Dispatch from Paramount: This Scofflaw’s Real Handicap Wasn’t Physical
An officer in the city of Paramount was ticketing a vehicle parked in a handicapped zone without a placard when the owner emerged from a restaurant. He pleaded with the officer to show some sympathy for his handicap--an injured leg. The owner would have had a better case if he hadn’t first sprinted from the restaurant to the car.
Chew on this: There’s one language virtually all Angelenos understand: Menu Spanish. But elsewhere, diners aren’t so familiar with it.
“I was traveling between Columbus [Ohio] and Wheeling, W.Va., when I stopped at a Wendy’s restaurant and saw the attached sign,” writes Gordon Wilson of Monrovia (see photo). It defined a mysterious dish.
Lee Boss, meanwhile, snapped a shot of a store that is ideal for people who like to snack in bed (see photo).
Fredmania: I have to admit I lost track of the Fred Society after the founding of the support group by Santa Ana home remodeler Fred Daniel in the 1980s.
Upset with what he saw as the image of Freds as nerds and bumbling cavemen, he started the society to promote “Fred pride” with slogans such as “Better Fred Than Dead.”
I assumed the society was dead until I read in the Wall Street Journal this week that the wife of author Charles Webb (“The Graduate”) had changed her name from Eve to Fred “in support of men with that name who have low self-esteem.” The newspaper added: “Such men have a support group in California.”
I checked on the Internet and, sure enough, found the group’s “Fredquarters” in Palm Desert.
Admission to the Fred Society is $15, along with the pledge “to be Fred and Proud.” There’s a Fred newsletter, a selection of Fred collectibles and a Fred Museum, listing everyone from Frederick the Great to Fred Astaire.
Oh yes. The group also honors Fred Rogers, creator of the “Mister Rogers” TV show. This despite the fact that Rogers chose a line of work where he wouldn’t have to use his first name.
Eggo-terrorism: One recent morning, chicken beaks were attached to about 70 of the sculptures in the Community of Angels project in downtown L.A. (see photo).
The 6 a.m. prank was the idea of artist Amy Inouye, owner of the 24-foot-tall Chicken Boy mascot, which for years graced the roof of a fast-food eatery.
“This was done as an art project on behalf of Chicken Boy,” she explained. “He is, after all, the original as well as the quintessential guardian angel of downtown L.A.”
Only a few security guards shooed the pranksters away, she said. Most ignored the guerrillas, since the beaks were on elastic bands and easy to remove.
After the guerrillas photographed the seraphs’ nose jobs, they left the schnozzes in place. When they checked back a couple of hours later, most beaks were gone.
“No guns were drawn, no cuffs applied, and only a few feathers ruffled,” summed up Inouye. “No chickens or angels were harmed in the process.”
miscelLAny: Here’s one college major you may not have considered: USC Trojan Family Magazine asserts that “about 80% of the aircraft accident investigators in the United States, and roughly half the world’s investigators,” were trained at USC’s School of Engineering Aviation Safety Program.