Even the rubber-chicken circuit sounds preferable:Tom Hickey...

Even the rubber-chicken circuit sounds preferable:

Tom Hickey of Whittier received a bulletin from his club announcing that “the Ladies Auxiliary will be serving another great dinner of Swill Steak. . . .”

Maybe the club should raise its dues.

LOST MENUDO: Five months ago, Juanita’s Foods announced that it had planted a special can of menudo in a Southland store to commemorate its 50th anniversary. The customer who turned it in would win $5,000, which ain’t chopped liver. And how would anyone recognize the moneyed menudo? The inside of the can’s lid was inscribed with the words, “You are the winner.”

Well, we don’t know about you, but we don’t spend much time reading the inside of lids, especially if they’re covered with menudo.

And, guess what? No one has turned in the golden can.

Don’t rush to a store to look for it, either. The company says it was sold several weeks ago, although it won’t say where.

“There’s always the possibility that there’s someone who stocks up with a lot of menudo and has the can in their cupboard and doesn’t know it,” said spokeswoman Kathleen Rogers.

But if the menudo has been consumed, treasure-seekers might consider a rush to a different type of location.

“It could be in a landfill,” Rogers pointed out.

CHINESE CHALET: We seem to have food on our mind today. Anyway, Jim Himes of Hacienda Heights wasn’t overwhelmed by our recent shot of the Viking’s Table Chinese restaurant in West L.A. After all, Himes lives near the Mr. Swiss Chinese Food restaurant.

ANOTHER MERGER WE HADN’T HEARD OF: Daniel Fink of L.A. drove by an Oceanside pet store named Groomingdales.

OXY, MORE ON: To our list of illustrious alumni of Occidental College, Louis Elovitz of L.A. and Loren Lester of Reseda point out we should add filmmaker Terry Gilliam (“Brazil”). And, just so we can have lunch in this town again, we’ll also throw in KTLA-TV (Channel 5) entertainment reporter Sam Rubin.

THIS DRIVEN CITY: A Times poll of a few years ago found that 38% of the Southland’s drivers admitted making “indecent gestures” at others on the road. We thought of that statistic when John Gilman sent us a sighting of an old Chevy with the following message written on the spare-tire cover: “Horn broken--watch for my finger.”

THE-NAME-FITS DEPT.: Jerry Cowle of Pacific Palisades saw a sign that said: “Piano Studio . . . Suite 6 Charles Bangs. . . . “

Maybe that’s where Jerry Lee Lewis learned his technique.

Cowle adds, by the way: “Years ago we had a dentist here with the surname of Grunt. But he left town.”

Without a bang, no doubt.

miscelLAny

On the back of a sales receipt, Sheila Boyd of Pasadena noticed a 10% discount offer from Mountain View Mortuary of Altadena. But she had to call “within 30 days of receipt to be eligible for discount.” Geez, talk about being shoved into the grave. . . .