is quick turnaround, which is why they needed the ramp. It helps in offloading more quickly,” said airport spokesman Victor Gill. “Certainly the other carriers are talking about putting one in, but I don’t know that there are plans in place yet. It’s a carrier issue.”
Southwest became the airport’s eighth major airline. Known as a low-fare, high-frequency flier, it will offer 12 flights daily between Burbank and Las Vegas, and 20 flights daily between Burbank and Oakland.
Not So Mobile, But Definitely a Home
Mobile homes or trailers are not the narrow, hallway-less abodes they used to be, with retired seniors as their primary occupants.
“About 75% of the homes we sell are three-bedrooms bought by families,” said Tom Gannon, marketing consultant at Mobile Mansions Inc. in Sepulveda. “We’re trying to get away from calling them mobile homes. We call it manufactured housing.”
The top of the line model at Mobile Mansions is more spacious than most apartments (about 2,000 square feet) and equally deluxe. The three-bedroom, two-bath structure features cathedral ceilings, fireplace, wet bar, huge walk-in closet in the master bedroom and a double-sink master bath, oak kitchen cabinets, laundry room, two-car garage and more closet space than you’d think is legally allowed in California.
“You pick out colors for window treatments, carpet, vinyl and countertops, and it comes with a GE refrigerator, oven, dishwasher and garbage disposal,” Gannon said. The cost: about $75,000.
New manufactured models are frequently double or triple the width of older trailers, but spaciousness can be a problem. “A lot of the older trailer parks are only equipped to take a single,” said Jan Weinstein, owner of Mobile Home Management in Mission Hills. “We wish there were more parks, more spaces in the Valley, because we could fill them up immediately.”
Consequently, many of the newer, wider trailers are finding their way into newer, wider parks in Canyon Country, Lancaster and Palmdale, according to both Gannon and Weinstein.
To Burbank to Market
Here are three incentives to get up early on Saturday mornings: ultra-fresh produce at below-retail prices and you’re supporting a good cause.
The Burbank Farmers Market operates every Saturday between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Most of the produce is picked the day before or very early that morning, and trucked in from throughout the southern half of the state. There’s a florist’s shop worth of flowers that comes from Oxnard, dried fruit from Visalia, avocados (“no insect spray”) from south Riverside County, fresh fish from Long Beach.
Picture-perfect strawberries may sell for $4 for three baskets. Or you can buy a pretty gift basket of eight types of lettuces (still in soil, intended to be planted in your garden) for $6. The citrus (oranges, grapefruits and kiwi) is plentiful. About 10 a.m. the market is in full swing, and the heat is on to get the last of those lilacs from Tehachapi at $3.50 a bunch.
“We’ve had as many as 42 farmers in our market,” said volunteer operations-manager Hazel Walker. “It’s a fund-raiser for St. Joseph’s Medical Center--we’ve been able to purchase state-of-the-art medical machines for the hospital. And what’s left over at the end of the day is usually given to the Burbank Temporary Aid Center, which helps the indigent.”
Almost anything that’s in season can be found at the market, and Walker said food stamps are accepted. It’s held in the parking lot on 3rd Street between Palm and Orange Grove avenues.
Overheard
“It was a sad moment when I realized that I paid more for my car than my parents did for their first three-bedroom house on a quarter acre in Canoga Park.” --Man in line at North Hills Car Wash in Granada Hills
