Communication Line Got Muddied

The item here about the woman whose address in Tripoli was spelled EEE (as in Triple-E) struck a chord with Dick Harris of La Canada.

When his kitchen drain stopped up, Harris phoned a plumber. “As I live on a private drive, which is somewhat hard to find, I gave the person who took the call my customary description of how to reach the house,” he recalled.

“I was quite active in the Boy Scouts as an advisor and had just returned from a camping trip where our large tepee had gotten wet. So I also told the party taking my directions, ‘There’s a tepee on the front lawn.’ A few minutes later, she called back to say that if there was toilet paper [t.p.] on the front lawn, I didn’t need the line rooted out, but, rather, needed the septic tank pumped.”

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SPIT HAPPENS: The milk-in-the-company-’fridge story is also stirring memories.

Jim Hudson of Solana Beach remembers that one of his “engineering directors used to buy hazelnut-flavored creamer to put in his morning coffee. Of course, since it was in the lunchroom refrigerator, everyone used it. The director left a note asking that people not use his creamer, but it was ignored. Finally, he wrote a small sign that he taped to the carton which said: “To whoever has been stealing my creamer, I think you should know that I spat in it.”

Several days later, Hudson continued, “someone added at the bottom of the sign: “So did I.”

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WHAT’S A GIRL TO DO? The plastic princess of El Segundo-based Mattel just can’t seem to steer clear of controversy.

If it’s not a Bay Area woman writing a Barbie Channeling Newsletter, it’s a Barbie Liberation Organization putting G.I. Joe tapes in her voice box or a Danish group portraying her as a bimbo in the song “Barbie Girl.”

Now, a cosmetics company has introduced a woman who looks suspiciously like a rotund Barbie in a catalog (see accompanying) to make the point that a woman’s self-esteem shouldn’t be governed by the shape of her figure. Got that, Ken?

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HOLLYWOOD SALUTES THE ‘BURBS: Some Southland cities immortalized in film dialogue:

* “Eddie Adams from Torrance”--porno movie director in “Boogie Nights” (1997), repeating the name of a young actor who takes the bus to the studio in Reseda each day.

* “What was true in Eden is true in Whittier, California”--the future president’s father in “Nixon” (1995).

* “She’s Pasadena”--a maitre d’ explaining to a tipsy Norman Maine in “A Star Is Born” (1954) why he would have no chance of impressing the woman he is eyeing in the Cocoanut Grove.

* “It’s a beautiful day in Anaheim”--team broadcaster in “Angels in the Outfield” (1994), most of which was actually shot in beautiful Oakland.

Then, again, I’ve always said that what is true in Anaheim is true in Oakland.

miscelLAny:

“As we approach this winter,” writes John and Donna Day, “we in Big Bear Lake want you folks to be aware of the before and after consequences of a skiing trip.” (see photo)