Reading Between Marquee Lines
At a Ventura movie complex, Pamela Spencer noticed a twin bill that also sounded like a philosophical statement:
WHAT WOMEN WANT
RUGRATS
Spencer, a Thousand Oaks resident, points out that some women would be more likely to agree with a marquee that read:
WHAT WOMEN WANT
CHOCOLAT
WELL, IT BEATS A RECALL NOTICE: “Apparently one business owner thinks that I need repairs,” Whittier Mayor Allan Zolnekoff wrote of a local shop’s banner (see photo).
“Since I’m a rapidly aging 47-year-old elected official, I appreciate the 20%-off deal.”
Zolnekoff added that although he “rarely falls down,” he was tempted to take the shop up on its offer of “free speed balance.”
SUCH A DEAL: Some other curious car culture items (see accompanying):
* A Volkswagen evidently being offered to a third “original” owner (submitted by Jay Berman of Manhattan Beach).
* A leasing agreement that requires an audition (Michael Wooten)
* And, finally, confirmation of my belief that some people get all the breaks. Obviously, they patronize the shop that Bob Barnes of La Crescenta spotted.
CASE DISMISSED: A half-century-old urban myth is tossed out of court in the book, “For the People--Inside the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, 1850-2000,” by Michael Parrish.
It involves the 1950s trial of L. Ewing Scott, charged with murdering his wealthy wife, Evelyn Throsby Scott, though her body hadn’t been found.
One story held that Scott’s attorney, who maintained that the wife was still alive, told the courtroom that Mrs. Scott “might walk through the door any time.”
The prosecutor, J. Miller Leavy, then supposedly retorted, “Every head in this courtroom turned toward that door just now--except one, that of the defendant. And he didn’t bother to look because he knows she’s not going to walk through that door. He killed her.”
A good story, but Leavy never said that. And Mrs. Scott never walked through the courtroom door. Years later, after Scott had been released from prison, author Diane Wagner said he admitted to her that he had committed the murder.
STUPID DRIVER TRICKS: On the Santa Ana Freeway, Glenn Donofrio found himself “behind an individual whose driving indicated a cell phone was in use. I passed him on his right and I glanced over from my pickup to sneer and mutter some epithet.”
That’s when Donofrio noticed that the guy was not only talking into a cell phone held to his right ear but occasionally flipped the microphone part of a hands-free head-set to talk into a second cell phone.
That wasn’t enough to keep him occupied, though. The driver also held “a palm-sized computer in his left hand and was punching keys with his thumb.” Added Donofrio: “I never did see him grab the steering wheel.”
miscelLAny:
Here’s a third theory on the recently sighted MDRNARK license plate on an SUV.
“Cripes, it’s so obvious,” said Robin Elliott of Long Beach. “The SUV was on the Santa Monica Freeway, wasn’t it? It wasn’t a modern ark, nor was it a doctor and nurse from Arkansas. It was an undercover police officer from Marina del Rey.”
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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.
