Long Beach Lands a Not-So-Prize Catch
The Los Alamitos News-Enterprise culled this item from Seal Beach’s log of police calls: “A man in the water cutting people’s fishing lines was warned to quit by the police; the lifeguards told him to go to the Long Beach side.”
And, Long Beach, if you don’t want him, send him up to Redondo.
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NEW GAME--SPOT THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT RATING! So what do you do if you’re a restaurant with a C grade from health authorities? Well, Adrienne Hatrick snapped a shot of a West L.A. eatery that camouflaged its mark among several other big-letter signs advertising dishes (see photo).
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AN OVER-ENTHUSIASTIC MORTUARY? Michael Chanslor was driving through Northridge when his son Shawn noticed two signs that at first seemed to be related (see photo). Actually, the “Final Days” warning was posted not by the mortuary but by a furniture store.
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DROPOUT HONOR ROLL: Gerry Wright of Long Beach points out that filmmaker Steven Spielberg probably didn’t mind being omitted from the list of notable alumni of Cal State Long Beach in the 1998 Kaplan / Newsweek college guide. After all, Spielberg dropped out of the school after receiving a C in a TV production course.
Oh, yes, and in answer to a few objections from readers, Webster’s dictionary defines “alumnus” as an individual who “attended” or “graduated” from a college.
Which is why I can add that another famous USC alumnus was Marion Morrison, who later changed his name to John Wayne.
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GOOD NEWS, LONG BEACH: Yes, after two somewhat negative items about the Queen City in this column, I’m happy to report that USA Today recently cited Long Beach as one of the Top 10 ocean fronts to stroll.
Whoops! That was Long Beach, Wash.
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DOES AL DAVIS KNOW SOMETHING WE DON’T? Spotted on Spring Street was an MTA bus whose electronic message sign in front said, “Go Raiders!” Having heard other reports of this phenomenon, I recently called the MTA and was assured that the Raiders’ messages had been left over from the team’s L.A. days and would be erased. I’m waiting, MTA. . . .
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GUYS, YOU CAN FESS UP NOW: Is it just my imagination, or was it after President Clinton’s “complete responsibility” speech of Monday night that a telephone-counseling service began advertising on radio. Its blurb starts out: “Do you have something on your mind that you can’t tell family or friends?”
(“Well, you see, I have a rather important job in Washington, D.C., and while I never said anything that wasn’t ‘legally accurate’ in my recent testimony. . . .”)
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HOPE THAT’S NOT A HINT: A local TV newscast was talking about stepped-up precautions at Los Angeles International Airport in the wake of the U.S. bombings in Afghanistan and Sudan.
But viewer John Howard of West L.A. noticed that the opposite impression could have been gleaned from the accompanying graphic on the TV screen, which said: LAX SECURITY.
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CAN’T MOTHER NATURE GIVE US A VARIABLE? A couple of weeks ago I drove by an electronic freeway sign that alternately posts its loan rates and the temperature. I looked up and saw “96 degrees” next to the words “30-Year Fixed Rate.” And the way this heat wave is going, I’m beginning to believe the temperature is going to be in the 90s for that long.
At least the sign didn’t say GO RAIDERS.
miscelLAny:
Robert Hadley of Culver City thinks the guy who advertised some stamps in a local weekly should be ashamed for referring to the subject as “Diana, Princess of Whales.”
