A bottle of wine, a karate chop and thou:
John Sinasohn of Encino noticed that the lectures in the “Meeting People/Intimacy” section of the Learning Annex’s catalogue cover a wide range of physical contact. Classes include “Learn to Flirt,” “Sex, Dating & Relationships,” and “Karate & Self-Defense for Singles.”
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PEDAL POWER: That colorful sculpture by Cara Lee at Pershing Square is an artsy, yet functional, bike rack. It’s the first of 10 such oases for pedalers that will be installed around the city. Now about that bicycle-unfriendly sign near the Pershing bike rack: We checked and found out that it’s OK to dock your machine there. You just can’t bicycle around inside the park. Might scare the wildlife. As well as the wild life.
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LIST OF THE DAY: Some notables in the world of arts and letters who have been involved in homicides:
* Bandleader Spade Cooley, one of the early stars of L.A. television, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1961 murder of his wife. Cooley died of a heart attack in 1969, three months before his scheduled release.
* Millionaire playboy Harry Thaw, incensed over his chorus girl wife’s involvement with famed architect Stanford White, shot White to death in Madison Square Garden in 1906. Declared insane, Thaw was in and out of asylums until 1924. He died in 1947.
* Boxer, cabaret owner and bit actor Kid McCoy was found guilty of manslaughter and assault in the 1924 shooting death of his girlfriend and the wounding of three passersby in L.A. McCoy--said to be the inspiration for the expression “the real McCoy”--was chased down by police near MacArthur Park. He served eight years in San Quentin, emerging to marry for a 10th time.
* Novelist William Burroughs (“Naked Lunch”) accidentally killed his wife in Mexico in 1951, reportedly during a drunken attempt to shoot a glass off her head, William Tell-style. Burroughs spent 13 days in jail before leaving the country.
* Singer Claudine Longet was found guilty of misdemeanor negligent homicide in the 1976 shooting death of her lover, ski champ Spider Sabich, in Aspen. Longet said that Sabich was showing her how to use his .22-caliber pistol when it accidentally fired. She served 30 days in jail.
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BENCH STRENGTH: We’re sure it’s just a coincidence that L.A. Superior Court Judge Robert O’Brien, whose ruling cleared the way for suspended USC defensive end Israel Ifeanyl to play in today’s big game against Notre Dame, has undergraduate and law school degrees from USC.
miscelLAny:
The Redondo Lobster Festival will kick off today with a noon wedding between Arnold, a 10-pound male lobster, and Crustina, a female lobster (whose weight we’re too much of a gentleman to reveal). After the nuptials at the Seaside Lagoon, the newlyweds will scuttle off to the breeding lab at the Southern California Edison Co.’s Redondo Generating Station. Let’s hope they’re given a little privacy.