Odds & Ends Around the Valley

Yuppie Alert

Kirk Minard, assistant manager at Irvine Ranch market in Woodland Hills, is wondering where all the yuppies have gone.

When the upscale market offered to shop and deliver groceries for people--such as the busy, young, upwardly mobile three-piece suits who work in Warner Center--he was expecting to be inundated with fax and phone orders.

It didn’t happen, and Minard is puzzled.

He thinks it’s a good deal. There is no charge for the shopping, and it only costs $5 for the food to be delivered anywhere in the Valley. If you live within five miles of the market, delivery’s free between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. any day of the week. The meat manager does the meat and poultry shopping, and the produce manager does the produce shopping, which means, Minard said, the customer gets the best of everything in the store.

But so far, it’s only been mostly older, homebound people who have taken advantage of the offer.

The lack of delivery business could be because people in the Valley aren’t used to having their shopping done for them, or delivered--unlike their counterparts in Pasadena and Beverly Hills.

Rocking for Cityhood

When Malibu was raising money for cityhood, it trotted out some of its residents, who happened to be music or movie or television stars, and got other people to pay to party with them.

Calabasas, now trying to incorporate, is sort of doing that by offering up Toto’s Bobby Kimball, Chuck Negron from Three Dog Night and the Iron Butterfly’s Mike Pinera at the Cityhood Committee’s Rock ‘n’ Roll fund-raiser Saturday at the Calabasas High School football stadium.

None of the entertainers live in, around or near Calabasas, but it’s sort of the same idea says Bob Hill, a committee spokesman. He’s confident about the quality of the show, but is a little nervous about the turnout. Before, when the Cityhood Committee was trying to fatten up the financial war chest, it just threw a party at the Calabasas Cantina, the funky, Wild West bar next to the Leonis Adobe that is the Calabasas community’s answer to a Town Hall.

This time the committee went for something a little more ambitious and Hill is concerned that people don’t know about the event. The show, which is an established touring group featuring 10 rock acts, has been received well by audiences all over the country. The concert starts at 6 p.m. Saturday, and tickets are $18 at the door.

Computer Doc

When you go jogging does your nose run faster than your feet?

Do you turn the color of a strawberry if you eat one?

Do certain grains blow you up like an inflatable raft?

Now you may be able to help your doctor find out what is wrong with you by tracking your own eating habits.

All you need is a personal computer and $10 for a floppy disc called the Food and Food Additive Sensitivity Analysis.

The disc, which comes with some written instructions, helps you track what you’ve been biting into that may be biting back.

You accumulate the data as outlined in the instructions, and then send the disc or a printout to Optimum Health Labs of Van Nuys. You get an analysis of what is causing your chronic recurring symptoms for which no definite allergy triggers have been found.

Armed with this information, you may have to spend less time in the company of your physician, who might otherwise want to do those scratch tests that look as if someone is playing Tic Tac Toe on your back.

If your allergies seem mild enough to you, you might want to simply try the detailed meal planning guides that will keep you from eating whatever food or food additives that has been giving you the miseries.

This disc is the wonderwork of a Dr. Eliot Light of Positech in Monterey, who worked with Optimum Health Labs to develop the program.

It is being offered through DemoSource in Chatsworth, which is, according to its president Brian Berman, a national clearinghouse that offers software programs that can do anything from putting jokes into your speeches to balancing your budget. For information, call DemoSource at (800) 283-4759.

Foster Fidos

Spirit, a 2-year-old golden retriever, and Chavez, a 2-year-old husky, were parked at Dr. William Gregory’s Woodland Hills animal hospital for more than a month after their owner moved and didn’t have a fenced yard at his new home.

Lisa Braverman, 25, and Lisa Zager, 26, dog groomers for Paws and Claws canine beauty parlor in Woodland Hills, heard about Spirit and Chavez and decided to become foster parents. The owner of the dogs told the Lisas that he would be grateful if they could keep the dogs until new homes could be found.

Braverman took Chavez home to Calabasas, and Zager took Spirit to Woodland Hills. Each already has a full quota of dogs and other animals at each residence, so they keep asking people who come into Paws and Claws if they would like another pet.

Becoming foster parents to dogs has become something of a habit for the Lisas.

A few months ago the two young women rescued two other dogs orphaned when their mistress died, each Lisa taking one home. New families were found for both dogs.

The Lisas also helped dog trainer Judy McGraw find a home for Amber, a year-old Wheaton terrier, who was left behind when her owners moved. McGraw, owner of Your Dog ‘N’ You training service in Van Nuys, took the dog in and called the Lisas, who gussied up Amber to help her find a new home. Amber is now one of two Wheaton terriers who permanently reside in a Van Nuys back yard.

Overheard

“I forgot my shopping list so I’ll have to try and visualize it.”

--Young mother to her preschooler at Gelson’s market