Big Response to Damsel in Distress

Broadcast reporters Bob and Marika Tur were dining at a West Los Angeles restaurant when they heard a call on their radio scanner about an injury at an adjacent business. A strip-tease joint, actually.

A few minutes later, Marika Tur saw two firetrucks pull up. “All of the firefighters went inside,” she said. “Then an ambulance showed up. And everyone in the ambulance went inside.”

What diligence! And the injury? Tur said: “It was apparently a twisted ankle on a 20-year-old female inside the club.”

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WHICH REMINDS ME: About a quarter-century ago, a wild friend of mine participated in a dumb stunt. He and his wife and another couple were out drinking on a hot summer night on the Westside and they decided it would be funny to go skinny-dipping in an apartment pool. The first one they found.

And so they did. But they were observed by one of the apartment residents, who phoned police to report the invasion of two naked men and two naked women. The police responded--in force. Four patrol cars pulled up, and out jumped eight male officers. They ordered the nudists out of the pool and lined them up for questioning--as they were.

I don’t believe any of the four swimmers ever skinny-dipped uninvited again.

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A COP WHO NEVER TAKES LUNCH BREAKS: Roger Marshutz of L.A. sent me two shots of a motorcycle officer off Beverly Glen Boulevard--shots that I examined very closely, using all my powers of detection. There seemed something unusual about this officer but I couldn’t say just what. Then Marshutz explained that it was a cardboard cutout.

Port-a-Cop, as the quiet sentry is known to the local residents’ association, is stationed along Beverly Glen when it’s not raining. The LAPD officer who posed for the photo was Sol Lebus. He has since retired from the force but Marshutz says that Port-a-Cop has cut down on the number of speeders in the area, so Lebus continues to serve the public.

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FLAB DEPOSITS: After the discussion of unflattering acronyms here, P. Edwin Letcher pointed out that another establishment unlikely to market its initials would be FLAB, or First Los Angeles Bank. Of course, Letcher adds, “it might be appropriate for some fat-cat bankers.”

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JIMMY BUFFETT’S KIND OF PLACE: Qualifying as a true Southern California beach restaurant, Cafe Piccolo in Long Beach offers Chicken Tequila as well as Chicken Margarita. Not sure if they’ll hold the salt on Chicken Margarita.

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THE NEWS FROM HARD-DRIVE CITY: The L.A. mayoral commission’s choice of Digital Coast as the nickname for Southern California’s high-tech industry continues to elicit comments. New York magazine claimed that rejected entries included HollyWeb, Digital Salsa, Silicon Sprawl, Mo Betta Media, the Wired West and Pacific Coast Hyperlink.

Phil Frankenfeld of Washington, D.C., who forwarded the article to me, had his own suggested nickname: Digitalia. Or Hasten Basin. Or . . . , well, I’d love to list all Frankenfeld’s submissions but there were 133 of them, and I’ve got to hasten on to the next item.

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A WARTIME SACRIFICE: The mention here of the “Expectant Mothers Parking Only” sign in South Pasadena reminded Henry Miller of a World War II joke set in England.

Rationing was in effect and one grocery store put up a sign that said, “Eggs for Expectant Mothers Only.”

A very slim woman walked in, studied the sign, then told the store clerk:

“Hold those eggs. I’ll be back in an hour.”

miscelLAny:

My reaction when I saw the headline, “Water Possibly Found on Moon”? I knew the El Nino storms had been intense but. . . .