It’s OK to Be a Hot Dog at Doo Dah : It’s OK to Be a Hot Dog at Doo Dah

A few years ago, Pasadena became the first city in the land to outlaw the throwing of tortillas in public. The action followed several instances in which spectators at Doo Dah parades pelted participants with the corn and flour objects. This year, the members of the Barbecue & Hibachi Marching Grill Team are planning to lob 1,000 hot dogs to spectators during the Nov. 22 parade. But no one seems worried about the danger of fans firing them back. After all, hot dogs are softer missiles.

As a parade official once said of the tortilla’s projectile potential: “It’s the recycled ones-hardened after four or five throws-that hurt.”

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YOU CAN’T HAVE EVERYTHING: Zachary Charles of Burbank saw an ad for a Christmas tree, but upon further reflection said, “I take a rather dim view of any bargain that loses its luster in the fine print.” (see accompanying)

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ANGELENOS OVERSEAS: On a business trip to England, Dave Perkins of Manhattan Beach was puzzled to see signs forbidding “tipping.” (see photo) Would waiters, valets and maitre d’s really put up with that? He eventually learned that “tipping” means dumping trash. He never did find out what “fly tipping” meant, though.

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SMOGDANCE CHAMP: In case you were wondering, the winner in the Best Films About Cars category at Pomona’s Smogdance movie festival was “Ruby’s Forbidden Love,” Elizabeth Deutsch’s moving “tale of a girl’s unrequited love for a ’38 Buick.”

Which reminds me of the assertion of Herb Caen, the late San Francisco columnist, that the typical Angeleno is “a well preserved, middle-aged, middle-class, 2-door Chevrolet sedan.”

Totally false, of course. The typical Angeleno of today would be a Chevrolet sports utility vehicle.

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NAMES THAT FIT: The executive director of the L.A. Police Commission is Joseph A. Gunn.

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TEMPLE CITY RECONSIDERED: Mention was made here of a comical Nike ad, in which overweight, balding guys on a Temple City playground were offered as a substitute for NBA basketball. I said it was the city’s biggest mention since 1989 when syndicated broadcaster Paul Harvey did a piece about a blackout in Temple City that was caused by some powerwire-eating ants.

Well, Assemblyman Jack Scott’s office alerted me to one other claim to fame: Temple City High grad Steve Lindsey was a member of the just-completed space mission. Lindsey, 40, is about the same age John Glenn was when Glenn made his first spaceflight. If he is to duplicate Glenn’s feat, Lindsey can take a few days off, then start training for a mission in the year 2035.

miscelLAny:

Speaking of Paul Harvey, I’m flattered that he chose to reprise my item of the other day about the motorist with only one I.D. to show a police officer who had pulled her over: a letter from the court informing her that her driver’s license had been suspended. I guess the reason Harvey didn’t bother to credit Only in L.A. as his source was because it was written by another Harvey.

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Steve Harvey can be reached by phone at (213) 237-7083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by e-mail at [email protected] and by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, Times Mirror Square, L.A. 90053.