I enjoyed your article about getting lost...

I enjoyed your article about getting lost in Orange County. I particularly liked the bit about the Thomas guide executive being “hoist by his own petard,” since I use the guide myself all the time.

You did miss a few real winners:

1. Try getting off the Santa Ana Freeway at Myford Road, and finding that there is no Myford Road, since it has been renamed Jamboree.

2. How about driving from Santa Ana to Irvine on Main Street and passing MacArthur (the same MacArthur) twice.

3. Or follow Barranca from Irvine to Huntington Beach (it’s Dyer Road in Santa Ana and then, for no apparent reason, it becomes Slater or Talbert or something).

4. Then there’s Palm Avenue in College Park, Irvine (on one side of the street). On the other side of the street the sign reads “Palma.”

5. In the same tract, all the streets are named after trees except Beach--because the developer didn’t know how to spell Beech Tree.

6. Harvard Avenue in Irvine, until recently, hit Main and “jogged” about half a mile--but it has now been more or less straightened out--by making it more crooked.

7. And, have you ever tried to find an address on Birch Street? There must be a dozen or more pieces in half-a-dozen cities, and none of them go through to anywhere.

Still, it’s easier to find one’s way in Orange County than in Los Angeles, where I regularly get lost, and it’s not as unpleasant. Don’t ever ask an L.A. cop for directions. The last time I did (I was looking for Commonwealth Avenue--the one near LaFayette Park, not the one in Fullerton), I got a mouthful of abusive and foul language and instructions to go and buy a Thomas Guide!

FELIX SCHWARZ

Irvine