Sentiments Are Sweet Even if Results Aren’t
Let’s get right to the dessert. After all, Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, and this column wants to share some of the, uh, unique sweet concoctions that readers have run across over the years (see accompanying).
May we interest you in:
An eclair that cats would love (submitted by Allan Goodman).
A milk shake that is soy tasty.
A furry chocolate cappuccino (Terry Kirker).
Brownies that are to die for (Nancy Thomas-Cote).
And, finally, a strawberry margarita pie that is definitely where the action is (Carol Richards).
And for an after-dinner mint: Dan Fink noticed that a package of candies bearing inscribed messages included one that every married man learns sooner or later: “Yes Dear.”
Heated words: I’ve heard people knock the weather in such cities as New York, Chicago and Butte, Mont. But San Diego? Yup. San Diego magazine notes that the Boston Globe blamed a Massachusetts lad’s sub-par showing in a recent San Diego cross-country meet on “humid conditions with temperatures in the 70s.”
The poor young man, used to those freezing temperatures in the East, “could not find the energy to make a challenge and faded at the finish.”
As soon as he gives up cross country, though, he’ll be moving to San Diego.
Lights! Action! Deal! “Celebrity Poker Showdown,” among other TV shows, has brought out into the open the obsession that innumerable Hollywood types have for card games. But Vanity Fair magazine points out that this love affair is nothing new.
Movie mogul “Lew Wasserman’s family told biographer Dennis McDougal that Wasserman twice lost his Sierra Drive home but won it back in subsequent games,” writer Duff McDonald said. “In the days of contract stars, (Sam) Goldwyn used a gambling debt of (Jack) Warner’s as leverage to secure the temporary loan of Bette Davis to MGM.”
John Wayne captured one of the oddest pots. McDonald said an ex-wife tells a story of the Duke winning Pal, the first screen Lassie, from his handler in an all-night poker game. (He gave the dog back.) Go home, Lassie.
miscelLAny: I’m still laughing over The Times’ story on a Super Bowl party whose guests included Councilmen Antonio Villaraigosa and Bernard C. Parks, state Sen. Richard Alarcon and former Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg. The host told them politics was off-limits and to “please forget that you are running for mayor.” Certainly easy for the rest of us to do.
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.