New Angles on Bad Dorm Vibes
College dorms have always been synonymous with complaints of rock-hard beds, tiny closets, abysmal food, etc. But Karen Hettinga of Santa Maria heard a different lament when she moved her son Jordan into his dorm at UCLA.
“While waiting at the curb with his possessions outside of Sproul Hall,” Hettinga said, “I overheard another new student say, ‘Oh Mom, the Feng shui in the room is all wrong!’ ”
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FENG SHUI (CONT.): Looking back on my college days, I now believe a lack of harmonic convergence in my apartment may explain my lack of energy during senior year. Yes, I believe my roommate and I improperly aligned the table we used for our all-night poker games.
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WEIRD, WEIRD WORLD OF ANIMALS: For today’s wildlife spectacular, I offer (see accompanying):
* A winged trooper with backpack, spotted by Eric Gardner of Hermosa Beach;
* A web-footed creature that could really use the parrot’s backpack, submitted by Edwin Mejia;
* And a house with a feature that’s “just in time for Halloween,” as Donald Russell of Redondo Beach put it.
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STAIRWAY TO THE SMOG: We all know people who are trying to get to the top quickly. But no one will be trying as hard as the runners who gather on the bottom floor of the Library Tower in downtown L.A. this weekend. They’re the entrants in the Ketchum Downtown YMCA Stair Climb to the Top--all 75 floors of it.
Entrance fees for the charity event: $20 for individuals in the Saturday morning race, $250 for four-person teams in the Friday evening competition. Information: (213) 624-2348.
This is the eighth year of the Ketchum event, and so far there’s never been an accusation of a stair-climber using a performance-enhancing drug.
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GOOD CARMA: After I told the sad story of how I prepaid for a full tank of gasoline, then absent-mindedly got into my car and drove off without filling up, I heard from Rich Rudy of San Diego.
He recalled the time he tried his credit card at the pump. “After it was rejected a couple times,” he said, “I noticed the readout on the pump said, ‘Begin fueling.’ So I dutifully followed instructions. It gave me exactly $15 worth of gas.
“I went inside the station office, explained what had happened and tried to pay. They couldn’t figure out how to get the computer to accept another $15 for gas that had already been paid for, so they told me it was my lucky day.”
No, I wasn’t in San Diego that day.
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A GRINDING DECISION: Don Spaulding of Alta Loma observed that one of the businesses cited in the list of local restaurant closures for the month of October was a Starbucks, whose violation fell into the category of “no potable water or no hot water.”
Asked Spaulding, “Do you think this Starbucks only served iced coffee?”
miscelLAny:
Have you noticed how just about every ad for a candidate omits his or her party? The nominees are evidently hoping voters won’t find out that they’re politicians. I live near a congressional candidate’s campaign headquarters where the outer wall is plastered with posters bearing nothing but her name. I guess she figures that posting the word “Democrat” on the front of the building might bring about negative results.
In other words, it would be bad Feng shui.
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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.