40 hoofs: We hated to see 1993...
40 hoofs: We hated to see 1993 end with an unsolved mystery on our hands--the meaning of a 10 COWS license plate spotted on the Ventura Freeway.
But it has been solved by Stu Perom of Westlake Village, who bought the plate for his wife, Nadine.
Perom says the phrase refers to an old tale of a rich man who, seeking a wife, chooses a farmer’s most plain daughter--and even offers 10 cows for her when the going rate for beautiful maidens is just two bovines.
A year later, the happy couple returns to the village and everyone gathers, Perom says, “to see what a 10-cow wife looks like.” And everyone agrees what a “beautiful and charming woman” she is.
The moral, Perom says, is that, “If you treat your wife like she is a 10-cow wife, she surely will become one.” He added: “Luckily, my wife started out as a 10-cow wife.”
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12 negligees: Jay Olins, the reader who told us about that 10 COW plate, suggested that this column begin a contest in which readers try to guess the origins of unusual plates.
Inasmuch as Olins guessed that the 10-cow phrase referred to the price of a bride, we have plucked a prize for him from our Cave of Wonders--the 1994 Frederick’s of Hollywood calendar, which features several multi-cow models. It’s our way of thanking Olins. Besides, Mrs. Only In L.A. won’t let us bring it home.
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One more question: And now, up pops another mystery. Howard Cohen of North Hills isn’t sure what the Prudential Insurance Co. had in mind when it sent the letter shown at right to his father, who is not Chinese. We could understand the error if his father’s name was Genghis Cohen.
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‘93 matters: Sports Illustrated, citing “93 things that went right in ‘93,” listed as No. 4 the fact that “The Three Thousand Stooges, also known as British soccer hooligans, will not be making an appearance in the U.S.” this summer. England has been eliminated from the World Cup, whose finals will be held in Pasadena.
Incidentally, we wonder if SI will hear from the same fellow we did when we used the phrase “British soccer hooligans” a while back. The thugs are “English,” noted the caller, who was a Scot.
The Dodgers ranked No. 29 on the magazine’s list, for not “being content at having deserted Brooklyn baseball fans after the ’57 season, (they) brazenly sued the Brooklyn Dodger Sports Bar and Restaurant for trademark infringement.” A federal judge ruled in favor of Brooklyn.
“Still a bunch of bums,” the magazine said of the Dodgers. But that’s better than being called hooligans.
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Two bits: Roxane Winkler of Sherman Oaks doesn’t begrudge would-be actors and actresses the chance to make a little money between jobs by waiting on tables.
Still, after “another experience at a cafe where the waiter served up lots of attitude but little else (no water, no coffee refill, no bread, etc.),” Winkler wonders why the star-to-be can’t put on an Academy Award performance and “act like a waiter.”
miscelLAny:
Some eateries try to lure customers with their decor, but not Tommy’s Original World Famous Hamburgers, which opened its first stand nearly half a century ago on Beverly Boulevard. The slogan of Tommy’s is: “Look for the shack.”
