Typo of the Year: Congressional Calendar Carries Full 10-Month Guarantee

Gersten Schachne of Northridge received a copy of the 2002 Congressional Calendar from Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon--along with an apology.

Seems that the calendar had allotted 31 days to November (see accompanying) and, “because of this, December is now inaccurate as well,” the Santa Clarita Republican said.

He added that the U.S. Capitol Historical Society was “unable to fund the reprint of calendars due to a reduction in revenue,” but said he felt it was “still important to share the beautiful photos and scenery. . . . It is still usable as a calendar through November.”

The first 30 days of it, anyway.

McKeon said that “the error is minor.”

“Sure,” quipped Schachne, “like having some kid wait up all night for Santa Claus when Santa had come and left 24 hours before!”

Time for an FBI investigation? I wonder if the added day was actually a plot by Congress to increase taxes.

Bono? Oh, no! The recently unveiled statue of Sonny Bono, the late congressman, mayor and singer, in downtown Palm Springs (see photo) has inspired a guessing game of sorts. Who does it really resemble?

“It looks more like Sonny than it does Cher,” conceded columnist Dan Bernstein of the Riverside Press-Enterprise.

But Bernstein added that it “looks much more like MAD Magazine’s Alfred E. Neuman--a mature, well-groomed Neuman to be sure. . . . I can also see Robert Redford’s hair and Jimmy Carter’s smile. Or Clark Gable just after inhaling laughing gas. Or maybe just Clark Gable with gas.”

While I agree with Bernstein that it looks more like Sonny than Cher, my theory is that the sculptor, through some horrible error, was actually working from the photo of another celeb--actor George Peppard.

No offense, Ringo: Oddest tribute that writer Hank Rosenfeld heard for George Harrison this week came from a fan who said, quite seriously: “George was my favorite Beatle . . . after John and Paul.”

Name-plate shock: The discussion here of dumb car names “reminded me of my wife’s discomfort with the name of her Isuzu Impulse,” wrote Robert Sharp of South Pasadena.

“She didn’t want to have to tell people she had an Impulse, so we had the name repainted and put on the decals of what the car was called in Japan, Piazza.

“However, the literacy level and fast-food focus of her students prompted them to ask her if she worked part-time for Domino’s. That car died and now she is on to some new auto-foolishness, driving a Probe. First she had an Impulse and now she has a Probe. What next?”

Guard against an Avalanche.

miscelLAny:

The Long Beach Press-Telegram asked foreign-born students at Cal State Long Beach what they liked about Long Beach.

Responded Taiwanese native Chang Chi Shih: “The weather is better than Kansas. You don’t have ice here.”

Oh, yes, I almost forgot to say that he previously studied for three years at Wichita State.