Hey, the Galaxy includes Pasadena!Bill Paparian, the...
Hey, the Galaxy includes Pasadena!
Bill Paparian, the mayor of Pasadena, had the honor of kicking the opening game ball at Saturday’s Rose Bowl soccer match between the Los Angeles Galaxy and the New York/New Jersey Metro-Stars. But it wasn’t easy getting by one defender.
When Paparian attempted to go onto the field, a security guard asked him who he was. Paparian replied that he was the mayor. The guard studied him and then declared, “You don’t look anything like Dick Riordan.”
NOSTRADAMUS WOULDN’T TOUCH THIS INDUSTRY. It’s difficult enough to predict what fashion styles will be a year from now. But Sal Lombardo found a store that’s daring enough to predict what women will be wearing the last year of this century (see photo).
JUST 8 1/2 LIVES: Barbara Garth of Rancho Palos Verdes, combing the classified section of a local newspaper, noticed several varieties of cats being offered, including one watered-down model (see excerpt).
NEW PRESSURES FOR SUNBATHERS: We figured that weight reduction would be the big concern for us middle-aged beach-goers as we contemplate donning swimsuits this summer. But perhaps not. We heard a radio announcer ask us if we have to wear socks when we go swimming. He warned us that we might face “shame and embarrassment” if we don’t--that is, unless we haul ourselves off for an exam at a nail fungus reduction center.
CITIES ON THE MOVE: Continuing this Special Consumers Edition of Only in L.A., we call your attention to Chrysler’s recent announcement that it will stop manufacturing its New Yorker model after this year. Maybe that will force Mayor Rudy Giuliani to quit bragging about how the Big Apple was chosen over L.A. for the next site of the Grammys.
Not that there are any Angeleno models on the road. (We don’t count Chevrolet’s Malibu.) No, about all we can settle for is the retired DC-8 that stands in the front yard of the California Museum of Science and Industry in Exposition Park. It’s called City of Los Angeles. And there’s the Navy submarine Los Angeles. The latter was briefly in the news in 1977 when five crew members were banished from the vessel during a boarding by President Carter because they were deemed too fat. There was no word on the state of their nails.
SPOOKY: You just never know where you’re going to come across a reminder of the O.J. Simpson trial. We were watching “This Island Earth” (1955), which is about a Los Angeles scientist who is abducted by space aliens. When he asks where he is being taken, one of his captors responds: “To a planet we call Mezzaluna.”
ODD COUPLE: We wonder if the street person begging for money on the 4th Street offramp of the Santa Ana Freeway paused to wonder about the guy standing near him--the guy who was trying to sell fruit to motorists. Trying to earn money, in other words. Reminds us of the bumper sticker we saw on a Honda. It said: “I DO Work for Food.”
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It isn’t easy to unwind from the go-go pace of the big city. Take the briefcase-toting woman who wanted to use some public transportation on Grand Avenue but sprinted up to the boarding area a few seconds late. “Just missed it,” she said out loud. Perhaps she didn’t realize that Angels Flight makes its 60-second journey about every three minutes.
