One last Ship’s ahoyDespite its “Never Closes”...

One last Ship’s ahoy

Despite its “Never Closes” slogan, Ship’s is.

The Culver City and La Cienega eateries are shutting down next week, as The Times’ Jonathan Gold mentioned in a eulogy Thursday. But we can’t let these 40-year-old models of Coffee Shop Modern architecture disappear without relating our favorite story.

Lee Riling, a waitress on the graveyard shift at Ship’s Culver City, wore a whistle around her neck in case a customer mistook the place for a motel.

But, she once related, even that weapon failed to arouse a gentleman who passed out at the counter shortly after 2 a.m. “So,” she continued, “I slid a plate with horseradish on it under his nose and that did the trick.”

LIST OF THE DAY: Your Only in L.A. Shopper found these bargains in the Civic Center:

* Man’s haircut, $4, (woman’s permanent and haircut, $19), Downtown L.A. Barber School

* Cup of coffee, 9 cents, Philippe’s restaurant

* Cigarette (one), 20 cents, Park’s Market

* Red Line Metro Rail ride, 25 cents

* Lamb head, about $2, Grand Central Market

* Videotape of feature movie, free (three-day loan), L.A. Public Library

* Street parking, 10 hours for $1, side streets near Alameda.

* Weight reading, 10 cents, scale on Broadway near 3rd Street (fortune not included)

* One tattoo of a name (nine letters maximum), $10, West Coast Tattoo Studio

When we phoned the tattoo studio, by the way, an artist told us he could knock out a short name in less than a minute.

“In fact,” he added, “I’m doing one now while I’m talking to you.”

EARTHY HUMOR . . . IN A TELEPHONE DIRECTORY?Is GTE trying to get on the best-seller’s list or what? Celeste of Santa Barbara spotted an eye-catcher in the directory in her area (see excerpt). “I guess,” she added, “a company with a logo ‘PP’ would have an appropriate accompanying slogan.”

SOME KIND OF BUBBLY: Robert Hill of Burbank found a sign advertising something that he figures is either “a drink or a hair-care product” (see photo).

SUFFERIN’ SUCCOTASH: Publicist David Hamlin describes himself “as one who now and then crafts quotes for clients, only to see them subsequently mangled (sometimes by the client, sometimes by the media).”

Which moves him to comment: “William Bendix did not say, ‘Another revolting development.’ The line from TV’s ‘The Life of Riley’ was always: ‘What a revoltin’ development this is!’ Apart from the homage due to some writer, who surely labored long and hard to get that line just right, you owe it to future generations to make certain that the truth is not lost in the mists. After all, some things are really important.”

miscelLAny Long Beach Poly High, which is celebrating its 100th birthday this month, includes among its alums film stars Laraine Day and Van Heflin, tennis player Billie Jean King, baseball player Tony Gwynn, football player Gene Washington and singers Snoop Doggy Dogg, Marilyn Horne and Jo Stafford.