A walk on the slow sideYou may...
A walk on the slow side
You may recall the sad story about The Escalators That Can’t Be Healed. The Times’ Larry Gordon wrote about it in January. At that point, two escalators leading down to the City Mall had been broken for 16 months.
As civic eyesores, they ranked down there with the black armband around City Hall and the broken clock on the outside of the County Courthouse. But, back then, General Services Department personnel spoke optimistically of finding new parts for the motorized stairways.
Well, we have big news. No, the trash-strewn escalators haven’t been fixed. (Are you kidding?) But the city has made a landmark decision--they can’t be repaired. So it is now soliciting bids to replace them. The bids are due in 60 days. And then--well, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves on this massive project.
How to best put the outage into perspective? The last time the escalators worked, L.A. had two pro football teams. (Kids ask your parents.)
THIS AD DOESN’T HOLD WATER: G.E. Nordell of Culver City noticed that a local paper carried an ad by someone searching for a glacier--one with a “clean-driving record.” That’s one sight we’ve never seen on the 405.
ZERO LAPEL POLICY: In “The Run of His Life: The People vs. O.J. Simpson,” author Jeffrey Toobin says that when defense attorney Robert Shapiro was a student at UCLA, “his taste for the high life earned him the nickname Trini after the stylish singer Trini Lopez and fellow students recall his big hair and powder blue polyester suit with ‘zero lapels.’ ”
How does that old Trini Lopez hit go? “If I had a gavel, I’d gavel in the morning . . .”
SHORT LIST OF THE DAY: L.A. natives who have run on a major presidential ticket:
* Earl Warren, Republican vice presidential candidate, 1948.
* Adlai Stevenson, Democratic presidential candidate, 1952, 1956.
* Jack Kemp, Republican vice presidential candidate, 1996.
So far, L.A. hasn’t had a winner.
SUPER BOWL VS. G.E. COLLEGE BOWL: The Economist magazine reports a poll of voters found that the word most often associated with Vice President Al Gore was intelligent while the word most often associated with Kemp was football.
WHO’S GETTING THE SHORT STRAWS? Rick Rofman of Van Nuys reports that the General Cinema multiplex in Sherman Oaks is conducting a “straw vote” for president, with moviegoers invited to take their soda straws from one of three bins designated for the candidates.
Yes, Ross Perot was allowed to compete in this forum. But Perot might sue anyway, for Rofman points out the contest could face charges of being biased.
The concession stand carries a huge sign for a new “strawberry fruit ‘n’ juice bar” nearby. And the brand name displayed prominently is: D O L E.
UNOFFICIAL ECONOMIC INDICATORS: Cliff Dektar observed this scene on the Westside: “Man drives up in large Mercedes, parks and locks car, walks forward to parked taxi, opens door, takes out radio antenna and puts it on roof, drives off to work.”
NAME GAME: The plant manager of the Miller Brewing Company in Irwindale is Ed Beers.
STILL LIFE: Hank Rosenfeld’s outfit drew the attention of a Santa Monica College student who “took my picture on the pier ‘cause he needed to study the color yellow for his photo class.”
miscelLAny:
A colleague of ours received junk mail from two plumbers of sorts on the same day--one that fixes bad pipes and one that will clean out your colon. The latter doesn’t make house calls, though.