Her obit’s fashionably funny
Betty Ducharme’s family has a sense of humor. When Ducharme, a fashion merchandiser, died the other day at the age of 79, her obituary in the Ventura County Star said: “Betty, you were right: Platforms came back and the bomber jacket never went out of style; as for double knit polyester -- well, no one bats 1,000.”
Today’s puzzling case studies (see photos) include:
* A drinking fountain on Catalina Island that 9-year-old Bella Edwards of Pacific Palisades chose not to use.
Unclear on the Concept Dept.
* An auto repair shop that apparently charges motorists to break their axles, as Steve Kauzor of Encino pointed out.
* And a shop in Ireland with a “closing-down sale” offer that wasn’t much of a bargain, observed Jay Berman of Manhattan Beach. (Perhaps it was calculations such as that that drove the shop out of business?)
You know how much oil companies love money
Is that the reason for the L.U.S.T. tax that John Tong of Twentynine Palms noticed? (see photo).
Upon further review . . .
Actually, L.U.S.T. stands for Leaking Underground Storage Tank.
A lot of people need cheering up these days
At an L.A. store, Madeleine Isenberg of Beverly Hills overheard a voice on the public address system say, “Customer Service needed in Fine Spirits.”
Telemarketers gone batty
Celeste Norford of North Hills and her husband came home one day to find this message on their answering machine: “Please stay on the line. Your call will be answered in the order that it was received.”
miscelLAny
Several USC teachers have banned the use of laptops in their classrooms to cut down on students goofing off. One annoyed student told the Daily Trojan: “If the teacher is going to say, ‘No laptops,’ then they need to teach the class in a way that accommodates taking notes on paper, which usually takes longer.” Poor babies.
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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.