A Letdown of Truly Historic Proportions
Thank God that’s over.
What a bust the whole millennium thing was. Really, the “Big M” should get an award for being the most over-hyped event in history. I can’t believe I actually awoke from a sound sleep in the middle of the night last week worrying that Dec. 31 might be my last day on Earth, and whether my demise would be caused by fire, flood, a computer meltdown, a nuclear accident or a terrorist bombing.
And what if it had been our last night on Earth? Most Angelenos would have spent it at home in bed. We have to be the biggest losers on the planet. So we don’t have a Big Ben or a Times Square, we had choices, lame as they were.
New Year’s is and always will be my least favorite holiday (too many expectations, and ugh, the hangover!), but this one was truly rock bottom. Even the parties were tepid.
Alex Via, a Los Angeles publicist, did point out one bright spot: At least the batteries, water and flashlights Angelenos bought to prepare for a Y2K disaster can be put to good use in earthquake preparedness kits.
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KCRW-FM (89.9) is attracting volunteers for its winter pledge drive with the promise of love: A new spot on the public radio station mentions three marriages that came about because of pledge drives at the Santa Monica College studio.
“Is it a hook? I don’t know, that’s a cynical word,” said Sarah Spitz, public relations director for the station. “But I can understand why it would work. It’s an alternative place for singles to meet, and it is coming up on February. . . .”
Spitz told me her assistant, Judy Tyler, met her boyfriend of several years at a pledge drive, and at least one on-air proposal was made after a couple met while working the phones in KCRW’s basement office below the college’s food court.
Spitz said: “We’ll romance you, despite the smell of Carl’s Jr.”
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Orthodontics are in the spotlight--on adults. Gwen Stefani’s teeth were gleaming with braces at the VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards last month, and tennis sibs Venus and Serena Williams, and Green Bay Packer quarterback Brett Favre are all sporting jaws of steel.
The American Assn. of Orthodontists says about 1 million U.S. and Canadian adults are flashing silver smiles. Braces are less expensive and more comfortable than they used to be, and they come in fashion colors!
And for those who don’t want to be left out of this new trend, there are even fake braces. Where did I discover this strange phenom? The Internet, of course, home to more fetishists than you can crack a whip at. For $100, https://www.silversmiles.simplenet.com will fit a set of brackets to a clay model of your teeth. The funniest part is, the site offers a $25-per-set discount for couples.
Booth Moore can be reached at booth.moore@latimes.com.
