Before it’s too late, Dr. Richard Handwerger...
Before it’s too late, Dr. Richard Handwerger of Beverly Hills wants to remind you of one of the less-publicized New Year’s Eve hazards:
A flying champagne cork.
It’s “like a small, guided missile,” says Handwerger, an ophthalmologist.
So, as a public service, we’re sure, he’s holding a press conference today to stage “a spectacular demonstration of how damaging a flying cork can be” and to outline the “three steps to safely open a bottle of champagne.”
Step No. 1: Never let that brother-in-law of yours open it. . . .
Getting a jump on the competition: J.C. Penney stores began what they described as their “after-Christmas sale” on Dec. 23.
But . . . you say you’re all shopped out? Here’s some inspiration: Nordstrom is selling a special Christmas edition compact disc featuring the piano players who perform in their stores, complete with photos.
Even if Christmas is over, it’s not too late to see the holiday displays in Beverly Hills, which comprise more than 491,860 lights. (Energy crisis? What energy crisis?)
The city’s own lighting extravaganza, according to its publicist, the Donahue Group, “required the use of so much tubular lighting that the entire U.S. supply was diminished and orders needed to be sent around the world to complete the job.”
It includes 10 decorations, described as “Dickensian scenes of winter,” hung above Wilshire Boulevard.
Funny, but somehow we never associated Charles Dickens with Beverly Hills.
It’s unfortunate timing for those “California Cool” lottery ads that show a December surfer and declare:
“It’s another California winter--sort of hard to tell from a California summer.”
No, not really.
While there’s nothing new on the fate of the Elvis Head float, rumored to be headed this way from its home in Jackson, Miss., we bring you this related bulletin from the Richard M. Nixon Library and Birthplace.
The gift shop’s second-most popular postcard is one of the then-President shaking hands with the (forever) King in the Oval Office. That card ranks right behind a shot of Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Bush together at the library dedication earlier this year. Jimmy Carter didn’t show up for the gala, nor did Elvis, as far as we know.
Our recent mention of the dirt-floor accommodations at L.A.’s first hotel, the Bella Union, inspired historian Bill Murphy to recall a spectacular gunfight there.
It seems that wealthy rancher Robert Carlisle had slashed the hand of undersheriff Andrew King at a wedding at the hotel in 1865. The next day, King’s brothers, Sam and Frank, ambushed the rancher in the street outside.
Carlisle was able to wound Sam and kill Frank, but was himself hit four times.
The rancher “was carried inside and laid on the billiard table, where he died,” Murphy wrote.
Like so many L.A. landmarks, the Bella Union is gone. But the site attracted notoriety a decade ago when the city paid an artist almost $1 million to create the Triforium, a largely ignored musical sculpture, in what is now the City Mall on Main Street.
Only in L.A. Menu Item of the Week--at the Inn of the Seventh Ray in Topanga Canyon:
“Five Secret Rays--A ring of lightly steamed vegetable gems surrounding a mound of herbed brown organic rice.”
It’s the top item on the menu, which notes that “entrees are listed in order of their esoteric vibrational value for your experimentation.”
Be careful of the champagne bottles, too.
miscelLAny:
L.A. County averaged just under four bank robberies per business day this year.
