Odds & Ends Around the Valley : Sarong Song
Dorothy Lamour wore it on “The Road to Rio.” Carmen Miranda danced in it, while balancing plastic fruit on her head. And now the sarong skirt is on the comeback trail.
Fortunately for the fumble-fingered, “it’s easy to learn how to wrap,” according to Ellen Luff, a fashion coordinator at Raffles in Encino, which sells the skirts at prices that range from $110 and $270. “If they don’t know how, we do help them . . . but most customers do seem to have a knowledge.”
Raffles’ owner Shellie Ross says confused customers sometimes find an out in a “pre-wrapped” version of the skirt. “It’s pre-tied and has a zipper in the back. It’s much easier,” she admits.
Paired with flats or sandals for an ethnic look, or with heels and short, bright jackets for an evening outing, Ross says sarong skirts appeal to women “because they’re very sexy, and they’re a departure from just a regular skirt.”
The sarong skirt has practical aspects too. “Since it’s draped on the side, it covers a multitude of sins,” says Ross.
Post-Prom Pyrotechnics
Are you sitting down? Good. Now only your jaw will drop to the floor when you read this.
Last year the high cost of senior prom festivities startled the Los Angeles school board. Dick Browning, administrator of support services for senior high schools, conducted an informal post-prom survey and determined the average cost was $362 per senior ($724 per couple) districtwide. Consequently, seniors on prom committees said they would try to lower costs this year.
But the proms themselves aren’t the entire problem. Post-prom parties--none of which are sponsored or condoned by the schools--cost a chunk of change.
At Taft High School in Woodland Hills, senior class president Jason Shapiro reports that dozens of couples are planning to rent rooms in a number of hotels hotel after their bash at the Los Angeles Airport Hilton Hotel on May 20. (Prom tickets are $80 per couple.) “About 60% of the couples who are doing this will have their own room and won’t share with another couple,” he says.
Reseda High School, whose prom ($90 per couple) is scheduled at the Radisson Plaza Hotel in Manhattan Beach on May 26, is trying to prohibit post-prom hotel room parties. “It’s written on the list of do’s and don’t’s that we give them when they buy their prom ticket,” says senior class adviser Steve Popick.
But senior Patty Corona says: “The hotel has a list of students’ names and they’re not supposed to rent rooms to them, but it’s just the opposite. I have some friends who are going to have a room there for the evening.” Rooms at the Radisson Plaza start at $125.
Verdugo Hills High in Tujunga is holding its prom May 19 at the Biltmore in downtown Los Angeles (tickets are $89 per couple). Donald Scott, senior class sponsor, says: “We say the same thing: They can’t rent a room there. But if their parents go down and rent a room for them, there’s not much we can do about it. We also have quite a few students who are 18, and they can legally enter into any contract they want.” Rooms at the Biltmore start at $140.
Parents actually know their kids are doing this?
“Yes, in about 80% of the cases,” says Shapiro. “A lot of parents approve of this. You’ve got to remember that we’re adults now.”
Hit the Ice
Wayne Gretzky moves to Los Angeles to join the Kings and what happens? “We’re getting a lot more kids and grown-ups interested in playing ice hockey,” notes Ann Meyer of Pickwick Ice Arena in Burbank. “Wayne Gretzky’s move here definitely increased our business.”
More people want to join “pickup” games, in which they play on ad-hoc teams. “We have pickup games scheduled on Friday and Saturday nights that start at 11 p.m. and lately we’ve had too many people show up, even at that hour,” says Shawn Arroyo, who works at the rink. There is also a pickup game Tuesdays at 7:45 p.m.
In response to the demand, Pickwick is thinking about scheduling another pickup game in the early evening.
Palm Trees With Ponytails
OK, so you’ve figured out that you don’t plant a skinny palm tree if you’re trying to create a shady spot in your yard. Fine. But have you figured out why mature palm trees that are newly transplanted always arrive with their fronds tied up in a ponytail?
We thought not. So listen to what Steve Horne of S. R. Horne Nurseries in Reseda has to say:
“The fronds are tied up for two reasons. First, to reduce transpiration (the loss of water through leaves) because the trees lose a lot of roots when they are dug out of the ground for transplanting.
“And second, to protect the heart (that pineapple-looking thing out of which the fronds grow) from sun and wind damage until the tree is established. If you lose the heart, you lose the tree. As new fronds grow, the string eventually breaks or disintegrates on its own.”
We knew that.
Overheard at . . .
“Timothy Leary? Yeah, I’ve heard of him. He was an actor, wasn’t he?”
Secretary, born in 1964, to her boss, born in 1954, at Stanley’s restaurant in Woodland Hills
