Virtual Reality That Hits Close to Home
No doubt you already subscribe to PursuitWatch, the San Dimas company that beeps you when there’s a cop chase on television. If that isn’t enough action for you, THQ Inc., a Calabasas video game maker, is designing a software frolic called Felony Pursuit. You can be the good guy or the bad guy as you roar down freeways. The company said the game “takes place in the early 21st century and is set in a city with too many vehicles, too many criminals and too many laws to enforce.”
Hmmm. Sounds familiar.
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DUELING FATHERS OF THE INTERNET: Though Vice President Gore has said that he “took the initiative in creating the Internet,” not everyone agrees. In its marketing campaign, for instance, the city of L.A. hung banners declaring that this is the home of the Internet, among other inventions. The city was referring to the work of UCLA professor Leonard Kleinrock, a pioneer in the field. I just hope an agreement can be worked out before August 2000, when Gore comes to town for the Democratic National Convention.
Of course, no such controversy is brewing in Republican circles, where presidential hopeful Dan Quayle is acknowledged as the creator of the “potatoe.”
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A BOAST OR A WARNING? Hans van Straaten of Hermosa Beach saw a flier from a restaurant that said it ranked in the “top 95% for cleanliness” (see accompanying). Van Straaten suspects it meant to say it was in the top 5%.
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MORE FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Eddie and Ione Edelson of Murrieta found more evidence that the tobacco industry is trying to branch out into other areas (see accompanying). And Robbie Reynolds of West L.A. noticed some less than appetizing directions to a luncheon (see photo).
Reynolds’ snapshot reminded me of a press release for a Pasadena luncheon that said merrily: “While you dine you’ll have the opportunity to hear the seven featured speakers from the World Congress on Liposuction Surgery.”
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YOU TARZAN? In his new biography of Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs, John Taliaferro writes that while a convention of Burroughs’ fans was meeting in Southern California in 1996, an unusual incident occurred at a Chicago zoo. A young visitor had fallen over a parapet into the gorilla exhibit.
“Witnesses looked on in horror, expecting the worst, as a notoriously fierce female gorilla approached the unconscious child,” Taliaferro relates. “Then, much to the amazement of all . . . the great anthropoid ape tenderly picked the youngster up in her arms and carried him to safety--in this case the zookeepers’ door.”
Taliaferro adds that the Burroughs fans “received the news with knowing nods.”
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CHEETAH WAS NEVER TOLD: I hate to dish the dirt, but Taliaferro says that Burroughs, who helped found Tarzana, lived out his final days in Encino.
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UNCLEAR ON THE CONCEPT: Leslie Ann Driver of San Pedro thinks there’s something odd about one particular information sign you see in many elevators. It’s the one that tells passengers, “Should the elevator doors fail to open or the elevator become inoperative, please do not become alarmed.”
Right. So, instead of becoming alarmed what are you supposed to do? “Please use the red button marked ‘Alarm,’ ” the sign says.
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TEAM FUND-RAISER? While in Las Vegas, Scott Wilson of Long Beach spotted a panhandler with a sign that read, “Help the Unfortunate.” The man was wearing an L.A. Clippers hat.
miscelLAny:
A notice in The Times building said, “Between 8:30 p.m. Friday, June 18, and 8:30 a.m. Saturday, June 19, this restroom will be unavailable because of the newsroom networking project.”
Puzzling. Remind me to ask Al Gore to explain it.
