To Save Energy: Anchors Away
A contributor to the media Web site https://ronfineman.com says the energy crisis would be partly alleviated if KCBS darkened the huge Sunset Boulevard ad that hails “the teaming of Jonathan Elias and Ann Martin on the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts. Er . . . that anchor arrangement was extinguished months ago.”
I might add that it always irritates me when there’s confusion over who’s anchoring what. When I turn on a local newscast, I want to know whom I can expect to see narrating that hour’s freeway car chase.
THIS WON’T HURT A BIT: Welcome to this column’s special health section (there must be some way to siphon off the popularity of TV’s “ER” show).
Today’s exhibits (see accompanying) include:
* A hospital spotted by Vic Pallos of Glendale that, in his words, offers “a new branch of specialized medicine. Finally, there’s a medical center that caters to many of your readers.”
* A sentimental ticket seller who will take into consideration the condition of a would-be buyer’s heart (submitted by Charlotte Fournier of Laguna Woods).
* And, finally, in the category of one-stop shopping, a loan company for those who need some dental construction work next door (snapped by Oscar Rivera).
MALE MILESTONE: When Ryan Hirota was approached about being president of a Long Beach lawyers group, he first surveyed the members to see if any would be upset.
He took the unusual precaution because the group was the Women Lawyers of Long Beach. Assured there would be no protest, Hirota agreed to become the group’s first male president.
Despite the name, about one-third of the members of the Women Lawyers of Long Beach are, in fact, males. The name has not been changed, Hirota said, because the group’s main goal is still encouraging more women to join the profession.
Hirota said he has encountered a few jokes--”things like am I into cross-dressing?”--from colleagues. Male colleagues, of course.
DECONSTRUCTING HARRY: After seeing the photo here Thursday, several readers wrote that the Harry Truman star on a local hotel’s Presidential Walk contained a second error. (The first: listing him as a Republican, of all things).
“His middle initial should not have a period after the S because Truman had no middle name, just an initial,” said Rick Vetter. Steve McMullen, Bruce Stein and Bob Riggs, among others, concurred.
And, sure enough, in his Truman biography, author David McCullough wrote that the parents of the future president were undecided over what middle name to give him and “compromised with the letter S. [It] actually stood for nothing.”
CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE: But McCullough went on to add: “Harry S. Truman he would be.” And he uses a period after the S throughout.
Yet the book also shows a photocopy of Truman’s signature on a military card in which the young soldier omitted the period.
I’m not saying that the Pulitzer Prize awarded McCullough for this biography should be revoked, but I am confused. Period.
miscelLAny:
Who stole the Shrine Auditorium? Carlo Panno points out that the latest issue of Vanity Fair carries an article about the theft of the Oscar statuettes, which is accompanied by a photo of last year’s Oscar ceremonies. The caption identifies the Shrine Auditorium as the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. I bet some fezzes were really spinning at the Shrine over that snub.