David Johnson, chief operating officer for Fireman’s Brew Inc. in Canoga Park, plays a game of golf the way he sips a cold beer: slow and steady, savoring the experience.
When the 29-year-old golf enthusiast traveled to the United Kingdom with his family last month to get in a couple of games, he found that Europeans typically swing their way through 18 holes in less than four hours. He and his younger brothers, Stephen and Danny, meanwhile, routinely take close to five.
“It’s something (Europeans) like to give us a hard time about,” Johnson said.
Not everyone appreciated their creeping pace, but some were forgiving.
Playing a game in Scotland, the brothers noticed two local guys quickly gaining on them. Not wanting to be rude, they allowed the duo to pass.
When the game was over, the Johnsons wandered into the clubhouse for a beer. They were surprised to see the two men they’d ushered through waiting for them.
“The guys had three beers and three whiskeys sitting there on the bar to thank us for letting them go through,” Johnson said. “It was a very pleasant surprise.”
Waitressing Days
Deborah Drooz is a partner at a national law firm and has represented prominent clients including Steve Wynn, Kevin Costner and Martha Stewart.
But a recent trip to Venice Beach triggered memories of past lives. For many years, Drooz worked as a waitress in the L.A. area. The door on the Sidewalk Café in Venice still bears a logo that she drew up while she worked there in the 1970s.
Back then, most of the waitresses at the cafe, including Drooz, were required to wear roller skates. But one fateful day, she slipped on a spill and dropped a platter full of “sidewalk slammers” – rum and frozen yogurt – that resulted in a floor covered in broken glass. She needed four stitches and parted ways with the restaurant.
“Shortly thereafter, I guess the restaurant’s lawyer told them to terminate the practice of serving while skating,” she said.
Drooz also worked as a waitress at the Source, a 1970s Sunset Strip restaurant where she said she once got in trouble for spilling a drink on frequent patron Jane Fonda.
She’s had better luck with the legal profession. By the time of her first law firm interview, she had gone from hippie to punk rocker, and wore black spandex to the interview. Still, she got the job. Today, the 58-year-old is a well-regarded law professor at Southwestern Law School and an attorney at the Century City office of Denver’s Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP, where she specializes in defamation cases.
“My students ask me, ‘What should I do in my job interview?’ And I say, ‘You’re not asking the right person,’” she said with a laugh.
Staff reporters Bethany Firnhaber and Alfred Lee contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].
