Opinion: The Mysteries of LA Geography

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Because LA and San Francisco -- and maybe Beverly Hills and Palm Springs -- are the only compass points on some Easterners’ mental map of California, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised to hear this kind of geo-gaffe.

When fires closed the San Diego Freeway the other day, as laobserved.com reported, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams intoned ominously about a world-famous museum coming ‘dangerously close’ to being burned by fire.

He meant the Getty Museum, which was a couple of canyons and two whole miles from where the fire started.

But I can top that. The big fires in northern LA County in mid-October? The Huffingtonpost.com headline said that the fire -- at least 20-some miles away -- was ‘’close’’ to downtown Los Angeles.

Close? Maybe close if you’re measuring intergalactic distances.

I emailed a pal at Huffingtonpost, who corrected it. I pointed out that when a tornado hit Westchester County, about 20 miles north of New York City, nobody would have dreamed of -- nor did anyone -- write a headline, ``Twister Strikes Near Manhattan.’’

But nothing can ever top the New York Times’ one-edition 1994 headline about a space shuttle landing at Edwards Air Force Base:

After Detour to California, Shuttle Returns to Earth.

Scott Gries, Getty Images