An Agency Where Disco Isn’t Dead
David Kishimoto passed along the organization chart for the financial services arm of the Department of Water and Power, which indicates there is an executive in charge of “Disco Analysis” (see accompanying). This is a healthy sign. How does that old saying go? Oh, yes--all work and no play makes Jack a dull meter-reader.
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BIG APPLE vs. BIG ORANGE: Back from a two-month visit to Manhattan, Chester Collins of North Hollywood observed: “In fast-food places in L.A., the first thing you are asked, in 90% of the cases, is: ‘For here?’ In New York, the equivalent question is, ‘To go?’
“There is deep psychology involved here,” Collins continued. “I think the clerks subconsciously ask the question they would prefer to have answered in the affirmative. The L.A. personnel want you to sit down and eat your meal there; the New Yorkers want you to get the heck out of there.”
And, so, now we know who to blame for all those fast-talking, wild-driving New Yorkers moving here--it’s fast-food clerks.
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HOT EXCLUSIVE: Irrefutable evidence of life on Mars--specifically, the need for a no-right-turn sign on the Red Planet--was recently uncovered on Coldwater Canyon Avenue by Phil Proctor of Beverly Hills (see photo).
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NO PIECE OF CAKE: A grumpy Disney rep was not bashful about hiding his impatience when he drove to Burbank Airport to pick up a 4-foot-long cake arriving from Redmond, Wash.--and found it wasn’t there.
The calorie-laden confection, a miniature of Disney’s new cruise ship, was set to be the centerpiece of a party the next day honoring the contributions of the company’s Imagineering Department. So its absence was not a problem to sneeze at. How could a 4-foot-long cake disappear anyway?
Had it been mistakenly served on the flight? Or accidentally carried off by a sleepy passenger?
“I have a van circling the lot,” the Disney rep complained.
Well, I know you’ll be relieved to hear that someone eventually realized the vessel was on a different flight. Talk about a dopey mistake! The cake was delivered. Disney was happy and I’m sure no one’s pay was docked.
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BMOC, VALLEY EDITION: Mention was made here of the fact that the 1998 Kaplan/Newsweek College Catalog lists one notable alumnus from Cal State Northridge (singer Paula Abdul) compared to seven, for instance, for Cal State L.A.
Well, I’m informed that the guidebook should have checked Northridge’s Web site, which mentions such illustrious former students as actor Richard Dreyfuss, track star Florence Griffith-Joyner, actor Richard (Cheech) Marin, actress Debra Winger and astronaut Scott Horowitz.
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TALK ABOUT AN AIR WAR! Julie DeMarco of San Gabriel came across a couple of neighboring businesses that are working at cross-purposes (see photo).
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L.A.--YOU CAN’T ESCAPE IT! Times foreign correspondent Tracy Wilkinson, who recently moved to the Jerusalem bureau, began six weeks of intensive Hebrew lessons. “My Hebrew teacher,” she reports, “says he wants to go to USC film school next year.”
MiscelLAny:
Jacquie Meyer of Burbank sent along a copy of the 1882 phone directory for the little pueblo of Los Angeles, consisting of 91 numbers (and no Yellow Pages). Among those parties listed were two saloons, one brewery, one wine cellar, seven doctors, two undertakers, one bookseller, one soap dealer, one newspaper, one university (USC), one athletic club and just one real estate agent. Oh, yes, no lawyers were listed. Of course no ambulance companies were listed, either.
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Steve Harvey can be reached by phone at (213) 237-7083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com and by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, Times Mirror Square, L.A. 90053.
