One Dorm Ceiling Is Another’s Floor
Picking a college can be difficult--especially when guidebooks offer conflicting tips.
The Princeton Review, for instance, asserts that USC’s dorms “are like dungeons,” while the Yale News’ guide says they are “beautiful.”
The “Fiske Guide to Colleges” says social life is “fairly low key” at Pitzer, one of the five Claremont colleges. But the Yale book claims Pitzer can be so raucous that some students “have to go to the Pomona (College) library to get some quiet study time.”
Fiske says “the food is good” at Pomona College, while Yale declares the food there is so mediocre--beef dishes were singled out--that hungry students frequently make a “migration to Claremont McKenna College.”
Finally, I couldn’t find any other publications that echoed this criticism by a Pepperdine female in the Yale guide: “The guys here are wimps.”
BACK TO SCHOOL (CONT.): Other trivia about Southland colleges:
* “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes” (1972) was filmed at UC Irvine, because its new structures were considered futuristic.
* UC San Diego has a Society for Creative Anachronism, whose members “make medieval armor and can be seen carrying swords and mace.”
* A Redlands class, the History of Wine, comes with taste tests (students must be over 21).
* Dining halls at USC serve croissants and gourmet coffee.
DO THEIR PARENTS KNOW? A student at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia said of the school’s heated pool: “I never expected so much skinny-dipping when I decided to come here!”
ON THE ROAD: Byron Myhre, of Palos Verdes Estates, who snapped the Old West Coffee Co. sign in Arizona (see photo), doesn’t recall ever reading about old saddle tramps slurping cappuccino and latte.
LANGUAGE! I’m assuming that a real estate ad spotted by Marjorie Stokell, of Culver City, merely contained a bit of slang--not an official disclosure about something bad that had happened on the property (see accompanying).
WEB FOOT SIGHT: Shirley Aranda, of West L.A., wonders if the guitarist advertised stands on one leg while playing (see accompanying).
ANNALS OF STRANGE CRIMES: Arthur Purcell saw this item in The Times’ Westsider edition: “2000 Block of S. Holt Ave. An unknown suspect took a victim’s papier-mache monster from her porch.” Then again, Halloween is approaching.
miscelLAny:
The item here about the pub that listed fish and “ships” among its offerings attracted notes from Art Korn, Arnold Zweig and L. Alexander, among others. They pointed out that the eatery also listed “pasties.” I’m sure the readers knew that this was no misprint--pasties are what the English call meat pies. So, to answer a general question asked by the readers, no, the pub’s pasties are not worn by dancers.
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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.
