4 Southland College Campuses Not Hoity or Toity Enough for Dating Services

A friend alerted me that the latest issue of Cornell’s alumni magazine advertises two dating services for the hoity-toity that snub Southern California.

The online clubs--called the Right Stuff and Good Genes--are open only to grads of about 50 designated colleges. Caltech and the Claremont Colleges made both lists, but the editors left out USC, UCLA, UC Irvine and Pepperdine, which must have the wrong stuff. (No, the University of Phoenix in Costa Mesa didn’t make the lists either.)

In the case of Pepperdine, I wonder if the two singles clubs were reacting to something a female student told the Yale News “2000 Guide to Colleges.” She declared: “The guys here are wimps.”

Well, maybe the guys do have wimp genes at Pepperdine. But that’s no reason to exclude Pepperdine female graduates from the singles clubs too.

Cryptic humor: “This is perfect California real estate,” wrote Marty Rauch of West L.A., referring to a cemetery ad (see accompanying). “Celebrities and lots of outside sun.”

Speaking of the sun: I apologize for waiting until summer is almost over before sharing this handy windshield sunshade tip from Marvin Haas of Banning (see accompanying).

Pier pressure: I’m sure mild-mannered Sunset magazine has thrown one or two darts over the years, but I couldn’t recall any before reading “Piers of the Realm” in its August issue.

In a survey of Southern California’s 26 ocean piers, the magazine dismissed Long Beach’s Belmont Pier as “the least romantic of all piers, being basically a huge concrete fishing platform.”

Of course, Long Beach once had a world-famous entry in this category, the 3,700-foot semicircular Rainbow Pier. But it was torn down during one of the city’s redevelopment efforts, meaning, as historian Kenneth Larkey wrote, there was “no more driving in your car around the famous pier, or strolling around the promenade with its rainbow of colored lights.”

The Belmont Pier’s concrete is lighted at night, however.

Stupid criminal tricks: I would think that one of the first rules of being a second-story man is to carefully plan your escape route.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Mark Vezzani told me of a recent case of a guy who climbed up the side of a building in downtown L.A. and broke into a second-floor clothing business.

Because there had been numerous burglaries in the area, a couple of police officers were camped inside the business at that moment.

So when they confronted the guy, what did he do? Vezzani said the intruder leaped out the window, breaking a leg.

Street sorrow: The idyllic street names in Irvine can conjure surreal visions when they appear in crime items in the Irvine World News, especially since the publication’s police log doesn’t use such suffixes as “avenue” or “road.”

For instance, I read about a vehicle impounded on Turtle Rock (by a helicopter?). There was a man driving without a license on Quailcreek (driving or sailing?). A minor was found in possession of alcohol on Beech Tree (obviously he was high). And a loud party blared away on Evening Breeze, for goodness’ sake.

I suppose there was a twisted logic to a couple of thefts on Fortune. Not to mention that citation for marijuana possession on Leaf.

miscelLAny: And it’s about time: Bill Horst of Winnetka, meanwhile, spotted a sign in Granada Hills on a business that, he surmises, “cuts lawyers down to size” (see photo).

*

Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LA-TIMES, 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.