LABJ’s LA Stories
Short Stop
In a city where facelifts are commonplace, Coca-Cola Co. has chosen to debut its new look. The 8.4-ounce Coke Classic slim can is being test marketed in Los Angeles at small grocery stores and major supermarket fast lanes.
“The contemporary demographics and attitudes of people in L.A. makes it a place where new things begin,” said Mart Martin, spokesman for Coca-Cola North America. “That made it a natural fit for Coca-Cola’s new package.”
Priced at about a buck a pop, the new packaging is almost identical to that of mass-market energy boosters like Austrian import Red Bull. However, Martin insists that stamina increase isn’t part of the new design’s message. “(Coca-Cola) isn’t an energy drink and it is not intended to be an energy drink.”
After L.A., the slim can continues its premiere along the West Coast. “People in Los Angeles are trendsetters,” Martin said. “Where else are you going to be able to gauge whether what you’ve got is something that’s real?”
Katherine Wang
Old Jokes
Actor and agent Marty Ingels, husband of Oscar-winning actress Shirley Jones, has sued syndicated radio host Tom Leykis for age discrimination.
The brouhaha erupted after Ingels, 67, called Leykis’ show on June 25. Using a pseudonym, Ingels took issue with Leykis’ assertion that men had to lie about their professional success to receive sexual favors from women.
According to the suit, filed in L.A. Superior Court, Leykis began to “berate and humiliate” him simply because of his age, which he claimed was 60.
“He crucified me,” Ingels said. “He crucified me for no other reason than my age. Then, he hung up on me.”
Leykis’ publicist did not return phone calls.
Ingels is seeking $4,000 plus damages, as well as an injunction prohibiting Leykis, whose five-hour morning program is produced at and airs on KLSX-FM (97.1), from discriminating against callers because of their age.
Amanda Bronstad
How Hot Is It?
Temperatures all over Los Angeles are hot about 10 degrees above normal but don’t expect to break any heat records.
That’s because the official site for collecting temperature data in downtown Los Angeles moved several years ago from the ultra-hot Convention Center to a much cooler grassy area outside the geography department at the University of Southern California.
Though the sites are less than a mile apart the official temperatures can be anywhere from five to eight degrees cooler at USC, according to Ryan Kittell, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
Last week, temperatures hovered around 92 degrees certainly hot, but not hot enough to beat the record 102 degrees set in 1994 at the Convention Center.
“It’s really hard to say what the actual record is,” said Kittell.
Kate Berry
Counterintuitive?
As one of California’s favorite sons once said, “There they go again.”
Forbes magazine, in its Sept. 1 issue, points out that the latest budget crisis/recall circus has prompted another round of “California in crisis” coverage, including Newsweek’s cover illustration of the state falling into the abyss.
But the Forbes piece takes pains to point out that for all the apocalyptic stories, California’s economy, at $1.4 trillion, continues to thrive and is ranked the fifth-largest in the world.
An accompanying illustration uses the half-dozen California doomsday cover stories from the last three decades as a backdrop for a chart tracking the state’s soaring home prices, which have far out paced the national average. Since 1968 the state’s median home price has risen 163 percent, compared to 52 percent nationally.
“Perhaps,” the short piece suggests, “these stories should henceforth be viewed as contrarian indicators, at least by people contemplating the purchase of a home.”
Andy Fixmer
The Roving Eye
Say Cheese and Hello
The camera phones are watching and there’s nowhere to hide.
The latest craze in cell phone gadgetry has a miniature digital camera embedded into a cell phone. With a quick snap and a few taps on the phone’s keypad, a photo can be taken and emailed within seconds (even tough the picture quality is considerably worse than the average digital camera).
Among the more novel applications: The U.S. Army Recruiting Battalion is examining, by phone, the tattoos of potential California recruits. In the past, whenever a new recruit showed up in outlying areas like Bakersfield or Fresno with a questionable tattoo, he was required to drive to the Los Angeles headquarters to be examined before enlisting. But the camera phones that the Army is testing would change all that.
“They can just snap a picture with their phone and send it to L.A. to get approval,” said Stephanie Vinge-Walsh, a spokeswoman for Sprint Corp., whose phones the Army is testing.
Tattoos, of course, are only part of the picture. Earlier this month, a teenage boy in New Jersey used his phone to take photos of a man trying to lure him into his car, providing evidence that led to the alleged assailant’s arrest. Police used the photos to make out the alleged kidnapper’s license plate number in a shot taken as the man sped away in his car.
By some estimates, 4 million camera phones will be in use in the United States by the end of next year.
Michael Thuresson
