MAMA MIA: It doesn’t do justice to...
MAMA MIA: It doesn’t do justice to Bob Howard’s penchant for pasta to say he’s a regular at Prego Ristorante. The Newport Beach business executive dines at the Irvine eatery up to six times a week and even hosted his daughter’s wedding reception there, spending nearly $25,000 over the last year. Now it’s paid off: Prego is sending him and his wife to Italy in May as winners of its frequent diner contest. . . . First, though, Howard has pledged to lose the 20 pounds he’s gained since he started eating there.
R.I.P.: The spectacular collapse of Lincoln Savings & Loan nearly five years ago has spawned many epitaphs. But only now, perhaps, can the Irvine thrift be buried properly: One of Charles Keating’s former branches in Lakewood has been turned into a mortuary. . . . “It’s an ironic twist that out of a dead savings and loan came a funeral home,” says mortuary President Randall Stricklin, who makes his office out of what used to be a vault.
A PLEDGE: Paula Burton, the “flag lady” from Villa Park who likes to drape herself--quite literally--in the red, white and blue, is unfurling a new bid to rally people ‘round Old Glory. Her choir of local children, wearing flag-adorned shirts, sang the Pledge of Allegiance before the Villa Park City Council meeting this week, and they hope to hit every local city before they’re done. The aim, Burton says, is simply “to spread patriotism.”
SAME OLD SONG: Residents in the Marina Hill area of Seal Beach thought they had fixed the problem, but they’re complaining once again about noisy passenger jets buzzing over their neighborhood as a northbound shortcut to Long Beach Airport. Mayor Gwen Forsythe offered residents some advice at this week’s council meeting: Call the airport at (310) 429-6647 as soon as you see or hear an airliner in the area. “Hopefully,” she says, “if they get enough phone calls, they will do something about it.”
