Dornan Is One In a Thousand
If Green Bay’s coming Super Bowl win in San Diego holds little interest for you, some oddsmakers at Tijuana’s Caliente Race Track are taking bets on a future event--the next presidential election. (I just hope Caliente’s computers aren’t stricken during the changeover to the year 2000 and wind up declaring William McKinley president.)
Anyway, Vice President Al Gore, rated a 7-2 choice, is the front-runner, while Texas Gov. George Bush Jr. (10-1) is the top Republican, according to the betting sheet sent to me by Jody Fox of Laguna Beach.
A native Angeleno--former vice presidential nominee Jack Kemp--is given a 12-1 chance.
But the odds of a California resident moving into the White House in 2001 seem distant. And with all the fine candidates here, too! Gov. Pete Wilson is ranked 31st on Caliente’s list at 75-1 while former Gov. Jerry Brown is 44th at 250-1. (Brown says he wants to be the next mayor of Oakland, possibly as a springboard to the presidency.)
Finally, former Republican Rep. Robert Dornan is 51st at 1,000-1. The Dornan odds deserve an asterisk, however. Had he not suffered that narrow loss in the last election, I believe his chances would be as good as 900-1.
THIS SHOW IS ON THE BALL: Veronica Fincher spotted a promo (see ad) for a sports memorabilia show that includes a baseball “hand-signed by Mickey Mantle before his death in 1996.” Yes, before his death!
Fincher points out, “I imagine the value would be considerably less had it been signed after his death.”
True, though in the memorabilia industry, it would not be the first time that a celebrity’s signature miraculously appeared posthumously on an object.
THE BITE SEEMS TO BE AS BAD AS THE BARK: Sally Tynan of Temple City came upon a sign that needs no explanation, only some repair work (see photo).
SUPER MISTAKE: Jerry Tellez of L.A. went out to eat with his brother-in-law Angel, who doesn’t speak much English. At one point, the waitress asked Angel, “Soup or salad?” and he nodded and said yes, thinking she had said, “Super salad.”
Tellez said that he tried to straighten his brother-in-law out but “he wouldn’t listen--he wanted to be hardheaded about it.”
So the waitress brought him both soup and a salad. And Angel’s reaction? “He said to me, ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ ” Tellez said.
THE QUIETER SLATER-DOWNEY DUO: While actors Christian Slater and Robert Downey Jr. have been packed off to jail for assorted offenses, it should be noted that a couple of high-profile Easterners with similar last names are minding their own business. They are U.S. Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater and Mort Downey, the deputy secretary.
PL8NOTE: Martha St. Aubin of Thousand Oaks wrote to deliver her opinion on vanity license plate messages. “I am,” she said, “the proud owner of a personal license plate that reads as follows: HA8PL8S.”
That gets the point across. I think.
miscelLAny:
Doug Hays of Glendale spotted an anonymous tribute on The Times’ Jan. 15 obituary page for Elizabeth Short on the 51st anniversary of her still-unsolved murder. “Perhaps there can be only a poetic justice,” the tribute said. You may remember Elizabeth Short better by her nickname, the Black Dahlia.
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Steve Harvey can be reached by phone at (213) 237-7083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.