Now Here’s a City Slogan That Shouldn’t Make People’s Eyes Glaze Over
For years, Long Beach has sought a catchy civic slogan, having tried everything from “the International City” to “the Most on the Coast.” Now, Men’s Fitness magazine, of all publications, may have solved the problem.
Long Beach can justly call itself “The Runner-Up Doughnut Capital of the U.S.” While researching “America’s Fittest and Fattest Cities,” the publication found that, on a per capita basis, Long Beach ranks second only to Fort Worth in the doughnut category and has twice as many shops as Los Angeles.
As a Long Beach resident, I’m left to wonder if I didn’t cost my city the No. 1 ranking when I went off doughnuts (12 years ago, this Feb. 13).
Fitness/fatness (cont.): Despite its doughnut domination, Long Beach was ranked the 23rd-fittest major city in the nation, two spots ahead of L.A. (Detroit was fattest.)
L.A. apparently isn’t as fitness-crazed as popularly believed, housing “the second-lowest ratio of gyms and health clubs to population on our survey,” Men’s Fitness said.
L.A., in fact, is less buffed up than Fresno, which was ranked 15th on the good-shape list. Hiking is big there, though Men’s Fitness warned: “Just don’t break your ankle while you’re at it: Fresno still has one of the worst scores for access to health care.”
Weird, weird world of animals: While visiting her daughter in Whittier, Marilyn Leonard of Henderson, Nev., read about some puppies that she would have considered buying except they don’t speak her language. Susan Guenther of Mission Viejo, meanwhile, was intrigued by an ad for a cat that apparently isn’t missing any parts, and is already assembled (see accompanying).
I beg your pardon! A former Boston resident writes that after she moved to L.A., she visited a McDonald’s where she bought a coffee with a senior discount and noticed a possibly ageist insult on the receipt (see accompanying).
I phoned the McDonald’s, and a courteous manager said the term did not refer to the customer’s age but was rather an inadvertent reference to an inventory matter.
“It’s OK, I’ll take the discount,” my correspondent concluded.
Unreal estate: David Livesey of Port Hueneme noticed an ad for a nearly 1,000-year-old house (see accompanying). I just wonder if it has the original roof.
Unclear on the concept: David Bernhart of Burbank wrote to author Don Barrett’s laradio.com website about a Tiger Balm radio commercial that he called “a masterpiece of sloppy imagery.” The spot begins with the mother of football star Jerry Rice calling for him, and Rice shouts back that he’s in the kitchen. His mother walks in and they begin to discuss Tiger Balm. After the son says he uses it for his aches, the mother says it might reduce her arthritic pains.
Her son agrees, and then she says, “Well, why don’t you just jump out of bed and rub some Tiger Balm on me.”
Muses Bernhart: “Uh, there’s a bed in the kitchen? And he was lying in it?” Bernhart wonders why the spot hasn’t been pulled for revision.
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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATIMES, 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.