A different approach to college: Study till you drop
“Students in India appear to be very hard workers,” writes college instructor Richard Lorentz, “as can be seen from this snippet from a recent e-mail I received: ‘I am into my final year of Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science & Engineering and will pass out in May 2007.’ ”
I know of few U.S. students who pass out -- from studying too hard, anyway.
How much is that kitty in the window? It’s not for sale, as Rick Paskay and Tony Salgueiro discovered when they noticed it sitting in the window of an empty storefront in Huntington Beach. As an accompanying sign declares, the animal -- evidently a resident there since at least December -- likes its home, where it’s free to come and go (see photo).
Speaking of open-door policies: Thomas Rezzo of Winnetka chanced upon a pet store that is in no need of air conditioning (see photo).
Unusual paint job? I tend to think the “reward” item that Ray Desbrow of Alhambra spotted involves not a car with a wacky design, but a cat (see accompanying). By the way, the feline disappeared in the Monterey Hills area of L.A. Anyone who has information about its whereabouts can e-mail me or leave a phone message (see numbers at end of column).
More on cats, I mean, cars: I recently mentioned the trucker who set his rig on fire while trying to cook some dinner on his front seat. (His grill tipped over.) Well, Jay Lowy of Encino saw an ad for another not-so-healthy vehicle accessory: a Margarator margarita-maker that “plugs into a cigarette lighter.” Nothing like having a freeway motorist lost in Margaritaville.
Speaking of inebriated drivers: A motorist arrested for drunk driving in Carpinteria didn’t help her case when officers asked for her driver’s license, the Coastal View News reported. She handed them a VISA card.
Don’t know much about geography: Ed Stalcup of Malibu was puzzled by this sentence in the book, “1,000 Places to See Before You Die”: “From the heart of L.A., it’s just seven miles through cloistered Malibu to Santa Monica, but you’ll already feel a world away.” Certainly those sound like other-worldly directions.
I’m so tired of all this movie violence: The crime log of the Huntington Beach Wave said: “One man hit another man at a movie theater because the second one had put a soda cup in the cup holder of a seat that he wasn’t sitting in.”
miscelLAny: Paul Erdman, the banker-turned-novelist who died the other day, wrote a potboiler called “The Set-Up,” about a U.S. banking executive who is arrested in Switzerland. The authorities tell the exec: “In this country we have a legal system that works because of the integrity of the people who work within it. You are in Switzerland, not Los Angeles, Mr. Black.” Objection, your honor!
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.
