$17 Bond Issue: At Least It’s a Start
KNX radio reporter Myrna Roberts sent along a press release from Sacramento that calls into question whether Gov. Gray Davis’ administration is mastering the art of high finance (see accompanying).
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BIG TRANSACTIONS (CONT.): We live in a cynical world. Clayton Hollopeter of El Monte, for instance, writes that he was skeptical of a discount market’s claim that its price for one item was $601.59 less than the usual supermarket price (see accompanying). I guess I see his point. The item was bacon.
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Inasmuch as March 26 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of downtown’s Original Pantry, the eatery is sponsoring a “My Favorite Pantry” essay contest. The winner gets the Dodger box seats of the owner--Mayor Richard Riordan--for a day.
I wonder if anyone will write about what it was like to be eating breakfast in there the morning (4:31 a.m.) that the Northridge quake struck in 1994. The place went dark. But, heeding the cafe’s slogan, “We Never Close,” Pantry workers lit candles and continued serving breakfasts and pouring coffee (carefully) until power was restored.
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STUMBLING DOWN THE AISLE: With June approaching, the magazine Southern California Wedding celebrates “Best Wedding Bloopers” in an article by Kathy Passero. Everyone got their scrapbooks out? Let’s recall:
* The minister who dropped both rings in the fountain during the ceremony.
* The bridal party that was drenched by sprinklers while posing for photos.
* The priest who started the ceremony before the bride had arrived.
* The young man in the groom’s party who was so hung over from the night before that he passed out at the altar in the middle of the ceremony.
* The mother of the groom who, after a trip to the ladies room, walked down the aisle with her son, only to discover that she had a 4-foot-long trail of toilet paper stuck to her shoe.
* And, finally, the groom who said, “I, John, take you, Sandy, to be my awful wedded wife.” At least he said it tenderly.
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DISRUPT CLASS, GO TO SINATRA: The mention here of the former all-Beatles radio station in L.A. and the all-Sinatra station in Stockton moved John Abel to recall a previous Sinatra format. A Riverside, Ill., schoolteacher punished his unruly students by making them listen to Sinatra records for half an hour for each offense. A demerit there was known as “a Frank.”
By coincidence, Associated Press relates that a Fort Lupton, Colo., judge came up with a solution for loud stereo players, which authorities might consider here. The judge forces party-hearty types to listen to such tunes as Wayne Newton’s “Danke Schoen,” Disney’s “This Old Man,” John Denver’s “Sunshine on My Shoulders” and “Happy Trails to You,” by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.
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TEN YEARS AGO TODAY: When transient John Baxter was hit by a car as he tried to cross a Sylmar street, his pet duck flew into a fury. “The paramedics told us that the duck kept jumping on Baxter’s chest as they tried to treat him and they had to keep shooing it away,” a Los Angeles police officer reported. Baxter survived, and a passerby said she’d take care of the duck. The transient was grateful, adding he was down to one pet after the disappearance of his chicken.
miscelLAny:
Shirley Serna points out that there’s a sign over the entrance to the Criminal Courts Building in L.A. that says, “Thank You for Your Patronage.” Serna added: “I’m sure most of the people entering the building are not too happy about being there.” At least the court hasn’t piped in “Danke Schoen.”
Steve Harvey can be reached by phone at (213) 237-7083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com and by dog sled at L.A. Times, Times Mirror Square, L.A. 90053.
