Mountain Views News, Sierra Madre Edition [Pasadena] Saturday, October 20, 2018

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Mountain View News Saturday, October 20, 2018 

REMEMBRANCE: CATHERINE STERLING KAY

WALKING SIERRA MADRE... The Social Side By Deanne Davis


Catherine Sterling Kay was born April 16th, 1946 in Pasadena, California, 
and resided her entire life in the Pasadena/Sierra Madre area. Cathie’s last 
career was working in the front office of St. Rita’s school before finally retiring 
in 2014. She enjoyed tennis, participating in Chapter GG of PEO 
(Philanthropic Educational Organ–ization for Women) and spending time 
with her friends and family. 

 Cathie, known for her red glasses, great smile and cheerful disposition, 
passed away after a fourteen month battle with lung cancer on August 16th, 
2018. She is survived by her son, Christopher Sterling (Carina), grandsons 
Gage and Drew Sterling, brother Joseph Petticoffer and dog Bo. Cathie was 
preceded in death by her first husband Douglas Sterling, her second husband 
Donald Kay, and her daughter Megan Corinne Sterling. A celebration of life 
will be held at the Fellowship Hall, Church of the Good Shepherd in Arcadia 
on November 3rd, 2018 from 12-3pm. Donations in Cathie’s memory can 
be made to P.E.O. Chapter GG (c/o Suzanne Burger 2065 S. Los Robles, San 
Marino. CA 91108) or to the Pasadena Humane Society.


JOIN IN THE FUN TO MAKE 20,000 MEALS 

TO RISE AGAINST HUNGER SATURDAY, 10/27/2018

Rise Against Hunger is an international hunger relief 
organization that distributes food and life-changing 
aid to the world’s most vulnerable, mobilizing the 
necessary resources to end hunger by 2030. The 
organization is driven by the vision of a world 
without hunger. Its mission is to end hunger in our 
lifetime by providing food and life-changing aid to 
the world’s most vulnerable and creating a global 
commitment to mobilize the necessary resources.

 Rotary of Sierra Madre, Rotary of Arcadia, Interactors 
from the area and middle school volunteers. From 8:30 
am to 11 am are supporting this mission.

 Your service and or monetary contribution is 
welcome.

 On Saturday, October 27 at La Salle High School 
cafeteria at 8:30 am the fun begins. Watch this video 
on youtube to be prepared to serve:

 https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=6syt-Jhp8ow&t=26s. 

 Make checks payable to California Community 
Foundation: Note “Rise Against hunger” and mailed 
to: Rotary of Sierra Madre, PO Box 863, Sierra 
Madre, CA 91025 or drop on Saturday morning at 
LaSalle HS Cafeteria, Marilyn Diaz. 
For more info please call Peggy 626-355-7635 or 
email Peggybeau@gmail.com 

“Dear Great Pumpkin, I am looking forward to your 
arrival on Halloween night.

I hope you will bring me lots of presents.” 

Linus van Pelt

 Even though Charles Schulz, creator of the 
immortal Peanuts has changed his residency to 
heaven, his kids: Charlie Brown, Lucy, Peppermint 
Patty, Sally and Linus still show up in our 
newspapers, which is a delight. What would Fall be 
like without Lucy holding the football for Charlie 
Brown, promising that this time she won’t yank 
it away at the last minute, leaving him flat on his 
back with all the air punched out of him. Or Linus 
sitting out in the pumpkin patch with Sally, Charlie 
Brown or Snoopy, convinced that if his pumpkin 
patch is the most sincere pumpkin patch that the 
Great Pumpkin will rise up with his bag of toys and 
bestow gifts upon him. His friends are scornful and 
skeptical. We would be, too.

 We have the sincerest pumpkin patch in Sierra 
Madre every year on Alegria, the Halloween street. 
Talented folks, the Parkers, grow astonishingly huge 
pumpkins then carve them into fantastical creations. 
These aren’t those thousand pound babies you 
see on TV that need a forklift to move, but they’re 
pretty close. In just a few days when Halloween rolls 
around we might see Cinderella’s coach, the body 
and head of a black widow spider...yes, they add 
twenty foot long legs, a lamp for a skeleton to read 
by, and just plain scary jack-o-lanterns. 

 In days of yore, when our kids, and probably your 
kids, too, were young, they’d rummage through the 
house and create costumes for themselves, one of the 
best being our son when he was about twelve, dressed 
in one of my old maternity dresses – well, the baby was 
only six by then and, who knew, I might have needed 
it again - a cascade wig of curls, all the makeup in the 
world and a pillow stuffed up inside to create the baby on 
the way. He wore heels, too, and staggered off returning 
minutes later to change into sneakers. They were hobos, 
clowns, hippies and sometimes, just, “I’m not sure, 
mom said it was the fifties!” They’d hit the streets of our 
neighborhood where everybody knew them and gave 
them cookies, pennies, apple cider, a few Hershey’s 
kisses and the occasional Snickers bar. A massively 
good time was had by all, they came home covered 
with sweat and chocolate, sat down, compared the take, 
did a lot of trading, and ate all they wanted that night. 
Every year I assured them that I’d put it all in the freezer 
and they could have a couple of pieces every day. They 
forgot about it almost immediately and after John and 
I picked out all the good stuff, we threw the rest away. 
It was fun, they were safe and it was no big deal. In 
recent years, we loved seeing the littlest kids, out with 
their mommy and a brother or sister in a stroller early 
in the evening. They are adorable, say thank you with 
just a little prompting...or a lot of prompting...and are 
happy with a Tootsie Roll. Later we turned out the porch 
light and checked to see what was left. Tootsie Rolls, by 
the way, go really well with a nice glass of Chardonnay. 
My favorite is Dots. Little boxes of Dots. I have a hard 
time letting go of them and end up hoarding a whole 
bunch of these little boxes. I have no idea what Dots are 
made of, but when one comes across a leftover box 
of them sometime in March, they are just as good. 
When the world ends, cockroaches, Twinkies and 
Dots will survive. My granddaughter, Emily, went 
to a sleepover party recently and came home with 
a goodie bag. She gave three little boxes of Dots to 
me! Now I ask you, isn’t that the perfect definition of 
love!

 Halloween is just a few days away. Scarecrows are 
all over the place and the town has never looked 
more terrifying. Those programs about The Walking 
Dead have absolutely nothing on us! I hope you’re 
taking time to cruise the streets and admire the 
artwork of our amazingly creative citizens. Have you 
got your costume yet? 

 “The worst thing about Halloween is, of course, 
candy corn. Candy corn is the only candy in the 
history of America that’s never been advertised. 
And there’s a reason. All of the candy corn that was 
ever made was made in 1911. And, since nobody 
actually eats that stuff, 

every year there’s a ton of it left over.” Lewis Black

 My book page: Amazon.com: Deanne Davis

Blog: www.authordeanne.com

Kindle readers, give yourself the gift of the Emma 
Gainsworth Adventures:

“Just Dessert: A Fall Fantasy” – “The Intergalactic 
Pumpkin Battle” – “The Lost Amulets”

 They’re on Amazon.com on my book page!

Follow me on Twitter, too! https://twitter.com/@
playwrightdd

TYPHUS OUTBREAK HEALTH ALERT ISSUED BY LA 
COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT

The attached notice from LA County outlines 
additional details related to the outbreak, and some 
of the most relevant information from the alert 
include the following: 

• Flea-borne typhus, also known as murine or 
endemic typhus, is a disease transmitted by fleas 
infected with Rickettsia typhi or Rickettsia felis. 
• Of particular note, flea-born typhus cannot be 
transmitted from human-human contact. 
• While flea-borne typhus is found in LA County 
each year, the high number of cases occurring in 
downtown Los Angeles is unusual. 
• In LA County, the primary animals known to carry 
infected fleas include rats, feral cats, and opossums. 
People with significant exposure to these animals 
are at risk of acquiring flea-borne typhus. 
• Pet dogs and cats that are allowed outside may also 
come in contact with infected fleas and could carry 
them to humans. Infected animals are not known to 
get sick from flea-borne typhus. 
• Symptoms for those affected with flea-born typhus 
may include:Abdominal pain
• Backache
• Dull red rash that begins on the middle of the 
body and spreads
• Extremely high fever of 105°F to 106°F (40.6°C to 
41.1°C), that may last up to 2 weeks
• Hacking, dry cough
• Headache
• Joint and muscle pain
• Nausea and vomiting


For additional details related to this matter, please 
see the notice, or visit the LA County Department of 
Public Health website regarding typhus.

KATIE Tse..........This and That


THE END OF THE WORLD --AGAIN

This is another week in 
which I’m guilty of recycling 
an old article. However, it’s 
timely for Halloween, and 
I love to see Vincent Price 
with rabbit ears! No doubt 
you recall “I am Legend” 
from 2007 with Will Smith. 
What you might not have known (unless you read 
this article before) is that it was based on a Richard 
Matheson novel of the same name, and there was an 
earlier film adapted from it titled “The Last Man on 
Earth.” 

 Starring Vincent Price in all his campy 
glory, this 1964 gem combines zombies, 
romance, and the special effects of low 
budget film making into one irresistibly 
cheesy package. Shot in Italy, mostly 
with Italian-speaking actors, the voices 
don’t quite sync with the lips. But that 
just makes it all the more deliciously 
corny. “The Last Man on Earth” is 
considered to be the precursor to 
“The Omega Man,” 1971 film with a 
significantly larger budget. Those guys 
could afford Charlton Heston.

 The premise is familiar to zombie 
movie fans. An air borne pathogen 
is spreading across continents, leaving infection 
and death in its wake. After succumbing to their 
fate, victims turn into the walking dead. But these 
particular night walkers don’t conform to our modern 
zombie stereotype. 

 Although they have the classic zombie dead pan 
expression and stiff gait, they also possess vampire 
qualities. They are repelled by garlic and their own 
reflection in mirrors. Like Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” 
they are most effectively killed when impaled with a 
wooden stake through the heart. Also, these zombies 
can speak simple phrases (e.g., “Come out, Morgan! 
We know you’re in there!”). They’re too articulate 
to be true zombies, but too crude to be vampires. 
Everyone knows that vampires are sexy and well-
spoken, typically with a British accent.

 The story begins with Robert Morgan (Price) 
exiting his mirrored and garlic-laden home to collect 
bodies of the infected dead in his car. As with most 
zombie flicks, there’s something of a gestation stage 
between death and “turning.” His task is made more 
humorous by the fact that the dummy bodies weighed 
approximately 15 pounds. He effortlessly tosses them 
into his 50’s station wagon, not bothering to even 
close the tailgate. They’re not gettin’ out! 

 After he’s accumulated a good number of bodies, 
he heads to “The Pit,” a perpetually smoking zombie 
landfill. He dons a gas mask (left over from “Plan 
9 from Outer Space” or some similarly cheesy 
production), douses the wrapped, staked bodies 
with gas, and chucks them in. On the way home, 
Morgan replenishes his mirrors and monitors his 
garlic garden. At night the zombies gather outside 
his house to weakly throw stones and beat against 
his boarded up doors and windows. Morgan plays a 
record, attempting to drown out their voices, and tries 
to get some Z’s on the couch.

 One day, he spots a disheveled, but otherwise 
normal-looking woman walking though 
a field. She is frightened of him, but he 
convinces her to come with him to his 
house. Once subdued, the woman, Ruth, 
asks how Morgan survived. He explains 
that years ago he was bitten by a bat 
infected with the vampire virus. The bat’s 
system strained the toxin before it entered 
his body, thus giving him immunity. 

 Over coffee, Morgan begins to 
suspect that his lovely guest is infected. 
A potent whiff of garlic proves his theory 
correct. Ruth flees the room and starts 
to inject herself, but is interrupted by 
Morgan. She tells him that she, and her 
people, are infected, but keep the virus at bay through 
regular injections of treated blood plus vaccine (I 
didn’t understand that, but then science was never 
my strong suit. Apparently it wasn’t the screenwriter’s 
strength either.). 

 Ruth warns Morgan that her people have plotted to 
kill him. Overcome by exhaustion, she falls asleep on 
the couch. While she’s knocked out, Morgan hooks 
up a transfusion of his own blood into hers. In his 
kitchen laboratory he discovers that the transfusion 
has cured her! Unfortunately, the “Infected 
Resistance” captures Morgan after a long chase, and 
harpoons him in a church as he shouts, “You’re freaks! 
I’m a man --the last man!” Ruth cradles him in her 
arms as he dies. (I’m sorry I gave away the ending 
--oops. But you knew it was going to be something 
like that.) 

 Yet we are left with a sense of hope as Ruth leaves 
the church hugging her freshly injected arm. They 
killed the last man, but Ruth’s blood holds the 
promise of a cure. The morals of the story are: 1. 
Eat lots of garlic (seriously, it’s anticarcinogenic!), 
2. Don’t pick up strange women, 3. Don’t go home 
with strange men, and 4. Give blood, but with 
discretion.


Grower of Rare Camellias and Azaleas since 
19353555 Chaney Trail, AltadenaHours: 8am-4:30pm(Closed Wed & Th)
(626) 794-3383Fax (626) 794-3395
Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com