Visitors, Locals Deem CityWalk’s Outdoor Ice Rink a Cool Idea

New Year’s Day seems to be the only time we Southern Californians see this place the way the rest of the freezing, cold world does.

We know they sit blowing their Rudolph-like red noses in their dismal basement game rooms while pictures of the sunny Rose Bowl Parade and football game dance before their eyes.

The temperature is 70-something here and rising, and so is their blood pressure.

They look at shirtless guys cavorting here while they contemplate how to get the ice off the driveway at home.

More than one Midwesterner and Easterner has been stricken with dreaded Defrost Mania Fever. But he doesn’t stop to consider that we have floods, quakes, fires and miserable San Fernando Valley summers complete with smog and 100-degree heat the rest of the time.

Still the snowbirds continue to land in the Valley and, even once they defrost, seem to want to linger. Many lie and say they even like the hot summers or that the heat is a good trade for never again seeing a snowplow.

This is why there is a certain amount of confusion over why so many of these folks are volunteering for frozen-foot duty in a certain area of Universal City.

They are strapping on ice skates brought out from the depths of some almost-forgotten foot locker, and wobbling around like Gretsky wanna-bes all over some very expensive imported ice.

They started coming on Thanksgiving Day when the Valley’s only outdoor skating rink was opened at Universal CityWalk near the movie theaters. They are expected to still be showing up to skate Jan. 2, after which the frozen curiosity will be folded up and taken away.

Jim Jude, a former Ice Capades skater, was brought in from Minneapolis to supervise the operation and oversee the skating rink staff, many of whom have also skated professionally.

Jude says they have all been delighted with the local response to this temporary attraction.

“Everyone seems to be having fun with the rink, in spite of the problems,” according to supervisor Jude.

Those problems have included rain on two Saturdays alternating with a hot midday sun that tends to slush up the ice for a couple of hours.

Some of those who have tested the ice include Olympic stars Kristi Yamaguchi and Scott Hamilton, and a party of small folks brought by Bette Midler when she was performing evenings at the Universal Amphitheatre nearby.

Talking Mom Into Ditching Makes Chris a Popular Guy

To kick off the brief stay of the CityWalk ice rink, there was a promotion in which snow was trucked in from the local mountains and local kids were encouraged to participate in a snowman-making contest.

Chris Jensen, 12, a seventh-grader, was on his way to Canoga Park Lutheran School when he heard over his mom’s car radio about the promotion the next day. He finally talked her into letting him ditch school and go.

He won the contest. The prize is Rose Bowl tickets and a short sea voyage for him and his parents, Julie and Arne Jensen of Woodland Hills.

The voyage will be a trip down Colorado Boulevard on New Year’s Day on the Wells Fargo Bank float depicting a 90-foot sailing vessel.

The float will be pulled by a team of Belgian draft horses and will feature 70 stunt performers and dancers, music from the Gold Rush days as well as the Jensen family.

The sun will probably be shining and the temperature climbing as the television audience is watching.

Can a new batch of snowbirds be far behind?

You May Now Be Able to Exhale After Lunch

When you eat pasta at lunch, do you hold your hand in front of your mouth all afternoon at the office?

After a Caesar salad, do you put a brown paper bag over your head? Do you consider raw onions on a luncheon hamburger reasonable cause for dismissal? Does your hot dog-with-mustard breath make your nearest and dearest turn green and want to gag?

Lauren and Anthony Raissen of Encino think they have the answer to the heartbreak of halitosis.

It’s swallowing a couple of innocent-looking, all-organic capsules filled with parsley seed and sunflower oil sold by the name of BreathAsure.

The Raissens are selling the capsules from a mail-order office on Ventura Boulevard in Encino.

Some local restaurants, including Viva la Pasta downstairs from their offices on Ventura Boulevard, are now offering them.

The Raissens say they are getting a big response from their BreathAsure ads in Vogue, Self, GQ, Elle, Los Angeles and other magazines.

Tony Raissen, 33, describes himself as an electrical engineer who has studied biochemistry. His wife, Lauren, 29, is a CPA. The couple came to Southern California from their native South Africa about six years ago and found jobs.

He engineered and she accounted. Then the economy went bad.

According to Tony, the couple then decided to try to market a product they knew from their friends in Johannesburg. “Actually I helped to develop the original product there, and refined it with a group of friends here,” he says.

Nobody with recurring dragon breath will really care about where the cure came from, or who is ultimately responsible. All they will probably want to know is if it works without killing them.

“We sell 450 capsules for about $20 with a money-back guarantee,” according to Raissen. “We’re very confident the capsules will do what they are supposed to.”

In fact, he says he and Lauren introduced the product to the public locally at last year’s Garlic Festival in West Los Angeles. “We offered the pills to everyone at the festival and had nothing but positive feedback,” he says.

Raissen says there is nothing complicated about his formula, although he does hold a patent.

“The way we combine the ingredients allows them to work with the stomach’s natural digestive juices to eliminate unpleasant breath odor,” says Raissen.

He says the capsules take about 20 minutes from the time you swallow them to work effectively.

He adds that he does not recommend BreathAsure for anyone trying to cover up alcohol consumption.

“I’m not saying it doesn’t work, it’s just not what the product is for,” he says.

Raissen originally got interested in the product because of pickles.

“My wife hated the way they smelled on my breath,” Raissen says.

Overheard

“Only eat as much as you can carry. That’s my new diet. I got it from Miss Piggy, who’s probably the most elegant of the current diet gurus.”

Woman walking around Lake Calabasas to her fellow walker.