Nothing Weak-Kneed About Octogenarian’s 1,500-Step Climb to the Top
It took George Matsui of L.A. an hour to complete the Ketchum YMCA Stair Climb to the Top last year. Of course, he did have to run up 75 flights of stairs. At the age of 85. With two artificial knees.
“I rested every two or three floors,” Matsui recalled. “There are 20 steps between floors, so I went up about 1,500 steps.”
The secret for his endurance?
“I’m an outdoors person,” he said simply.
Alas, he has dropped out of this year’s stair climb, set for Oct. 6 at the downtown library tower. One of his knees is acting up.
Matsui noticed it during a couple of stairway training jaunts--to the tops of the 55-floor Mellon Building and the 57-floor BP Plaza.
Instead, he’ll hand out refreshments at the Ketchum Stair Climb, a charitable fund-raiser (more info: https://stairclimbatymcala.org).
The rest will do him good, Matsui says, adding: “I plan to enter next year.”
Unclear on the concept: In Camarillo, Gary Ribiat spotted a wall buzzer whose directions seemed a bit out of date (see accompanying).
They let George do it: Now that pro football season has begun, are you feeling a bit left out in Rams-less and Raiders-less L.A.?
Well, for nostalgia’s sake, how about an instant replay of the entertaining years of George Allen, the onetime Rams coach? In her recent book, “Fifth Quarter,” his daughter Jennifer offers these memories:
* A detail man, Allen criticized the makeup of the buffet line at training camp, pointing out that the “saltines should be next to the soup, not next to the dessert.”
* He hired “a man to chart the movement of the sun at the Coliseum, minute by minute,” before a crucial game.
* Working past midnight, he would telephone rival NFL coaches at their headquarters “to see if anyone answered. Were they working as late as he was, he wanted to know.”
* When team rosters were reduced, Allen “tried to sign [7-foot-4, 520-pound] pro wrestler Andre the Giant, whose size and weight made him two men in one.”
That deal fell through, luckily. I don’t think the team had enough saltines to keep Andre fed.
Is the NFL headed this way? I cringed when I read that NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue was trying to persuade the National Automobile Dealers Assn. to change the date of its Feb. 2-5 convention in New Orleans.
It coincides with a date Tagliabue wants for the Super Bowl there. Otherwise, he says, the game could be played in another city, possibly Pasadena.
I thought of my own experiences with car salesmen. I imagined Tagliabue being invited to step into the dealers’ office. They tell him: “We really want to make a deal with you.” He gives them his offer. They say they’ll have to take it to the boss for his approval, leaving him alone to sweat it out in the office.
They return 15 minutes later, shaking their heads. They tried to persuade their stubborn boss, but he said no.
Tagliabue counters with an offer of several complimentary tickets on the 40-yard-line. They say, “Paul, throw in four passes to the VIP lounge and I think you’ve got yourself a New Orleans Super Bowl!”
miscelLAny:
Barbara Hedden of Laguna Beach wondered if a certain sofa-maker was really trying to discourage people from buying the product (see accompanying).
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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.