Doomsday (cont.): A prediction by a Pennsylvania...
Doomsday (cont.): A prediction by a Pennsylvania religious group that the world will come to an end this month prompted Val Rodriguez to recall one of Earth’s previous brushes with danger. When Rodriguez was a teen-ager in East L.A., Pasadena prophet Charles G. Long drew national attention by forecasting that an atomic blast would blow the planet to smithereens on Friday, Sept. 21, 1945.
“A few of us lads arranged a ditch day for that date,” Rodriguez wrote. “It was the second week of school (at Roosevelt High) and we needed a break. Since it was my idea, I got stuck for the pumpkin seeds and the beer. Eastside Beer--now that was a beer.”
Sept. 21, 1945, came and went, uneventfully.
“Monday morning called for excuses at the attendance office,” Rodriguez continued. “I told the truth: ‘I stayed home to prepare for doomsday.’ I told them that I was concerned about my pets. The attendance counselor called the boys’ VP, who in turn called the principal to hear my excuse. They bought it! No swats.”
Rodriguez, by the way, grew up to become a schoolteacher.
That’s easy for them to say: After purchasing a humidifier, reader B.D. of Whittier noticed that it came with a direction manual whose grammar blows hot and cold.
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This is no lawyer joke: The L.A. Trial Lawyers Assn. says it is misunderstood.
Although the members concern themselves with civil cases, they are “too often confused with criminal trial lawyers,” the association says. Its officers complain of receiving “numerous phone calls from media people and others seeking information and interviews concerning the O.J. Simpson case, the Menendez case, etc.”
The solution: The group has called a meeting to discuss changing its name.
Readers, this is an opportunity too good to pass up. Send us your suggestions. The best one will merit the award of one of the most treasured items in Only in L.A.’s Cave of Wonders: a T-shirt that proclaims, “Nixon in ’96. Tan, Rested & Ready.”
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Hey--there’s no need for an audit!Several readers have inquired about the never-announced results of recent Only in L.A. contests. OK! OK!
We are sending out a copy of Dr. Cynthia Watson’s “Love Potions--a ‘90s Guide to Sexual Enhancement” to Al Guerrero. It’s the least we could do, inasmuch as the city ignored Guerrero’s proposal to replace the black armband around City Hall with a condom-shaped cover to symbolize the importance of safe sex.
And Louie Lawent will receive a nifty refrigerator magnet containing actual “Santa Monica Freeway Rubble” for his reply to the Downtown billboard that said: “12,000 Psychologists Are Coming to L.A.”
Lawent’s wisecrack: “Isn’t the Simpson defense team big enough?”
miscelLAny One of the public relations reps for the “Route 66 Rendezvous” of vintage jalopies at CityWalk on Friday was Hope Diamond.
