Teaching Kids Values at Camp Megabucka
Here’s one more example of the healthy effect television has on society:
In Los Angeles Family magazine, Melanie Steiner saw an ad headlined: “Do you want your child to be a MILLIONAIRE?” It was, of course, a play on the title of a particularly materialistic new quiz show.
The ad pitched a “Millionaire Camp” in Lake Arrowhead that promises to teach money grubbers ages 9 to 16 about “business planning, marketing, pricing, sales . . . saving, investing, the stock market. . . .”
The ad says, “Give your child the tools to become successful in business.”
Commented Steiner: “Perhaps they could also start a camp to teach your child how to be a mensch, learning skills such as compassion, charity, thoughtfulness.”
Incidentally, cost of the Millionaire Camp is $1,900 for two weeks. A good lesson in profit-making for the kids!
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THAT FUNKY LOOK: After noticing a sign outside a building, Robert Brigham of Manhattan Beach figures success is a relative term (see photo).
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THAT PERSONAL TOUCH: Jim Farmer of Huntington Park received a piece of junk mail from a company that wanted to cover all the bases when it came to addressing it (see accompanying).
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT: My colleague Rick Meyer found an L.A. hospital that takes Big Mac attack victims (see photo).
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HOPE HE’S NOT DOING THE INVITATIONS: On his official Web site, actor Michael Douglas announced his engagement to actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, but forgot to put the hyphen in her name.
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OTHER-WORLDLY ORANGE COUNTY: In his book “Haunted Places,” author Dennis William Hauck--and who are we to doubt him?--reports ghost sightings:
* On the Wild Goose yacht of former Newport resident John Wayne.
* At the old Yorba Linda Cemetery, where the Pink Lady “is said to materialize on June 15 of every even-numbered year,” weeping over a dead relative.
* At the Nixon Library & Birthplace, where a night watchman “heard strange tapping coming from the Watergate Display Room.” (Someone check the tapes!)
And finally, there was the UFO sighting of “a round metallic object hovering about 150 feet” above a road near Interstate 5 in Santa Ana.
All I want to know is whether the UFO gives traffic reports.
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OLDEST NEW MOM OF ALL TIME? The question came up when a computer printout at a Westside hospital listed the age of a woman who had just given birth at 125. A check revealed she was actually 25. Don’t know how the error could have happened. Of course, the baby was born a few hours after Y2K struck.
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NO MORE MR. NICE GUY: “Are rental companies tiring of not having their admonitions heeded?” asked Richard Propster. “I recently saw a stenciled admonition on a rental trailer that stated, ‘To avoid whipping, place load toward front of trailer.’ ”
Added Propster: “Now that’s tough.”
miscelLAny:
Did you hear that St. Augusta, Minn., wants to become a city and rename itself Ventura? Yup, it’s to honor Gov. Jesse Ventura. Funny thing, though. His honor’s real name is James George Janos. He later re-christened himself Ventura because he liked the way the California city’s name sounded.
Would St. Augusta feel the same way if he had chosen Oxnard?
Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATIMES, Ext. 77083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, Times Mirror Square, L.A. 90053 and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.
