A Reader Explains Why She Was Buying $2.19 Worth of ‘Lint’
You wouldn’t think anyone would question the shopping savvy of someone who saved more than $335,000 during one visit to a drugstore. But after I published Nancy Burrows’ receipt in Thursday’s paper, numerous readers wondered how she could shell out $2.19 for one particular item (see accompanying).
“Why was she buying lint?” asked Maggie Bell of Dana Point. “I’ve always had plenty in my dryer’s lint catcher. Maybe I could make some extra income selling it.”
Finding a deeper meaning, Dennis Levin of L.A. said, “The real problem with the economy today is the prices that are charged.” I phoned Burrows in Harbor City and she laughed at the jokes.
“It was a lint brush,” she added.
Obviously, on the charge of wasteful spending, Burrows is clean.
Speaking of wild numbers: Walter Heuman of Mission Hills received a survey, that, as he puts it, was searching for “what must be the most complicated, and certainly the longest-lasting, birth on record” (see accompanying).
Talk about strange dual-use products: On a Qantas flight to Australia, Diane Nielen of Fullerton noticed a unique “barf” bag that was in the front pocket of every seat.
Despite the suggestion at the bottom, Nielen added, “no family or friends have been takers” (see accompanying).
And she’s never needed a barf bag: Soon after departing LAX on her next flight, a 7-year-old named Brittany will “have 1 million air miles under her pink collar,” the San Luis Obispo Tribune reports.
At least that’s the estimate of the Shih-Tzu’s owner, Jack McPhee, a construction executive who takes Brittany on his business trips.
McPhee, of Randolph, Mass., has been overseeing a shopping center development in San Luis Obispo.
Though frequent-flier miles aren’t kept for pets, a United Airlines agent disclosed Brittany has been “given her wings.” McPhee said that on cross-country flights, the pooch eagerly crawls into her mesh carry-on bag and snoozes. When she wakes up, attendants and passengers frequently hold her.
McPhee, by the way, brings steak aboard for her. No airline food for Brittany.
miscelLAny: Ripley’s new “Encyclopedia of the Bizarre” says: “Iccolo Miccolo played a piccolo in the L.A. Philharmonic Orchestra.”
