L.A. Stories/The Roving Eye

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L.A. Stories/The Roving Eye

Reign Bird

Over the years, hundreds of companies have found that building a float for the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade is an excellent way to bring attention to their products and services and to build up their public image. In the last half decade, though, no company has had more success at least from a critical standpoint than Glendora-based Rain Bird Corp.

On Jan 1., for the second year in a row and the fourth time since 1997, Rain Bird took the Sweepstakes Trophy, which goes to the parade’s “most beautiful float.”

Rain Bird tapped veteran float designer Raul Rodriguez to help dream up this year’s entry, “Animal Ambassadors.” The float promoted environmental conservation and featured a lush tropical landscape with playful Bengal tigers, swinging monkeys and towering cockatoos. It also had six waterfalls circulating more than 1,500 gallons of water.

“This year’s was probably the best we’ve had,” said Rain Bird Senior Vice President Art Ludwick.

Ghost Town

In case you were wondering, the Vogue Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard is now ghost free.

That’s the word from Dr. Larry Montz, director of the International Society for Paranormal Research. According to Montz, the offending poltergeists were removed late last year.

After studying and communicating with the ghosts for four years, Montz and his team, who took over the Vogue in 1997, set them “free from the earthbound plane.”

Montz said the ISPR bought the Vogue with the intention of holding meetings and seminars there. That was before the haunting began.

A string of bizarre occurrences, from seats moving up and down spontaneously to a pair of ghost children who disturbed movie goers during a premier, led them to conclude the spirits were present.

After conducting historical, scientific and clairvoyant research, the ISPR made contact with the seven resident ghosts: four children, a female adult and two male adults, Montz said. The ghosts had apparently been there since 1901, when he said Prospect Elementary School burnt to the ground, killing 25 children and a schoolteacher.

Why so few ghosts, then?

“Even today, we’re not quite sure what the rules are as to why some people remain earthbound and others don’t,” said Montz.

She’s a Sport

Although Playboy Playmate and avid golfer Lisa Dergan is too busy these days to pursue her dream of joining the LPGA, she is never far from the sports scene.

Dergan has spent her Sundays as a field reporter for the “Sports Central” show on KCBS Channel 2, interviewing fans at sports watering holes for commentator Jim Hill, who met Dergan three years ago at a celebrity golf competition.

Dergan, who also co-hosts USA Networks new game show “Slush,” said she likes impressing the mostly male bar patrons with her knowledge of the NFL, having growing up an avid San Diego Chargers fans.

Asked the difference between the guys she meets on the golf course versus those on the job, Dergan said, “The football fans are very liquored.”

Grab a Byte

Want some fries with that e-mail?

Having introduced the “business productivity center” last summer, Los Angeles International Airport has added a menu to the mix. Passengers wasting time around Terminal 4 now can plop down at Travel Right Caf & #233;, pop open their laptops and slop a sandwich or salad.

Travel Right Caf & #233; which is Starbucks-adjacent by the way features 24 tables with two data ports each so 48 people can be online at the same time.

Operated by HMSHost Corp., Travel Right Caf & #233; is an upgrade from the airport’s Gate Escape concept introduced last year. Now open in terminals 7, 8 and the Tom Bradley International Terminal, the “business productivity centers” offered travelers a T1 line and DirecTV satellite service. There was a $5 charge for the first 15 minutes, however, and no food service.

Travel Right Caf & #233;, which is modeled after a successful pilot project in San Jose, is free to use. You server will bring a bill for food, however, and you are expected to tip.

The Roving Eye

Do Not Read on a Full Stomach

Come Jan. 12, Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia will have more roller coasters than any other amusement park in the world.

The newest stomach-churning attraction at the 260-acre park is called “X” an extreme machine that flips you backward and forward at the same time you are falling, falling, falling.

“It is truly one of those rides that is indescribable,” said Andy Gallardo, a spokesman for the park, which opened in 1971. “Anything you have ever heard about a roller coaster you can throw out the window.”

The “X” shoots 200 feet into the sky before flipping riders over head first, face down, for a near vertical plunge towards earth. Total weightlessness is experienced somewhere in between the ride up and the ride down. The adrenaline keeps pumping when riders fly through a massive 200-foot-tall sky dive and through a giant 185-foot turn.

At times, the roller coaster travels up to 76 miles per hour. The cars spin independently of each other, 360-degrees forwards or backwards on a separate axis, leaving riders unprepared for what to expect next.

Magic Mountain will have 15 roller coasters on line when “X” opens to the public. The runner-up for the largest roller coaster theme park is Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio, which has 14 roller coasters. But the Ohio park is adding a 15th, called “Wicked Twister,” next May.

Will Magic Mountain be adding another roller coaster just to make sure it stays on top? “Plans for the future are always top secret,” Gallardo said.

Deborah Belgum

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