What’s-Wrong-With-This-Picture Department:The magazine published by the local...

What’s-Wrong-With-This-Picture Department:

The magazine published by the local chapter of Mensa contains a high-IQ Hall of Fame that includes such familiar names as Da Vinci, Copernicus, Darwin and Newton.

Reader Ken Rosenhek’s attention was drawn to LAment magazine’s photo/profile of Newton, who was described as a “20th Century singer” and “excellent race-horse breeder.”

Yup, this Newton was Wayne, not Isaac (the guy who watched apples fall from trees).

We have the feeling that LAment was checking to see if its readers were paying attention.

From our Only in Avalon precinct:

The Catalina Islander newspaper reports that a young visitor disembarking from a boat asked his mother:

“Where are all the rides?”

The marquee on George Fasching’s car wash in Arcadia doesn’t speak of hot wax prices, but of L.A. County Fair prices--specifically at the concession stands (see photo).

“I think their prices are outrageous,” said Fasching, a City Council member who occasionally uses his marquee for brief editorials. “They charge $1.50 for a tiny bag of pretzels. The cheapest lemonade is $1.75. The liquid (lemonade) probably costs 10 cents--I know, I used to run a fast-food restaurant. I just hate to see working people with two or three kids having to pay all that money.”

Fair spokesman Lynn Saunders responded that “the attendance numbers speak for themselves. We’re up 117,000 people over last year so there’s something out here the fair-going public likes.”

In tracing the glorious history of L.A. cuisine--prices aside--we’ve previously mentioned that Pasadena short-order cook Lionel Sternberger claimed to have invented the cheeseburger in the 1920s, that Ptomaine Tommy’s north of downtown concocted what may be the first chili burger around the same time, and that C. C. Brown’s of Hollywood put together the first hot fudge sundae in 1906.

But which eatery served the first burrito in L.A.?

Westways magazine gives credit to one Victoria Arroyo, who opened a five-seat hot dog stand on East 1st Street in the 1930s.

The breakthrough occurred, as so often happens, “during a crisis . . . when she had three customers but none of the usual fare of hot dogs, hamburgers or taquitos. . . . She recalled a concoction made by her mother from chilies or beans and cheese wrapped in a tortilla.”

The burrito became a permanent menu item after one customer left a huge tip--15 cents.

A Westside couple, who put their house up for sale for $500,000, found they had an aesthetic problem when it was time for potential buyers to visit: A woman was living in a car near their front yard. She had, in fact, camped out there for several years.

The couple offered the woman $100 to take a vacation. The car-dweller indignantly refused, telling the couple:

“You haven’t been a good neighbor. You’ve never even invited me into the house. You’re so chummy with the other neighbors. And you’ve known me longer than them.”

A few days later, the car-dweller, apparently having forgiven such social snubs, gave the couple the name and phone number of someone who might be interested in buying the house. It was the neighborly thing to do.

miscelLAny:

L.A.’s first suburb, laid out in the 1880s, was Angelino Heights, a quiet community located far out in the country--about a mile northwest of downtown. The area, near Echo Park Lake, contains the highest concentration of Victorian houses surviving in L.A.