Here’s the Entertaining Side of ‘And Justice for All’
California Lawyer magazine is out with its “Legal Follies, 2005” issue, so -- without further ado -- let’s get to the items:
* “Just minutes after pleading guilty to a gang-related stabbing, a Santa Barbara man got married in the same courtroom.” The groom wore an orange jumpsuit -- and was whisked off to county jail afterward.
* Two women who were former employees of the Gorilla Foundation, home to Koko the “talking ape,” filed a lawsuit in San Mateo County, contending that they were fired after refusing an order “to bond with the ape by displaying their breasts.” The Gorilla Foundation denied the accusation, and the suit was later settled out of court, meaning Koko never got a chance to testify.
* And, finally, proving California isn’t the only state where wacky things happen:
“Two sisters in Houston sued a synagogue when, in place of their mother’s ashes, they found ... a can of sour-cream-and-onion potato chips ... in what was supposed to be her urn.”
Birds! “Who knew you could buy the American national bird as a pet?” Judi Birnberg quipped after finding a pet shop next to a fraternal organization in friendly Van Nuys (see photo).
As if we don’t have enough to worry about these days ... : Now there’s a danger of turkeys tumbling in Torrance, as Burton Mitchell discovered (see photo).
Such a deal: Robert Cook of South Pasadena found a rebate offer that doesn’t really amount to much (see accompanying).
Frozen out: The Zamboni ice resurfacer, rumbling across the rink at National Hockey League games, is as beloved as most of the players. Cartoonist Charles Schulz made it a regular part of “Peanuts.” Many of the gizmo’s fans display license plate frames that say, MY OTHER CAR IS A ZAMBONI.
What you might not have known is that it was invented in Paramount, and the half-century-old company is still headquartered there.
The L.A. suburb doesn’t receive much publicity -- often people phone there thinking it’s the film studio. Originally, though, it appeared that the city would share in some of the machine’s glory. The company wanted to call itself the Paramount Engineering Co., but that name was taken. So it became the Frank Zamboni Co. in honor of the owner.
Still, Sports Illustrated’s Steve Rushin thinks things turned out for the best. He wrote: “Nobody wants a license plate frame that says, MY OTHER CAR IS A PARAMOUNT.”
miscelLAny: Either the Pacific Ocean has moved inland or the Hollywood Hills have hiked over to the coast, if you believe the ad spotted by Wendy Mollett of Studio City (see accompanying).
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.
