Righteous Dudes to File Appeal
In surfing terms, the first phase of the lawsuit was something of a wipeout for the plaintiffs. Five surfers sued Abercrombie & Fitch for publishing their group photo without permission in its spring 1999 sportswear catalog. But a federal court in L.A. threw out the suit.
You could just imagine the reaction from surfer-dude extraordinaire Jeff Spicoli (“Fast Times at Ridgemont High”): “That’s bogus.”
And the surfers do, in fact, plan to file an appeal later this month.
While it didn’t figure in the lawsuit, the cover of the Abercrombie & Fitch catalog also drew the ire of the beach set, including San Clemente-based Longboard magazine. The cover showed two grinning figures holding surfboards over their heads: a human and a chimp.
It appeared to reflect the company’s “dim view” of the sport, Longboard said, as “an activity for people not much more evolved than chimps.”
DINING GUIDE FOR THE DARING: Today’s selections (see accompanying) include:
* An unusual meatloaf recipe (“What does it ooze?” asks Marnie Thomas of San Pedro).
* A meat dish with real intestinal fortitude (Lane Snyder of Montclair).
* A fish plate that is hurting (Lee Hayashi of San Gabriel).
* And a “nutrition facts” tag on a towel purchased by Mary Ellen Miranda of West Covina (“While the towel is the softest I’ve found for my new granddaughter,” Miranda adds, “it’s really not edible.”)
BAD HUMAN! HEEL! Wendy Mollett spotted this crime blotter item in the L.A. Independent:
“A suspect gained entry to a residence via a dog door. Once inside, the suspect ate food, took a shower and removed property.”
MUSICAL MYSTERY: Vivian Krug-Hotchkiss saw this item advertised on the Internet: “Hugh Beatles Poster 1976.”
Could Hugh be an unknown Beatle?
HANG UP: It was 2 a.m. and KNX radio newsman Ron Fineman was still up when his phone rang. He hurriedly answered it because he didn’t want it to wake his girlfriend.
Fineman said “hello” a couple of times but heard no response. Finally, a female voice said, “Who is this?”
Thinking quickly, he hung up.
“If I answered her, that could’ve led to some late night flirtatious conversation,” Fineman wrote on his Web site. “What woman calls a number at 2 in the morning and asks, ‘Who is this?’
“It was tempting,” he added, but what if his girlfriend had walked in?
No sooner did he hang up than his girlfriend did indeed walk in. And she said: “I was just talking to you on the phone.”
It turned out that after Fineman answered the phone, she picked up the extension and asked who was calling.
“She was so tired she wasn’t sure it was me,” Fineman said. “And I didn’t recognize her voice at all.”
THE MORAL OF THE STORY: “So you can see why it was a good thing I didn’t start chatting with an unidentified female voice,” Fineman concluded. “Can you imagine being busted by your girlfriend for flirting with your girlfriend?”
miscelLAny:
So which group meeting in Long Beach is the Reform Party and which one is the Re-Reform Party?
*
Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATIMES, Ext. 77083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A., 90012 and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.
