By Neil Rubenstein

Observer Columnist

The North Korean government has officially approved 18 hairstyles for women and 10 for men in an effort to clamp down on Western influences by trimming their hair in accordance with the Socialist lifestyle.

INC., in the March 2014 issue, mentioned a Culver City company I never heard of. It’s Media Temple that started in 1998 and does IT services. In 2013 it had 207 employees with almost $50 million in revenue (2012). This company increased head count every year from 2007 to 2012. 100,000 midsized companies were evaluated and this was one of the very best in our nation. I wonder if their stock is traded.

When your stomach acts up and you experience aches, pains and diarrhea, try adding a spoonful of honey to your tea. Honey’s properties wipe out infection-causing bacteria and speed healing.

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Get constipated? Why not try the natural cure – eat onions, garlic, bananas, asparagus and artichokes.

Did you know people getting five or fewer hours of sleep a night more than double the danger of getting a heart attack?

I love grapefruit but I cannot eat it or drink the juice. The medicine the doctor prescribed coupled with grapefruit gave me nosebleeds. Over 85 drugs are identified as potentially affected so ask the pharmacist every time you get new drugs.

Has anybody seen a convertible? I don’t care if it’s a foreign or American car, if it’s new or an oldie, or whatever the color – I just haven’t seen one in many moons. Perhaps they just don’t make them anymore.

The economic situation in the Los Angeles metropolitan area is so bad that between 2010 and 2013 we lost 145,709 citizens or 1.1% to other parts of our country.

Maria AKA “the wild gypsy lady” told me what went on in the Metropolitan Autonomous University in Mexico City between 2005 and 2008. Scientists there have successfully transplanted laboratory-made vaginas into four teenage girls whose own were absent because of a rare disease. More than eight years after the first procedure all the women report normal sexual function.

Maria and I were looking through the famous drawer. You know the one. It’s on the very bottom of the file cabinet on the left side by the window, and after a few minutes she found a newsletter from the Fox Hills – Ladera Democratic Club dated February 1991.

March 10, 1991 at the Ramada Hotel from noon to 3 p.m. was the Installation Brunch: incoming president, Jackie Powell Pachtman; first vice-president, Rae Reiter; corresponding secretary, Terri Johnson; treasurer, Lee Welinsky; parliamentarian and former president, Andrea Bobbitt and representative at large, Jackie McCain.

I bet those of us who were active in Culver City a quarter of a century ago remember those names.

Can we take a moment and look at the issues the club members wrote about? They included Ortega in Nicaragua, Saddam in Iraq, Ron Dellums from the San Francisco East Bay area, Maxine Waters (still a Congresswoman) and, finally, our own California Senator Herschel Rosenthal. Lee Welinsky’s salute to the men and women fighting in the war was very moving.

Coming soon to this column will be, from 2008, the Backlot Film Festival and its Director, Ross Hawkins.

Finally common sense prevails with the Los Angeles Unified School District. They have started to let the schools punish students for many school-based offences rather than start the kids off with a record from the police or court.

Ventura County police will have live video footage from five of their largest schools. The hope is to respond faster and to be better prepared for a campus shooting or other emergency. What a great idea!!!

Congratulations to my former neighbor and very good friend, Kimberly Zelaya, who recently received $750 from the Culver City Community Scholarship Fund – a well-deserved honor for a super bright lady.

Kimberly is attending Santa Monica City College and plans to transfer to Cal State Long Beach for nursing.

Have you heard about the newly elected officers of the Culver City High School Alumni Association? They are Sandy Wolff Burton, president (1960), Robbin Smith, vice president (1962), Mo O’Connor De Koff, secretary (1960) and Janice Kay Fogg, treasurer (1966). I must admit, as a founding patron member, the dedication and hard work of the members and boards have made the association very successful over these past 17 years. Email cchsalumni@aol.com or write Box 4343, Culver City, CA 90231-4243 to join.

For those who missed an article, all my commentaries can be found at http://www.culvercityobserver.com by placing Rubenstein in that website’s search box.