This Sponsor Is Ready In Case Exhibits Find Their Way Out of Museum
Did you see who’s sponsoring the 18th annual Bug Fair at the L.A. County Natural History Museum?
Western Exterminator.
Isn’t that a bit like having the National Rifle Assn. sponsor an L.A. Zoo event?
Up, up and away? Sherri Miller of Tustin saw an ad for Renaissance-style dresses that, oddly enough, seemed to be intended for stewardesses (see accompanying).
Another laboratory creation? Kit Hope of Garden Grove came across what sounds like an experimental type of newborn hound, a scary one too, if it insists on licking you too much.
Ron McCarrell, meanwhile, noticed a landscaping system apparently designed to scare away female dogs (see accompanying).
Initial reaction: “You mentioned that Los Angeles is one of the few cities for which people just use its initials,” wrote Ron Matejcek of Claremont. “Having been born and raised in the area, I can tell you that San Luis Obispo is known widely as SLO. Many of the slogans used to promote the city take advantage of its initials (like SLO Living).” I love the bus line: SLO Transit.
And I wonder if the abbreviation trend in SLO was started by transplants from L.A.
Food for thought: I nearly gave Dave Kase of Rancho Palos Verdes a case of indigestion when I reported an attempted theft of designer water, an organic fruit salad and tuna sushi, ending the item with the words, “What? No Grey Poupon?” Said Kase: “You showed that you are not a sushi-eater (quiche-eaters can hope to rise to our level. The correct spice, as we would have been glad to tell you, is wasabi, Japanese mustard.” Thanks, but I’m a catsup man, anyway.
Fancy footwork at Dodger Stadium: As a youth, I was constantly being chased out of seats I had sneaked into at the Dodgers’ ballpark. Well, maybe as a young man, too. And, come to think of it, there was that incident last year....
Anyway, I tense up reflexively when I see a stadium guard approaching me as one did at a Dodger game the other day, even though I had a ticket for my seat. But the female guard wanted to talk to my 16-year-old daughter, seated alongside me.
The guard asked her: “Could you tell me where you bought your shoes?” That’s one question no guard has ever asked me.
miscelLAny: “Regarding your Hall of Fame of Mixed Stew,” wrote David Crain, “here’s a local favorite in Hacienda Heights” (see photo). Crain recalled that more than a quarter of a century ago, the restaurant -- then just called Mr. Swiss -- was a popular eatery “where you could get Alpine-style hamburgers with a slice of Swiss cheese. Today, it’s 100% Chinese takeout with a quaint Scandinavian name.”
To which I say, bon appetit!
Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATIMES, 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.