JACK FROST COMES NIPPIN’ GIFT GUIDE ’06 INSIDE
ND E DITIO E K E N WE
a
Visit us online smdp.com
Santa Monica Daily Press November 25-26, 2006
Since 2001: A news odyssey
Volume 6 Issue 11
Coming up short on the holidays
DAILY LOTTERY 14 35 40 47 48 Meganumber: 35 Jackpot: $23M 2 14 30 40 44 Meganumber: 10 Jackpot: $9M 5 16 20 31 32 MIDDAY: 7 5 1 EVENING: 3 2 3 1st: 12 Lucky Charms 2nd: 10 Solid Gold 3rd: 02 Lucky Star RACE TIME: 1.41.98 Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the winning number information, mistakes can occur. In the event of any discrepancies, California State laws and California Lottery regulations will prevail. Complete game information and prize claiming instructions are available at California Lottery retailers. Visit the California State Lottery web site at http://www.calottery.com
NEWS OF THE WEIRD BY
CHUCK
BY KEVIN HERRERA
SHEPARD
Daily Press Staff Writer
■ In September, researchers at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, seeking to create a robot to traverse the colon but without tearing the colon’s delicate walls, successfully tested one such tiny robot that can propel itself smoothly by gliding along mucus. ■ Even though protests grow against Wal-Mart for supposedly treating its employees badly, Kellie Guderian is not fazed. In October, she and her husband won Iowa’s $200 million Powerball lottery, but she cheerfully said she was keeping her job at the Fort Dodge WalMart. Guderian, said her husband, “loves her job, and the people she works with are like family.” ■ The Birmingham City Council revealed in October, first, that a man whose job is to paint white lines in the street made more than twice the average annual British wage, and then that a city lightbulb-changer was paid at about the same rate. And in October, London’s Daily Mail profiled Keith Jackson, 57, an engineer for the AquaTec Coatings company in Wales, whose occupation for the last 30 years has been watching paint dry (to gauge its application time). He said the job pays “fairly well” but “can be stressful.”
WORD UP! exacerbate \ig-ZAS-ur-bayt\ To render more severe, violent, or bitter; to irritate; to aggravate; to make worse.
INDEX Inside Scoop Making room for victims
3
Opinion Some ‘Modern’ feedback
4
Surf Report Water temperature: 64°
23
What the future holds
24
MOVIETIMES Celluloid heroes
25
Comics & Stuff 26-27
Classifieds Find your place
pier. The sets of rings were a mainstay of health clubs a century ago, but few public apparatus still exist in the United States.
The swingers scene Beach rings are the thing for one tight-knit community BY JESSICA ROBERTS Special to the Daily Press
SM BEACH — Passing the sets of rings hanging just south of the Santa
28-30
Monica Pier, most people are reminded of their childhood playground. Others are just mystified. The row of metal hoops can seem more daunting in adulthood, when a
See SHORT PEOPLE, page 21
staircase can test one’s physical exertion — that is, until they are taken in the hands of a master, making like See RINGS, page 16
Nation’s retailers pull out all the stops Economic indicators don’t slow shoppers BY ANNE D’INNOCENZIO AP Business Writer
Horoscopes
And Soduku, too
Jessica Roberts news@smdp.com
NATURAL HIGH: Kimberly Fox swings her way down the traveling rings located on Santa Monica Beach, just south of the
BELOW 5-FEET, 7-INCHES — Measuring one’s worth by how much they’ve grown may sound ridiculous, but for Ellen Frankel, it was a harsh reality through much of her childhood. At 4-feet, 8-inches tall, Frankel suffered from “heightism,” the cultural bias favoring tallness and stigmatizing shortness. Feeling inadequate because of something she couldn’t control, Frankel became obsessed with something she could control, her weight.
Bargain shoppers, many braving frigid temperatures, headed to the nation’s stores and malls before the sun rose on Friday to nab specials on everything from toys to flat-screen TVs as the holiday shopping season
Izzy says,
“If you think our sandwiches are too large, bring a friend.”
officially opened. In a slowing but still steady economy, retailers heightened their pitch to shoppers with expanded hours, generous discounts and free money in the form of gift cards. A growing number of stores and malls threw open their doors at midnight to jump-start the season. CompUSA Inc. and BJ’s Wholesale Club Inc. even opened on Thanksgiving for the first time to grab customer dollars before the competition does. “Retailers are doing more to get
consumers into the stores earlier this year,” said C. Britt Beemer, chairman of America’s Research Group, based in Charleston, S.C. At a Wal-Mart store in Cincinnati, Gary Miller, a 45-year-old computer programmer, was on the hunt for a 20-inch LCD television that he had seen advertised online. “My wife sent me out for this one,” he said, pointing to the television in his shopping cart.“But then I saw this
SHORTCAKE: The holidays can be a
See SHOPPING, page 11
stressful time when physical differences are pointed out by family and friends.
GABY SCHKUD (310) 586-0308
Fabian Lewkowicz fabianl@smdp.com
BEST ON THE WESTSIDE SINCE 1972
MUSIC LESSONS
OPEN 24 HOURS
INSTRUMENTAL & VOICE
1433 Wilshire Blvd at 15th St.
(310) 394-1131
(310) 453-1928
The name you can depend on! www.santamonicamusic.com
1901 Santa Monica Blvd. in Santa Monica