Knights in tarnished armor:Seven USC students were...
Knights in tarnished armor:
Seven USC students were arrested by police the other night for allegedly attempting to steal about $3,000 worth of lumber from a construction site. But it wasn’t your usual fraternity prank. The students were candidates to join Trojan Knights, which is a campus service group.
A Knights official said the pledges had been “instructed to gather firewood for a weekend retreat,” the Daily Trojan newspaper reported.
Apparently, no one thought it necessary to tell the students that they should procure it by honest means.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Some circular saws have hood plates. But Arthur Cohen of L.A. saw an ad for one with a “food” plate, just the thing for that really tough steak. A second dining correspondent, Mary Lu Camacho, snapped a shot of still another eatery that specializes in unusual food combinations (not to mention unusual spellings).
SATURATED BY POLY: Ever since we published a list of illustrious Manual Arts grads, we’ve been hearing from alumni of other schools, including Kenneth Wooten, who sent us a list of “more than 450 honor grads from Long Beach Polytechnic High School.”
We’re trying to read a little of his packet each night and so far have noticed such names as batting champion Tony Gwynn, musician Spike Jones, singers Marilyn Horne and Jo Stafford, newscasters Ruth Ashton Taylor and Joanne Ishimine, Long Beach Mayor Beverly O’Neill, state Sen. Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) and tennis star Billie Jean King.
Still, rival Long Beach Wilson can boast of one distinction that Poly does not have--an alumnus whose name was in a movie title. That’s truck driver Melvin Dummar, who claimed unsuccessfully that Howard Hughes had left Dummar his fortune after Dummar gave him a ride. The wacky story was the subject of the movie “Melvin and Howard.”
L.A. ADJACENT: So Mayor Richard Riordan held a big $100-a-plate bash in Beverly Hills the other night to benefit his reelection campaign. The fund-raiser also raised one question: He’s running for mayor of what city again?
It’s Los Angeles, actually--not Beverly Hills.
Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter was “amused” that Riordan portrays himself as a big booster for the city of L.A. and then goes across the border to rent a hotel banquet room. “Ruth’s motto is ‘Shop L.A.’--buy products in L.A. so the sales tax revenue comes to us and not to some other city,” said a spokesman for Galanter.
A mayoral aide, expressing surprise that anyone would question the Beverly Hills location, said the mayor had wanted to hold the event on the Westside and that the Century Plaza wasn’t available.
At least he kept it in California.
LIST OF THE DAY: With the dollar seemingly tighter than ever these days, a businessperson needs every advantage. Some items available at the Over the Counter Spy Shop in Thousand Oaks:
* ‘Shock Briefcase” ($1,350): “Looks like an attractive, ordinary briefcase, but it packs 50,000 volts of electricity that you control with the push of a remote-control button to stop and stun a would-be thief.”
* “Clue Spray Kit” ($125): “Just spray and . . . you have a marked door or object. . . . The spray adheres instantly to any surface, so you can tell who has entered your home or office. Invisible to the naked eye, but can be detected with the PCI-9200 light.”
* Tie Camera ($995): “Look sharp and stylish while conducting discreet surveillance. Feeds clear, high-resolution images to any portable recorder.”
The problem with the last item is that your target might stare at your tie. Not because the camera is visible. Because the tie has an alligator and turtle design.
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Imagine an Ecuadorean Bela Lugosi and you’ll have an idea of how traffic reporter Jorge Jarrin sounded as he delivered his Halloween day broadcasts Dracula-style. Jarrin signed off on radio station KABC by identifying his helicopter as “Jet Casket 79.”