Subway to heaven:A metallic angel that was...
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Subway to heaven:
A metallic angel that was suspended from the ceiling of a Metro Red Line station fell to the floor recently.
The seraph was part of “Los Angeles Seen,” an artwork by Peter Shire. An investigation revealed that the problem was not the angel’s weight. The figure had merely been installed improperly by the Vermont station’s contractor. So the sculpture will soon be back in place.
It’s always a pleasure to be able to report a case of a fallen angel being redeemed. Especially in L.A.
KIDS, DON’T TRY THIS: During the current downpour of sunshine, our thoughts turned to the seashore--and, of course, escapist freeway signs.
One marks the Catalina exit on the Long Beach Freeway. We’ve never tried driving to the island, but we hear that automobile traffic is light for those 26 miles.
The other sign, snapped by Kevin Buck of Canyon Country, is the “Cruise Ships Use Airport Exit” notice on Interstate 5 in San Diego. It’s a good reminder to watch out for tailgating cruise ships.
BOSSES FROM HELL: In honor of Secretaries Week, the L.A. Downtown News published its annual survey of horrible-boss stories. They were amusing as always, though we quarreled with the judges’ rankings.
The newspaper gave first prize to the attorney / boss who “unwittingly transported some sand fleas to our downtown office” after “a wild party at his beach house.” The critters have never left, leading some colleagues to nickname the boss F. Lea Bailey.
A raw tale. But we’d have probably given first prize to another employer who temporarily moved himself and his wife in with the secretary’s family--then fled to another city, leaving his wife.
Or perhaps the boss with a bladder problem who urinated in a bottle in his office. Don’t even ask about the spillage problems.
HE’S NO STROM THURMOND: When Fidel Vargas tried to enter a political function in a Baldwin Park bar in 1992, he was at first denied entrance. Vargas had forgotten his wallet and had trouble convincing the bouncer that he was 23, not to mention the new mayor of Baldwin Park.
But it was true. Mayor Vargas was later named one of the top 40 young leaders in the country by Time magazine.
He decided, however, against seeking a second term this time around so he could return to Harvard Business School for an MBA degree. Thus, at the age of 27, Vargas gained a new distinction as one of the youngest mayors to retire from politics.
We can think of several other officeholders we’d have rather seen retire at 27.
CLOUDY CRYSTAL BALL: New York psychic Shawn Robbins sent a computerized letter to Walter Lasky of Palos Verdes Estates, offering to give him a reading for $20. “I have this premonition you are going through a very distressful period,” Robbins wrote.
“Distressful” is one way to put it. Valerie Gorsuch, the daughter of Walter Lasky, points out that her father died in 1990.
miscelLAny
Allen Wilkinson of Whittier saw an ad for a “complimentary” cosmetic laser surgery seminar. Observes Wilkinson: “I don’t know how long a plastic surgeon can stay in business if he goes around telling people how marvelous they already look.”
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