The origin of the Freeway Tomatoes, recently...

The origin of the Freeway Tomatoes, recently spotted growing on the Harbor Freeway, is still a mystery. But Carol Garnjost of North Hollywood may have solved the case of the New Freeway Chickens.

She says that these critters, who roam along the Burbank on-ramp of the Hollywood Freeway, aren’t related to the Original Freeway Chickens, who resided two miles south after surviving the 1969 crash of a poultry truck.

“Five years ago, a neighbor acquired chickens and rabbits,” Garnjost writes. “He then brought home a pit bull. Needless to say, the chickens and rabbits escaped, the chickens to the freeway buffer and the surviving female rabbit (who was pregnant) to our yard.

“The chickens have thrived despite predation and their own territorial natures. The roosters occasionally fight to the death. We have had opossums take the eggs, and local cats and dogs will on occasion obtain a chick dinner (as will) a juvenile red-tailed hawk.

“Animal Regulation came by about three years ago after a complaint about the noise. I was told the scene was comical--the roundup netting mostly hens (who don’t make as much noise).

“The noise? We don’t mind it. In fact, they serve as remarkable burglar alarms.”

Several readers have asked for a translation of one runner-up in the vanity license-plate contest: BRTQLIT (on a speech therapist’s car).

The message seemed obvious to us (after publicist Alex Litrov told us what it meant). We’ll give you more time to think about it.

Special guests at the raising of the final beam to the top of the new 52-story Gas Company Tower were 35 students from the downtown 9th Street School.

The kids, working from the model, contributed their own sketches of the Southern California Gas Co.’s new headquarters.

Michael Villareal, age 10, included a festive touch, a plane carrying a banner above the tower. Lidia Perez, 8, imagined fruit trees growing at the base. Their renderings, as well as those of Shannon Watts, 8; Nadia Valencia, 11, and Carlos Garcia, 11, all had one feature in common: A clear, unsmoggy sky. Ah, the optimism of youth.

A real-estate ad in a Beverly Hills newspaper says:

“Looking for the best? Beverly Hills, $1,300,000,000. Impeccable, 1-story traditional.”

Shows you how far land values have gotten out of whack when all you can get for a billion bucks is a one-story house.

Only in L.A. Menu of the Week: Red Swordfish Corn Chowder at the Kafe Kafka Restaurant in Hollywood, followed by Seafood Lasagna.

Gas Station Quotations (cont.):

We gave you the reported area low Thursday: $1.07 for unleaded, self-serve at an Arco station in Hawthorne. Now, for some highs. How about $1.45 at a station in (surprise) Brentwood. It could be worse, though. Nona Yates of Venice, vacationing in Big Sur and “needing gas to get down Highway 1,” paid $1.83 there.

A doctor’s secretary explained why her boss wouldn’t be able to make contact with a Times reporter until Monday.

“I’m going to be on vacation Thursday and Friday,” the secretary said, “and she (the doctor) doesn’t ever dial her own phone calls.”

Time’s up. BRTQLIT means “Be Articulate.” OK, maybe it’s not the most articulate license plate . .

miscelLAny:

Local lore holds that it’s good luck for newlyweds to drive through the giant doughnuts anchoring each end of the Donut Hole shop in La Puente.