Well done:Our item about the crematory /...
Well done:
Our item about the crematory / mortuary ads that appear in the Yellow Pages next to a blurb about barbecuing reminded Sally Wade of Hacienda Heights of a bizarre experience.
“My husband was cleaning up after some tenants from one of our rentals who had moved out,” she said. “He’d worked his way outside to a barbecue unit they’d left behind--only to find a container from a local mortuary filled with ashes.”
It has always been Wade’s suspicion “that this person specifically requested that his remains be left for eternity in the BBQ, perhaps having found his life’s greatest joy in cooking food outdoors. Maybe he was even cooked outdoors. . . .”
Whatever, Wade’s hubby stored the container in his garage, forgot about it for years, then took it into the hills on a windy day a few months ago and released the contents.
Wade wonders if her spouse “is a candidate for some serious haunting from the Great Grill in the Sky [or Down Below, depending on where the fire’s the best].”
MAYBE THE DMV TESTS DRIVERS HERE: Stan Arvig of Hacienda Heights--we’re featuring Hacienda Heights today--points out that this brake-testing course on Vallecito Drive not only offers three different speed limits within a few feet of one another, but also seems to encourage drivers to accelerate when they get into the school zone.
WE TEST THE LIMITS OF READERS: We have to admit that a couple of you were suspicious about the photos of the weird speed limit signs that appeared in this column Tuesday. The signs do really exist, but you don’t have to worry too much about encountering them during your commute.
The 9 1/2 mph sign found by Bob Hill of Pasadena is on the premises of a Las Vegas hotel. The 17.3 mph sign was photographed by Boris Raynes of Palos Verdes Estates on the property of an Ojai hotel. Both are obviously jokes.
But the 27 mph sign spotted by Tom McGarry of Redondo Beach is actually on a city street--specifically, 182nd Street in Torrance. Presumably it’s no joke.
MORE PROOF IT’S A JUNGLE OUT HERE: L.A. is the headquarters of Orangutan Foundation International.
A COMPLAINT FOR LAMENT: “Many years ago, I paid an amount of money to become a ‘life’ member of Mensa,” writes Ken Rosenhek of Beverly Hills. “With dues going up almost every year, I thought I could save some money.” So you can imagine Rosenhek’s surprise when he received the latest issue of Lament, the high-IQ society’s publication, and noticed that the “life” designation on his address tag had been replaced by an expiration date:
“1/1/2049.”
Hardly a way to treat a guy who’ll turn 100 that year.
miscelLAny
Several years ago, Thomas Pleasure of Venice was a local leader in the California Marijuana Initiative effort--an unsuccessful drive to qualify a pot legalization measure for the ballot. The other day, as you know, voters passed Proposition 215, which permits the prescription of marijuana for medicinal purposes. So how does Pleasure view this development? “I’m sick,” he said. OK, take two puffs and call us tomorrow.