Businesses That Know How to Make Dough

You didn’t need a penny to find out the thoughts of the 99 Cents Only folks after a smart-alecky billboard appeared over their store. The billboard, placed by California Pizza Kitchen, said: “If they sold a Tandoori Chicken Pizza for under a buck, then they’d have something” and had an arrow pointing to the 99 Cents store on Fairfax Avenue. (see photo)

Reader Bob Garcia of L.A. noticed that 99 Cents reacted by putting up a sign over its entrance that said, “If you want a great pizza you can go there and pay $9.99 [with an arrow to the California Pizza billboard] or come here for a great pizza and pay 99 cents.”

A store spokeswoman said of the under-a-buck frozen dishes: “We are selling a lot of them.” Looks as if the chain figured a way to get a piece of the pie.

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THE BUCK STARTS HERE: Of course, 99 Cents Only knows how to attract attention. The chain’s recent, macabre “Father’s Day Special,” a book about the parent-killing Menendez brothers, drew more than 100 phone calls and faxes from readers to Only in L.A. Central. (I didn’t mention the ad because the store used the same gimmick last year.)

In 1992, the chain drew some unwelcome attention from the L.A. Dodgers, who compiled a disastrous 63-99 won-loss record. A large tongue-in-cheek newspaper ad placed by 99 Cents said: “Congratulations, Dodgers, on your 99 losses! You’re just like us. Nothing over 99 ever!”

The chain said afterward that the poor-sport Dodgers retaliated by telling 99 Cents Only it could no longer participate in the team’s Fan Appreciation Day (it donated $99 gift certificates).

A Dodger official responded that the ad was not a factor in the decision, explaining that the team wanted to offer “more expensive prizes.” Oooh--that hurt.

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STUPID COMPUTER GAMES: In medieval days, the occupation of a villager often became his or her last name--Smith, Tanner, Taylor, etc. Some things never change. Lucy Roubal, a Marina del Rey real estate broker, received a loan offer that was addressed to “Lucy R. Estate.”

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CAR GRAVEYARD? Bill Spivey and Mark Acuna of Claremont came across a facility that seemed to be the final resting place for automobiles (see photo).

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SOME L.A. HISTORY (REALLY!): Today marks the 135th anniversary of the start of a key battle in the Civil War, an event that wouldn’t seem to have an L.A. angle, but does.

In “Gettysburg: The Final Fury,” author Bruce Catton recalls that in the spring of 1861, U.S. Army Capt. Winfield Scott Hancock, stationed in the dusty pueblo of Los Angeles, threw a party whose “guests of honor were fellow officers who were resigning their commissions in order to enter the army of the Southern Confederacy.” Among those officers was another captain, Lewis Armistead, a close friend of Hancock’s.

During the Battle of Gettysburg two years later, Armistead, now a brigadier general, “his slouch hat poised on his sword,” led a Confederate charge against one of Hancock’s Union batteries. Armistead was mortally wounded but lived long enough to “stammer out a last message to his old friend Hancock.”

miscelLAny:

Whoops. Almost forgot to wish you a Happy Fiscal New Year. Hope you weren’t up too late last night with the noisemakers and balance sheets.