Capitalizing on the 20th anniversary of the...
Capitalizing on the 20th anniversary of the vanity license plate in California, an auto products company held a contest to come up with the most creative message.
A panel of TV comedy writers judged more than 600 entries from across the nation, including IVBNFXD (a vasectomy patient), NAG NAG (owner of a horse trailer for two), BRTQLIT (a speech therapist), and OUT50GZ (a Mercedes owner, Linda Ressler of Valencia).
The winner of a slew of prizes from Eagle One was Robert P. Schneider, a Hollywood film production manager, whose plate reads: IM2BZ2P.
Schneider says the phrase refers to the fact that he puts in 16-hour days while working on a movie.
Perhaps one of his prizes should have been an astronaut’s suit.
Ah, friendly Westwood Village--home of overpriced designer-goods shops, a parking lot that charges 85 cents if you pull in and then immediately decide to leave, and theaters that display signs warning against pickpockets.
And, now, a new down-home feature: The Village Theater has an automated box office with a recording that croaks out the $7 ticket price. One worker theorized that the disembodied voice was installed because the bosses didn’t trust the employees to announce the correct prices.
In “Heat Wave,” the TV movie about the Watts riots that played the other night, Robert Richardson--the Times first black reporter--walks into the newspaper building in one scene. The ornate lobby with its carved marble columns and arches is stunning. It’s also the lobby of the now-defunct L.A. Herald Examiner, a frequently used movie set these days.
Wondering about the mathematics of those billboards around town that assert that if you turn off the water faucet while brushing your teeth, you’ll “save 3 gallons of water”? A spokesman for the Metropolitan Water District says that’s the amount that flows out in three minutes.
Only in L.A. hates to quibble. But we collected only 1.7 gallons Thursday during our morning fight against plaque. And we brushed the full three minutes, a new record for us.
Even before reading our recent report, USC grad David Lake knew all about the sad condition of historic Route 901 on the school’s Fraternity Row.
It’s the painted line that runs for four blocks along the sidewalk of 28th Street, dead-ending at the entrance to the 901 Club saloon on Figueroa Street. The stripe has faded in some stretches and has disappeared from others that underwent resurfacing.
“The line was started and maintained by the Phi Delta Theta fraternity (on the west end of the trail),” he faxed us. “I can remember as a young member painting the line from sundown to sunup. . . .”
Then, he said, about two years ago, “the university took a position stating that street- and sidewalk-painting is against university policy.”
L.A. Gasoline Price Quotations (cont.):
This week’s low price for the unleaded, self-serve variety, as phoned in by KFI radio listeners: $1.07 at an Arco station at the corner of El Segundo Boulevard and Western Avenue.
Was that Elvis standing on the Capitol Records Building Thursday? Or was it Bob’s Big Boy? For the story behind this latest sighting, you may consult the Calendar section’s Morning Report on Page F2.
miscelLAny:
El Segundo (“the second”) derives its romantic-sounding name from the fact that it was the site of Standard Oil’s second refinery in the state.
