Inexact ScienceWe’ve always been intrigued how anyone...
Inexact Science
We’ve always been intrigued how anyone can guess the dollar impact of a big event such as the 1994 World Cup soccer finals, which some people are saying will bring $1 billion to Southern California.
Some light was shed on the science in a recent issue of Kern County Business, published by the board of trade there. It estimates the final tally on the economic impact of last fall’s unusual Christo Umbrella art project (those yellow umbrellas placed along I-5) at $34.3 million, with 1,000 jobs created.
Part of the evidence: the Okie Girl restaurant in Lebec did a brisk business, serving about 1,000 people daily at an average check of $4.25.
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Scenes From a Lawyer
Alan M. Dershowitz, the high-profile Harvard Law School professor who wrote the book “Reversal of Fortune” that later became a popular film, has reversed his views again on a prominent figure.
Last year, Dershowitz took on as a client former Beverly Hills financier Michael Milken, whom he once publicly condemned, after changing his mind about the imprisoned junk-bond czar’s case.
Dershowitz has now changed his view of director Woody Allen. Turns out Dershowitz was a self-described “huge fan” of the director’s before he began representing actress Mia Farrow in her bitter split with Allen. Dershowitz has since blasted Allen in the press, often disputing Allen’s version of events.
Back in 1987, Dershowitz wrote in the New York Times that “I rush to see any Woody Allen film that has even a remote connection to the time and place we both grew up in,” referring to 1950s Brooklyn. Dershowitz frequently quotes Allen in his best-selling book “Chutzpah,” describing Allen’s “Annie Hall” as “a classic.”
In an interview, Dershowitz, 54, adds that he was such a fan that his friends arranged a brief meeting with Allen as a 40th birthday gift. He said he usually rushes out to see Allen’s new films.
Dershowitz plans to do the same with Allen’s new film, “Husbands and Wives,” but isn’t sure how much he’ll enjoy it. “I don’t think this time there will be a lot of laughing,” he said.
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No Snow Job for Subscribers
It’s been all downhill for Skiing magazine this month, which is having to explain why it is unable to deliver 23,000 copies of its September issue in California.
It seems one shipment of magazines was headed by train to California when the train derailed in Nevada. “A car load of fertilizer overturned, and literally dumped itself on the magazines,” circulation director Dan Dynan says.
The magazines were ruined, so Dynan has been busy sending letters of apology to subscribers, offering to extend their subscriptions for two issues.
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AD Briefly . . .
University of Student Cheapskates: A Domino’s Pizza survey ranked USC as the 28th stingiest school out of 386 campuses in tipping pizza delivery drivers. . . UCLA fared better, not even ranking in the top 200 in the lousy tippers category . . . A Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago report blames the S&L; fiasco’s high costs on “moral hazard.”