Hat’s off to L.A.:The Smithsonian’s Abraham Lincoln...
Hat’s off to L.A.:
The Smithsonian’s Abraham Lincoln hat, part of the museum’s exhibit at the L.A. Convention Center, was specially prepared for Southern California. A spokesman says that the stovepipe hat rests on a foam form designed “to absorb the vibrations caused by an earthquake.”
And we’re sure the plexiglass case will protect it from mudslides.
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LIST OF THE DAY: The offbeat participants in the March 3 L.A. Marathon include:
* Michael Fandal, who competes as “Ernest Desire, Crime-Fighting Clown.”
* Dennis Marsella, who runs while wearing a heavy winter coat, white Italian dress shoes and gold knee socks. Oh yes, he carries a 10-inch cheese pizza too. During a previous race, a marathon announcer spotted Marsella and asked the crowd, “Did anyone order a pizza?”
* Mike Cuzzacrea, who made the Guinness Book of World Records by running a 3:06:22 marathon while flipping two pancakes in a pan. Cuzzacrea’s original proposal to Guinness was to run handcuffed while dragging 50 pounds of chain.
As Running Times magazine put it: “The Guinness folks wrote back. Sorry, Mike, too ridiculous.”
But marathon pancake flipping? No problem!
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GEE--JUST WHEN WE THOUGHT HOLISTIC CABLE WAS NEAR: We recently mentioned a Redondo Beach company that performs “metaphysical house inspections” for would-be buyers. (It was no surprise to those Angelenos with metaphysical real estate agents.)
Anyway, the company, Viacom Holistic Group Management, advertises such much-needed services as “previous owner/tenant aura cleansing” and “animal spirit negations.”
Funny thing. The other day we received a phone call from Viacom Inc.--owner of such enterprises as Paramount Studios, MTV, Blockbuster Video and, well, you get the idea.
A Viacom Inc. rep said that she wanted to talk to Viacom Holistic about the “possibility of some trademark infringement.”
Did that mean, we asked, that the holistic folks were not a New Age subsidiary of the diverse New York conglomerate? “They certainly are not ours,” the Viacom Inc. rep said.
Nevertheless, it occurs to us that one Viacom Inc. TV program could use some type of “cleansing.” We mean the MTV cartoon “Beavis and Butt-head.”
I.D. SAFE: That’s the name of a product devised by Steele Smith--a driver’s license holder consisting of a plastic sleeve that is clear except for two black lines that will blot out your address.
“Consider how frequently we are asked to show our I.D. to people in our daily lives,” Smith writes. “We do not have any idea who these people are and whether they have ulterior motives. And, we cannot forget about people behind us, looking over our shoulder.”
We used a DMV model’s license to demonstrate the product. Actually, we wanted to use another individual’s but we couldn’t track down Ernest Desire, Crime-Fighting Clown.
miscelLAny:
Will it be the on-ramp to fame? Actor Anthony Figueroa has a marquee all to himself near the Normandie Avenue entrance to the 101--the Hollywood Freeway, of course.
