There’s more than one tough cookie born in L.A.
I f you’re not already proud to live in (or near) L.A., the Otis College of Art and Design can give you plenty of reasons. To spotlight the “creative economy” of this area, the college came up with 50 “interesting” things born in the L.A. area.
They include the strapless bra, tooth-whitening toothpaste, the Hula Hoop, Bugs Bunny, the modern T-shirt (developed for USC’s football players in 1932 to absorb their sweat), Barbie, the Frisbee, the Internet, valet parking, the skateboard and the fortune cookie.
Of course, some of the above items may also be claimed by others.
Otis, for instance, contends that the fortune cookie was invented by L.A. noodle company owner David Jung in 1918. But others maintain that Japanese immigrant Makota Hagiwara introduced the morsel in San Francisco in 1914.
Some years ago, San Francisco’s unofficial Court of Historical Review held a mock trial to determine the creator. You didn’t need to read a fortune cookie to guess that San Francisco would win.
No one can take Barbie from L.A., though.
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Easy for them to say: Jack Mahon of Upland chanced upon a service station with an ironic name for its gasoline (see photo).
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Civic slurs: Readers are adding to my collection of cities whose names have been mangled in print, usually in postal addresses. The gaffes include Flakewood, West Ills, Locker Center (for La Crescenta) and Al Capone (for not-so-scary El Cajon). Now, Steve Lustro of Pomona sends me a fast-food receipt with a heck of a typo (see accompanying).
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Spacey directions: At the Griffith Park Observatory, Vincent Cuatico of Monrovia found a pair of dueling signs, leading him to conclude that “there is a lot to wonder about space -- and right down here on Earth” (see photo).
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Cats vs. litter: My neighbor, Tamara Prendergast, is the only person I know who can say she owns environmentalist kitties.
A while back, she confronted her hunter felines, Milo and Merlin, and told them “no more rats and mice and birds. They’re my friends. Don’t bring them to me. No lizards, either.” Perhaps what followed was a coincidence. Or perhaps her animals had eliminated all the wildlife on the block. Anyway, Milo left a piece of paper at her back door (see photo). Prendergast said, “I petted him and brushed him and told him, ‘Good kitty, bring more.’ ” Pretty soon Milo was depositing all sorts of recyclables at the back door: a lottery ticket, a plastic bag, an anniversary card (unsigned), a student’s essay about the Spanish Inquisition.
Then her other cat, Merlin, a needy sort who craves brushings, started bringing paper himself.
One thing hasn’t changed.
“I hear them growling when they come with the stuff,” Prendergast said, “just like they do when they’ve captured prey.” You could say they’ve turned into paper tigers.
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miscelLAny: The Wall Street Journal reported that what might have been the first e-mail message, in October 1969, was sent from Stanford to UCLA and said, “lo.” (Doesn’t exactly rank up there with telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell’s “Mr. Watson, come here....”) The e-mail was supposed to say “login,” but the system crashed. Some things never change with computers.
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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.
