Clean Your Clothes with Cheez Whiz

Article Tools

Print friendly
E-mail story
Tip Us Off
iPod friendly
Comments

Bookmark This

del.icio.us.
Digg!
furl
google
newsvine
reddit
technorati
Facebook
Yahoo!

WACKY TITLES: It’s time once more for the annual Planned Parenthood book sale—and the list of wacky titles volunteers found among the donations. Here are some, forwarded to me by Mary Brown.

My Heart May Be Broken but My Hair Still Looks Great

Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot

Straight Up and Dirty

Vinegar Pie and Chicken Bread

Waiting for My Cats to Die

The Poetry of Richard Milhouse Nixon

How to Read a French Fry

101 Ways to Bug Your Parents

Stay Fit and Healthy Until You’re Dead

What Are Hyenas Laughing At, Anyway?

Eat Mangoes Naked

Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar

How Does Olive Oil Lose Its Virginity?

Darwin Country or How the Finch Stole Christmas

Clean Your Clothes With Cheez Whiz

When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It

On the Beat

The 34th Planned Parenthood book sale, the largest in the tri-counties, starts with an opening night reception ($25) on Thursday, September 18, from 5-9 p.m. and features wine and snacks and a first crack at thousands of books. The regular sale, free to the public, runs September 19-28, from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. For more info, call 963-2445 x6 or visit ppsbvslo.org.

MCCAW FINED: After two years of negotiations with resident Wendy McCaw regarding two alleged violations—installing a fence without a permit and allowing vegetation growth to block someone’s ocean views—Hope Ranch management began assessing fines last year. According to the Hope Ranch newsletter, the fence violation was recently corrected after accruing $43,200 in fines, but the view blockage violation continues to exist, at $100 a day, and fines now have reached $46,600, Hope Ranch said.

S.B. ANNEXING LAND? Opposition is growing in San Luis Obispo County as to the proposed transference to Santa Barbara County of 5,000 acres of prime Suey Ranch ag land. Critics warn that the owner just wants to build million-dollar homes and annex to the City of Santa Maria, with its supposed easier development standards. Also, S.L.O. would lose an estimated $58,000 in taxes. S.L.O. County supervisors have tentatively approved the plan and one supervisor claimed that Santa Maria is very supportive of the deal, S.L.O.’s Tribune reports. Santa Barbara County supervisors were to consider an ordinance approving the boundary change on Tuesday, September 9, but delayed the hearing until September 23.

SHOULD WE HAVE SPLIT? In view of the North County supes’ vote in favor of lifting the offshore oil drilling ban, some South Coast folks are grumbling that maybe the county split they hated so much a few years ago might have been a good idea. Brooks Firestone, swing man on the 3-2 vote, is virtually running the county these days on key issues. But he’ll be gone after November’s 3rd District vote.

PAUL HOGAN HERE? Crocodile Dundee may or may not still be living in Montecito. Hogan, hounded by Aussie tax officials for allegedly defrauding the land down under of millions of Aussie dollars, has sold his five-bedroom Montecito digs for $7.781 million (U.S.), according to the Daily Telegraph. The 68-year-old actor bought it in 2005 for $5.781 million, the newspaper said.

GUITARISTS REUNITED: Three generations of the famed Romero family guitarist group will be reunited at the Lobero Theatre on September 26, the 50th anniversary of founder Celedonio Romero’s Lobero concert in 1958. Celedonio has gone to guitar heaven but his three sons—Celin, Pepe, and Angel (who hasn’t been with the group in years)—will perform, along with two grandsons.

EL ENCANTO PARKING: Parking has always been at a premium at hilltop El Encanto hotel in Santa Barbara, and Orient-Express Hotels’ people rebuilding the resort say they’re working on various options with city planners. Underground parking is one option, they say, but nothing is final.

CLEESE SELLING: Ah, the costs of divorce. Funnyman John Cleese not only sold his 14.6-acre equestrian ranch (to Craig McCaw) but now he’s placing his Montecito beachfront pad on the market for a cool $10.75 million. Cleese, of Monty Python fame, is divorcing psychotherapist Alyce Faye Eichelberger.

MR. BLACK DAHLIA: Author James Ellroy, dubbed “the reigning king of L.A. noir,” will receive the Ross Macdonald Literary Award at the upcoming 10th annual Santa Barbara Book & Author Festival. Ellroy, whose words run bloody on the pages, is, among other things, the author of the novel The Black Dahlia, which was made into a movie, about the unsolved murder of party girl Elizabeth Short. Short—whose mutilated body, cut in two, was found in a vacant L.A. lot on January 15, 1947—has a local connection. She briefly worked at Camp Cooke, now Vandenberg AFB, during World War II, and was later arrested in Santa Barbara, in 1943, for being caught drinking while still a minor. Ellroy, sponsored by UCSB Arts & Lectures, will speak September 26 at Victoria Hall Theater at 7:30 p.m. and receive the Book Festival’s award. The festival will take place the next day, from 10 a.m-5 p.m., at the Santa Barbara Public Library. Visit sbbookfestival.org.

Related Links

• More On the Beat columns

Comments

Discussion Guidelines

Currently:
Clear Sky
Temperature:
57.0°
Wind:
3 ENE