D on and Patsy request the honor...
D on and Patsy request the honor of your presence to celebrate their marriage on the Fourteenth of July, in the year Nineteen Hundr e d and Ninety, at the Compost Pile of Zeke the Sheik in Altadena, Calif. Black tie optional.
Anyway, that’s how we would word the invitations if we’d been asked.
Two friends of Zeke, landscapers Jim Norman and Patsy Stipe, are taking their vows on the heap, which became nationally famous earlier this year when the county threatened to bulldoze it as a health hazard. Zeke became a symbol of Earth Day, and officials have since agreed to negotiate a less drastic solution.
The wedding may pack more drama than most, inasmuch as the hill spontaneously burst into flames twice in February.
Asked what the bride and groom would be wearing, Zeke reacted as if it were a strange question.
“He’ll wear a tuxedo and she’ll wear a regular bridal gown,” he answered.
He added that the dirt-covered hill would be topped with a carpet.
We forgot to ask about footwear.
Not that we’ve even been asked to attend. In fact, the only invite we’ve received lately is to view L.A.’s entrants in the Mr. (and Ms.) Nude International USA Pageant at the Treehouse Fun Ranch in Devore, near San Bernardino. The hosts are Fran and Bill. Their last name, of course, is Flesher.
A story for our times:
Lori Palmer was standing in front of her home off Mulholland Drive when a city fire inspector drove up to warn her to get rid of her parched ivy or face a citation. In a panic, she dug through the ivy to find the sprinkler valve and turned it on. She went inside, unaware that one of the sprinklers was damaged. Minutes later, the city Drought Police arrived. An anonymous neighbor had complained that the sprinkler was shooting water into the street.
Charles Roundy of Montclair wishes the Drought Cops had been cruising through LAX at 2 a.m. the other morning. Roundy saw a worker violating city policy by hosing down the sidewalks as well as the crosswalk outside one of the terminals--Tom Bradley International Airport.
There’s a tie in this week’s Dueling Signs competition, between:
--A Jolette/Jollette disparity, which David Elgenson spotted in Granada Hills (the correct answer is Jolette, mes amis ).
--A pair on Olympic Boulevard that were snapped by Robert Glynn, who sees them as symbolic of the fast-paced quality of life today: You can park for six hours, but you have to do it in 5 1/2.
miscelLAny:
Eight years before Mayor Bradley presented the keys to the city to anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela, he paid the same honor to the consul general of South Africa in a quiet ceremony in Beverly Hills. Mandela was then in his 19th year in jail in South Africa.
