Saturday, March 30, 2013

Parking $4.00->

Yesterday I met a friend of mine at Musso & Frank's for lunch. If you know Musso's you know that it hasn't really changed since its Hollywood glory in the 1940's.  It still remains one of the most iconic places to go in Los Angeles. Manny, the bartender, has been there at least 40 years... probably more.  He knows everyone by a nickname and drink order.
One thing that has changed is the parking situation. They used to have a large lot where you could park for free with  a 3 hour Musso validation.  Now there are only a few parking places for Musso's and the rest of the parking has been taken over by some other company.  As anyone knows parking is always an issue in Los Angeles because no one walks anywhere. I knew I would have to pay something to park for my lunch.
As I drove in there was a sign at the gate of the parking lot that said, "Parking $4.00".  I pulled up to the booth and the guy handed me a ticket and said, "$8.00 please.."  I reached for a ten and said, "Your sign says parking is $4.00".  The man looked at the sign a few feet away from him which clearly said $4.00. Without a moments thought he said, "That is not my sign."
I burst out laughing because it reminded me of an Inspector Clouseau line from a the Peter Sellers Pink Panther movie.  The inspector sees a man with a dog... as he goes to pet the dog he said, "Does your dog bite?"
The man says, "No".  As the Inspector stoops to pet the dog it snarls and snaps at his hand.
"I thought you said your dog doesn't bite?"
The man says... "That is not my dog."
The world is a stage and we are just players imitating art.
As you were,
Jay

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