Proof That Golf Is a Religion
Need further proof that golf is a religion for some? The Bel-Air Country Club’s April newsletter noted: “The Golf Course, Grill Room and Golf Shop will open at 6 a.m. on Friday, April 13, in observance of Good Friday.”
PENNY WISE: You may recall a few weeks ago that I expressed concern over Southern California Edison’s increasing deficit after a reader showed me a one-cent refund that the utility had sent out.
Well, I’m happy to say that Edison may be back on the road to economic recovery. Paul Enns of Lancaster received a bill that canceled out the refund (see accompanying).
At least the post office is benefiting from all the stamps that Edison buys for its penny transactions.
J SPELL CZECH TIME: Today’s selections of spelling errors that slipped through computer checks (see accompanying):
* M. G. Pfister of Long Beach noticed an ad for a salad that some diners might be reluctant to admit that they qualified for.
* Turning toward heaven, Louise Bowman and Lorraine Marsh came upon an ad for some angelic puppies.
* And, not to dwell on mortality, but my 8-year-old son Jamie was delighted to spot an unusual variety of nachos in Seal Beach. Not delighted enough to try them, though.
ON A TASTIER FOOD NOTE: A plaque holding a bronzed disc at L.A.’s 75-year-old El Cholo cafe notes that on Jan. 4, 1996, the restaurant chain’s “one-billionth tortilla was served to Katie and Lauren Wagman.”
The plaque adds: “Incidentally, the Wagman sisters have personally eaten over 5,000 tortillas at El Cholo.”
GUERRILLA COPY-READERS’ REPORT: A colleague passed along a press release from the Las Vegas News Bureau declaring that the city’s airport has some of the lowest parking “rats” in the nation. . . . Joanna Bougiovanni noticed a review in a neighborhood newspaper that said a restaurant had a nice “bland” of flavors. . . . And Dr. Patrick Mauer (from whom I stole the phrase “spell Czech”) received a fax that was “interred” for him. (I wish the junk faxes sent to me were buried instead.)
TRADITIONAL EARLY SIGN OF SUMMER: The police log of the Los Alamitos News-Enterprise reported that a La Palma resident “thought that a tree was on fire, but it was only a barbecue that had flared up.”
SHAKY GROUND: Tom Bratter of West L.A. heard a KNX radio editorial about dressing up the L.A. River that said that “many ideas have been floated but none has resulted in a concrete project.”
Not true, replies Bratter, referring to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers work on the river bottom three-quarters of a century ago. “Wasn’t that a concrete project?” he asked.
THE MIGHTY MISSISSIPPI, IT AIN’T: Great rivers, of course, can produce awe in people seeing them for the first time. My friend Jody Fox still recalls the stunned reaction of a visitor from the Midwest upon glimpsing the mighty L.A. River. “I’ve never seen a river with a concrete bottom,” the visitor said.
miscelLAny:
Author Lucky Meisenheimer points out that the first toy labeled a yo-yo in the United States was manufactured early in the century by Pedro Flores, a transplanted Angeleno. Is that what people mean when they say there are a lot of yo-yos in L.A.?
*
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.