Viagra Thief Had His Eye on the Bucks

The temptation is to say that Torrance police are looking for a suspect with a smile on his face: the guy who robbed a drugstore of two bottles of Viagra as well as $500.

But police believe that rather than use the pills himself, the suspect planned to sell them on the black market (the pills cost about $10 each in stores).

“He was pretty young to be needing something like that,” said Lt. Gil Kranke, pointing out that the suspect was described as being in his early 20s.

*

FIRST THINGS FIRST: A suspect in a Paramount criminal case hired an attorney who then phoned the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department and arranged for his client to surrender on Friday afternoon. Why that day? Paramount’s newsletter said that was payday for the suspect and--hey!--the attorney needed to collect his retainer, didn’t he?

*

LABOR DAY LEFTOVERS: This week’s Dining Guide for the Adventurous (see accompanying) includes grilled “eggpant,” some not-so-mild Chilly Chicken (submitted by Dennis Ebel), a fish plate for the health club set (from David Meyer) and, for the calorie-conscious, a helping of honey-baked clay (from Joseph Bonanomi).

*

GREAT POLITICAL FOOD FIGHTS: During the 1992 presidential campaign, Republicans twice used Glendale-based chains in campaign jokes.

Referring to the wishy-washy Mario Cuomo, incumbent President George Bush commented that “the good governor of New York can’t make up his mind between chocolate and vanilla at Baskin Robbins.”

And Pat Buchanan said of one Democratic challenger, “Bill Clinton’s foreign policy experience is pretty much limited to having breakfast once at the International House of Pancakes.”

*

RELIEF FOR ANT VICTIMS? After the Wall Street Journal reported on the danger of fire ants in California, Barbara A.R. Tower of Hawthorne wrote a letter to that newspaper, recalling a 1995 Journal article on the subject. The latter piece was headlined, “Texans With the Bug Will Try Anything to Get Rid of It.”

Tower recalled the account of one Texan who had killed the inhabitants of his backyard anthill by urinating on them. The ant-slayer’s theory was that the ammonium in urine was deadly and he hoped to perfect an environmentally friendly formula.

“If the stuff’s hit the market,” Tower noted, “California growers of all kinds can rejoice.”

*

NO HISSING IN THE LIBRARY! Were you aware that Saturday is National Iguana Awareness Day? That’s what I thought. Anyway, Leslie Carroll, 16, a Santa Monica High student, will deliver a speech that day at Santa Monica’s Ocean Park branch on the proper care of these creatures, many of which are neglected and abused by owners in this country.

It won’t be your usual library crowd. Carroll said that fellow lizard lovers will bring along such pets as a leopard gecko, a bearded dragon and a blue-tongued skink.

If I’m not mistaken, an angry reader once called me a blue-tongued skink.

miscelLAny:

This week marks the 150th anniversary of Los Angeles Map No. 1, drawn by Army Lt. Edward Ord. The city was so small back then that Ord only bothered to number the streets as far south as 8th Street. Some of the street names on the map might not seem familiar today. Mother Ditch became Los Angeles Street, Grasshoppers Street became Figueroa, and Vineyards became the not-so-fragrant San Pedro Street.