THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 5, 1995 TAG: 9503040077
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Long : 132 lines
Sunday, Feb. 19
10:20 p.m. - South Beach restaurant.
Friends gathering around a tall bar table look up and see the restaurant's chef walking out with a chocolate cake bearing so many candles she's wearing sunglasses.
When the cake is placed in front of her, the ``birthday girl'' has a hard time blowing out the magic candles.
Then four of the five guests on hand begin huffing and puffing along with her.
No luck.
Finally, one guest with wild hair leans over to one of the most active ``blowers'' and offers to leave the imprint of an imported beer on his forehead if he doesn't stop ``spitting on the lady's cake.''
- David B. Hollingsworth
Monday, Feb. 20
9 p.m. - Xeniks.
A pair of young ladies, celebrating a birthday, pop in the Oceanfront bar to see who's out.
The joint's almost empty, but there are six beer-drinking customers, a bartender and the owner - all males.
But all the male eyes are fixed on one of the TV screens where a steamy love scene is taking place.
The two women look at each other and giggle before one says, ``And who says men aren't romantic?''
- Holly Wester
Wednesday, Feb. 22
10 a.m. - Knotts Island.
Thousands of white snow geese look like new fallen snow all over the marsh at the south end of the Knotts Island Causeway.
Mackay Island National Wildlife Refuge has burned the dead marsh grasses back and the snow geese are feasting on new grass shoots and clumps of roots.
Some white heads have turned a muddy gray from all the rooting in the mud the geese are doing. Occasionally one splashes clean in the waters around the grasses and tests its big black-tipped wings.
From the noise they're making, it seems as though each and every goose is talking all at once about the feast.
- Mary Reid Barrow
Thursday, Feb. 23
12:10 p.m. - Wendy's at the corner of Independence Boulevard and Bonney Road.
A woman drives up to the speaker to place her drive-through order.
A man in a well-fitted suit and neatly combed hair is hovering near the menu board and in his hand is a clipboard.
The woman rolls down her window and says to the man, ``Hey, is Dave with you?''
The man chuckles and answers, ``No. We left him at the office.''
- Lori A. Denney
Sunday, Feb. 26
11:40 a.m. - Virginia Beach United Methodist Church, Pacific Avenue.
The Rev. Paul C. Bailey is deep into his sermon and is telling a football story to make his point about succeeding.
The New Orleans Saints are losing a heavily contested game, he recounts. With only 2 seconds left, New Orleans is losing and brings out its field goal kicker, Tom Dempsey, in what is surely going to be a failing attempt at a 63-yard field goal.
Bailey goes into great detail, telling the story and building to the happy ending where Dempsey, a young man who has only half a foot, indeed kicks a record breaking field goal and the game win goes to . . . Bailey pauses.
There's silence.
He ahems and uhs a couple times and the awkward quiet lengthens.
Members of the congregation begin whispering helpfully - ``New Orleans'' - but he evidently doesn't hear.
Finally, an unflustered Bailey turns to the pews nearest him. ``OK,'' he says good-naturedly at his memory lapse, ``What team was it?''
``New Orleans,'' answers a number of people at once.
``And New Orleans wins the game,'' Bailey says, going on to finish his story.
- Melinda Forbes
Wednesday, March 1
Noon - A Chinese restaurant.
A woman waits for her take-out order to arrive.
While waiting, she browses around the eatery and notices that the huge goldfish are missing from the big tank toward the back of the restaurant.
``What happened to the fish,'' the woman asks the girl behind the register. ``Did they die?''
``Oh, no,'' answers the employee, as she walks off to pick up an order. ``They're just in the back.''
A man is also waiting for his order. ``In the back where?'' he asks the female customer.
She shrugs her shoulders as the man says, ``We're probably eating them.''
- Lori A. Denney
1 p.m. - Working Gallery and Studio on Pacific Avenue.
When it comes to their new exhibit, ``The Cats Meow,'' these artists aren't pussy footing around. Even before the whole show - cat carvings, feline photos, acrylic angoras - is hung, this notice gets tacked to the wall in a prominent spot:
WARNING: Due to the nature of this exhibit, it is requested that all dogs be properly restrained - and left outside the gallery.
- Marlene Ford
7:15 p.m. - A Japanese-style restaurant at Hilltop.
A party of six is seated at a grill that's manned by a hyperactive chef wielding a spatula in one hand and a sharp knife in the other.
The guest of honor is a slender, black-haired boy, who is celebrating his seventh birthday. His eyes widen as the chef deftly tosses an egg into the air and slices it nearly in two with the spatula.
The admiration grows as the chef triggers a sudden, whooshing blaze by pouring a dollop of cooking oil over a pile of chopped vegetables simmering on the grill.
But the piece de resistance arrives when the chef calls for the lad's uncle to prepare to receive a sauteed shrimp launched from the grill on a spatula.
The shrimp sails in a lazy arc into the uncle's open mouth as if guided by radar, bringing a wide and semi-toothless smile to the birthday boy.
- Bill Reed ILLUSTRATION: A bright spot's gone
You can get a good view of the ocean now from the corner at 17th
Street and Atlantic Avenue. Here, workers for the K.F. Wilson
Contracting Co. use bulldozers to clean up and level the ground and
cart away the debris at the site where the hot pink Sea Escape hotel
used to stand. Richard Maddox, the hotel owner, plans to build a
public park and Dairy Queen at the site.
by CNB