The Car That Would Not Die:After a...

The Car That Would Not Die:

After a serious traffic accident seven years ago, Marvin Wille saved the wreckage of his 1982 Dodge in case it was needed as evidence. When it disappeared from a utility yard soon afterward, he tried to file a stolen car report with a suburban police department. Officers said no because the car apparently had been junked.

Wille, an L.A. electronics supervisor, forgot about the heap until last year. That’s when he received a parking citation in the mail. His old Dodge, somehow spared the junk heap and now painted white rather than the original black, had been ticketed in Hollywood.

He’s since received a second notice, warning that if he fails to pay the ticket he might not be allowed to re-register his current car.

“It’s not just the cost of the ticket,” Wille said. “I’m worried that the car might be involved in an accident.”

Wille, a man caught in a bureaucratic traffic circle, plans to appeal to L.A.’s Office of Parking Administration.

Here’s a switch: A politician who’s on jury duty, not on trial.

L.A. City Councilwoman Gloria Molina, a candidate for county supervisor in the newly redrawn 1st District, reported to the downtown Criminal Courts Building Tuesday after receiving her jury summons.

Naturally, she still plans to work on her campaign--with a cellular phone.

It would be the defendant’s good fortune to live in the new district.

Water-saving hints from Only in L.A.:

Cancel Thanksgiving.

The Walnut Valley Water District points out that it takes 42,000 gallons of water to produce a turkey dinner for four, including 16,300 to raise a 20-lb. turkey, 6,004 to produce the stuffing and 8,000 to grow the grapes for the wine.

Well, we really wouldn’t want to cancel Thanksgiving. However, if you cancel the in-laws, you can feel like a conservationist now, courtesy of the Walnut district.

Lifeguards pulled a boa constrictor out of the Los Angeles River in Long Beach the other day. One good thing about the L.A. River: No swimmers had to be alerted.

Speaking of wild critters, a resident in the Glendora foothills uses a unique driveway display (see photo) to keep away unwanted visitors.

Irv Elman of Pacific Palisades reports that the neighborhood library has a sign that says:

“NO UNAUTHORIZED PARKING VIOLATORS WILL BE TOWED WAY.”

A novel touch: A sign that reassures, rather than warns, the violator.

Maggie Crumrine says it’s the strangest computerized offer she’s ever come across at work. “I’m pondering just how our 12,000 books can best avail themselves of the offer,” she said. It was an invitation for the El Sereno Junior High School library to join the Auto Club.

We hope that all you parents of toddlers held them up to a window Monday night and showed them what rain looks like. There don’t seem to be many opportunities anymore.

miscelLAny:

Los Angeles County will tattoo your dog for $20. No tracings of shapely poodles or I-Love-Mom hearts, just ID numbers.