Traffic Is Something to Make Noise About

You’re stuck in gridlock on one of San Diego’s freeways, and everyone around you starts leaning on their horns. Could be those noisy drivers aren’t being obnoxious--they might be appealing for help.

It’s all part of the California Department of Transportation’s newest public relations gimmick.

In 200 locations throughout the state, 20 of them in San Diego County, Caltrans has just bought billboard advertisements reading: “Honk if you hate commuting, then call us.” Listed below is a local telephone number (237-POOL) providing car-pool information.

Jim Larson, public affairs officer for the Caltrans district office here, said the billboards “offer a way out for motorists caught in the same old traffic jams.” And Manny Demetre, Caltrans’ local ride-sharing coordinator, said: “We think the billboards will grab commuters’ attention and get them thinking about a car pool.”

Story With Painful Twist

Here’s one potential scene the producers of “The China Syndrome” and “Silkwood” missed entirely:

Last Jan. 10, Jeanette Mojica was working as a temporary secretary at the San Onofre nuclear power plant. According to a suit filed recently in Superior Court in Vista, Mojica was injured when she was caught in the middle of a rubber-band fight.

In her lawsuit, Mojica claims she was grabbed by an employee who used her as a shield to hide behind during the fight, twisting and injuring her back, neck and shoulder. Mojica’s damage suit, asking for $700,000, names the employee and Southern California Edison as defendants.

Programming the Weather

If the Santa Ana winds build this week as expected, National Weather Service forecaster Wilbur Shigehara will be faced with lots of questions about temperature spreads--the difference between the low and high mercury reading of the day. The queries are valid, because the spreads are sometimes remarkable. A couple of weeks ago, for example, the Santa Ana condition pushed the high in El Cajon to 88, but then nighttime temperature plunged to 37, a difference of 51 degrees.

On nights like those, Shigehara inevitably is asked if there was a “record spread,” but that statistic never has been kept by the weather service. To compile the information would involve logging the high and low for every day starting in 1871. “And we don’t have time for that,” Shigehara said.

He would have time if there were a computer program devised for the weather system, so that statistics on any aspect of the climate could be called up at the punch of a button. Shigehara says he will arrange academic credit for a computer student who might want to tackle the problem.

Fancy Footwork

San Diego mayoral candidate Bill Cleator is trying to moderate his conservative image, and already he has changed his longtime trademark as he embarks on the campaign trail--he’s ditched the saddle shoes.

Cleator, who used to wear the saddle shoes everywhere, showed up without them at his campaign-opening press conference, and apparently the switch to more formal footwear was by design.

“We told him we really like those shoes in the garden,” Cleator campaign consultant Don Harrison said. “But for some of the other occasions, hey, let’s give them a rest.”