Valleytalk

Valleytalk/dt1st/mike2nd Help Wanted Like many business people, apartment owners have started to notice a decline in the number of desirable applicants for administrative positions, apartment managers and other related jobs. In the November issue of Apartment Owner, a Van Nuys-based trade publication of the Rental Housing Owner’s Association, there appeared a list of “Actual Excerpts From Resumes and Cover Letters.” Here are some of the submissions: “I demand a salary commiserate with my extensive experience.” “Received a plague for Salesperson of the Year.” “Wholly responsible for two (2) failed financial institutions.” “Reason for leaving last job: maturity leave.” “Failed bar exam with relatively high grades.” “It’s best for employers that I not work with people.” “Let’s meet so you can ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ over my experience.” “You will want me to be Head Honcho in no time.” “Am a perfectionist and rarely if if ever forget details.” “Marital status: single, unmarried, unengaged, uninvolved, no commitments.” “I have an excellent track record, although I am not a horse.” “I am loyal to my employer at all costs Please feel free to respond to my resume on my office voicemail.” “I have become completely paranoid, trusting completely no one and absolutely nothing.” Making History Back before monosodium glutamate became a dirty term, a cadre of folks toiled away in North Hollywood to make Adolf’s Meat Tenderizer (whose main ingredient is MSG), and they were proud of it. So proud that the company kept many of its “firsts” enshrined in a glass case in the test kitchen of its factory. Adolf’s has since sold its building, but the history of the company has not gone unnoticed by the new owners. The glass case includes Adolf’s first run of unseasoned, unsalted tenderizer July 29, 1982 followed by the first run of seasoned, unsalted tenderizer July 30, 1982 along with other “firsts” such as the first amber container and the first plastic container the company used to package its meat tenderizer. The new owners, who plan to lease space to entertainment-related companies and to set up an entertainment incubator in the former factory, expect the test kitchen to be used by catering companies that service entertainment businesses. And they will all know a little more about the history of Adolf’s before they’re through. That’s because no one has the key to the glass cabinets. When all the keys in the 72,000-square-foot building were passed on to the new owners, they did not include the key to the miniature museum. “I don’t know if meat tenderizer is a Hollywood tradition, but we’re making it one,” said Yvette Berke, who is heading up the incubator project. Snowed In Shoppers at the Panorama Mall got a taste of winter despite the 80-degree-plus temperatures in the San Fernando Valley on the weekend before Thanksgiving. In partnership with Radio Disney, Panorama Mall brought 15 tons of snow to the shopping center, creating a winter playground for the thousands of kids who showed up. “They took bales of hay and made a mountain and put the snow on the mountain so the kids could go sliding off,” said Louise Marquez, general manager of the mall. North Hollywood Ice Co., which provided the snow by grinding 300-pound blocks of ice, does most of its business supplying snow for movie and television productions. But each year during the holiday season, the company gets requests to bring snow to at least a dozen shopping centers around Southern California. In addition to malls and tourist attractions like Universal Citywalk and Universal Studios Hollywood, private homeowners are snowing up their front lawns for holiday parties, said Tony Floria, North Hollywood Ice Co.’s office manager. At a price tag of $1,200 for every 10 tons of snow, enough to cover a 40- by-40-foot area, all that frozen atmosphere doesn’t come cheap. Floria says his business has some of his friends back East baffled. “Back there, you would pay to have it removed,” Floria said. “Here, people pay to put it down. This is California.”