Security Confiscates Vegetable Ammunition in a Modern-Day Trojan War
Arms buildups seem to be in the news these days. For instance, the police log of USC’s Daily Trojan newspaper carried a report of “students at the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity house firing potatoes from a tube-launcher into an adjacent parking lot.”
Security officers said “the matter would be referred to Student Judicial Affairs and Community Standards and cleared the location.” A cease-fire was arranged.
Another reason to lose sleep at USC: Then there was the complaint from residents of one dorm about an alarm clock sounding for several minutes.
Officers knocked on the door, found no one home and turned off the buzzer so everyone could get back to sleep. After all, it was 9:23 in the morning.
Sounds like ... : Over the years, this column has collected numerous items that were turned into people in classified ads: Chester Drawers, Hugh Yard Sale, Chip and Dale Furniture, Rod Iron, etc.
Joe Spinoza of Valley Village came up with an addition, a personalized variation of “wainscoting” (see accompanying). OK, I admit I had to look it up (it’s wall paneling), but I sort of knew what it was, honest.
Taking customers to the cleaners? Wendy Mollett of Studio City found what she considers some pretty steep cleaning rates, especially when you consider that the company apparently covers much, much less than a foot of space per visit (see accompanying).
No pun intended: Ron Johnson of Fullerton noticed that a real estate office had misspelled the name of Anaheim’s celebrated baseball team and inserted a superfluous apostrophe for bad measure (see photo).
Introducing Orange County: For those in other parts of the nation who plan to visit Anaheim during the baseball playoffs, we assure you that it has changed since actress and one-time resident Helena Modjeska questioned the honesty of the populace. Modjeska wrote: “We had a vineyard which yielded beautiful muscat grapes but there was nobody to buy them. And often people would come fill their wagons with them without much ado; they said that such was the custom of the country. We were too courteous to contradict them and smilingly consented to be robbed.”
She also recalled that Anaheim streets became too dusty unless sprinkled with water or covered with straw, and that the straw attracted swarms of fleas. As I said, Anaheim has changed since that account of 1876.
miscelLAny: A bus driver reported that a pedestrian tossed a milkshake at his vehicle, the Coastline Pilot’s police log said. I wish I had the willpower to drink just part of a milkshake.
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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LA-TIMES, ext. 77083, by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A. 90012 and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.