Odds & Ends Around the Valley
Goofy Times
Disney has proclaimed 1992 the Year of Goofy, so the folks at the specialty products workrooms of the Sounds Fun company in Northridge are developing a timely product.
It’s a digital Goofy watch that will tell the time in the voice of the Goof himself.
Sounds Fun are the same folks who brought you the talking Mickey Mouse watch, and who are now shipping a mouthy Minnie to the Disney Stores and other chains nationwide.
And, like the talking Mickey, both the Minnie and Goofy watches are being created with a personality, as well as a voice box. It would have been too boring and out of character for Mickey and his friends to just read out the time, said Harold (Skip) Pierce, Sounds Fun’s founder and chief idea man.
Pierce and his crew of audio magicians spent almost three years developing a computer chip that would not only keep time but report it, using Mickey’s voice and vocal idiosyncrasies.
Mickey, who appears to be holding a digital readout under his chin, says such things as, “Hey, the time is five minutes after five. Wow!” or “Wow! It’s 10:25. Oh boy!”
At this moment, Goofy is still a lump of clay in the process of being molded by Sounds Fun artisans. Once the likeness has been approved by Pierce and the folks at Disney, the voice chip and other internal and external parts will quickly follow.
“Since we have done the research and development work on the Mickey and Minnie models,” Pierce said, “Goofy will come along much more quickly.” It is scheduled to be out later this year. Like the Mickey and Minnie watches, it will sell for $29.95.
Pierce is a native Floridian who came to California after a career as a concert sound-mixer with Chet Atkins, Andres Segovia, the Doobie Brothers and the Ramones, among others.
After moving to the San Fernando Valley and spending five years with the Walt Disney Co., directing its sound and automation department, he started Sounds Fun in 1987 and developed his talking Mickey.
Blind Ambition
Fran Paul was somewhat taken aback when Tom Moore said, “Here, read this menu.”
Paul, a diabetic, has been blind for several years, which naturally made the request somewhat problematic. When Moore repeated his request, putting the menu in Paul’s hand, a smile of understanding crossed her face.
Moore, who owns Mumms Restaurant in North Hollywood with his brother Bill, had had the menu translated into Braille for Paul, a regular customer.
“I was very impressed when, after Mrs. Paul lost her sight, she went to learn how to read Braille,” Moore said. “It just seemed demeaning for her to have to have the menu read to her when she was capable of reading it herself.”
So when an independent Braille transcriber called to ask Moore if he would like to have his dinner menu Brailled, he immediately answered yes.
“Only after I said yes, did I wonder what it would cost,” he said. The bill was $10 for four copies of one menu.
The Braille Institute, which will Braille menus inexpensively, depending on the size of the menu, has translated menus for restaurants at Disneyland, as well as at such chains as McDonald’s and Coco’s.
According to Carol Morrison, assistant director of the Braille Press, which furnishes the translating service, business is likely to be picking up soon.
“The American Disabilities Act, which went into effect January 26, guarantees all citizens equal access to goods and services. It is causing many restaurants to seek help in making their menus understandable to the blind,” she said.
Drought Repellent
After you read this, get out your umbrella.
Just as a carwash precedes rain, this item will probably make it pour.
This was not exactly what two Valley entrepreneurs had in mind when they developed their Car Duster. They just figured it was an idea whose time had come. The $19.95 gadget, available by mail order, is a hand-held duster that can be used to clean car exteriors without water. The recycled cotton duster--sort of a dust rag on a stick--is treated with paraffin wax so it won’t scratch the paint job.
It could help cut down on the 726,000 gallons of water people in the city of Los Angeles use in washing their vehicles. What could be more perfect in a drought-plagued state?, thought Jim Defrank and Marty Yacoobian of Van Nuys-based California Car Duster Co.
They were so sure that their gizmo was right for the times that they hired a public relations firm to get out the word.
News releases heralded how useful the duster would be in saving all those gallons of water.
Almost immediately it rained off and on for more than two weeks.
It only figures that if you decided to get one, it could work for you in two different ways.
You could use it to dust your car or incorporate its mystic properties into your neighborhood rain dance.
Ah, Wilderness
We all know teen-agers are not like other humans.
Many do not seem to come from our species at all.
If you are desperately seeking a vacation from yours, the Wilderness Institute--for a fee--may take them off of your hands.
The Wilderness Survival for Program for Teens between 14 and 18, will be held Feb. 15 to 17, with a preparatory meeting Feb. 10.
For $149, your teen-ager will get first aid, navigation, shelter construction, fire building, food foraging, and you will get the house to yourself for the weekend.
Overheard
“In Los Angeles, isn’t air quality an oxymoron?”
--Man to associate in Chatsworth office building
